With construction on the controversial new center bike lane on Valencia Street “substantially complete,” the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on Tuesday announced the official kickoff of its one-year evaluation period of the pilot program.
The agency’s rollout of the program has sparked anger among community members who rejected the plan at the outset — and this week’s rushed opening has deepened that frustration.
Despite initially giving tepid support to the plan to move bike lanes into the center of Valencia Street, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has grown frustrated with the MTA’s handling of the construction and rollout over the last 14 weeks. Last week, the organization spoke out on Twitter, blasting the agency for sowing “distrust” with the cycling community, and called the rollout “haphazard” and “a mess.”
The MTA’s Aug. 1 announcement of the pilot’s start — even though construction is incomplete — drew even more outrage. “Obvious shortcomings” like missing or far-apart bollards and low-visibility curbs, the coalition wrote on Twitter this week, should have been addressed before the lanes were opened.
The Bicycle Coalition has called on its followers to send complaints to the MTA.
During the weeks of construction that commenced in April, cyclists have crashed and been injured on the incomplete two-way bicycle lane in the middle of the street, and a purported shortage of plastic bollards has left parts of the lane even more vulnerable to cars entering it.
Experts have criticized the center bikeway as unsafe and ill-advised according to best practices. In fact, when this reporter rode down Valencia Street on Wednesday, a driver making an illegal left turn across the bike lane forced her to slam on her brakes mid-street to avoid a crash.
The project’s changes include the removal of dozens of parking spots and the creation of new vehicle loading zones. The bike lanes from either side of the street’s traffic lanes have been shifted into the center of the roadway between 15th and 23rd streets, with rubber bumpers and collapsible bollards keeping cyclists in the new lane.
MTA spokesperson Stephen Chun said in April that the bollards would be spaced 16 feet apart between 16th and 19th streets, and 12 feet apart between 19th and 23rd streets. He said skinny collapsible posts would be used as a stopgap measure until the bollard supply is replenished.
But the bollards are not all installed, and the bike lane, on most blocks, remains unprotected from cars driving into it. Multiple cars can fit between the sporadically placed bollards and, on Aug. 2, several were damaged and at least one was crushed. No collapsible skinny posts were observed by Mission Local.
The black rubber bumpers on the ground are difficult to see — and highly dangerous, if struck by a bicycle.
The MTA, in its Tuesday announcement, said that more bollards and rubber curbing will be installed to protect the bikeway in coming weeks. It is unclear why the pilot launch was announced prior to the project’s completion. Chun, in an email, said that the agency is still waiting on shipments of additional bollards.
The department appears, however, to be taking the community’s displeasure into account.
“When we talked to the community about this center-running protected bikeway, we heard loud and clear the desire to do more beyond this pilot,” read the announcement. To address the public’s concerns, the agency said it is also kicking off two studies “to help inform a future design” for Valencia Street: One study of traffic and circulation, and another study about how to make the street more enjoyable as an outdoor space.
“As the pilot progresses, we will consider design adjustments to improve safety and effectiveness,” read a statement from the department’s announcement this week.
Data collection on the pilot program, according to MTA’s statement, will not begin until the fall, which could discount the collisions and injuries that have occurred in the bike lane thus far.
As always, SFMTA’s “Vision Zero” project should be renamed “Zero Vision.”
Get rid of the cars. Problem solved. Look at Hayes St. Closed to cars and business is booming. People avoid Valencia because it’s a shit show of door dash drivers and Ubers. This bike lane is a disaster because it’s designed around cars and parking, not bikes.
SFTMA should just make Valencia a transit/bike thoroughfare only. Move the busses over from Mission St. Alternatively, make Mission St. transit/bike only.
Cars and bikes are a bad mix.
If you’re trying to get to a business midblock from the bike lane, what do you do? You have fast moving cars on your right, bicyclists behind you and coming at you, a curb you have to navigate… This doesn’t seem suited at all to stopping off somewhere, only useful if you’re passing through.
Just came from 24th BART to Mixt Greens and took a left on 16th in the traffic lane. One car tried to run me down for daring to take the lane. It was that, or wait for many light cycles to get into the lane, out of it and to the merchant, back into the lane and back out of it to turn onto 16th. This was made for commuters who ride e-bikes through our neighborhood, not for residents doing our dailies by bicycle.
As a regular cyclist on Valencia, it seems like the rollout is working pretty well. Now that the center signs are removed, there is plenty of space in the lane which should reduce the crash potential. I also haven’t seen any cars in the bike lane personally. I definitely feel safer with the new infrastructure which puts bikes away from parked cars – getting “doored” injured 200 cyclists over the last five years (https://missionlocal.org/2022/09/dooring-accident-sf/)
That being said, I’ve noticed that cyclists are not respecting the bike red light on 23rd st, which is causing cars to backup. It’s not super clear that bikes and cars use separate traffic signals. I think some clearer signage would help a lot in reducing the confusion.
In my opinion, cars shouldn’t really be using Valencia anyways for through traffic. South Van Ness and Guerrero are much more streamlined for cars.
I was just riding southbound in the bike lane between 22nd and 23rd when a driver was sick of waiting for the green, and they flipped a U-turn in front of me and across the bike lanes. He probably saved a minute, but I could have easily died as he wasn’t looking. The design is insane.
Dude…..that lane is garbage.
I’m usually biking Valencia and the other day had to navigate it in a car….It’s a bit rough for the cars where it switches the bikes from center to side lanes (23rd and 15thstr)….the light for cars is 8 seconds long, which is not long enough at all to clear the cars waiting for the light…this is going to frustrate drivers and likely cause illegal maneuvers putting cyclists in danger>! !!
I’ll never understand how there can be so much discussion on how to design a bright green bike lane and I almost never hear or read discussions about the driving. Mission Local reported SF traffic police are down to 10 citations a day city wide from 350 a day in 2014? Aside from the diagonal cross, I do like how the middle lane makes cyclists more visible and less likely to get doored. I
remember sitting at a café watching a cop bust illegal left-turners every 15 minutes, every Friday after my shift, it was entertainment. That was 2010, those days are long gone.
How about expanding the idea of community to the people that actually live on Valencia Street?
The 400 block of Valencia is home to well over 1000 people. The majority are in two large apartment buildings managed by mission properties — these are families families with many kids and seniors. No where in the media or MTA statements do I seen their needs represented.
Valencia has been made a 1-way street for us, forcing a right turn for people getting kids to school or shopping or to the job (yes, these folks are mostly “essential workers”) that sends them to heavily congested 16th Street. No accommodation has been made for building pickups & drop offs, deliveries — we might as well be quarantined. It makes surviving in our neighborhood just that much harder.
Works fine for me. 35 years riding in the city and this is one of the better improvements for bikes. Way better than dodging delivery trucks, door dash and ride share. I don’t get the hand wringing.