After years of public debate and design shifts, the newest iteration of the Valencia Street bikeway — now a protected, side-running bike lane — is officially open.
Its predecessor, a center-running bike lane, installed as a pilot project in 2023, drew criticism from cyclists over safety and from merchants over parking and access. It was removed after a unanimous SFMTA board vote in November 2024, paving the way for the current curbside design.
The new design will run from Market Street to 23rd Street, featuring curbside lanes that will run alongside the sidewalk, separated from car traffic by a buffer of parklets, loading zones, and vehicle parking. A map of the full route can be found on the SFMTA project page. Construction started in February.
As part of “Bike to Wherever Day,” May 15, a group will gather outside San Francisco City Hall at 12:30 p.m. for a lunchtime rally. Later in the day at 4:45 p.m., cyclists will bike four miles from the Ferry Building through the Valencia corridor and end at an “energizer station” with treats near Bernal Heights.
But even as cyclists begin to pedal down the new lanes, bike advocates and city officials diverge on what should happen next.
Claire Amable of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition supports the new design, calling it safer and more familiar for riders. “It’s a traditional design that exists all over our city,” she said.
But she also emphasized the need to make it easier for bike commuters coming from neighborhoods further south to reach Valencia safely. “We’re excited, but we also want to see the full corridor completed. The stretch from 23rd to Cesar Chavez is still unprotected, and for riders coming from the southern neighborhoods, that’s the weakest link.”
Amable and other street safety advocates also worry about a new development: The reintroduction of left turns where Valencia crosses 17th, 21st, and 23rd streets. The SFMTA Board of Directors approved the return of left turns in April, after months of lobbying by merchants who argued that turn restrictions hurt circulation and delivery access.
Vision Zero, San Francisco’s initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities, has found that approximately 40 percent of pedestrian injury crashes at intersections involve drivers making left turns.
Cyclists and street safety advocates opposed reintroducing the left turns, pointing to frequent illegal turns and near misses during the center-running pilot, as reported by Mission Local.
Michael Roccaforte, an SFMTA spokesperson, said that the left turns will have their own traffic signals, which should prevent crashes.
“We’re prioritizing safety by separating the signal phase so that cars and cyclists don’t cross paths,” he said. SFMTA will also evaluate track crashes, compliance, congestion, and near misses, he added.
The current Valencia bike lanes, Roccaforte said, are the result of “block-by-block” outreach that SFMTA conducted throughout 2024. That outreach included open houses, working groups, and door-to-door engagement with local businesses and residents.
It’s now the right turns that are deadly. Drivers have to look across and THROUGH a line of parked cars to somehow see a cyclist coming down the bike lane. Super dangerous.
That’s absolutely right, I’ve seen a lot of close calls so far.
Despite the complaints I heard about the center lane, rulebreakers making left turns across it were rare. Whereas a significant fraction of cars entering every intersection now are trying to make a right turn.
Those cars have to be aware of the bicyclists going at speed, the streams of pedestrians crossing, and the parked cars blocking sightlines. A lot of cars manage to get through without hitting anyone but it’s not a guarantee.
If you think this is such an unsafe configuration, why don’t you take photos and submit to 311? Or better yet, look up the email of the SFMTA official interviewed for the article. Also, it’s not ‘cars’ that have to be aware of potential conflicts when turning. It’s DRIVERS. And yes, this is normally a condition of having a license—having sufficient vision to see and awareness of people on foot and wheels crossing your path at an intersection.
It’s really a moot point for you to bring up the center lane. There’s a reason why center lanes are scrapped shortly after they’re installed, unless it’s part of a radical redesign of a very wide road that has many modes of transit. This center lane was a foolish waste of money and it is probably responsible for at least one death and several serious injuries by confusing drivers. Not to mention expensive, because those stupid plastic bollards had to be replaced constantly. There’s a reason why, generally speaking, only trains and buses belong in the center lane.
