Beach Street Plastic Demarcated Bikeway Stub Opens
San Francisco cut the ribbon on a 0.2-mile, two-way, discontinuous paint-and-post-demarcated bike lane on Beach Street in Fisherman’s Wharf last week. It runs from Joseph Conrad Square to Polk, with a gap for disabled parking and a bus stop between Polk and Larkin.
“We’re happy to see Beach Street Quick-Build completed and connecting people biking and rolling along our waterfront. It’s a route frequently taken by tourists, and improves their safety and experience while visiting our city, while also strengthening connectivity with other ongoing projects around Fort Mason and central Embarcadero as the city works to create a fully protected bike route along the entire waterfront,” said Rachel Clyde, senior community organizer for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
From a post on social media from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority:
The project features a new two-way protected [emphasis added] bikeway, safer crosswalks, and better loading along one of Fisherman’s Wharf’s busiest streets. We’re proud to support this project with funding from the voter-approved Prop K #SFTransportationTax and Prop D TNC Tax dollars.
The total cost of this Quick-Build project was $790,000. The Transportation Authority fully funded the project through Prop K sales tax and Prop D TNC Tax funds.
If this project seeds a real, waterfront protected bike lane, as Clyde suggests, great. But as a stand-alone project, it’s pretty, well, lame.
First, Streetsblog of course has to take issue with the city calling it “protected.” It is not protected. The only thing dividing it from moving traffic is the usual paint and plastic posts that literally wouldn’t scratch the paint of a car that swerved into the lane (please check out this article from SBSF sister publication, Santa Monica Next, if you think that’s an exaggeration). And because it’s a two-way design, it means it’s putting eastbound cyclists in danger of a devastating head-on collision with any motorist who happens to look down to check a text and swerves just a little bit. The city can do better than this for $790,000.
There’s also the matter of the parking spot and bus stop where the bike lane just ends. Cyclists are taken on a weird, looping detour through Aquatic Park. Why? Has SFMTA forgotten how to build bus boarding islands and parking-protected bike lanes? Again, that’s not a matter of cost; it’s a matter of design.
Not far from Beach Street, there’s plenty of plastic, water-filled K-rail barriers on the Embarcadero in a construction area. These kinds of barriers are installed overnight whenever there’s a convention that involves traffic diversions. Unlike plastic posts, these really can stop an errant driver from crushing someone to death. It’s just that the lives and limbs of cyclists don’t seem to warrant the same level of protection (or any, for that matter).
Also, this is the wrong situation for a two-way bike path. Two-ways make sense on a waterfront, because there aren’t intersections, which are problematic with two-way lanes. But Beach Street is not actually on the beach. Yes, there’s a short section along Aquatic Park, but most of the street has intersections. It also makes it really awkward to try and leave the lane to continue east at Columbus, since one has to get to the opposite side of Beach (see image below):
The city had an obligation to protect this lane with concrete and build one-way lanes on both sides of the street. But, of course, there would be complaints about removing parking. Well, there are 16 parking structures and paid lots in the area, so nobody can, in good faith, claim street parking is an issue. The Ghirardelli Square parking garage alone, which is directly across from the lane, has 373 spots.
Moreover, “Beach Street was approved in December of 2024; we need quicker implementation of approved quick-build projects, so that they’re truly quick,” said Clyde. “And we need to see North Point Street receive safety improvements next, since that’s the preferred route for commuters.”
One last pic below:
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