2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting
Thursday, February 16, 2006
6:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
- Roll Call: Andy Bindman (D1), Frank Chan (D3), Lisa Estrella (D4), Susan King (D5), Hitesh Soneji (D6), Bert Hill (D7), and Rufus Davis (D10).
- Announcements & Acknowledgments
- Approve Minutes: Minutes from November 17 and December 15, 2005 had previously been approved. Thus, we only approved the minutes for January 19, 2006 at this meeting.
- Public Comment:
Noelle Davis: Noelle, a seven year old San Francisco resident, read a statement thanking the City of San Francisco for providing a safe place to ride her bike in Golden Gate Park on Sundays. She also thanked the City of San Francisco for providing a place --- the new Waller Street bike area --- where she and her three-year old sister, Sonia, can learn how to ride their bikes.
Geoff Potter: Geoff and his wife live in Russian Hill, and he is interested in the D2 BAC vacancy. He rides on Polk, and is particularly concerned about the 12 blocks of Polk that don't have a bike lane between Union and Post. He feels the sharrows on Polk are not effective.
Oliver Gajda (MTA Bicycle Program): The sharrows don't preclude a bike lane in the future. There was also opposition from local businesses at the time.
Geoff Potter: There are markings on Battery that aren't a bike lane but help guide cars away from the right side where bikes are.
Dave Snyder (former SFBC director): At the time, we actually recommended against bike lanes for this section of Polk for safety reasons. The street isn't wide enough to accommodate one car lane each direction, one standard width bike lane each direction, as well as parallel street parking.
Rufus Davis (D10): What about the striped shoulder or "floating bike lanes" along the Embarcadero?
Andy Thornley (SFBC): It may be time to revisit Polk.
Carolyn Blair (SFBC member and SF Tree Council Executive Director): She would like to see more East-West paths and recreational paths. The BAC commented that these paths are now marked in green on the new SF Bike Map.
- Chairman's Report (Bert Hill): The trial of bikes on MUNI light rail is coming up.
- Committee Member Reports.
Rufus Davis (D10): As a parent, he would like to see Saturday road closure in GGP.
Hitesh Soneji (D6): When the street is repaved at the intersection of 16th and 7th Streets, the bike lane must be repainted.
Andy Bindman (D1): He went to a community meeting about potential Saturday closure, but there is resistance from Supervisor McGoldrick and others. Unfortunately, some don't consider the new De Young parking garage close enough for the Conservatory of Flowers.
Susan King (D5): Ross, Andy Bindman (D1), and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi talked about the "Healthy Saturdays" plan for Golden Gate Park. At the construction of a bathroom in the Panhandle, there is no longer a fence blocking the bike path. The Waller Street bicycle learning area is unfortunately annexed as overflow parking for Kezar Stadium, and cars leave grease and oil.
Oliver Gajda (MTA Bicycle Program): Contractors are not supposed to leave the fence along the bike path. Difficulties in navigating the Bicycle Program website are due to the cumbersome Ektron web content management system. However, the lower right-hand-side does contain contextual useful links.
- Reports on the Bike Plan
- MTA Report (Oliver Gajda, MTA Bicycle Program)
A. 10 and A.12: Market and Wiggle designs are on the Bicycle Program web site at upcoming project information.
D. 1. University students are helping out with the study of bikes on LRVs.
D.3. Next week, the DPT will study the reflectivity of different colors.
Susan King: A.5. The double right turn lane on Howard at 9th Street needs a traffic count before possible removal.
Susan King: A.10. The no right turn area at Market and Octavia is a possible colored bike lane experiment. Sharrows would also help on the Octavia frontage roads that are not quite wide enough for both a bike and a car.
Bert Hill: There are eastbound skid marks on Market, presumably from cyclists executing an emergency stop in front of cars illegally turning right.
Bert Hill: E.1. Not being able to send MTA program staff to the conference is a shame.
Andy Bindman: A.12. He would like to see sharrows until Scott or a bike box on Scott for bikes turning left.
Dave Snyder: He presented a sketch with alternative designs, one of which would eliminate a car left turn lane. One idea is a queuing street (a single traffic lane) for low volume roads.
Bert Hill: A.7. Near Laguna Honda, there is a downhill stretch where he feels the bike lane is confining and is worth revisiting. When descending at higher speeds, he would feel more comfortable shifting to the left and taking the car lane. However, this is not entirely legal if there is a bike lane present.
Bert Hill: A.8. He asked if Sloat qualified for TFCA (Transportation Fund for Clean Air) funds for higher volume streets instead of taking away Prop. K funds. Sloat and Laguna Honda should be able to draw from TFCA neighborhood calming programs.
Bert Hill: E.2. Bicycle Magazine: He thought that while Portland may have more recreational cycling paths, he believed San Francisco had the highest amount of utility cycling.
Andy Thornley: D.4. Yes, obviously the SFBC would like bike lanes on Cesar Chavez.
Andy Thornley: E.4. Leah Shahum and he met with Marshall Foster, the director of city greening. The SFBC reiterated their desire for complete crosstown routes and very dense sharrows on Market by Bike to Work Day
- SFBC Report (Andy Thornley)
The SFBC is working on its report card, similar to that of the city of Copenhagen, Denmark (2004 report). Andy went to a traffic calming meeting about 25th Avenue in the Richmond though the nearby 23rd Avenue is already a bike route.
- Task Force Reports
- Bike Theft & Security (Bert Hill, D7): none.
- Bike Plan (Andy Bindman, D1): Andy presented a draft of bicycle plan implementation performance measures. For each of the seven goals of the SF bicycle plan, he had one to three metrics. These metrics would either come from a survey of bicyclists, the MTA, the SFPD, or a survey or pedestrians and drivers.
Oliver Gajda (MTA): While the Bicycling Magazine ranking was disappointing, the more significant survey is the League of American Bicyclists' (LAB) ranking of bicycle friendly cities or communities. Also, in Germany, they have sophisticated metrics with cameras to do counts, and they can analyze how the number of bicyclists varies with weather.
- Bayshore Blvd. (Rufus Davis, D10): Mike Sallaberry (MTA) sent the Home Depot architect the necessary diagrams.
- Golden Gate Park (Susan King, D5): As remarked earlier, Susan and Andy met with Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi about "Healthy Saturdays", the removal of 37 (or less than 40) parking spaces, and also the Lincoln & 9th Avenue intersection.
- Committee Member Business: Bert will contact supervisors about D2 and D11 vacancies.
- New Business
- Sarah Tucker Fatality (Oliver Gajda, MTA Bicycle Program Manager & Bert Hill): Bert visited medical examiner's office, to view the medical report. Oliver saw the collision report
- Bicycles on MUNI (Oliver Gajda, MTA Bicycle Program Manager): On Tuesday, February 28 at 10am, there will be a photo shoot on a static ERV at the Geneva at San Jose MUNI Metro yard. The Muni Accessible Advisory Committee (MAC) wants to make sure bicycles won't interfere with their goals. The trial should be running or complete by Bike to Work Day.
- Residential Parking Reform for Downtown (C3 Legislation) (Hitesh Soneji, D6): This is now going to the full board.
- Adjournment
