Community, Advocacy and Labor

In the strongest showing of political support ever for bicycling in San Francisco, Mayor Ed Lee, ten of the eleven members of the Board of Supervisors, and a range of city officials pedaled to City Hall with advocates and thousands of commuters on the 17th Annual Bike to Work Day. Commuters pedaling along the city's most important route, Market Street, were greeted with new green paint and protected bike lanes thanks to SFMTA crews who have been racing to fill in the gaps.

One of my favorite things about Bike to Work Day as an everyday bicyclist is picking my free tote bag at one of the convenient energizer stations. In San Francisco, 6,000 bags are ready to be handed out tomorrow by SFBC volunteers, 50 of whom spent a recent day stuffing them with all those resourceful goodies.

A 23-year-old San Francisco man accused of killing a pedestrian crossing Masonic Avenue at Turk Street early Friday morning while driving intoxicated made his first court appearance today but did not enter a plea.

As early as this September, Oakland residents won’t have to look west with parklet envy anymore.

An alleged drunk driver traveling more than double the speed limit on southbound Masonic Avenue at Turk Street struck and killed 61-year-old James Hudson of San Francisco in the crosswalk early this morning. The driver then continued his destructive path for another 13 blocks, according to police, damaging four parked cars along the way before crashing into a planter in the parking lot of St. Mary's Medical Center on Shrader Street.

The SF Board of Supervisors Rules Committee approved the nomination of transit advocate Joél Ramos to the SFMTA Board of Directors today without deliberation, and his final confirmation is expected by the full board on Tuesday.

Preparations for improvements [pdf] to the Upper Market Street bike lanes are underway and when completed will mark a step towards safer passage for travelers by bike at three intersections along the city's busiest bike corridor, where a vision for a protected bikeway was dropped nearly forty years ago.

Within a span of just a few hours, a new parklet has transformed a part of Columbus Avenue in North Beach. Fronting Caffe Roma, it's the second project to bring some breathing room to choked sidewalks on a section where cafe and restaurant life fill one of the city's densest and most historic neighborhoods.

The expected construction of a physically-separated bikeway along a stretch of John F. Kennedy (JFK) Drive in Golden Gate Park will now come no sooner than December, according to a report from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA).