Where Do You Need a Bike Rack?

Posted on by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
By Rourke Healey

 

As a Bicycle Parking Coordinator at the SF Bicycle Coalition, I’m proud to say that I’ve sited over 100 bicycle racks throughout San Francisco since June 1. From the Richmond to Bayview, the SF Bicycle Coalition has worked with businesses and residents to increase bicycle parking options across the city. Our goal is to survey and site an additional 600 bike racks throughout the San Francisco by 2018.

Put Me to Work!

Having a bicycle rack sited outside your favorite spots to frequent is quick, easy and free. Whether you work, live or are just visiting SF, anyone can simply fill out an online bicycle rack request form. A Bicycle Parking Coordinator will then come to your location to survey and site a sidewalk rack whenever and wherever possible. Once sited, bike racks are installed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency within three to six months.

These racks are provided by the City and placed on City-owned sidewalks, and do not take up parking spaces. If demand is high enough, bike corrals bearing three or more bike racks can be requested in front of a location through the online application.

We encourage business-owners and residents alike to request a bike rack before the end of summer. Placed directly in front of your desired location, these racks provide safe and convenient bike parking for your office, favorite shopping locations, restaurants and more!

Becoming an Advocate: When and How to Speak Up

Posted on by Charles Deffarges

Have you ever wondered how a bike lane comes to be and where everyday people can make a difference as advocates? Come to a workshop to learn more about how to convince decision makers with a stellar public comment.

 

From idea to in-the-ground, a bike lane goes through an extended and oftentimes complicated planning process. Along the road to completion, there are key moments when your voice as an SF Bicycle Coalition member can have a big influence on the outcome of a project. While we will always let you know when your voice can have the biggest impact, we also want to give you the tools that you need to successfully drive change.

At the Convincing Decision-Makers Workshop, we prepare our members to speak up in different capacities for projects that transform city streets. First, we take an indepth look at the different steps an infrastructure project must go through before it can be “shovel-ready.” After highlighting advocacy opportunities, we take a look at what makes a convincing public comment. By the end of the workshop, you will have crafted and practiced a public comment that is most likely to sway whoever is listening.

Whether you’re a public meeting veteran or brand new to civic advocacy, this workshop will have something for you. Join us next Wednesday at our offices to bring your game to a whole new level.

Convincing Decision-Makers
Wednesday, Aug. 23, 6:00 – 7:30 pm
1720 Market St.

Top Four Reasons to Volunteer at Tour de Fat

Posted on by Kelsey Roeder

Tour de Fat is coming up fast, and the excitement is truly palpable. Costumes are being carefully planned, bike routes are being meticulously mapped and joyous festivities are on the horizon. If you haven’t signed up to volunteer at Tour de Fat yet, let the following reasons seal the deal.

  1. It’s fun!
    Music + comedians + carnival shenanigans + more = non-stop good times. Best of all, as a volunteer, you make these amazing experiences possible. You can add “fun-facilitator” to your resume — we’ll vouch for you!
  2. It’s unpredictable.
    Who knows what wacky costumes will come out of the vault for Tour de Fat? Who will win the Slow Ride Contest? Or the Dance Contest? Which band will steal the show? The only foreseeable truth is that it’ll be the best beer, music and bike festival of the year.
  3. It’s meaningful.
    In addition to spreading our message and growing our membership base, Tour de Fat raises thousands of much-needed dollars to support the work of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. The money raised at Tour de Fat will help keep the wheels of our advocacy spinning all year long.
  4. Beer.
    In addition to free entrance to Tour de Fat (a $25 value!), all volunteers get a free beer token to enjoy a New Belgium brew. Need I say more?

We still need 16 volunteers for the big day! Help us make Tour de Fat a roaring success. Sign up to volunteer today.

A New Ride on San Jose Avenue

Posted on by Julia Raskin
Image courtesy of the SFMTA

 

When a buffered bike lane was added to San Jose Avenue, the number of bike trips increased by 62 percent. Now there are further improvements welcoming people biking to and from our city’s southern neighborhoods along this crucial corridor. And the credit for these vital improvements goes to the support and advocacy of our members.

