A Plan to Benefit Cyclists AND Neighbors

While the traffic circles along Page St. in 2004 were rejected by residents, we believe that the circles alone fell short of making the improvements that are necessary to preserve the quality of life along this quiet street and ensure safety while also providing a high quality bicycle route. While there are no active plans for Page Street at this time, the SFBC believes this street could provide a great opportunity for an east-west connector 'bike boulevard' in San Francisco.

While there are many ideas of what a 'bike boulevard' should look like, the SFBC has laid out a few ideas of what Page Street could look like as a bike priority street.

BICYCLE BOULEVARDS

A bike boulevard is an innovative bicycle facility that is often applied to residential streets that parallel major arterials. It consists of three design elements:

1. stop signs placed only on side streets to give priority to the boulevard

2. traffic circles installed in at least some of the intersections to slow cars down to 10-15mph while allowing bikes to maintain momentum

3. diverters, barriers or forced turns that prohibit automobile through access on the bike boulevard while continuing to allow cyclists, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles through.

A bicycle boulevard treatment applied to Page St. could dramatically reduce the volume and speed of traffic, and reduce or eliminate stop signs, making bicycling along Page much easier, safer, more efficient and pleasant. It would not "close" the street to cars- drivers would still be able to access every point along Page, but using this neighborhood street as a speedway or auto cut through would be a thing of the past. For example, a driver would not be able to use Page St. to get from Golden Gate Park to Market St. (Oak St. is a better alternative) as they might be required to turn left at Masonic and Divisadero. This would dramatically reduce through traffic on Page while maintaining resident and local access.

City of Berkeley Bicycle Boulevard Program

Institute of Transportation Engineers Article on Bike Boulevards