Bicycling

San Francisco has made strides in increasing bicycling's mode share, but its bike infrastructure is still bad. That was the conclusion of yesterday's state of cycling talk at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association. "I had three or four near misses on Market street just getting over here," said Brian Wiedenmeier, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "So from our perspective it’s pretty crappy."

Katherine Roberts was biking home to the Haight from a Passover Seder in the Dogpatch at 11:30 on April 11. It was raining heavily. She got to Church and Duboce and slowed to let an outbound N-Judah pass. When she started to pedal again, the wheel of her folding bike slipped and got caught by a steel plate that wasn't flush with the pavement. She crashed and smashed her head.

The board of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) gave final approval yesterday for a plan to install parking protected bike lanes on the eastbound side of 13th Street in SoMa. "This fills an important gap in our bike network," said Charles Deffarges, community organizer for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), during the board meeting's public comments period. "The existing stretch of 13th Street has three lanes of fast traffic and is dangerous."

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), for the first time ever, is opposing a bike lane.

Despite a handful of small setbacks, East Palo Alto's dream of providing a safe crossing over the 101 Freeway for people riding bicycles and people walking is nearly a reality. Construction of the "East Palo Alto Highway 101 Ped/Bike Overcrossing," a 12-foot wide bridge over Highway 101 between Newell Road and Clarke Avenue, could begin as early as this summer. The bridge will provide a long-awaited connection between the city's east and west sides.

The Silicon Valley Bike Vision report shows what peninsula cities are doing right, as well as what they could do better to improve conditions for bicyclists and encourage more people to ride. It serves as a vision of what bicycling could be like, and provides a general roadmap on how to get there.

Nobody likes waiting at a red light. So motorists have this ugly habit of inching into the crosswalk. But there's a very simple way to correct for it.

Members of Oakland's "Mayor's Commission on Persons with Disabilities" (MCPD) are miffed at Motivate and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) for planning Bay Area Bike Share without including bikes for disabled users.

Some 20 bicycle advocates and city officials met up on Saturday morning to share ideas for fixing the eastbound bike lanes of the Hairball, San Francisco's notorious maze of freeway ramps, bike lanes, and homeless camps where Cesar Chavez crosses under US-101.