Prioritize People-Centered Infrastructure and Mobility: An Open Letter to Mayor Lurie, the Board of Supervisors, & SFMTA
With reference to the 2025 Biking and Rolling Plan
Mayor Lurie, Board of Supervisors, SFMTA —
How do we build San Francisco into the preeminent American city, an exemplary marriage of technology, sustainability, and government? How do we solve today's problems while setting ourselves up for success against future challenges?
There will always be competing priorities, but proactive planning and financing of **people-centered, urbanist infrastructure** is central, rather paramount, to a multitude of issues facing this city we love.
Our Biking & Rolling Plan is up for approval, directing SFMTA investment in the biking and rolling network, as well as its support facilities, programs, and policies. It informs funding and project resources for the next !! 10-15 years !!, and yet seems to lack specific plans or goals for most neighborhoods.
The plan boasts a remarkable snapshot of current stats:
29% of San Franciscans bike or roll every week
10% of San Franciscans use their bike every day
3.4% of San Franciscans are bike commuting to work every day (highest of any American city)!
On streets with Quick-Build interventions, bicycle trips increased by 27%
80% of San Franciscans would like to bike and roll for some trips
SF’s bike network has grown from 302 miles in 2010 to 472 miles today
And imagine how these numbers could increase if we invested in bike infrastructure in a meaningful way, with Copenhagen, Paris, or Amsterdam as our north stars. How different could the bicycling experience be in San Francisco if it was treated as a legitimate source of transportation?
We need the infrastructure investment to shift culture with safe, clean, and well-maintained protected bike lanes connecting transit and business corridors. For many of us already, the **fabric** of San Francisco is its bike lanes -- connecting neighborhoods and livelihoods: shopping, school, work are all part of that; it drives the city's local economy to unlock flexible commuting and a sustainable, greener future. Cycling is fundamental to the vitality of San Francisco.
In the rest of this post, I break down what I see as deficiencies in the current plan, and share a better bike map for the Mission and Potrero neighborhoods (more neighborhoods coming soon). I share the SF Bike Coalition’s sentiment that the draft plan “seems designed to preempt opposition rather than propose bold solutions.1” My map improves connectivity between the bike network and transit. It also adds infrastructure where people are already biking - to improve safety for everyone sharing the road.
Broad strokes — the SF Biking and Rolling plan needs:
More protected lanes!
Protected bike lanes attract more users and increase safety for everyone.2
Identify main transit corridors. Invest in the upgrade. Design for future volumes.
Budget specificity
This plan needs to demonstrate political support with a multi-year funding commitment to implementation
Metrics for success
What are our safety targets?
How are we measuring connectivity improvements?
How are we prioritizing builds?
Bike Storage/Parking planning3
Inclusion of the door-to-door experience makes a comprehensive plan; summary of existing and future intent for bike storage/parking initiatives should be added to this plan, including partnerships with BART and Caltrain
Adding secure parking and storage opportunities! E-bikes, cargo bikes, and scooters, especially, need to be accounted for.
Community incentives & engagement
How are we interacting with communities to improve bike readiness? What is the plan for future outreach events, open houses, working groups, etc.?
How are we incentivizing transition to carbon-neutral transportation alternatives? How are we marketing/publicizing these incentives?
California has a low-income e-bike incentive program, for example!
SFMTA cancelled and did not reschedule the D9 biking & rolling meeting this past fall; are there plans to involve the greater public in planning efforts?
What’s in a bike lane?
The current draft of the biking & rolling plan seems to have done a lot of pre-work, and I commend the planners who have been doing the due diligence of getting out there and involving the community! But for a 10-15 year plan, it really lacks specificity in its infrastructural goals. Let’s get into it!
Many streets switch between different classes of bike lanes, the main difference being the category of barrier between motorists and cyclists. If you open up the plan to page 61, you will notice that there are a lot of separated lanes planned, but no commitments to protected lane infrastructure.
What’s the difference? The short answer is plastic vs. concrete. Additional space between motorist and cyclist tends to come with this, as well. These flimsy barriers called bollards, otherwise known as “quick build” infrastructure, are likely prioritized due to cost. I don’t know about you, but when I’m biking next to a 3000-lb machine that’s rolling through stop signs, some extra concrete between us sure would be great on main thoroughfares.
In the map I have linked, I use the same colors as the plan’s key below, and have added orange for protected lanes. I’ll note that I think in practice the plan’s color coding must represent minimum lane goals, as some of these are already protected but are shown as separated on the map.
NEIGHBORHOOD SNAPSHOT: MISSION
The mission is one of the densest neighborhoods in the city; we need our bicycle infrastructure to afford safe and easy access to merchants, school, and home. This is the planned map of the Mission from the Biking and Rolling Plan:
Here is the existing map of the mission from the Biking and Rolling Plan:
Here’s my map (I don’t know enough about Noe Valley to include it in this revision):
Upgrade the 17th street bike lane to protected lanes from Pennsylvania to Market
Keep cyclists between the sidewalk and parking along the full stretch of 17th to improve safety from motorists and dooring. Consider moving cyclists to one side if that helps save space.
Enables a cyclist highway connecting Caltrain to the center of the city
Add planters where space/finances permit to add to human-centered aesthetic
Connect the Wiggle to 17th via sharrowed or separated Sanchez (There is so much bike traffic on Sanchez, we should definitely make it official!)
Welcome the 24th and 16th Street BART stations to the bike network with shared bike lanes – complete with bollards, sharrow paint, and wayfinding signage!
