The unfinished, controversial center bikeway on Valencia Street has caused confusion and at least two bicycle crashes in its first eight weeks, with one cyclist reportedly landing in a hospital last week.
Multiple bike riders interviewed by Mission Local on Tuesday were confused about the street design and worried for their safety while cycling down Valencia.
“Right now, it’s dicey,” said Jessica, a daily cyclist who said she prefers to ride on Folsom Street whenever possible. “I just think Valencia is a scary road.”
Currently, a two-way bike lane has been painted in the middle of Valencia between 17th and 23rd streets. The center lane currently has “Bike Lane Closed” signs on every block, but the old right-side bike lanes have been mostly removed, leaving cyclists with the option of riding among cars, or using the new center lane.
“I think it sucks,” said Kappy, who called the bikeway “reinventing the wheel” as he rode to meet a friend near 18th and Valencia streets. “Whoever designed it doesn’t ride bikes.”
Like Jessica, Kappy said he takes different streets to avoid Valencia when he can.
“I might like it,” said Douglas Evans, a daily cyclist who rode on the unfinished bikeway on Tuesday. Cars frequently park in the center lane, sometimes chased away by police driving down Valencia; at least one San Francisco Fire Department truck was spotted taking up the middle lane over the weekend.
Evans said he was hopeful that, eventually, with protection like rubber curbs and plastic bollards, cars would stop parking in the bike lane and cyclists would be safe from being “doored” by drivers leaving their cars.
But he was still unsure. “It’s very difficult to tell how good they’re gonna be.”
The MTA launched the Valencia Street project in late April, despite community feedback showing a large majority of residents opposed putting cyclists in the center of the roadway and removing dozens of parking spaces and the center median, both of which are often used for loading.
New passenger and commercial loading zones have been added to Valencia Street, but they are being routinely ignored in favor of the center lane. This has reaffirmed concerns that drivers will park in the bikeway, even when it is officially open.
On Tuesday, delivery vehicles could be seen parked in both the center bikeway and the middle of the car lane, forcing cars to drive into the bikeway to maneuver around them.
Workers on Tuesday installed rubber curbs on Valencia between 19th and 20th streets; the center bike lane will eventually extend north to 15th Street.
And, despite signs along Valencia indicating that the half-finished bike lane is closed, and that cyclists should use the car lane, about half the cyclists observed on Tuesday morning were using the new lane to avoid riding among cars.
The confusing interim period has caused issues: Jessica said she is worried about the new rubber curbs, and is scared of weaving in and out of them. And the two people who crashed last week reportedly did so because of similar confusion.
SFMTA spokesperson Stephen Chun confirmed that the agency is aware of the two recent crashes, and that they were believed to be “related to ongoing construction on the mid-Valencia pilot.”
Chun said members of the public had expressed “confusion with the construction signage and placement of the ‘Bike May Use Full Lane’ sign,” but noted that cyclists are not supposed to use the center bikeway yet.
Even when the bikeway is complete, however, cycling infrastructure experts from around the world said the plan is a bad one.
“It is an abomination. It is the worst infrastructure I have ever seen anywhere in the world,” said Mikael Colville-Andersen, an urban designer and founder of the Copenhagenize Design Company. “You save lives, you keep people safe, by using tried and tested techniques.”
Colville-Andersen added that the transition between the center bike lane and existing right-hand lanes would be tricky: Right now, cyclists are meant to cross between cars in the middle of an intersection to enter or exit the center bike lane.
Claudia Adriazola-Steil, deputy director for the global urban mobility program at the World Resources Institute, said it was a “bad idea” to create such a complicated crossing and keep bikes in the center of the road, especially on an avenue with constant traffic like Valencia.
On Tuesday, every single car observed by Mission Local drove through newly painted white buffer zones meant to separate car traffic from cyclists.
And since the bikeway project began, cars have been banned from turning left across the center lane on Valencia.
But do drivers still turn left illegally?
“All day,” said William Lucas, the chef at Etc. Wine Bar at 19th and Valencia streets, who stood outside on Tuesday morning.
The new bikeway also forces cyclists to stay in the middle of the road or wait to exit the bike lane at an intersection, even if their destination is a shop or restaurant in the middle of the block.
“The whole point of bicycles is, you’re supposed to be able to hop off wherever,” Lucas said.
