Bicycling

There are now four design options for a San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)'s project to add parking-protected bike lanes, possible transit lanes, and wider sidewalks on Howard and Folsom Streets in SoMa. All four of these designs are pretty darned good. All four have pretty good protected bike lanes.

Dick Spotswood of the Marin Independent Journal was correct when he recently stated that adding highway lanes won’t fix our traffic problems. A common adage in transportation circles compares building more lanes to doctors counseling obese patients to simply loosen their belts.

Before everyone heads out for the Memorial Day weekend, Streetsblog wanted to do a quick update on yesterday evening's successful Valencia Street human-protected bike lane protest in the Mission District.

There's no denying that the State Route 35 freeway interchange with State Route 1 is not the most comfortable place to ride a bike. Two lanes in both directions, barely a shoulder in places, and automobiles continually speeding. A cyclists was killed in the area two years ago, although it is unclear who was at fault.

As part of its ongoing efforts to create a safer El Camino Real, the City of Redwood is seeking input from the public through an online survey that closes tonight.

Robert Clark's son Gashaw, 25, died in a bike crash three weeks ago. Gashaw was riding through the large intersection at Third Street and Mission Bay Boulevard, when he collided with a car. "There were over 600 people at his memorial," said Clark, fighting through tears as he spoke to about 40 people in the Sports Basement grotto on Bryant Street in San Francisco yesterday evening, just prior to this year's 'Ride of Silence.' "He was the best kid ever."

Some 30 cycling advocates, wearing bright yellow t-shirts, stood along the southbound bike lane on Valencia Street between 16th and 17th streets and prevented Ubers, Lyfts and other cars from blocking this popular bike route during Friday evening's rush. The protest, which emulated an earlier action on Golden Gate, was intended to ratchet up political pressure for protected bike lanes on all major thoroughfares.

The City of San Mateo will host a pair of community meetings next week in San Mateo and Burlingame over the proposed 101/Peninsula Avenue Interchange project. The project is a familiar type: it would relocate the US 101 southbound on-ramps and off-ramps from East Poplar Avenue to Peninsula Avenue, to eliminate the partial interchange and create a single, full-access interchange at Peninsula and Airport Boulevard.

Bike to Work Day (BTWD) organizers counted over 20,000 people biking to work today in East Bay cities, an increase of thirty percent over the last five years. Streetsblog SF has some coverage of events in San Francisco, and we also took in some of the fun in Berkeley and Oakland, as seen in the photos below.