Bicycle Parking

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today gave preliminary approval to what advocates call the strongest bicycle access legislation in the country. The ordinance [PDF], which would require downtown building managers to provide secure indoor bicycle parking for employees either on-site or nearby, is expected to receive final approval from the board next week and be signed into law 30 days after that.

The Caltrain Board of Directors today approved an expenditure of $50,000 to support Warm Planet Bikes, according to the agency's Twitter feed. That influx is expected to keep the bike parking and repair shop open until the agency renews its contract with Warm Planet or another operator in six to eight months. The facility parks up to 170 bikes every day at Caltrain's 4th and King Station in downtown San Francisco, allowing commuters to avoid having to bring them aboard the trains.

Warm Planet Bikes has provided more and more Caltrain commuters a secure place to park their bikes at the Fourth and King Street Station in downtown San Francisco in recent years. But the shop could soon shut down without continued support from the public transportation agencies it relies on. Though Caltrain is developing an agreement to support the shop, it may not come until it's too late.

SFMTA hearing officers today approved a plan to replace car parking on Eastern Cesar Chavez Street with buffered bicycle lanes. A previous iteration of the plan was dropped in June after industrial businesses in the area pressured City Hall because they objected to losing traffic lanes for trucks.

Groundbreaking legislation introduced by Supervisor and mayoral candidate John Avalos yesterday would allow the thousands of people who pedal to work in San Francisco to bring their bikes into the office.  The "Bicycle Access and Safety Ordinance" [pdf] would require the owners and managers of all commercial buildings to allow bikes in the building if there is no secure bike parking.

Earlier this year, I hired one of my favorite bike courier companies to deliver an urgent parcel. When the messenger arrived at my door to pick it up (I work from home), he complained about the lack of bike parking in the neighborhood. He knew who I was and asked, bluntly: "Why doesn't Streetsblog have bike parking?"

Commercial buildings in downtown San Francisco could be required to provide indoor bicycle parking accommodations under a proposal introduced at last week's Board of Supervisors meeting.

Our daily urban lives shape our imaginations in so many ways. Few things box us in like our everyday transit options, and the patterns of traffic that shape our sense of public space. These patterns themselves are historical of course. A quick look back at the famous Market Street film shot a few days before the 1906 earthquake shows how chaotic and unpredictable the flow of traffic was when San Francisco's main artery hadn't yet been paved and standardized. Similarly, leaving the U.S. and visiting other countries provides a fantastic opportunity to experience other assumptions and possibilities for urban space, and surprisingly perhaps, a different range of vehicles.

Bike corrals are a hot commodity in San Francisco. The SFMTA installed three within the last week: one in front of Rooky Ricardo's Records in the Lower Haight, one in front of Braindrops Boutique in the Upper Haight, and the most recent in front of Green Apple Books on Clement Street in the Richmond.