Open Letter to Ed Reiskin on Upper Market Street

After receiving over 300 letters of support, District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy recently publicly stated his support for two blocks of protected bike lanes on Market Street between Octavia and Duboce. Instead of following Sup. Sheehy’s lead, however, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) leadership instead delayed a hearing on those two blocks of safety improvements. That’s just unacceptable in a City committed to Vision Zero. As we’ve written to SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin:

It is a sad commentary on the City’s ability to deliver safe streets that we are fighting to preserve two blocks of protected bike lane as part of a project that should have included protected bike lanes for its entire length. Our members and everyone who bikes in San Francisco deserve better.

See our full letter to Director Reiskin below, and sign on to show that you support the City delivering protected bike lanes and ending the culture of delay that’s held too many changes up for too long.

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Dear Director Reiskin,

On behalf of the over 10,000 members of the SF Bicycle Coalition, we write to strongly urge you and your agency to seek approvals and implement protected bike lanes on Upper Market Street from Octavia Boulevard to Duboce Avenue without further delay. Despite over 300 letters of support, the two blocks of protected bike lane were recently removed from consideration as part of the Upper Market Safety Project when the rest of the proposed changes were considered at an engineering hearing on Friday, March 3.

I want to remind you that Mayor Ed Lee issued an executive directive in August of 2016, clearly stating that “all infrastructure implemented on the City-designated high-injury network be the highest achievable quality, including Class IV protected bike lanes. …” These two blocks are not only part of the City-designated high-injury network for people who bike, they are also among the most heavily-traveled in city, with upwards of 2,400 trips per day.

Furthermore, District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy has publicly endorsed the Upper Market Street Safety Project, including the parking-protected bike lanes from Octavia to Duboce that have been left out of consideration of the project as a whole. We commend Supervisor Sheehy for making such a strong and clear commitment to safe streets so early in his tenure.

Finally, the City has specifically identified parking-protected bike lanes connecting Octavia to the beginning of the Wiggle as a Vision Zero Priority project for 2017. To reverse course at this juncture, after years of planning, outreach and compromise, would be a baffling abandonment of the City’s commitment to Vision Zero.

It is a sad commentary on the City’s ability to deliver safe streets that we are fighting to preserve two blocks of protected bike lane as part of a project that should have included protected bike lanes for its entire length. Our members and everyone who bikes in San Francisco deserve better.

Please let me know at your earliest convenience when a hearing has been scheduled to consider and approve protected bike lanes along Market Street from Octavia to Duboce.

Sincerely,

Brian Wiedenmeier
Executive Director
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

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Sign onto our letter today and hold SFMTA staff to Mayor Ed Lee’s Executive Directive, which ordered completion of three physically protected bike lanes by May 2017.

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