Déjà Vu: Sting Operation Against People Biking the Wiggle

Something just isn’t right at the San Francisco Police Department’s Park Station, where police officers were apparently ordered this morning to conduct another sting operation against people biking the Wiggle.

In recent weeks, San Francisco has been struck by a rash of serious collisions leaving people severely injured and families scrapping their plans in order to spend every waking minute next to their loved ones’ hospital beds.

The collisions include a tour bus careening down Post Street near Union Square and injuring 20, with critical injuries to seven people. In a separate crash, two 12-year-old boys on their way to school were struck by someone driving at high speed through a Bay Street crosswalk. And this follows the death of Mark Heryer on Market Street last month, where the SFPD investigators concluded that he was at fault for not biking in a bike lane that doesn’t even exist.

Park Station has several high-injury corridors, including stretches of Lincoln Way, Haight Street and Divisadero. There are also three high-injury intersections in Park Station’s territory, at Irving and Seventh Avenue, 17th Street and Roosevelt Way, and 14th Street and Noe.

Smart enforcement would take these facts into account and focus resources to promote safety along those high-injury corridors. Instead, SFPD’s Park Station continues to disregard the blood  being spilled on our streets, as well as the behaviors causing severe collisions, and insists on cracking down on people biking on the Wiggle. It’s disrespectful to collision victims and their families, and it’s dangerous — putting everyone who walks, bikes or drives around Park Station at an elevated risk of suffering the consequences.

A majority of Supervisors get it. That’s why San Francisco is on the verge of becoming the first major U.S. city to pass a Bike Yield Law, to give police officers the direction that they’re lacking at Park Station about how best to keep our streets safe.

Mayor Ed Lee’s threat to veto SF’s Bike Yield Law means that a majority isn’t enough, though. Show your support today for the Bike Yield Law, and join our campaign to demonstrate that San Franciscans overwhelmingly stand in favor of smart enforcement and safer streets.

Become a member and you'll improve your commute and get discounts at shops across the city.