GJEL

It was celebrated as a victory for safety by cycling and walking advocates when the SFMTA voted last week to approve plans to add safety enhancements on Upper Market, including parking-protected bike lanes.

Some twenty advocates, planners and officials attended a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning for the opening of Oakland's first concrete, fully protected cycletrack bike lane. The lane runs along upper Broadway between Keith Ave and Brookside Drive, next to SR 24. "This is a great way to spend my third hour on my first day on the job," said Ryan Russo, Oakland's new DOT chief, during the brief ribbon-cutting ceremony. Russo, as Streetsblog readers are probably aware, came from New York's DOT to head up Oakland's new department. "This is emblematic of what Mayor Libby Schaaf and the community has decided it wants to do."

Some eighty cycling advocates, lawmakers, and transportation notables assembled this morning for a ride across the eastern span of the Oakland Bay Bridge, which as of today is open seven days a week. Destination: Yerba Buena Island Vista Point, a new park that offers a resting spot with expansive views for pedestrians and cyclists coming from Oakland.

Cycling advocates created a protected bike lane on Golden Gate with their bodies this morning, near the intersection with Market Street. The demonstration, which lasted through the height of the morning rush hour, was organized by members of SFMTrA, the guerrilla bike-infrastructure group.

There will be many news stories generated by the announcement of the details of President Donald Trump's proposed budget next month. In advance of the announcement, the campaign to preserve funding for the electrification of Caltrain is working with advocates around the state and country to preserve a nearly $650 million grant agreement scuttled by the Trump Administration in February.

Word came down late Sunday that the vigilante safety group, SF Transformation (SFMTrA), has struck again--this time on Turk Street near Market Street.

The San Francisco Transit Riders (SFTR) has hired its first Executive Director, Rachel Hyden. “We did a thorough search...and interviewed many good people,” said Thea Selby, SFTR chair, in the official announcement made last week. "Hiring Executive Director Hyden means that we have the capacity to reach out to more diverse riders around the city and be a better rider-based grassroots advocate for world-class transit in San Francisco.”

It took a bunch of compromises, but Governor Brown passed his $52 billion transportation bill, which included a gas tax increase. To make the political math work, Brown had to get the vote of one Republican. That Republican was Anthony Canella from Ceres, who was promised $500 million in local spending.

Nine months isn't a long time to create a Department of Transportation (DOT) for the City of Oakland.