Bicycling

Back in January, Streetsblog brought you news of a major expansion of the Bay Area's Bike Share system, growing the network from 700 to 7,000 bikes. Motivate, the company that manages the system, held a series of meetings to get input on good locations for the share stations. Today Motivate, along with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), released preliminary maps for locations in San Francisco and San Jose (with East Bay Locations to follow). The maps show 72 new stations in San Francisco and 13 new spots in San Jose.

Supervisor John Avalos, backed by safe streets and transit advocates, and Supervisors David Campos and Jane Kim, made a push today to override Mayor Lee's veto of a proposed increase in the Transportation Sustainability Fee (TSF) on large commercial developments. But the override only got six votes rather than the eight required.

Right before former New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan set off on a multi-city book tour for Streetfight (along with co-author Seth Solomonow), I was able to get a few minutes to ask her five eclectic questions in Washington Square Park.

Cross-posted from the Alliance for Biking and Walking.

There seem to be two points of view on San Francisco's frustrating housing situation: either the tech industry is to blame for increasing demand or it comes down to NIMBY homeowners hoarding housing stock and preventing new development. Or maybe it's some combination of the two?

In a win for bike and pedestrian safety, the Federal Highway Administration announced yesterday that it will require state transportation agencies to do something they have never had to do before: set goals to reduce bike and pedestrian fatalities, and track progress toward attaining those goals.

Over the weekend, San Francisco and six other finalists made it to the next round of the US Department of Transportation’s “Smart City Challenge” grant competition.

Sharrows, what are they good for? A recent study suggests that one thing shared lane markings don't do is improve safety for cyclists. The conclusion has sparked an online debate and some detailed defense of sharrows in the right conditions.

Cars are a very inefficient transportation technology for too many reasons to count. They take up huge amounts of space but get driven around mostly empty -- the average private car in the U.S. carries only 1.6 people. A lot of the time, people drive distances that are short enough to easily walk or bike -- 28 percent of car trips are a mile or less, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.