The construction of the center-running bike lanes on Valencia St has begun and cars are already using it as free parking. Who could have possibly predicted this?
We need protected bike lanes, but instead, the city gave us a few new lines of paint in the middle road and some occasional soft-hit posts that will not protect us from bad drivers.
It’s surprising the city decided to go with this unpopular center-running bike lane… especially since it already voted against these lanes in 2018 when the SFMTA decided to go with the far safer “parking-protected” lanes they had already installed on the 5 northern-most blocks of Valencia St. The plan back then was to first install these parking-protected bike lanes on Valencia from Market to 15th St, then continue the protected path all the way down to Cesar Chavez. I actually attended this meeting in person and told the story of how I was hit two different times on Valencia Street due to the lack of protected bike lanes.
So WTF happened? Why did the city change it’s mind and decided to build more unprotected bike lanes on one of the most dangerous corridors in the city?

The SFMTA’s confusing decision-making process seems to have lacked consideration for safety and common sense, much like this ACTUAL new intersection design at 15th and Valencia.

No, you are not dreaming! That is a real intersection that transitions from the new unprotected bike lanes to the far better parking-protected lanes on northern Valencia St.
Leave a Reply