Bicycling

Government officials are warning people to avoid outdoor activities (see above map) due to particulates in the air. The media is full of reports and interviews with experts about the hazards of breathing the smoke. Many schools are closed. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has cancelled or postponed several outdoor events, including its pop-up outreach, and its AIDS/Lifecycle Kickoff ride.

Melodie, a woman in her late 50s who lives in a camper along one of the streets leading into the Hairball, pleaded with city officials and advocates to just give homeless people some sanctuary and peace. "There's no where else to go," she said to a group of some 40 bike and homeless advocates who attended a San Francisco Bicycle Coalition panel last night on homelessness in the Hairball.

Over the weekend, the guerrilla safety group, SFMTrA, installed safe-hit posts and painted bulb-outs at the intersection of Fell and Baker, on a crosswalk where David Grinberg, a 90-year-old man, was killed on Wednesday, Oct. 4. The city, which apparently has no immediate plans to improve the crosswalk that connects the Mercy Terrace senior-living apartments with the Panhandle Park, removed the unauthorized safe-hit posts earlier this week.

"The driver was so inattentive he went five or six blocks after he killed my son," explained Alvin Lester, the father of 21-year-old Arman, who was killed in 2014 while riding his skateboard. Lester said the driver, who was distracted, or fell asleep, or who knows what, plowed into his son, killing him instantly. That incident, which happened at 3rd and Cargo Way in San Francisco, was a result of bad policies and bad designs.

Cyclists participating in Saturday's Jensie Gran Fondo of Marin, a fund raising ride for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, were nearing the end of their ride at about midday Saturday. A group of cyclists were on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road outside of Petaluma, when a blue pickup came up behind them, swerved and crashed into four riders, and drove off.

Berkeley bike advocates are pushing back against the use of "Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs or flashers)" in the city's bicycle visioning plan. The idea is to use them where 'bike boulevards' cross heavily trafficked streets. In an op-ed this week in Berkeleyside, bike advocate Charles Siegel makes a compelling plea for the city to instead install four-way stop signs, specifically at the intersection of California and Dwight.

Tuesday morning at around 11, a cyclist collided with a motor vehicle that was heading north on Guerrero at the intersection with 24th.

Some two-thirds of citations for driving in transit lanes and bike lanes, failing to yield to pedestrians, and other motor vehicle violations, are issued to Transportation Network Company (TNC) cars such as Uber and Lyft--this according to a study from the police department of violations in downtown San Francisco.

Will protected bike lane policy directives ever get absorbed by street-level crews?