The physical protection in the form of concrete barriers replaced the paint buffer separating the bike lane from faster moving traffic lanes on San Jose Avenue between Randall Street and I-280. To date, this is an infrequently used treatment in San Francisco, showing the City’s commitment to adapting best practices that have been successful in other cities.

The old buffered bike lane (left) improved biking here, but the new concrete safety barriers are better yet. The map (right) shows the area of San Jose Avenue encompassed in this project.

After years of community advocacy, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency worked with Caltrans to slow down traffic by narrowing northbound lanes on San Jose between Randall and I-280 and adding a buffered bike lane. This bike lane closed a critical gap in our bike network and dramatically improved the experience of biking this stretch known as the Bernal Cut.

Narrowed and freshly paved and painted, last week San Jose Avenue reached its final phase of the project when the SF Public Works added concrete safety barriers to the buffered bike lane. These new improvements transformed this wide thoroughfare into the obvious route for people of all ages riding to and from our city’s southern neighborhoods.

Do you want to see more protected bike lanes in San Francisco like the one on San Jose Avenue? Join or renew your membership today and join us in advocating for better biking all over the city.

The Family Bike Raffle Winner Is….

Posted on by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
By Michaela Tait Morrison

 

When Xtracycle donated an Edgerunner family bike for our 2017 Bike & Roll to School Week participant raffle, we knew that one lucky family was going to be very happy. And we’re happy to announce that that family is the Parkhursts! 

Martin and Teresa Parkhurst are ecstatic to start riding their new family bike. “I have never won anything before!” Teresa said.

The Parkhursts have two children: a seven-year-old at Sunnyside Elementary and a toddler still unable to ride independently. With their new Xtracycle Edgerunner replacing an increasingly heavy trailer hitched to his older bike, Martin looks forward to easier riding to and from school.

Congratulations to the Parkhurst family! Keep an eye out for the whole family biking around San Francisco together soon.

We hope that the Parkhursts inspire other families to bike to school this year. Before summer ends and the school year starts, we encourage you to find the right biking gear for you and yours. 

If you’re considering a family bike of your very own, you can always come test ride a family bike at the next Sunday Streets.

Preserve a Piece of Bike History

Posted on by Julia Raskin

Great public art relies on community giving, and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition needs your help to maintain the beauty of the Duboce Bikeway Mural. Will you help us raise funds for cleaning solution and varnish that will keep the mural looking fresh?

Donate

Unveiled in 1998, the Duboce Bikeway Mural is approaching its 20-year anniversary. This 340-foot long piece of public art stands at the entrance to the popular Wiggle bike route. Mona Caron, a student artist at the time, designed the mural and coordinated with former SF Bicycle Coalition leader Joel Pomerantz to transform the Duboce Bikeway. Inspired by community members living nearby, Mona designed a magnificent mural that represents a bike-friendly San Francisco.

The Duboce Mural has for years served as an inspiration for a different approach to city life and is widely loved by the biking community. Greeting people who ride the Wiggle, the Mural demonstrates the accessibility of bicycling in the city. As Joel says, “Everyone loves it! There’s educational value, beauty and inspiration to increase public art that shows local history, too. The mural illustrates some of SF’s transportation history, natural history and includes a vision of a better city. But even more important was the community that formed through the process of creating the mural with the help of the neighborhood and volunteers.”

With age comes the need for maintenance. After two decades, the mural is in need of a healthy coat of varnish that will preserve the images and facilitate future cleaning. Turning again to the generosity of the community, we are asking for your help to fund the supplies.

With a goal of $10,000, your donation will help preserve this long-standing piece of art for the next decade. The Duboce Mural came to life because of the generosity of SF Bicycle Coalition members, and will continue to live on thanks to your dedication to a beautiful and more bike-friendly city.