Anne Eriksson, a traffic safety engineer at the Danish Road Directorate, agreed.
“I mean, don’t [cyclists] want to go to some of these commercial services and shops along the road? How are they gonna get there?” Eriksson said. “It seems like they’re sort of giving up on some basic principles because there are some Uber Eats idiots parking in the lane.”
In Denmark, Eriksson said, enforcement by traffic police is also critical to ensuring safe practices.
Those interviewed on Valencia on Tuesday said they had seen surges of enforcement since the street changes took effect, urging cars not to drive into the center bikeway, for instance. But it is unclear how frequently enforcement occurs.
Chun estimated the bikeway would be complete within another four or five weeks, around early August. Last week, the MTA surpassed its original time estimate of eight weeks.
This story was updated with a time estimate from MTA spokesperson, Stephen Chun.
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SUGGESTION TO SFMTA:
Move the bike lane to Mission St. It already impossible to drive on Mission, so let that be busses & bikes only.
Vehicles need to turn left of Valencia, it’s surrounded by residents who need to access their homes.
Just use Guererro or Dolores? They are already much faster, connect to market and the freeways…there is no need to use valencia….
Why do many of these new designs attempt to confine the cyclist? A car will easily drive over the these rubber guides. Elsewhere, the city confines the cycles with right angle cement curbs and bollards. All these things a car can easily go over and hit a cyclist but a cyclist cannot easily move to safety in an emergency with them.
Furthermore, I also do not like the two way lane they put in front of the ferry building. It makes it more challenging as a cyclist to merge into and as a pedestrian to cross. Utter madness.
For me, all Valencia really needed was a green left turn space at 17th headed north while getting onto 17th going west towards Sanchez – the wiggle. BTW – I love the quote!
Unbelievable. And to think that they make all these drastic changes as a response to people illegally and unsafely parking, driving, etc. in the bike lane, rather than just enforcing the laws about respecting the bike lanes. It just reinforces people’s bad behavior and sends the message that we as a city and society will adapt to suit the will of the reckless idiots who drive on Valencia.
THANK YOU!!! Exactly!
Basic sense and logic will not be tolerated in SF city government decisions and actions.
Is there some word that defines the BEYOND KAFKAESQUE reality in San Francisco?
You mad, bro?
“It just It just reinforces people’s bad behavior and sends the message that we as a city and society will adapt to suit the will of the reckless idiots who drive on Valencia”. I agree. Just like catering to vagrants and drug addicts just reinforces people’s bad behavior and sends the message that we as a city and society will adapt to suit the will of the cretins who clog our streets with drug addict death camps.
Enforcement won’t help. Proper street design will
Out of all the things to fix this is where SF spends its time money and resources. Love driving down Valencia and having people ride in the bike land and car lane. Absolute chaos.
It’s not a bike lane. And what do you call a car lane is a traffic lane. You might want to study the motor vehicle code.
Mission resident and cyclist here.
There are cyclists — like me for one — who are prepared to support a center bike lane on Valencia. While nothing is ideal on a busy street and reasonable people can probably disagree about the best bike lane design for any specific street, Valencia (where there is lots of double-parking and pulling in and out of right hand parking spaces) is a decent candidate for a center-bike lane.
What’s frustrating is that the city painted the center lane 5 or 6 weeks ago but has kept the “bike lane closed” signs up since then went by without much other progress on the project. Bumpers seems to be going up one block at a time and parking in the center lane is indeed rampant. The transition/construction period is frustrating for all and especially dangerous for cyclists.
SF: Please finish the project, protect the lanes properly, and open them!
I agree. It’s an interesting idea and it is also a pilot project. It’s sort of a bike highway, and at this point it’s only an 8 block experiment.
Now that they’ve added curbs it should be safer. It’s important to let the city experiment with different things because each city and culture is unique.
Bike on!
I’ve tried biking in the car lane, but cars continually drive in the buffer and pass me — often quite close. Here’s a video of the police using the buffer to pass me on my bike — followed by a Prius:
https://mastodon.social/@areamatt/110471192073878602
I caught up to both cars at the next light, so they didn’t gain anything by passing.
So you can’t blame people for biking in the unfinished bike lane, because biking in the car lane sucks.