Between 24th/Mission over to Capp and up to 22nd/Capp
One block only: from 16th/Mission over to 16th/Valencia
14th vs. 13th St6
Is the intent to remove 14th St biking infrastructure?
Division St is terrifying without concrete installations — this project will likely need a fully painted green lane, maybe bicycle-only signals as well
North/South Routes (Harrison & Folsom)
It appears that the N/S corridors in the Mission are being consolidated. We should not be decreasing the number of bike lanes, especially when we have the space for them.
Current: Valencia, Folsom, Harrison, and Potrero
Planned: Valencia, Shotwell (slow street), and Potrero (separated)
Harrison is wide and has Mission Cliffs.. for goodness sakes, people are going to use Harrison to bike
Keep Valencia. Folsom swapped for Shotwell is fine. But we also need to:
Keep Harrison: Add flexible posts / bollards separating cyclists from cars
Upgrade Potrero: This should have protected bike lanes in some spots and bollards everywhere else; there are 4 lanes for cars. Add planters where possible to add to the human-centered aesthetic.
Upgrade Cesar Chavez
Adding protective concrete between cyclists and motorists is a necessity to improve safety. It was brought to my attention that the Plan doesn’t include this draft quick-build project and I am very excited to see a protected lane coming in hot!
Policy: This stretch of bike lanes is always covered in broken glass and refuse. We need to improve sweeping to keep bike lanes clear, clean, and safe! Can we integrate this with any upcoming DPW repaving efforts?
Invest in the Hairball
This is the flattest way to get between the Mission and Caltrain, but the route is not for the faint of heart!
It’s near impossible to ride a bike up the the pedestrian bridge that crosses Cesar Chavez southbound
Install a bridge, dig a tunnel, or at least raise the crosswalk to bring cyclists out of motorists’ path entering the hairball westbound — there are so many close calls here, it’s dangerous!
What’s the latest here? Is this samTrans or SFMTA jurisdiction?
Improve wayfinding signage for cars and cyclists – it is so easy to get lost down here in both directions
Valencia
I don’t even want to open the can of worms here.. but between 17th/22nd: It’s time to put trees in the middle and make a San Francisco Promenade
Do the due diligence to pedestrianize Valencia Street!!! Empower local businesses, ensure buy-in from communities of color.
Get input from PODER and hispanic residents about how we can invest in them to bring this neighborhood back to its roots in a way that is sustainable, enduring, and hopefully exciting
Get input from VAMANOS — could Manny be an ally in a revision 2.0 that gets a lot better press than the center lane? Podemos tener un fuente?! Como una plaza?
NEIGHBORHOOD SNAPSHOT: POTRERO
See Mission snapshot notes about protective concrete infrastructure along 17th — the 17th St Potrero Gateway infrastructure under HWY 101 is chef’s kiss.7
Upgrade the Mariposa/Indiana intersection
Cyclists who live west of Caltrain takes a left turn here in the afternoons and there are many close calls
Add a signal for cyclists and sharrow paint indicating safe, intentional merging in street design – less surprises are safer for motorists and cyclists sharing the road
More neighborhood snapshots coming soon!
But what about cars?
You may be thinking (or screaming?) – but what about cars?! 54% of San Franciscans have cars registered in the city, with 70% of households owning a car. Car ownership in San Francisco is declining about 2.2% year-over-year, and according to analysis by Stephan Braitsch and a 2019 INRIX study8, 49% of all vehicle trips here are < 3 miles, with 20% < 1 mile. These trips would surely be faster on a bike than in a car in the middle of the city, perhaps safety is the reason San Franciscans would choose to drive over roll?
People who oppose bike lanes often claim that by reducing space for motorists, bike lanes will actually cause roadway congestion.9 I think we’ve all seen some version of the photo below, with 200 people packed into different transportation modes, but bike lanes and transit corridors are actually building out capacity for more people to move more quickly. Bike lanes are just more efficient. And with increased efficiency, perhaps we’d see exponential utilization (per Jevon’s paradox!).
Imagine how a more connected bicycle network might knock these figures on their face! I used to own a car in San Francisco, but I really don’t need one with decent transit and bike infrastructure. I am more of a risk-taker compared to most of my friends, though, and we need to make infrastructure more accessible for all — both to hit our climate goals and respond to the mobility needs of a growing city!
I am not an urban planner, I am a nerd who loves her bikes and this city! These notes are not all-inclusive, rather an attempt to add specificity to parts of the plan that are lacking. I live in the Mission, and my focus is inherently on the region of the city I am most familiar with.
Bear with me as I learn more planning jargon and collaborative mapping tools.
https://sf.streetsblog.org/2024/11/18/a-bike-and-roll-plan-for-san-franciscos-future
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518301488
https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/bike/bike-parking
https://www.sfmta.com/blog/sfmta-pilots-new-artistic-way-store-bikes
https://www.sfmta.com/garages-lots?field_garage_services_value=Bicycle+Lockers
https://thefrisc.com/sf-has-promised-safety-fixes-for-these-6-streets-we-checked-their-status/#13th
https://www.potrerogatewaypark.org/the-plan-2/
https://underscoresf.com/remember-theres-a-car-ownership-map-of-san-francisco/
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/10/3/do-bike-lanes-reduce-congestion-is-the-wrong-question#:~:text=Better%20Bang%20for%20Our%20Public,itself%20in%20under%20seven%20years.