Bike Lane

Eyes on the Street: San Francisco Joins the Sidewalk-Level Bike Lane Club

From SF.Streestblog.org

By Roger Rudick

San Francisco just put the finishing touches on its first sidewalk-level bike lane. It runs north-bound only on Third Street in Mission Rock between Toni Stone Xing and the Bay Trail where it meets the Lefty O’Doul Bridge.

“The sidewalk-level cycle track is the first of its kind in San Francisco and designed in a collaborative effort with San Francisco Public Works. It replaces what was initially proposed by the Mission Rock Development to be a painted bike lane between the passenger loading zone and the travel lanes on Third Street,” explained SFMTA’s Michael Roccaforte in an email to Streetsblog. “We chose the sidewalk-level design because of the limited width available and the need to accommodate pedestrians, including those with disabilities and wheelchair users, who had to use the bikeway between the loading zone and sidewalk.”

Photo by Dário Gomes on Unsplash

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How to build a bike lane in America

From TheVerge.com

By Wes Davis

Advocates are working across the country to make their communities safer and more accessible for cyclists, but not every effort is successful.

When most people in the US need to go somewhere, they reach for their car keys. There are plenty of reasons for this: driving is easy, it’s comfortable, and it requires very little preparation. But also, it’s hard to do anything else, and maybe the hardest of those hard things is cycling.

But plenty of people do it anyway. Whether by choice or because it’s their only option, millions of Americans bike to get where they’re going — around 50 million people biked at least once in 2022. And when people choose to ride, they’re facing the very real chance they might be run down by someone driving a car who either couldn’t see them or just didn’t bother to look — which happens far too often, leading to recent cyclist death counts not seen since the 1970s.

That’s because US cycling infrastructure has a long way to go before it can catch up with European cities like Copenhagen, Denmark, the bicycle paragon where the streets reflect that cycling is the norm for most people. At least in the US, bike lanes and trails are rare in the suburbs, and in cities, they can be unevenly dispersed or frustratingly disconnected, forcing cyclists to get creative to go anywhere safely. Plenty of factors get in the way here: political or cultural opposition to the very idea of bikes; resistance to changes perceived as taking space away from cars; and neighborhoods worried about the sanctity of treesas new traffic patterns are considered.

Photo by Dário Gomes on Unsplash

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New Santa Claus Lane Bikeway makes long awaited connection along the South Coast

From Keyt.com

By

CARPINTERIA, Calif. – A new bikeway is open along the south side of Highway 101 on the western end of Carpinteria to make a safe connection between the city and Santa Claus Lane in the county.

Cal Trans, the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG), city and county leaders were united in this plan, which has been a priority project for years, but it took collaboration on many levels.

The county’s long term planning goals first listed this project back in 1977. It’s in a tough spot with several jurisdictions, Union Pacific Railroad and the Carpinteria Salt Marsh in the area.

Marjie Kirn, Executive Director of SBCAG said,   “I gotta say I think this makes Santa Claus Lane so much more accessible. It makes riding your bike or walking to Santa Claus Lane easier than taking your car.”

This is one of the wider paths ever built as a “bikeway.” It has room for bikes, scooters, skateboards and pedestrians.

Photo by Clayton Cardinalli on Unsplash

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Eyes on the Street: Metro Installed New Bollard Protection on First Street Bike Lane

From LA.Streetsblog.org

A couple of blocks of new plastic bollards might not look like much, but it just might mean that Metro and LADOT are planning to make good on missing bike/walk connections to Metro’s new subway stations

By Joe Linton

It looks like Metro is beginning to make good on improving first/last mile bike facilities that were supposed to link Metro riders with new Regional Connector stations. In the last few weeks, Metro added new plastic bollard protection to the eastbound bike lane on First Street between Alameda Street and Vignes Street, just east of Metro’s new Little Tokyo Station.

Streetsblog and LADOT (L.A. City Department of Transportation) noted the installation of the unprotected bike lane after Metro installed it in late 2022. After the Regional Connector subway opened in May, Streetsblog reported that Metro omitted and downgraded several planned station bike/walk connections, while Metro Connector project construction widened roads and added new car lanesand new parking for drivers. Advocates urged Metro and the city to fix the missing first/last mile facilities, including several places where bikeway protection had been omitted.

Could the new bollard protection on First Street be an early step in Metro and LADOT making good on planned Regional Connector first/last mile safety improvements? Time will tell.

Photo by Jasper Garratt on Unsplash

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Bike corridors are on the way

From OrangeCountyTribune.com

Do you like to bike but are a little wary of sharing a lane with a car or truck?

There’s help on the way. The Garden Grove City Council on Tuesday will consider awarding a contract to Southstar Engineering & Consulting, Inc. for management of the construction of a major bicycle corridor program in the city.

CalTrans in 2018 awarded Garden Grove $1.1 million in grant funds to improve on-street bicycle infrastructure by 75 percent. The end result should be the establishment of five major corridors:

  • Brookhurst Street (from Trask Avenue to Katella Avenue)
  • Western Street (from Garden Grove Boulevard to Orangewood Avenue)
  • Chapman Avenue (from Valley View Street to Beach Boulevard)
  • Gilbert Street (from Deodora Drive to Katella Avenue)
  • Lampson Avenue (from Dale Street to Haster Street).

The project will include striping buffers on existing bike lanes, striping bike lane network gaps, improving and creating bicycle routes and providing wayfinding signs.

Southstar’s bid is for $135,805. Construction should be completed by August 2023, according to a city staff report.

Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash

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Want to Save Americans Money at the Pump? Invest in Bikes

From PeopleForBikes.org

By: Noa Banayan, PeopleForBikes’ director of federal affairs

The Biden administration and Congress could quickly lower transportation costs for Americans by investing in bike infrastructure and e-bike purchase subsidies, as well as fight inflation by relieving Section 301 tariffs on bicycle imports.

One of the few bipartisan agreements in Congress right now is that a gas tax holiday is a false, shortsighted solution to saving Americans money at the pump. Despite this one area of agreement since President Biden first called for a gas tax holiday in June, his administration is still asking Congress to deliver.

Congress can heed President Biden’s call to save Americans’ real money at the pump by focusing on bikes, not a temporary suspension of a tax on gas. By investing in solutions that make it safe and efficient for all Americans to choose transportation options other than driving, like biking, walking and public transit, we can ensure an affordable and sustainable mobility future.

We need long-term solutions to the energy and inflation crises that we can begin implementing today. If we want stability in our transportation system and energy portfolio, we need to look beyond Band-Aid solutions. We know bikes will never eclipse cars in use, but the United States can’t afford to wait a decade or more for a fully electrified road fleet.

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Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

 

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