2009 The Year of the Bicycle - San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition staff and members were hard at work
on campaigns to nearly double the miles of bike lanes, win more smooth
pavement on bike routes and launch the historic Market Street trials.
A momentous City Hall decision paved the way for street improvements like bike lanes, bike parking racks and a green bike box on Fell Street.
In 2009, momentous achievements propelled our work to create more
livable San Francisco streets and thanks to our efforts, San Francisco
has seen a 53% increase in the number of people biking since 2006.
45 Bike Lanes Get the
Green Light
In June, the City of San Francisco adopted
its most ambitious Bike Plan and gave the
green light to 45 bike lanes—a near
doubling of the miles of bike lanes—on key
streets like Fifth, Seventeenth, Townsend,
Kirkham, Alemany, San Jose, and Portola.
This unprecedented victory was only
possible through effective SF Bicycle
Coalition advocacy and countless hours of
grassroots organizing by our committed
members, volunteers and staff. At the
critical hearing in front of the Municipal
Transportation Agency in June 2009
hundreds of Bicycle Coalition members,
including mothers with children in tow,
business owners, and department heads,
stood up at City Hall to offer decision
makers over three hours of compelling
testimony for why streets should be safer
for everyone. SF Bicycle Coalition staff
presented thousands of letters from
businesses and individuals that reinforced
the already broad and diverse support
for biking improvements in every
neighborhood in San Francisco.
This momentous City Hall decision and
the City’s completion of an Environmental
Impact Report on the Bike Plan paved the
way for a partial lifting of the Bike Plan
injunction which has prevented the City
from making any physical improvements
to streets, such as adding bicycle lanes,
bicycle parking or signage since 2006. The
partial lifting in November allowed the
City to go forward with some improvements
and innovations for better bicycling such as:
» Installing hundreds of sidewalk bike
parking racks
» Adding 75 miles of “sharrows” (shared
lane arrows)
» Painting San Francisco’s first green
bike box, a designated space for
people on bikes to visibly position
themselves in front of cars at the red
light, on Scott Street
» Striping ten new bike lanes
Thirty-five approved projects remain on
hold due to the Bike Plan injunction. A
final court date in June 2010 should be the
last procedural hurdle towards allowing
the City to once again make streets safer
for everyone. At this hearing, the City
Attorney will submit final arguments to
end the Bike Plan lawsuit and lift the
four-year-old injunction. We are hopeful
the Bike Plan injunction will be fully lifted
by Summer 2010 and are eager for the City
to catch up with the widespread demand
for improvements.
“ Marshalling the SFBC’s
formidable talent for
organizing and educating
policymakers and the media
has been crucial, especially
in the past couple of months,
to help ensure that everyone
was on the same page and
understood the importance
of an expeditious and
unanimous approval of
the Environmental Impact
Report and the Bike Plan.”
NATHANIEL FORD
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SF MUNICIPAL
TRANSPORTATION AGENCY