I saw a bicyclist get hit by a car between 19th and 20th today. Car sped away, bystanders protected the bicyclist by standing in the street to block cars hitting him. He was in shock, and though able to eventually get up, he was in pain. He was riding in the car lane, not the middle bikeway, because the whole thing is so confusing – is the middle closed? Many bikers ride on it. But many do not paying attention to the “closed” signs, and ride in the car lane. Can’t the City just open the bikeway even though the project isn’t completed yet? Also…as a side note, they are doing major pipe work on 19th and Valencia, and block southbound traffic, but there is no sign at 18th saying the road is closed, which means cars are driving into the bikeway to go around construction.
Kappy knows what’s up. I don’t even ride up Valencia that far anymore because it’s overrun by kooks, but when I do, I will take Mission and take my chances on the Red Carpet.
Be safe out there.
– Later, dudes
The pull quote ““It is an abomination. It is the worst infrastructure I have ever seen anywhere in the world” is ridiculous. I’ve ridden the new lane and it isn’t perfect, but it is better than before. It’s actually kinda nice to cruise along in a straight line without worrying about parked cars.
I rode on Valencia yesterday and agree that it is currently complicated to navigate. Given the number of peds, bikes, and vehicles competing for space, I don’t see any great solution. Giving bikes the center lane bordered by the rubber curbs will definitely be an improvement over having bike lanes (which are frequently blocked) between parked cars and moving traffic.
When people say SF is a liberal city, I show them this. No true liberal city would create such an abomination on “the most important cycling corridor in the city” according to our Transportation Chief.
I’m still optimistic that the center lane will make Valencia a better street to bike on. It’s silly to be criticizing it before it’s finished and given some time to work. But SFMTA is really shooting itself in the foot and creating a dangerous situation by taking so long to implement it. This is a major bike route and it’s just a mess. They should not have started scrubbing/re-painting until the safety posts/rubber were ready to go. This project should have been implemented in weeks, not months.
While I don’t love the state that it’s in and how long it’s taken to build, I think the bike lanes are a step in the right direction. I’m optimistically awaiting them being finished – the jury’s still out on their effectiveness!
Why is the bike lane closed? It looks fully complete to me. Are they waiting, letting bikers get injured, for some ribbon cutting ceremony or something?
I was super pessimistic about the center bike lane and wrote in to object against it, but I’ve now biked the sections that are (Closed? Open?) and I admit I was wrong. The completed *and* protected sections feel way safer than weaving amongst double parked cars before. Making a turn is way more natural than I expected and having to ride to an intersection before turning back to a shop is honestly also not as annoying as expected.
That’s for the curbed (and eventually bollarded) section. The uncurbed section at the south end feels like a death trap – cars kept cutting into it and I always see a delivery vehicle parked in it. Hopefully it’s temporary and will also be curb and bollard protected.
While I don’t like that this was done without getting advised and approved by the Bicycle Coalition, I do like that this means that we won’t have to deal with double parked cars. Cars in SF (including passenger cars, UBER, delivery) think that the bike lane is theirs to use so that they don’t have to look for parking. As a biker, I spent have my time mixed in with cars anyway due
I have ridden in the new bike lane… because it is HELLA confusing… and because it doesn’t feel safe to ride in the central lane… and the most dangerous part feels when the bike lane switches from the middle of the street to the side of the street.
Anything they do, from the point of making the decision, to starting the construction, to trying fix the problems (the whole thing is THE problem), will fail. The decision to attempt the project is with out a doubt the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen or heard of. Way to go San Francisco. I never say this lightly, but in this case I really mean it. Shame on you! But it seems to be creating a way to lesson bike traffic on Valencia. Like I said, stupid.
I’m torn.
On on hand the center lane does actually feel better than the double parking hell that existed previously.
But on the other, the transition between center lane and curbside bike lanes feels VERY dangerous. I really hate it. And the rollout has been pretty confusing.
The aforementioned double parking hell shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place though! The lack of enforcement of traffic rules in this city is incredible. I can spend 5 minutes observing an intersection and see 5 moving violations. Ignoring turn restrictions, running stop signs, speeding, driving in the bus or bike lane… when will there be any consequences for drivers actions? I have literally never seen a single instance of traffic enforcement in this city.
