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SF Bike Plan

Towards a complete bike network and a bike-friendly city

In June 2009, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) adopted the 2009 San Francisco Bicycle Plan and gave the green light to 45 Bike Lane Projects. This decision represents years of work by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition staff, members and volunteers.

The Bicycle Plan is a five-year master plan and ambitious roadmap meant to boost biking to new heights of safety and convenience. The Bike Plan outlines 60 improvement projects and long-term opportunities for bike route upgrades.

What's Next?

  • The court gave partial relief from the injunction in November 2009 and the City quickly implemented a number of innovations such as on-street bike corrals, the fully-separated green bike lanes on Market Street, "sharrows" (shared lane arrows) and a handful of bike lanes, but more than 35 projects and a host of our great ideas remain on hold.
  • The final court date for the Bike Plan injunction has been set for June 22, 2010. If the Superior Court is satisfied with the City Attorney's motion, it will fully lift the injunction. The judge may make a tentative ruling in June 2010, or may wait 90 days to issue a final ruling.
  • When the injunction is fully lifted, the City can start catching up with the widespread demand for biking improvements (there's been a 53% increase in the number of people biking in the past few years!) and the back log of projects that will make streets safer.
  • This is the home stretch of years of work by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition staff, members and volunteers we are on track to see 20 new bike lanes and other improvements on city streets by the end of this year.

The 2009 Bike Plan calls for:

  • adding 34 miles of bike lanes, to the existing 45 miles
  • marking 75 miles of on-street bike routes with "sharrows"
  • experimenting with colored pavement for bike lanes
  • thousands of new sidewalk bike parking racks
  • on-street bike parking corrals
  • programs to boost bike access to transit
  • bicycle-related planning and enforcement policies
  • programs for bicyclist and motorist education
  • lots more

The SFMTA develops and maintains the Bike Plan as part of the City's transportation system, collaborating with other agencies and the community (including, of course, the SFBC). The City adopted its first Bike Plan in 1997 and developed and adopted an updated Bike Plan in 2005, although a legal challenge to the environmental review conducted for that Plan has tied up the implementation of any physical improvements to the Bike Network, including bike lanes, bike parking racks, and route signage, since June 2006.

family bicycling in San FranciscoAt the heart of the 2009 Bike Plan is the City's Bicycle Network, an officially-designated web of streets and paths prioritized for bike travel. The Bike Network itself is enshrined in the SF City Charter and General Plan, with 210 miles of streets and paths designated as official bike routes. Unfortunately in too many places on the streets themselves the Bike Network is still an imaginary thing, discontinuous, hostile, broken. The Bike Plan spells out proposed improvements to the Bike Network that will close critical gaps and make the continuity and safety of the Bike Network nearly "complete", safer, and more welcoming.

Of course, traffic engineering for more bikeable streets is important, but it's not enough by itself. The 2009 Bike Plan also spells out policies and actions for bike parking, bicycle-related law enforcement, bicycle education (for cyclists and motorists), bicycle parking, transit access, and other improvements to the overall bicycling environment. Coordination and collaboration by SFMTA with other public agencies and community groups will be essential to assure success in implementing the Bike Plan's many elements, but the payoff will be tremendous.

With the Bike Plan and its short-term Bike Network improvements approved and implemented, we'll be moving in the right direction again, towards an even more bike-friendly city with a "complete" bike network where anyone from age 8 to 80 can feel safe riding a bike, with ample secure bike parking, effective education of all road users (including cyclists), enforcement efforts focused on dangerous behavior and right-of-way respect, and encouragement for those who'd like to try biking. It's good for the environment, it's good for the economy, it's good for our health. And it's fun!

⇒ review the Draft San Francisco Bicycle Plan

⇒ review the Environmental Impact Report for the SF Bicycle Plan

⇒ review a timeline of the SF Bike Plan

⇒ request a sidewalk bike rack or report other Bike Network problems or needs to the City with our Bike Network Fix It form

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