Tour de Fat Fixture: Member-Volunteer Patrick Lindley

Posted on by Kelsey Roeder

Tour de Fat, Fat Tire’s festival of beer, bikes and bemusement is only days away! Are you one of the 150-plus volunteers who will lead the games, park the bikes and pour the brews? If you haven’t committed yet, let superstar member-volunteer Patrick Lindley explain why this is a can’t-miss opportunity.

SF Bicycle Coalition: You volunteered at Tour de Fat last year. What made you want to volunteer again this year?

Patrick: I loved volunteering at Tour de Fat last year! It was such a great time and wonderful atmosphere — especially with the games, performers, music and crazy bikes to try riding. Seeing everyone, including fellow San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Ambassadors and other volunteers, having so much fun is one of the main reasons I’m excited to volunteer again.

What’s your favorite part about volunteering at Tour de Fat?

My favorite part about volunteering at Tour de Fat and for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition in general is definitely the amazing people I get to interact with. It’s so rewarding and satisfying to enjoy such great social experiences, especially with this sense of belonging to this huge and beautiful community of other people who bike.

What’s the best costume you’ve seen at Tour de Fat?

There have been a lot of amazing, hilarious, ridiculous and, of course, creative costumes. I remember really being drawn to all of the light reflecting off of some sort of awesome disco costume that even included the disco ball helmet! I can’t wait to see what people do this year.

Do you have any memorable experiences from Tour de Fat last year?

I had an awesome time playing my music on my bike during the ride/parade before I started volunteering, and also had a blast trying out the different crazy bikes. Some of them were so ridiculous and hard to ride! I really enjoyed the tent performers, too.

When not volunteering at Tour de Fat or riding your bicycle around town, what do you do for work/fun?

When I’m not volunteering for Tour de Fat or riding my bicycle all around San Francisco, I’m thrilled to work at the Exploratorium science museum, which is an amazing place to work and visit. I love being outdoors, walking, hiking and exploring our many hilltops. I hope to see you around — whether I’m riding my bicycle on the Embarcadero, along busy Market Street, through Golden Gate Park, along the Great Highway, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge or working hard to climb a big hill. Please stop me anytime to say hi!

Want free entrance to Tour de Fat and a free beer? Sign up to volunteer today!

Safety Improvements Needed for All at the Hairball

Posted on by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Despite upcoming infrastructure improvements for the Hairball, the issue of tent encampments blocking the public right of way has been persistent, creating dangerous conditions for all involved.

Both people biking and living in the area face safety concerns under existing conditions. We need to push for immediate and long-term fixes to this issue now. See our Executive Director, Brian’s letter to the Mayor and Supervisors below. Now we need you to add your name to our call to bring real solutions to the Hairball.

~ ~ ~ ~

Dear Mayor Lee, Supervisor Ronen and Supervisor Cohen:

I write today to call your attention to unsafe conditions both for people biking and those experiencing homelessness at the Hairball, and also to request your leadership in delivering solutions.

The Cesar Chavez, Bayshore and Potrero intersection underneath the 101 Highway, commonly referred to as the “Hairball,” is one of San Francisco’s most important bike routes. This location is one of the only ways that people can bike between the Mission and northern neighborhoods to the southeast of the city.

The presence of encampments obstructing the bike lane has quickly become the biggest safety issue for people riding through this area. This overlap between a well-used bike route and a large encampment site creates dangerous conditions for everyone. People riding face large obstacles in the right of way while people living risk collisions with rush hour-levels of bicycle traffic. We need an immediate solution so that people experiencing homelessness have adequate space that does not block the existing path.

Given the current situation, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is calling for urgent action as follows:

  • Create immediate changes to the bike path and surrounding areas to open up space, preventing encampments overlapping with the bike path.
  • Begin planning for a future a navigation center or other transitional housing dedicated to the residents of the 101 interchange.

