America's Best Bike Lane May Finally Earn the Title

"Debate over the embattled pedestrian- and bike-safety project, which drew criticism from businesses and cyclists alike, had stretched over 2½ years," writes Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez for The Examiner. "In the end, neither side got everything it wanted."

Credit: SFMTA

At City Hall on Tuesday night, the SFMTA voted 6-0 to approve the hybrid plan for the 20 blocks north of McAllister Street [McAllister Street is on north perimeter of City Hall] to Union Street, split into two sections: McAllister to Pine Street, and Pine to Union Street [see Streetsblog image]. The lower two blocks won the coveted 2014 bike award from People for Bikes.

The approved plan will result in a raised, protected bike lane on northbound Polk Street from McAllister to Pine streets, a morning commute-only bike lane from Pine to Broadway, high visibility crosswalks, sidewalk bulbouts, bus stop consolidation and more, at a cost of $8 million. 

"From 2006-11 there were 122 collisions on the small stretch of Polk alone, equating to two collisions per month, advocates say," writes Rodriguez. "In public comment, Nicole Schneider of advocacy group Walk San Francisco recalled the car collision death of 6-year-old Sofia Liu on Polk Street on New Year's Eve 2013, a reminder that brought a hush to the room."

As San Francisco Chronicle's transportation reporter, Michael Cabanatuan, wrote before Tuesday's meeting, "(t)he plan that MTA planners devised could be described as a compromise that leaves no one happy. But Tom Maguire, the agency’s sustainable streets director, insists the goal has been safety in keeping with the city’s commitment to Vision Zero, an effort to eliminate traffic-related fatalities by 2020."

The packed meeting attracted seventy speakers from both sides—those wanting fully protected bike lanes on both sides of the 20 blocks to Union Street [also see Steetsblog's Aaron Bialick's piece on the "watered-down" plan, and neighborhood business people and residents, particularly from nearby Russian Hill, who were opposed to the loss of 140 parking spaces. [See Planetizen blogger Ian Sac's piece on this aspect of the controversy].

In the end, SFMTA planner Luis Montoya's compromise plan survived as presented after an unsuccessful amendment by SFMTA Vice Chairman Cheryl Brinkman to "continue to plan for a continuous protected bike lane on the east side of the narrow, busy street," writes Cabanatuan.

"Construction is scheduled to start in 2016 and last about 18 months," adds Cabanatuan.