Oh and to the cyclist whatabboutisms: a bike is like 200lbs with rider. A car is 2+ tons. To say nothing of the speed. The consequences for violations are not the same. Take some ownership of the lives you are endangering when you drive instead of deflecting to cyclists running an empty 4 way stop.
It’s not surprising there is some confusion while the project is going in. I’ve ridden the half finished bikeway and thought it was a major improvement over the double parking lane that used to be there and have heard others say the same. Let’s reserve judgment for when the project is completed. As for the Danes who were quoted for this article, have they worked at all with the merchants on Valencia, with the emergency services in San Francisco, etc? I have heard Andersen deride basically every bikeway design around the world that isn’t one way on each side the street and to call this the “worst infrastructure I have ever seen in the world” is typical bombast. And how does one access a business on the other side of the street in a more typical bike lane design? The street has to be crossed. Normally a curbside bikeway is what would go in here in SF but Valencia has become its own animal with the extra intense curbside use by parklets, shared spaces, deliveries, driveways, and Ubers-Lyfts-taxis. It’s an unusual design for an unusual situation which is why it is a pilot.
i agree. everyone’s rushing to judge before any lived experience informs opinions. i’m a biker in the mission and i was reluctant but it does feel better to ride in this center lane vs having to keep getting into the car lane to pass people double parked.
How does one cross the street on Valencia on a bicycle? Simple, when the traffic lane adjacent to the bike lane clears, you go to the turn median, wait for oncoming traffic to clear and then go between cars to the opposite curb. This is not rocket science.
Under the new design, in order to make this maneuver you’d need to block the bike lane to try to make a turn across a the oncoming bike lane and oncoming traffic. This design apparently does not allow for bicycle left turns at intersections either.
This was designed to shunt people through our neighborhood, through a commercial district, on commutes into downtown that probably won’t exist in numbers.
Such an idiotic system on all sides. As a driver who has lived in the Mission for 20 years and has 2 kids, I have to turn right 3 times (through 3 intersections full of pedestrians and bikers) to get down across to Mission street instead of 1 intersection. So stupid.
I would love for ML to get a comment from SF Bike Coalition on this. They sold this to members as a fast experiment (reasonable) but at this point it does not appear to be fast, and if it is an experiment, it is unclear what it will take for the experiment to succeed or fail. What are the criteria? Who owns that decision process? What’s the timeline?
This is the beginning of chasing bikes away from Valencia. The Powers-that-Be can’t come right out and say it. Instead they create policies that don’t work, and make failure look like the problem lies elsewhere.
I use this route daily to commute, and prefer this new set-up over the previous bike lane configuration. I wish the story included how the international experts might have approached the street differently. I hope the city builds bike lights at the crossing intersections, considers increasing the light timing to 16mph and enforces against double parking, but let’s let the lanes open before deciding to tear them down.
Bicyclist complaining about people not obeying the law is the ultimate form of hypocrisy.
Respect is not given unilaterally, it must be earned.
Example.. Critical Mass.
Yes, we need police enforcement, of the bicyclists too. I can hear the whining already.
Remember, never trust a bicyclist without a kickstand on his bike.
Example… Lance Armstrong,(their hero).
Trotting out the old false equivalency again? Oh, and throwing in some “what about them” isms for good measure:
1. A motor vehicle breaking the vehicle code is not the same as a pedestrian/cyclist breaking the law: The laws were made for motor vehicles because they kill and maim people; and then applied to the people they kill as a political game, just so that the publicly owned and paid for roads could be used not just by private motor vehicles.
2. Maybe look into critical mass and the reasons it happened.
Alexander, stop being a crank bike hater regurgitating the typical bike stereotypes, barbs and gripes we’ve all heard forever. It may not be for you but biking is an efficient, fun, and economical way for many of us to get around the city. Maybe give biking a try?
Also, go JJ!
This is so true! I tried to bike down Valencia this morning and could not figure out where to bike. I had all of these experiences–confusion over which lane to use, cars equally confused and some parking in the “closed” bike lane, and then risking my life to steer toward a shop on 25th. It’s going to be such a disaster.
Because it’s still under construction! Hold your final critique until after it’s completed and ready for use.
nah – I bike on Valencia almost every day. The new center lane is much much better than the side bike lanes. Feels far safer to me – it’s like a bike oasis in the middle there. Also, 2 bike accidents over the course of 8 weeks seems quite low – how many bike accidents happened per month with the previous configuration?
