Matthew Roth

UPDATED: 10:00 pm, 8-11-10

Because official word about the lifting of the four-year-old bike injunction in San Francisco came so late on Friday afternoon, Mayor Gavin Newsom and his city staff had to wait until today to have their celebratory press conference and symbolic lane striping on Townsend Street at 4th Street, across from the Caltrain Station.

As we've documented over the course of a year, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has been toying with various treatments to minimize the conflicts between bicycles and cars queueing up on Fell Street near Divisadero Street to get gas at the Arco station on the corner there. The agency has eliminated several parking spaces to encourage motorists to line up at the curb, they've installed interns on the street to tell motorists not to block the bike lane and they've recently experimented with green paint in the lane to further demarcate the bicycle-only space.

During the big game, the commercials you most often see are pimping cars, pizza and beer, with nary a meaningful message among them. That's what's refreshing about this Miller High Life ad, which is still trying to sell you beer, but through a decidedly subversive tack. Seriously, I don't think Clarence could have written a much better script for a Streetfilm spoof.

In a refreshing turn, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which runs Muni and manages the streets of San Francisco, has produced an informative and whimsical animated short explaining how their dynamic parking management pilot, SFPark, will work.

A noted transit advocate and a key organizer of Sunday Streets in San Francisco has cleared the most significant hurdle to her appointment as the newest member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which runs Muni and manages every street in the city. Cheryl Brinkman, a product manager in generic pharmaceuticals at McKesson Corporation and the chair of the board of the transit non-profit Livable City, received unanimous support from the Board of Supervisors' Rules Committee, which has recommended the full board approve her nomination at its meeting next week.

The San Francisco Police Department has arrested two men allegedly involved in the theft and fraudulent selling of Muni late-night transfer tickets, a practice that deprives the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which runs Muni, of thousands of dollars a week.

Michael Helquist at Bike NOPA has another update to the Fell Street Arco bike lane saga. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has striped new arrows in the curbside lane that they hope will compel drivers to move out of the bike lane and have dashed the bike lane.

Sorry, Streetsblog readers, due to a technical glitch, these headlines didn't show up at 9 am, when I published them. Mea culpa - Matthew

San Francisco's parking and traffic managers know the public is going to love or hate the new SFPark demand-based parking management trial depending on how it delivers on the fundamental promises made from the beginning: The trial will make parking more convenient and efficient.