Government Organizations

It was celebrated as a victory for safety by cycling and walking advocates when the SFMTA voted last week to approve plans to add safety enhancements on Upper Market, including parking-protected bike lanes.

SFMTA is pouring the last bits of concrete separation and sticking down the last safe-hit posts for a protected bike lane on the eastbound side of 13th Street, from Folsom to Bryant.

Cycling advocates created a protected bike lane on Golden Gate with their bodies this morning, near the intersection with Market Street. The demonstration, which lasted through the height of the morning rush hour, was organized by members of SFMTrA, the guerrilla bike-infrastructure group.

San Francisco has made strides in increasing bicycling's mode share, but its bike infrastructure is still bad. That was the conclusion of yesterday's state of cycling talk at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association. "I had three or four near misses on Market street just getting over here," said Brian Wiedenmeier, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "So from our perspective it’s pretty crappy."

Over the weekend, 40 to 60 teenagers swarmed a BART station and train, robbing seven people. The story grabbed the headlines because it was so out of the ordinary. But several disturbing crimes have also hit Muni over the last few months.

Word came down late Sunday that the vigilante safety group, SF Transformation (SFMTrA), has struck again--this time on Turk Street near Market Street.

San Francisco was hit by a major power outage Friday that impacted Muni bus services and temporarily closed the Montgomery Street BART station. Traffic in downtown was snarled into the evening thanks to traffic lights in various locations that were flashing red.

Katherine Roberts was biking home to the Haight from a Passover Seder in the Dogpatch at 11:30 on April 11. It was raining heavily. She got to Church and Duboce and slowed to let an outbound N-Judah pass. When she started to pedal again, the wheel of her folding bike slipped and got caught by a steel plate that wasn't flush with the pavement. She crashed and smashed her head.

The board of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) gave final approval yesterday for a plan to install parking protected bike lanes on the eastbound side of 13th Street in SoMa. "This fills an important gap in our bike network," said Charles Deffarges, community organizer for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), during the board meeting's public comments period. "The existing stretch of 13th Street has three lanes of fast traffic and is dangerous."