Bicycle Infrastructure

Imagine standing on Market Street and seeing bars of colored lights move over the street, tracking the location of the BART and Muni vehicles below.

Last night, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency held its first of two open houses to solicit feedback on possible safety improvements to Folsom and Howard Streets in the South of Market neighborhood. Some 50 people braved the cold and rainy night to voice opinions and hear from MTA staff at the SoMa Recreation Center. From the SFMTA's website:

Last week, cyclist Dana Cray Fernie was out riding on Potrero when she was hit and knocked down by a motorist. AnnaGrace Arnold, a close friend, wrote this description on the SF Bike Ride Crew Facebook page:

Redwood City hosted the first of two scheduled community meetings on its El Camino Real Corridor Plan last month, aiming to lay the groundwork for redeveloping commercial parcels along the roadway and transform it into a Complete Street. After this study is finished sometime next year, a separate study funded by a grant from Caltrans will pay for a new design to rebuild a one half-mile segment of the street that spans the Woodside Road interchange.

Saturday morning, the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks (RPD) held an open house to get feedback about potential pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements for Golden Gate Park. It was held in the County Fair Building Auditorium in the park and was attended by some 40-50 people.

Monday at 1:30, the Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will consider a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) ordinance that will require projects larger than 10 dwelling units or 10,000 square feet to adopt stronger measures to reduce auto trips.

Yesterday evening, the South of Market Committee of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) met at their Market Street office to discuss advocacy tactics for making sure SFMTA follows through on Mayor Edwin Lee's Executive Directive on safety in their neighborhood. "They’re hoping to get this in the ground by May of 2017," said Charles Deffarges, community organizer with the Bicycle Coalition. He pointed to SFMTA designs, projected on a screen for the group, of 7th and 8th streets, with physically protected bike lanes. "This design is not all the way there, but it is a first phase," he said.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (CTA), along with SFMTA, is completing its final environmental review for "Bus Rapid Transit" and other street improvements on Geary. Last week, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) held an update/discussion about this busy corridor.

South San Francisco will rebuild a one-mile segment of El Camino Real this Spring with wider sidewalks, safer crosswalks, curb extensions, pedestrian refuges, bike lanes, and new street trees planted in both the medians and sidewalks. However, the bike lanes won't be continuous--to preserve curbside parking, in places they will disappear. And some intersections will remain dangerous to cross.