Either you don’t personally operate a car in this area or you should not have a license at all. This configuration works just fine in many parts of the world because by design these intersections are ‘daylit,’ e.g., parking spaces stop well before that, so everyone has clear sightlines. In addition, it’s far safer for a cyclist if the driver getting ready to turn is orienting themselves perpendicular to the path of travel. That way the driver has a much broader field of vision and doesn’t merge into the cyclist’s lane before turning, which is the way it’s done in ‘traditional’ (bad) curbside bike lanes. Especially because so many drivers are total morons and don’t even know you’re supposed to check your mirrors, merge into the bike lane at the broken lane line, and then turn.
Maybe it’s all time that we admit that a huge number of drivers really should be tested every few years, because they clearly lack the skills to be operating several-ton machines.
These bike lanes are not physically separated as the city promised. I almost got hit by some dummy making a U-turn on Valencia, and people routinely park or stop on sections of the bike lane that poke out towards the street. Not to mention that cars are always parked on the motorcycle spots and on the white paint sections presumably meant to give better visibility to cyclists and cars turning or coming out of driveways. People also routinely walk into the bike lane without looking (either from their parked car or sidewalk), which will surely lead to a bunch of accidents. But as long as a few whiny business owners get what they want we’re all good 👍🏻
*Some* of the new lanes are physically separated with plastic poles while others are not. What’s up with that?
They’d better add barriers to the rest, because drivers, very predictably, are already trying to pull into the bike lane to park (despite having their own parking lane too). Had to yell at one that tried to turn into the bike lane and almost plowed straight into me and another cyclist just earlier today.
I am almost hit by bicyclists on the SIDEWALK ….constantly.
I rode this “new” version recently. Ended up in the Car Lane for a few blocks due to cars parked in the Bike Lane.
We need to stop looking at bike lanes as a way to get bikes out of the way (often in the literal gutter). If cars need to be on Valencia, give them half the street and cyclists half the street, and lay down concrete to separate the two.
Cyclists and other rollers and pedestrians aren’t asking to remove cars from every street. We’re just asking for a small percentage of the roadways to be dedicated for safe, fun, cheap, climate-friendly, efficient travel.
“Rules” about turning in this town are pointless. Has a “no left” EVER been enforced by police? I’ve never seen it, and I’m on the street every day, and see violations every day.
My favorite example of “there are no rules” is the forced right off of Mission, headed north, on to 20th. Has any driver ever obeyed this rule? I’ve seen ten drivers *in a row* ignore it. Probably could have been hundreds if I were willing to stand around.
Until there’s some enforcement, it’s pointless to quibble about what the rules should be. It’s an absolute free-for-all out there.
SFMTA these days can’t help themselves not to make everything they touch look like an overdone, off-putting transportation facility. Worst of all, the sea of plastic bollards. In a few months, this will look tired and ratted out.
Can I roller skate in the bike lane?
The 440 Valencia apartment’s 100s of residents have no assigned loading/drop-off street space. The building’s only garage entrance is now blocked off by the curbside bike lane. People who live on Valencia can’t get a break.
So you are telling us the garage is no longer accessible due to a bike lane? That sounds plausible.
Campers,
You want Zero fatalities ?
Ain’t gonna happen til Human drivers are outlawed>
Till then we should become the slowest community in the World by putting Safeway height speed bumps at every intersection in town with stop lights
GO Niners !!
h.
The new bike lane is definitely a slower ride than the center running lane. As pointed out by several others, it’s often too narrow for bikes to pass each other safely, and riding in the gutter kind of sucks. But slower isn’t all bad. The new bike lane will work well enough for regular push bikes, going 10-13mph. At these speeds it shouldn’t be too hard to dodge the drunkards and other pedestrians frequently encroaching the bike lane. Anyone on an ebike, scooter, or other electrified ride will be better off riding in the traffic lanes with the cars at about 15-20mph. I give the overall safety grade of the new design about a C- due to poor visibility with drivers making right turns. The original bike design of Valencia (still seen from 23rd to C. Chavez) *plus* parking enforcement would have been overall better. This is SF MTA’s and SFPD’s lame-ass answer to absolutely zero traffic enforcement effort. Incurring expensive moving-violation tickets is a powerful deterrent to gross assholery behind the wheel.
