Under the Hills and Far Away

San Francisco's hills are beautiful, but a bane for most bicyclists. The Broadway tunnel runs under Russian Hill and provides the flattest, most direct East/West route from North Beach and Chinatown to Russian Hill, the Marina and Pacific Heights. Traffic in the tunnel travels at high speeds with limited visibility, endangering cyclists. The proposals that came out of the Bike Plan Update process offers four design options which range from making on-street biking safer to widening the sidewalk 5", 16", or 25" for safer shared pedestrian/bicycle use. The last three proposals would include a modification to the traffic code, enabling bicyclists to use the sidewalk in the tunnel. Legalizing bicycle traffic on the sidewalks is something that the SFBC is working on independently of any infrastructure upgrades.

The SF Department of Parking and Traffic proposes the following potential improvements:

• Option 1: Install bicyclist activated flashing lights and "BIKES IN TUNNEL" signage
• Option 2: Widen sidewalk to 3'10" by relocating existing railings
• Option 3: Widen sidewalk to 5'3" by reconstructing the sidewalk ledge
• Option 4: Widen sidewalk to 6' by narrowing traffic lanes and reconstructing the curb

Click here to vist the MTA site to download complete project plan proposals and diagrams.