SFBC

The San Francisco Police Department -- in a rare public display of concern for bicyclists -- has issued a press release on the hit-and-run on Valencia Street last Wednesday involving a bicyclist and his 4-year-old son, who was riding in the back on a tandem extension. It asks for the public's help tracking down the driver of a "gray SUV or gray Chrysler PT Cruiser" (with a partial plate of "KAY" and a heart symbol) who is responsible for the crash:

Celebrated Colombian urbanist and former mayor of Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa told a standing room audience of more than one hundred people at the San Francisco Public Library last night that San Francisco can be friendly to cars or to people, but not both. Further, he argued that there is no fundamental technical reason why streets have to function only as free-flowing arteries to move cars, but that the state of our cities in America is a political decision that we can overturn and that American's perceptions of what is possible in cities will follow suit.

San Francisco's livable streets advocates have a chance to participate in a public forum tomorrow with Enrique Peñalosa, who, as mayor of traffic-clogged Bogotá, Colombia, implemented a s⁞weeping set of improvements to transit and the pedestrian realm.

A San Francisco bicyclist is asking for help locating witnesses who may have seen a hit-and-run crash Wednesday on Valencia Street -- one of the city's most popular bicycling corridors -- that left him with a broken back. Andrew Bennett wrote about the crash in an email he sent to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition:

Leah Shahum, the executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, will debate and discuss the newly approved Bike Plan with Rob Anderson on KQED radio's "Forum" program tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Anderson, the bicyclist-hating obstructionist who filed the lawsuit that has locked the Bike Plan in court, wrote on his blog this afternoon that he'll be joined by Bert Hill, who sits on the Bicycle Advisory Committee, Jamie Whitaker of the Rincon Hill Neighborhood Association and Chronicle reporter Rachel Gordon. Anderson, who has compared bicyclists to "Islamic fanatics," had more choice words for bicyclists in the comments section of his post:   

At a press conference this afternoon characterized by relief and jubilation, Mayor Gavin Newsom, representatives from the city agencies responsible for San Francisco's streets, and bicycle advocates celebrated the MTA's adoption of the Bike Plan and the legislation of the first 45 of the 56 priority bike-lane projects. Mayor Newsom seemed as thrilled as the bike advocates that much of the details for moving the legal process forward had been surmounted with last night's Planning Commission's certification of the Bike Plan EIR and the MTA Board's unanimous vote of approval today.

In a decision advocates hailed as a victory for bicyclists in San Francisco, the MTA Board of Directors voted uaninmously this afternoon to approve the EIR and adopt the Bike Plan, legislating 45 of the 56 priority projects, which will add about 34 miles of new bike lanes in the city.

The MTA Board is just hours away from finally approving the Bike Plan, and is currently hearing testimony from 200 supporters -- a cross section of cyclists including business and home owners, mothers with children, families, and people with disabilities -- who were organized by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

I'm happy to announce today that Dave Snyder, the former transportation director at SPUR, will join Streetsblog San Francisco as a regular contributor.