Bike Lanes

If all goes according to plan, Oakland could get its first parking-protected bike lanes on Telegraph Avenue next spring.

Ever since the Embarcadero was uncovered from beneath a freeway more than two decades ago, San Franciscans' appetite for a more people-friendly waterfront only seems to have grown.

If the tow trucks stowed in the Fell Street bike lane weren't enough a blatantly dangerous abuse of space for people on bikes, the situation on its Oak Street counterpart can be even more egregious. Patrick Traughber recently tweeted the above photo of five vehicles parked in Oak's curbside, buffered bike lane, squeezing bike commuters alongside passing motor traffic in the door zone.

Mayoral candidate Sam Liccardo and District 3 City Council candidates Don Gagliardi and Raul Peralez all sought to demonstrate their support for improving cycling conditions in the state's third-largest city at both September's San Jose Bike Party and the inaugural San Jose Bike Life Festival.

Governor Jerry Brown signed two bills on Saturday that will make it easier for California cities to build better bike infrastructure.

At two workshops last week in Oakland, attendees overwhelmingly called for a bolder plan to make Telegraph Avenue safer and include protected bike lanes. Oakland planners ditched their original proposals for parking-protected bike lanes, instead proposing buffered, unprotected bike lanes on most of the street. In Temescal, the street's most dangerous and motor traffic-heavy section, planners insist on preserving all four traffic lanes, with only sharrows added. But when asked to choose between removing parking or removing traffic lanes, it was clear that the majority of residents who attended both meetings would be willing to give up parking.

Oakland has dropped protected bike lanes from its draft proposals to redesign Telegraph Avenue, and the buffered bike lanes that are included would disappear at the most dangerous section, throwing people on bikes into mixed traffic with motor vehicles. The city will hold two open houses this week where the public can weigh in on the draft plan [PDF], on Thursday evening and Saturday morning.

How does northbound San Jose Avenue feel ever since it got a road diet and buffered bike lane? The SFMTA has launched an online survey where you can weigh in on the project. It's your chance to let planners know if you think the street's safer and calmer, and how it could be improved.

In sync with Bicycling Magazine naming New York America's best biking city, the NYC Department of Transportation released a report this week full of stats on the safety impact of protected bike lanes. It's the most robust data the city has released about this type of street design, and the results prove that protected bike lanes make streets safer not just for cyclists, but pedestrians and drivers as well.