Bike Lanes

A clear understanding of California's right-of-way laws is crucial if drivers are to avoid colliding with people using San Francisco's bike lanes. As we saw this week, a "right-hook," in which a driver turns right into the path of a bike rider, can be fatal.

The woman killed on her bike by a truck driver at Sixth and Folsom Streets yesterday morning has been identified as 24-year-old Amelie Le Moullac, SF Weekly reported this morning. Le Moullac was run over by a truck driver making a right turn from Folsom on to Sixth at about 7:07 a.m., and although SFPD says it's still investigating the crash, officers have already said they have no plans to submit case to the district attorney to investigate the case for potential charges, according to KTVU.

We've gotta spotlight this op-ed that appeared in today's edition of the SF Chronicle calling upon the SFMTA and city leaders to make Polk Street more like "a Paris street, where people saunter and stay for hours, not just one errand."

For those who dream of better transportation options on San Francisco's streets, which were engineered in the 20th century to maximize space for cars at the expense of safety and efficient transit, the lack of city leadership on two recent major re-design projects has been troubling.

After listening to city planners say there's no practical way to redesign Potrero Avenue with protected bike lanes and two transit lanes, Josh Handel didn't buy it.

The city's latest proposal to improve safety and transit service on Potrero Avenue is slightly different than earlier versions of the plan. While the redesign would expand pedestrian space, some residents at a public meeting yesterday pointed out that it could do much more to make the street safer for biking and walking.

The SFMTA installed bike lanes on outer Sloat Boulevard last week, re-purposing two of the street's six traffic lanes between the Great Highway and Skyline Boulevard next to the San Francisco Zoo.

Thanks to Lisa Ratner for shooting this video on Polk last Friday.

On Friday at about 5 p.m., I came across a crash scene on Polk Street at Pine. A bicycle rider had been struck by a driver and thrown into another car, and he was being hauled away in a stretcher. As it happened, I was pedaling up Polk to meet with Lisa Ratner, a videographer, to get some shots of the dangerous traffic conditions on the street (stay tuned for that video later this week).