We could solve this entire problem by just making Valencia a one way road and then Guerrero or Mission one way other direction. Then you could have a 2 way bike lane on one side of Valencia and everyone is happy.
This is a win for all sides
As a newcomer to the city in January of 2024, I commuted on Valencia’s center-running bike lane nearly every day. It was GLORIOUS: great visibility, lanes wide enough to pass other cyclists, the timed Green Wave of traffic lights (almost) synchronized for the entire length.
I am genuinely puzzled by the narrative framing that cyclists had issues with the design, and that somehow these side-running lanes are an improvement.
Even in Gustavo’s article, he hyperlinks to an earlier piece (link titled: “drew criticism from some cyclists”) as evidence of cyclists having concerns…but that earlier article is actually full of business owner criticism, alongside unabashed POSITIVE reviews from cyclists. ??
No other cyclists who I’ve chatted up on my commute along Valencia are happy to see the center lane go; nor has anyone been psyched about the downgrade to the side-running lanes. It’s frankly more dangerous and less comfortable; one is riding defensively the whole time. I can’t believe any regular commuter would find this an improvement.
It seems that SFMTA privileged the complaints of business owners claiming lost revenue (which seems to be a questionable assertion–lowered revenue perhaps coming with the tech downturn and slow pandemic rebound), and decided to make Valencia car-centric rather than bicycle centered.
In my experience as a cyclist, these side-running lanes are a severe regression: cracked concrete and constant turning makes it hard to pass other cyclists safely, right- and left-hand turn dangers from vehicles that don’t have any line of sight. One cannot ride the Green Wave anymore, and already I’ve had near-miss encounters with car doors, pedestrians, pets, trash, driveways, gig-drivers and delivery trucks parking in the bike lane… on and on. Experiencing how bad the new lanes are only highlights how safe, elegant and functional the center lane was.
I hope to learn that Valencia businesses see a commensurate boom in their profits with the return to supremacy of vehicle traffic (I want them all to THRIVE as I think it’s one of the great avenues in the city), but I doubt that it will be so causally clear.
Thank you Mission Local for covering this… I hope you’ll do follow-ups to determine if the center bike lane was really responsible for the stated economic slump on Valencia. I’d also love to get a poll of commuter cyclist experiences with the new situation. I don’t think those reports will be good.
Yes! well said.
i’ve lived on Valencia for 30+ years and cycled everyday for 25+.
since the new curbside lane installation it’s hostility everyday, from motorists AND pedestrians. The center-running bike lane was a nice reprieve from that nastiness, for a little while…
You stated my exact issues relegating cyclists back to the gutters much better than I could have. The other option (and successful in other world class bike cities) would have been to put a double-wide two-way bike lane on one side of the street while the two lanes for vehicles were on the other side. But the new solution is going to be hate-hate from both sides.
I cycle all over the City and I can tell you that the center lane was a stupid, dangerous experiment. You seem to have the problem that you aren’t understanding which streets are better as commute routes as opposed to a destination. Valencia might be a relatively flat route connecting the Bernal area to Upper Market, but using slow streets like Sanchez and Shotwell are way better for getting places. It’s hard to avoid Valencia for some routes but it just plain didn’t work for the City to slap down a cycletrack down the middle of it. Now if the City could just finish the job and put concrete curbs in instead of silly straws, that would help enforce the delineation of space.
Tell me you never set foot in business on Valencia Street without telling me you never set foot in a business on Valencia Street.
Cycling down Valencia, I’ve stopped into businesses countless times. I’ve never been able to do that when driving Valencia.
Total Million$ spent on this debacle thus far? 100? 200? Total revenue lost from merchants in gross? There was a better way to get to this point. Who will bet they learned their lesson and won’t repeat the folly all over again at the next stretch? Anyone?