GJEL

The SFMTA will re-purpose a general traffic lane to widen and buffer the existing bike lane on Folsom Street between Fourth and 11th Streets by the end of the year, the agency announced today.

A new button-activated pedestrian beacon was installed on Sloat Boulevard and Forest View Drive this week as a part of a package of safety improvements, along with three bulb-outs and a more visible crosswalk. It's the spot where 17-year-old Hanren Chang was killed on her birthday in March by a drunk driver as she was crossing the street.

Up until this year, Rabbi Nosson Potash used a pickup truck to haul his sukkah -- a structure used in ritual celebrations of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot -- to spots around Cole Valley. But now you'll find him on the city's first pedi-sukkah, a tricycle outfit he had shipped in from New York City.

San Francisco is considered one of the leading American cities in the growing movement to tear down freeways. Fortunately, San Franciscans got a head start by averting the freeway-riddled fate of most other American cities in the 20th century by successfully protesting the construction of most of the proposed structures, which would have torn apart some of the city's most livable neighborhoods.

KTVU: "So far, it seems to be working, and that has critics concerned."

Some of the first usage data is in from Bay Area Bike Share. The data is rough, but the number of trips in the first 12 days is underwhelming compared to bike-share launches in New York or Washington, DC.

The plan for bus rapid transit on Van Ness Avenue was unanimously approved today by the SF County Transportation Authority Board, which is comprised of the Board of Supervisors. The plan, which includes transit lanes that run along a center median but converge to load at right-side boarding platforms, is generally the same design that received initial approval from the board in June last year, although a stop was added between Broadway and Vallejo Street after protests from members of a nearby senior center against the removal of the existing stop.

This is it, folks: Bay Area Bike Share officially has a fleet in place for tomorrow's launch. I know it's tempting, but please refrain from trying to take the bikes out for a ride prematurely.

Stanley Roberts asked me to come out yesterday for one of his "People Behaving Badly" segments and help explain how drivers should legally make a right-turn, since CBS 5 didn't get it quite right. Roberts still didn't touch on the point that CBS got wrong -- drivers can't just jump in front of people on bikes because they got to the intersection first -- but it's good to see him devote attention to the issue.