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An estimated 10,000 people celebrated Sunday Streets on the Great Highway and Golden Gate Park yesterday, enjoying six miles of car-free space from Stanyan Street to Sloat Boulevard. Sunny skies and calmer winds blessed the crowds of bicyclists, skaters and walkers, some of whom discovered Sunday Streets for the first time.

The following is being republished from the monthly newsletter of the California Bicycle Coalition.

Senator Chuck Schumer broke his long public silence on the redesigned Prospect Park West in New York City in dramatic fashion this morning, leading members of Congress on a two-wheeled tour of the physically separated bike lane that runs past his Brooklyn home. Schumer used the occasion to announce that he'll be introducing new legislation to promote investment in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

Editor's note: Matthew Ridgway is a principal at Fehr and Peers, a transportation design and engineering firm that routinely consults on bicycle and pedestrian projects throughout the Bay Area.

The SFMTA Board of Directors today issued a directive to staff to move on installing a trial curbside protected bike lane on Fell Street between Scott and Baker Streets. SFMTA Director Cheryl Brinkman raised the issue at today's board meeting, pointing out Mayor Ed Lee's comments to Streetsblog last week that he would like to see a physically-separated bikeway on Fell Street happen "quickly."

If the House, Senate, and President Obama don’t agree on a course of action by the end of this week, the U.S. will be left with no federal budget, and the government will shut down. Transit agencies and construction interests don't seem alarmed, but the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials estimates that a government shutdown would stop $100 million in transportation dollars a day from flowing into the national economy.

SFMTA Chief Nat Ford told Streetsblog today that heading up the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is actually the first job that he's been interested in taking, despite steady rumors that he's been applying for a number of positions over the years.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee supports the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's Connecting the City vision, promises to "very aggressively" carry out Gavin Newsom's executive directive on pedestrian safety, and said he has a commitment from the SFPD to do more aggressive enforcement of drivers in the Tenderloin to make the streets safer for those on foot.

A woman in her 50s suffered "life threatening injuries" this afternoon when she was struck by an SUV being driven by a 92-year-old man in San Francisco's Richmond District. Transit advocate Sue Vaughan, who lives in the Richmond, tipped us off to the crash on Park Presidio and Anza Street, and sent us the above photo of the vehicle.