The Bay Area Bike Sharing Program set to launch in August is slowly, but surely coming to life. The company that is managing the program, Alta, and the SFMTA recently released a series of infographics containing a wealth of information about the system including information about the bikes, the pricing and the structure of the stations. The release of information coincided with the New York City bike-sharing launch. New York’s 6,000 bike Citi Bike program, managed by the same company handling the Bay Area’s system, has been an early success. The Bay Area’s 350 bike program will be starting at a much smaller scale, but advocates hope that it will expand quickly. For now, advocates of the system and potential patrons can prepare for the August launch by commenting on the initial launch sites and providing input for future expansions and additional stations at the SF Bike Share Sites website, by getting all of the detailed information about the project in this online PDF Guide, and by attending the June 14th SFMTA Public Hearing on the Station Approvals to voice their opinions.

If you ever need a bicycle accident attorney in San Francisco, Paso Robles, or the surrounding Central California Coast area, contact us for a free consultation.

Source: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2013/05/31/meet-bay-area-bikeshare/

This weekend starting today, Friday June 7, at 7:00pm the Department of Public Works will re-pave a section of Market Street between Van Ness Avenue and Sixth Street. The DPW estimates that the work will last 24 hours.

This much-needed repaving, the first in about 30 years, is the first in a series of re-pavings on Market Street. The next section scheduled to get a much-needed makeover is between Steuart and Third streets. Then the section of Market between Third and Sixth. The repairs are tentatively scheduled for June 21-22 and mid-July respectively.

“This will be a major improvement to the city’s most important bicycling street,” said SF Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Leah Shahum in a statement. “For the growing number of people biking on Market Street — whether traveling to work or connecting to regional transit or visiting neighborhoods connected by our city’s main artery — this repaving could not come soon enough.”

Logistics:

The repaving will only be to the outer lanes of Market Street (those used by cyclists). According to Sfstreetsblog, ‘During construction, bikes, automobiles and trucks will be detoured off of Market. Muni and other public transit vehicles will still run in Market’s center lanes, and all boardings will take place on the center islands.’

If you ever need a bicycle accident attorney in San Francisco, Paso Robles, or the surrounding Central California Coast area, contact us for a free consultation.

Source:

http://sf.streetsblog.org/2013/06/05/dpw-to-re-pave-a-major-stretch-of-market-street-this-weekend/

Biking to work has numerous health benefits. Most people are aware of this fact, but few people can visualize what this really means. America Bikes, the nationwide cycling advocacy group, has compiled a series of graphics to really put biking into perspective. Here are a few of the most powerful (for the full article and all of the infographics go to AmericaBikes.org):

Thursday night the BART Board of Directors shied away from lifting the ban on bikes during rush-hour, voting 6-3 to instead implement a 5 month testing period starting July 1. The vote means that between July 1 and December 1 bikes will once again be allowed on all but the first 3 BART cars during rush hours. However, the move appeases the opposition more than supports the cyclists and leaves the Board with an easy way out.

The test period will include “careful monitoring and a review in October”. This review will determine whether or not the ban is lifted permanently. The six Board Members who voted to implement the test period instead of permanantly lifting the ban argued that the two 5-day test periods in 2012 and 2013 did not provide enough data to make an informed decision.

The legions of bicyclists who filled the boardroom and the overflow room disagreed. They spoke of the hardships posed by the ban and the benefits of lifting it. The two test periods, especially the most recent week-long test in May 2013, produced overwhelming positive results. A large marjority of BART riders supported the lift of the ban and a very small percentage reported problems with cyclists or disruptions in their daily commute as a result of the bikes.They argued that the blackouts during rush hours deter many cyclists from taking public transportation at all in the Bay Area since they often get stranded in San Francisco during the evening rush hour. A lift on the ban will likely increase the number of people commuting by public transportation as it will allow those who would prefer to ride their bikes, but can’t work around the blackout times, to again ride BART to and from the city.

The test period will be an important indicator of the negative impact of bikes on the trains during rush hours. The success of the program will largely depend on ridership numbers and whether the positive numbers observed during the week-long test periods (“about 25 percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to ride BART if they could take their bikes along, while 11 percent said they were less likely to ride if they had to share the trains with bikes, six percent of those surveyed brought their bikes on BART during the experimental period, and 3 percent said they avoided BART because of the test”) are proved accurate.

Cyclists in the Bay Area can help make the lift of the ban permanent by taking advantage of the test period. Take your bikes on BART, participate in the experiment, but be courteous to your fellow BART passengers. Its true that right now the burden of proof is falling on the shoulders of the cyclists. For the next five months cyclists will have to make the extra effort to ensure that the ban is lifted permantly. In the meantime, brush up on your BART etiquette. Refresh your memory by participating in a cycling etiquette class or simply reading the BART Bike Rules. It might be a bit tedious, but in the end it will benefit all cyclists in the Bay Area.

