A new bike box is on Market Street at Van Ness Avenue. Photo by Bryan Goebel/Streetsblog SF

We were as happy as these smiling SFMTA workers to see these long-planned green bike boxes being installed at intersections on Market Street, the busiest bicycling street west of the Mississippi. The City installed four over the course of this week, all west of 8th Street, with one more planned for next week. Bike boxes are a welcome addition to making Market street safer and more inviting for the huge numbers of people are bicycling.

“By painting streets, installing bike racks and changing policies, San Francisco is making bicycling safer and more convenient,” said Mayor Edwin Lee. Bike boxes create a priority waiting area for people on bikes between the crosswalk and vehicles with the aim of improving the visibility of people bicycling.

Thanks to the SFMTA which also accompanied these improvements with an informational flyer, which is an important component to helping everyone understand how to use these new bike boxes.

Following is a press release that the SFMTA issued today: Read the rest of this entry »