Bicycle Infrastructure

Some twenty advocates, planners and officials attended a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning for the opening of Oakland's first concrete, fully protected cycletrack bike lane. The lane runs along upper Broadway between Keith Ave and Brookside Drive, next to SR 24. "This is a great way to spend my third hour on my first day on the job," said Ryan Russo, Oakland's new DOT chief, during the brief ribbon-cutting ceremony. Russo, as Streetsblog readers are probably aware, came from New York's DOT to head up Oakland's new department. "This is emblematic of what Mayor Libby Schaaf and the community has decided it wants to do."

The City of Cupertino is best known as the corporate headquarters of a boutique hardware developer called Apple. But if the city moves forward with a plan to add seven "bicycle boulevards" to its bike network, it could also become one of the more bike friendly cities in Silicon Valley.

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.

Some eighty cycling advocates, lawmakers, and transportation notables assembled this morning for a ride across the eastern span of the Oakland Bay Bridge, which as of today is open seven days a week. Destination: Yerba Buena Island Vista Point, a new park that offers a resting spot with expansive views for pedestrians and cyclists coming from Oakland.

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."

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

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."

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), for the first time ever, is opposing a bike lane.