We are calling on you, our elected leaders, to work with our City departments and implement these changes that will make this dangerous intersection a safe place to live and bike in. Thank you for your attention on this pressing safety issues for all people presently using the Hairball bike path. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and our 10,000-plus members look forward to working together on opportunities to improve safe passage for people biking while creating safer conditions for people experiencing homelessness.

Sincerely,

Brian Wiedenmeier

Executive Director

Test the New Caltrain Cars

Posted on by Janice Li

Caltrain Modernization is underway, and the next opportunity to shape the new electrified trains is coming up.

After federal funding was finally secured, the Caltrain Electrification Project broke ground just two weeks ago. With infrastructure underway to connect communities from San Francisco to San Jose and everywhere else in between, we now turn our attention to the new electrified trains that will bring faster and more reliable service to everyday passengers.

Caltrain staff will be holding outreach at the 4th & King Station with sample displays of onboard bike storage. They are proposing two options and are looking for public input to help determine the preferred design.

With the increased service, both options will provide more bike space given the number of trains per hour. This is your chance to ask questions and test the different designs yourself to see how they work for you.

Caltrain Bike Outreach
Caltrain Station at 4th & King
Wednesday, Aug. 9 from 7:30am-7:00pm
Thursday, Aug. 10 from 7:30am-7:00pm

We encourage you to let Caltrain staff know which design you prefer and also share your experience of bringing your bike onboard. If you have recommendations around getting on and off with your bike, this is a great opportunity to give feedback as Caltrain continues designing their new trains.

Better Market Street is Here

Posted on by Janice Li

Your SF Bicycle Coalition has called for years to see physically protected bike lanes built on Market Street from the Embarcadero all the way through Octavia. Those calls are finally being answered and in truly remarkable fashion.

Get Better Market Street Updates

By the end of 2018, the City seeks to begin construction on a visionary new design for Market Street. No longer will Market Street feel like a race during commute hours, as people jockey for position at every intersection, squeezing between Muni and swarming vehicles left and right. A brand new design — proposed jointly by SF Public Works, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and SF Planning Department — offers a win-win situation for everyone. This design would elevate the bike lane to sidewalk level and fully separate people biking and walking from the bustling transit on Market Street.

With clear direction from City leaders to advance the project swiftly, SF Public Works looks to accelerate one of the six segments through design in order to begin construction by the end of next year. This new design proposal and timeline was just announced, and the SF Bicycle Coalition is committed to making this long-held dream a reality.

For years, a cross-agency effort quietly advanced the “Better Market Street” project, billed as a transformative overhaul of the 2.2-mile corridor stretching from Embarcadero to Octavia. Past design proposals for the project fell far short of a real transformation though, with significant trade-offs, whether you were walking, biking or taking transit. One option even considered removing Market Street entirely as a bike route and re-routing the thousands of people biking there every day onto Mission Street. And construction wasn’t even slated to begin until 2022.

So what changed?

In 2015, the SFMTA installed the city’s first-ever raised bike lane on Market Street to test whether that design would offer the safety benefits of a physically protected bike lane. By the end of 2016, after extended analysis, surveys and feedback from focus groups, it was clear that those designs were insufficient.

At the Better Market Street Community Advisory Committee meeting on Monday, City staff agreed.

“We were not happy with the results,” said Simon Bertrang, project lead at SF Public Works. The raised bike lane was “not something we would want to ever build on Market Street, so we went back to square one.”

Meanwhile, it became clear that the transit infrastructure on Market Street needs maintenance  and improvements to accommodate increased Muni service. With over 100 Muni vehicles on Market Street every hour during peak commute times already today, waiting to replace traffic signals and tracks, and installing a new power substation, became more urgent than ever.

Fortunately, this new consensus design emerged for Better Market Street, borrowing from the biking capitals of the world like Amsterdam and Copenhagen. As this project returns to the public eye, however, your input and dedication is needed. City-led outreach and engagement will begin soon to help shape the details of the project in order to meet the accelerated timeline.

Get Better Market Street Updates

Better Market Street is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform San Francisco’s main thoroughfare. Join us in building this visionary future together.