People-protected bike lane protests on Valencia Street get city’s attention
Supervisors react to demand for protected bike lanes
A series of protests by bike activists who put their bodies on the line to protect cyclists from the dangerous mess of Uber, Lyft and other drivers who frequently violate the bike lanes on Valencia Street is getting the city’s attention.
The two San Francisco supervisors who represent Valencia Street told Human Streets they want the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to study putting in protected bike lanes — to replace the standard door-zone lanes — along the entire stretch.
“I do think we need to do a better job of protecting bicyclists,” said District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy. “I think it would be very interesting to explore the idea of parking-protected bike lanes for that stretch.”
San Francisco recently installed parking-protected bike lanes on 7th and 8th streets. Protected bike lanes are physically separated from auto traffic, using car parking, or other barriers to shield cyclists.
“I’m supportive of protected bike lanes on Valencia Street,” said District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen
If protected bike lanes on Valencia are not a priority for the SFMTA, Ronen said, “then I want to advocate for the resources that it should be a priority because it’s a major bike corridor.”
Valencia Street is the boundary for both districts 8 and 9.
On May 25, more than 50 activists wearing yellow t-shirts that say “protected bike lanes save lives” stood in both bike lanes on Valencia Street between 16th and 17th, preventing drivers from violating them, eliciting mostly smiles and high-fives from cyclists.
“San Francisco doesn’t seem to do anything unless enough people make it clear to our government that it’s important,” said organizer Maureen Persico, ringing a cow bell to welcome cyclists into the people-protected bike lane.
Paul Valdez, a Mission resident, bike advocate and one of the organizers of the Ride of Silence, said it’s frustrating to ride on Valencia so he avoids it. He also donned a yellow shirt and witnessed mostly elation from passing cyclists.
“It’s a visual for others to see both people on bikes and people driving that we should coexist and we should be safe and that protected bike lanes will save lives,” said Valdez. “Life is precious.”
Sharon Wong also avoids Valencia when she bikes but was in the line of people protecting the bike lane.
“I want to see more bike infrastructure that’s friendly for everyone, not just the fearless, the most fit people. Everybody needs a safe, healthy way to get around town,” said Wong.
It was the second such protest on Valencia, and the third by bike activists urging the city to install protected bike lanes. A similar demonstration was held on Turk Street.
For the past several years, putting in protected bike lanes on all of Valencia Street has not been a priority for the SFMTA. But there is an opportunity to include funds for protected bike lanes in this year’s capital budget.
As part of the agency’s Capital Improvement Program, SFMTA officials are examining where they can budget for near-term projects.
The Valencia Street bike lanes were first striped in 1999. It is one of the most popular bike corridors in San Francisco. The sidewalks were widened and the streets repaved from 15th to 19th streets as part of the Valencia Streetscape Project in 2010. And the signal timing was changed for cyclists, part of a “green wave.”
But in recent years as the number of bike riders has increased, so has the glut of ride service vehicles violating the bike lanes, making it dicey for people on bikes, who are forced to weave around drivers.
“It kind of begs the question of what’s the point of putting in bike lanes if people double park in them. That just forces them back out into traffic,” said Sheehy. “At some point there has to be some accountability for the ride share companies, especially when they’re violating the law.”
Between 2005 and 2015, two people were killed walking and there were a total of nearly 500 injury collisions on Valencia Street, a high-injury corridor. According to the city’s Transbase database, people on bikes suffered the most collisions and injuries, with 231 crashes reported. Fourteen were severe, 102 were less so and 115 involved complaints of pain.
There were 140 motor vehicle collisions, and 70 collisions involving people walking. People biking and on foot suffered the most severe injuries.
The 2016 collision numbers are not yet available, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Officials are waiting on the San Francisco Police Department to finalize their figures for that year.
The numbers, of course, don’t count the many collisions that go unreported.
There is a northbound raised parking-protected bike lane on the southernmost block of Valencia Street, between Cesar Chavez and Duncan streets, which was completed in March. Another is being planned for the northernmost block between Market and McCoppin, as part of “The Hub” project, but it lacks funding.
SFMTA officials told Human Streets they are exploring the idea of delivery zones along Valencia for ride service drivers.
Ronen said that if the SFMTA is to realize its vision of making Mission Street the bus corridor with red transit lanes, South Van Ness avenue the major route for cars and Valencia the bike corridor, then the proper infrastructure needs to be installed.
While neither supervisor has made an official request for a protected bike lane study to the SFMTA, both said they plan to meet with advocates and others to discuss it. Sheehy said he’s gotten a number of constituent complaints about drivers violating the Valencia Street bike lanes.
Tom Radulovich, the former BART director who heads up Livable City, has been advocating for protected bike lanes on Valencia Street for many years. The idea, he says, was rejected by the SFMTA as part of the 2010 repave and improvement project.
“The growing number of cyclists on Valencia, and the escalating conflict created by vehicles using the bike lanes and crosswalks as loading zones, makes protected bike lanes more important than ever,” said Radulovich.
The stretch from 15th to 19th is trickier for protected bike lanes but not impossible, he said, because of the wider sidewalks and bulbouts.
Radulovich suggests fewer traffic signals on Valencia, and wider sidewalks, roundabouts, four-way stops or other treatments to “allow a continuous flow of pedestrians and bicyclists at most of the intersecting streets.”
Sheehy said that for now the “most obvious solution” is a period of traffic enforcement. But increased enforcement by the San Francisco Police Department is something many biking and walking activists have backed away from advocating because of the department’s troubling history of unfairly targeting people of color.
While Sheehy said protected bike lanes “might be complex” because of all the restaurants and businesses, a parking-protected bike lane “doesn’t create the havoc of taking out all the parking spots.”
Persico said she plans to continue organizing people-protected bike lane protests on Valencia Street.
“The only way things get changed in San Francisco is to be loud, and to be annoying, right? So, I’ll keep showing up,” said Persico.
Correction: A portion of this story has been changed to more accurately reflect the number of collisions on Valencia Street from 2005–2015.
