SFMTA

At this morning's meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee, four of San Francisco's Supervisors made it clear they want to give money directly to businesses that are taking losses because of the city's many ongoing construction projects. "Small businesses are feeling squeezed on every side. Small businesses are already struggling to keep up in an increasingly expensive city. For residents, impacts are short-lived, but for merchants these impacts can seal their fates," said Supervisor Norman Yee, whose constituent merchants in West Portal were hit by sewer and curb work a couple of years ago. "I am committed to exploring how to prevent future businesses from shuttering."

Urban planners, at least when it comes to bikeway design, are still trying to undo the damage caused by vehicular cyclists in the 1970s and 80s, explained Bill Schultheiss, a traffic engineer who specializes in bike design and a member of the Bicycle Technical Committee and the Pedestrian Task Force of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (NCUTCD), with the Toole Design Group. "There was a fear that cyclists would no longer be able to ride in the streets and would be relegated to sidewalks," he added. "To this day, that has discouraged protected bike lanes in the [road engineering] guidance."

Yesterday evening, some thirty bicycle advocates in yellow t-shirts again cordoned off a section of Valencia Street's Uber drop-off zone (also known as the bike lane) in the Mission, between 18th and 19th.

The SFMTA held an openhouse last night to get feedback on initial designs for bike and pedestrian safety improvements on 11th Street, which runs from Market to Division. Some 20 members of the public, most of them cyclists who commute through the area, showed up to see design boards and talk to SFMTA officials at the SoMa StrEat Food Park on 11th, across from the Costco warehouse.

To be a successful transportation planner, you've also got to be a persuasive salesman, said two consultants at a recent SPUR event.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency announced the opening of a concrete-barrier-protected bike lane on the 'Bernal Cut' section of San Jose Ave. on Friday. As seen in the lead image, the bike lane, which was previously 'protected' only by paint and plastic bollards, now has a barrier assuring that cyclists can't be hit by cars. As the SFMTA puts it in the release: "The idea behind measures like these is to make bikeways more comfortable for anyone to use, whether you’re eight years old or 80."

The mainstream media was all over it: private cars to be banned from Market Street under the city's "Better Market Street" plan. It will also have sidewalk-level protected bike lanes. For advocates in the safe streets community the design announced by the city this week is a major victory and a reason to celebrate.

Here we are in week two of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)'s month-plus of weekend and evening closures of the core of its system--the subway tunnel from Embarcadero to West Portal. Overcrowding on the replacement bus service, as the SF Examiner reports, has left customers further peeved. In response, SFMTA is adding longer buses to its substitute routes to alleviate some of it.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) infuriated transit advocates when it announced on Saturday that it will close the entire Muni subway, from Embarcadero to West Portal, every weekend and after 9:30 p.m. during the week, for the next four or five weeks. The closures, which start this weekend, are part of a testing program for its new light-rail vehicles (LRV).