Bart Bike Rules: http://www.bart.gov/guide/bikes/bikeRules.aspx

If you ever need a bicycle accident attorney in San Francisco, Paso Robles, or the surrounding Central California Coast area, contact us for a free consultation.

Source:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-plans-another-test-for-bicycles-4544867.php

Many of the safety upgrades that were supposed to have been made to Oak and Fell streets by the end of last year have yet to materialize and the cycling supporters who fought so hard for the projects to be approved are calling the delays unacceptable.

To the residents who rely on the streets everyday, it seems that SFMTA has put the improvements, the most crucial being the installation of bike lanes that are separated from street traffic by physical barriers, on a back-burner. The bike lane on Oak Street is nonexistent and Fell Street’s bike lane has no barrier between it and the fast-moving street traffic, making it a dangerous thoroughfare for cyclists.

Ed Reiskin, Transportation Director for SFMTA, said that the labor-intensiveness of the projects along with some unforseen circumstances, like private construction along Oak Street, have caused the delays, not the agency’s lack of initiative in pursuing the projects.

In spite of these reassurances, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is requesting that both projects be completed by Bike to Work Day on May 9. And the SF Bike Coalition is not the only group frustrated by the delays and speaking out about it. In addition, to protests by individuals at the SFMTA Board of Directors meeting Tuesday, April 2, the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association sent a letter to the transit agency asking for the projects to be completed, saying that without the completed bike lanes, the streets are unacceptably dangerous for cyclists.

Source:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/transportation/2013/04/frustrations-mount-delays-fell-and-oak-bike-projects-push-back-completi#ixzz2Q0Ny4nML

After more than a year of delay, San Francisco is set to get its first bike-sharing program. The program, a $7 million collaboration between local transit agencies, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, will have 700 bikes at 70 different locations in San Francisco and the Peninsula from which commuters and tourists alike can pick up bikes. The bikes can then be returned to any of the stations.

Photo Source:

http://www.c4cycling.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/bike-sharing.jpg

Source:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/transportation/2013/03/deal-reached-bike-sharing-network-be-place-august#ixzz2OHsMPdpF

The SFMTA has announced its goal of increasing the percentage of trips taken by bike in San Francisco from 3.4% t0 8-10% in the next 5 years. To do this, the agency has proposed three different plans. The proposals all have the same general focuses; more bike lanes, bike lane improvements and intersection improvement. The difference is really in the extent of these projects and the amount of money needed to make the projects happen. The cheapest proposed plan is for $60 million, the next for $190 million and the most expensive proposed plan is for $500 million dollars. This mother-of-all bike plans which would “add 35 miles of new bike lanes and improve 200 miles, outfit 200 intersections to better handle bicycles, add 50,000 bike parking spaces, roll out a bike sharing system with 3,000 bikes and 300 stations”, and would put San Francisco on the same bike-friendly level as Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The problem that faces all three plans, however, is that only $30 million dollars in funding has been allocated to bike projects over the next five years, which means that anywhere from $30 – 470 million dollars will have to be found from other funding sources.

Sources:

Big bucks for bikes?

L.A. is known for Hollywood, for its sprawling suburbs and for those jam-packed freeways. It is not known for its cycling-friendly culture. That’s because until very recently L.A. was not a safe place for cyclists to ride. It can’t really be called safe now either, but the difference is that L.A. is changing. The story of L.A.’s journey to becoming one of the U.S.’s most bike-friendly cities is one for the record books.

According to the Los Angeles Times “On July 17, 2010, after a P90X workout, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his police bodyguard began riding mountain bikes west in the bike lane on Venice Boulevard. About 6:30 p.m., heading toward La Cienega Boulevard, they were cut off by a taxi cab. Villaraigosa flipped over the handlebars. His elbow shattered on the asphalt.” His accident, along with his trip to Copenhagen (what may be the most biyclce-friendly city in the entire world), and his trip to Mexico City where he saw a Ciclovia event, the Mayor became a cycling advocate.

And it’s amazing (and often-times discouraging) the affect one person can have. With the Mayor’s support, the cycling culture in L.A. has been completely transformed.Projects and ideas that cycling advocates have been supporting for years are finally gaining some traction. 1,680 miles of bikeway are to be implemented over the next 30 years. L.A. is now the home to the biggest cycling event in the U.S., CicLAvia; and we have already written a post or two about L.A.’s new bike rental program. These changes have really had an effect. For the first time, L.A. has been recognized as a Bike Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.

And all of this because a major public official put their weight behind cycling. Villaraigosa leaves office in June. Bike advocates in L.A. can only hope (and vote) for the next Mayor to be just as or more cycling-friendly.

If you ever need a bicycle accident attorney in San Francisco, Paso Robles, or the surrounding Central California Coast area, contact us for a free consultation.

Source:

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-0126-villaraigosa-biker-20130126,0,4079324.story?page=1