Bicycling

"What you measure is what you get," the saying goes.

Scott Wiener, who has served District 8 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors since 2011, was re-elected this week as chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. The Authority was created in 1989 and it works closely with the Municipal Transportation Agency, funding and shepherding long-term projects such as the Van Ness and Geary bus improvements and the Central Subway. Wiener has long been a leader in transportation issues—probably because, unlike some elected officials, he actually rides the trains and buses.

What is Vision Zero? Simply put, it's a recognition that traffic fatalities are preventable, and a commitment to ensure that no one is killed in traffic. Cities that adopt Vision Zero set out to end traffic deaths within a specific time frame.

A few weeks ago, Streetsblog was happy to tell you about meetings to get input for a huge expansion of San Francisco's bike-share program. The East Bay and San Jose are moving forward with their plans as well, bringing the number of share bikes in the region from 700 to 7,000 over the next few years.

When DOT presented plans for a protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue, one point of contention was the design of intersections. How many intersections will get split-phase signals, where cyclists and pedestrians crossing the street get a separate signal phase than turning drivers? And how many will get "mixing zones," where pedestrians and cyclists negotiate the same space as turning drivers simultaneously?

Thursday night, I was exhausted from covering so many stories in this crazy city that I love. So I grabbed my laptop and headed out to my favorite Divisadero coffee shop to catch up on Facebook and maybe look at some funny cat videos.I walked in the door, ordered, and heard: "Hey Roger! So glad you could make it!"

Yesterday, John Robert Donovan, 41, of Mill Valley, accepted a plea-bargain that got him a misdemeanor conviction, two years of probation, 80 hours of community service, and a $4,134 fine plus court costs, as reported in the Marin Independent Journal. Last November, Donovan, who was driving a Tesla, reportedly got into a road rage incident with some cyclists on Shoreline Highway. When one of the cyclists flipped off his wife, Donovan overtook, cut them off, and braked—causing one of the cyclists to crash into his car. Donovan then drove off.

Mayor Edwin Lee officially vetoed the “Bike Yield” ordinance yesterday. Without enough votes to override, supporting supervisors will have to figure out a compromise plan, such as a pilot project. The bill's author, Supervisor John Avalos, already prepared for that contingency. Not surprisingly, Avalos was frustrated with the Mayor's veto. "SFPD has focused traffic enforcement on places where bicycling is common instead of on high collision corridors. It is clear we have a ways to go with our Vision Zero efforts," he said in an email to Streetsblog.

This week Margaret McCarthy began a six-month term as the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's Interim Executive Director. She replaces Noah Budnick, who resigned last year. She starts with the SFBC in the midst of new and ongoing projects and, perhaps, a touch of residual tension after its first contested board elections. McCarthy is not a new face at SFBC, where she worked as Volunteer Coordinator and Program Director. Streetsblog sat down with her at SFBC's new digs on Market Street to talk about the police, the politics, the plans, and the future of cycling in San Francisco.