Bicycling

Bikes, transit, public spaces--city readies for giant Market Street makeover

Walk San Francisco, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, and the Senior & Disability Work Group of the Vision Zero Coalition, are collaborating on bike lane designs and pedestrian safety measures.

A key step was taken this morning by the Bay Area Toll Authority Oversight Committee (BATA) of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to eliminate the bike and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

A bus stop can be a pole with a sign on it. Or it can be something safe and inviting. The city of Albany figured out a way to make a bus stop way better–they combined it with a parklet (see lead photo and below). Stephen Newhouse, who now works for Vancouver, Canada’s transit agency, … Continued

It costs $2.25 to go one block on the Geary 38 bus, but someone driving a Tesla can use all of San Francisco’s streets for free. “It’s fundamentally inequitable” said Jeff Tumlin, Principal and Director of Strategy at NelsonNygaard Consulting, during a panel discussion at San Francisco’s Urban Land Institute. “We even manage traffic signals based on … Continued

There are five bike lane projects in various phases in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco (SoMa). Long-term improvements to Folsom and Howard are in the planning phase; there will be an open house in April to finalize those designs. Fifth Street will hold an open house to present initial designs. And Townsend and 7th Street are awaiting scheduling of public outreach meetings.

"I lived in Noe Valley, in a rent-controlled unit, and a neighbor wanted to turn a one-story building into a two-unit building--and the neighborhood lost their mind," recalled Laura Clark, at Tuesday evening's panel discussion on the future of advocacy in the Bay Area.

A majority of San Francisco voters want more subways, more bike lanes, more buses, and more investment in Caltrain, according to the 2018 Dignity Health CityBeat Poll, released by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Physically protected bike lanes are coming to Valencia Street. "We are pretty sure some segments can be designed and implemented as soon as this Fall," said Janice Li, advocacy director for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, to 120 people who attended its annual member meeting Wednesday evening at the Google Community Space on the Embarcadero. She added that the first stakeholder meetings for the Valencia bike-lane improvements "will be coming in March or April ... we’re really going to need to build a lot of support."