I honestly wish the would run the center lane through all the way to the ferry building.
Agreed! I’ve felt pretty good about the side bike lanes around 18th-20th, but the real test will be when they’re fully built out between 15th and 17th St. Those are the blocks that actually have tons of double parking.
It’s official: SFMTA hates Valencia St. No idea why, but they couldn’t be more clear about it. They don’t want businesses to get customers either by car or bike, and they don’t want either cars or bikes to be able to travel safely down Valencia. This is the most insane design I’ve ever seen.
thanks for writing about this issue happening on valencia street. Trying to transition from riding in the center lane to lanes on the edges while entering an intersection where you’re mainly trying to make sure no one is going to run a red light and run you over but now you also have to pay attention to cars crossing paths is too many things to try to keep track of. It feels like we’re going to have many more accidents where a bicyclist and a car will meet and it’s the cyclist who will get feel the pain of that encounter. There seems to now be some different timing on the lights to allow cars to pass by the cyclists so they’re not all taking off at the same time after having everyone following a pace that is made for bicycles. This ends up defeating the purpose of having timed lights that allow bicycles to continue along the path.
Too bad with all the tech companies around, there are none that could virtually run simulations of what would happen with cars, pedestrians, delivery trucks, ride shares, bicycles, and skateboarders all sharing the same roads and instead we have to try it out to see how many people get injured before we do something that has been shown to work better in other places.
Please print a brief history of the Valencia Street bike lane. How long was it in place – from partial initiation to complete old style with one consistent bike path from start (?) to finish.
What bike traffic problems is the new path intended (?) to solve. Why did MTA allow this poor substitution to be approve and implemented?
What would it take to put the old functional bike path back in place?
SF is notorious in not enforcing traffic laws. Oh, you’ll see the once in a blue moon sweep in areas, but not often enough to change behaviors. Look no further than the Fulton Expressway from Park Presidio to the beach. A reduced speed limit sign does nothing if it’s not routinely enforced.
Hmm. A terrible idea is working out terribly. Who could have guessed? Why does our fair city keep stepping on rakes that we place in our own way?
I agree that the new configuration is not an overall improvement. It introduces more risk compared to the prior configuration. It is awkward and dangerous to merge onto and off of the center lane, and hope that no one turns left illegally along the way. It is also impossible to pass another slower bicyclist. Finally I wasn’t aware that cyclists are not supposed to use the center bikeway yet. I assumed that the signs were missing a comma and are intended to communicate “Bike Lane, Closed” but it sounds like they really mean “Bike Lane Closed”. I value my life and don’t want to be a guinea pig for this experiment.
Aside from even at intersections, the number of people I’ve seen making u-turns mid block is massive. Reminder to people: it is illegal in CA to make a u-turn in a business district unless at an intersection where a left turn is also allowed (and no other sign prohibiting it).
Given the number of incidents over the years of people making left turns in front of the T train, it’s even more egregious this was done. We know what’s going to happen.
Drivers don’t look to ensure someone isn’t about to pass them on the left when they’re turning left, as this is an insanely rare circumstance. Yeah, it was made illegal to turn left, but no sane person believes that it won’t happen routinely, and that those who will do it are the most irresponsible and dangerous drivers to begin with.
Like I’m going to allow myself to get trapped in that death chute along with heavy e-bikes and cargo bikes going at very high or very low speed.
It is faster and safer to just ride with traffic and away from the unpredictable cyclists.
Wow Marc, cyclists are more dangerous than drivers. Private companies seizing land for parking have more rights than the public. That’s some Orwellian times you’re living in.
“[As an experienced, middle aged, male cyclist,] It is faster and safer [for me] to just ride with traffic…”
There, fixed that for you.
Who could have seen this coming?? oh yeah…EVERYBODY. JUST ABOUT EVERY SINGLE BICYCLE RIDER AND BIKE ADVOCATE AROUND. There will be at least 1 death on this road as a result of this asinine design before the end of Summer. San Francisco, you never cease to amaze me with how incredibly inept you are. Especially you, SFMTA. You inept and self rightous dickheads.
A bicyclist calling someone a dickhead?
Wow, just remember, 95% of bicyclists’ make the other 5% look bad.