Community, Advocacy and Labor

The SFMTA isn't quite ready to declare that it will expedite protected bike lanes on Folsom Street with a pilot project, but planners say they're fleshing out the details of what near-term safety upgrades on the street could look like.

Hi everyone, greetings from New York. Aaron is currently away on a well-deserved break from running Streetsblog SF. He'll be back next week delivering the livable streets news. In the meantime, consider this post an open thread about this development:

San Francisco police have determined that the truck driver who killed Amelie Le Moullac on her bike this month was at fault for the crash, after footage of the incident was found by the SF Bicycle Coalition. SFPD Chief Greg Suhr has also apologized in statements to the press for the behavior of Sergeant Richard Ernst, who stopped by at a rally and memorial held in Le Moullac's honor to harass bicycle advocates and blame victims killed on bicycles this year for their own deaths.

The San Francisco Police Department has finally started to respond to the failure of its investigators to acquire camera footage of the truck crash that killed Amelie Le Moullac on her bike, as well as accusations of stonewalling the attorney representing the victim's family.

Soon after an SFPD sergeant harassed bicycle advocates at a rally for safer streets at the site where Amelie Le Moullac was killed, SF Bicycle Coalition Program Manager Marc Caswell found what SFPD investigators claimed they couldn't: two surveillance cameras facing the street, one of which had footage showing the truck driver running over Le Moullac in the bike lane at Folsom and Sixth Streets on August 14.

Six-lane Sunset Boulevard is one of the city's most dangerous streets to cross, but that won't change under plans being developed by the SF Public Utilities Commission.

Update: Shahum reported that SFBC staffer Marc Caswell found a surveillance camera at an auto body shop which has footage of Le Moullac's crash, even though SFPD has said no such footage could be found. More on that story later as it develops.

A clear understanding of California's right-of-way laws is crucial if drivers are to avoid colliding with people using San Francisco's bike lanes. As we saw this week, a "right-hook," in which a driver turns right into the path of a bike rider, can be fatal.

An unidentified 24-year-old woman was killed while bicycling on Folsom at Sixth Street this morning when she was hit by a big rig truck driver, according to SFPD and media reports.