Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Kids and Bike Safety

On December 10, 2008 The San Francisco Examiner put out a short article emphasizing the importance of keeping children safe on bicycles.

What used to be the job of Municipal Traffic controllers the responsibility has now been handed to the parents of young city riders.

For those of you who want to teach your children to ride in a safe environment I suggest the San Francisco Bicycle Coalitions' Urban Bike Training or for the youngest ones in your family try out the Freedom from Training Wheels program also run by the SFBC.

If you'd rather stick with it yourself here is a great link to teach you how to teach the kids to ride.

Good luck, have fun and stay safe!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Bike Sharing

Washington D.C is doing it, college campuses are doing it, what about San Francisco? Could a bike sharing program be in our future?

According to Newsom spokesman, Nathan Ballard the answer is yes,“[Newsom] has been pushing the MTA to adopt a European-style bike-share program, and he’s pleased to see that it is moving forward,” Ballard said

Similarly to Washington D.C's program SF's bike share would be funded under a deal with Clear Channel

The Examiner had a small piece about it.

Two Wheels at the Office , Still Rare

The title for this post is also the title of the December 9, 2008 NYTimes article which discusses how employers and building managers could incorporate bicycle parking in their buildings.

New York city lawmakers have two suggestions, Introduction 871 and Introduction 78.
Introduction 871 "would mandate access to bike parking in most office and retail buildings, “provided that such building can reasonably accommodate the storage of such bicycle.” In addition, under that bill, going forward, new office buildings would have to offer one bicycle space for every 5,000 square feet; new retail buildings, one for every 7,500 square feet; and new apartment buildings with more than 10 units, one for every two residential units."

Introduction 78 "would require garages and parking lots to provide at least one bicycle parking space for every 10 car-parking spaces."

What is getting me about this piece is that San Francisco is ahead of New York!

Our City Code Bike Parking has two classes. Class 1 is, "Facilities which protect the entire bicycle, its components and accessories against theft and against inclement weather, including wind-driven rain. Examples of this type of facility include (1) lockers, (2) check-in facilities, (3) monitored parking, (4) restricted access parking, and (5) personal storage."

Class 2 is a standard bike rack that allows a cyclist to lock up their bike.

As for class 1 it pretty much goes along that the bigger the building the more secure bike parking increases in ratio. To learn more click here!

I don't need to explain every detail you can read the NYTimes article for yourself here.

New SF Gate Green Blog

My boss sent me this link to a new blog on SFGate.

It's author, Cameron proves himself to be a thoughtful, link happy activist.

Good job Cameron! Keep up the good work!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

S.F EIR study finally released!

Don't get too excited, it's just a draft. Or get excited that we have something tangible to look at!

The S.F Environmental Impact Review has been 2.5 years in the making. It will add strength to the city's Transit First Policy, which already states in Article 6: "Bicycling shall be promoted by encouraging safe streets for riding, convenient access to transit, bicycle lanes, and secure bicycle parking."

I was reading the Draft EIR, I learned that there were 60 funded improvement projects underway when the injunction was imposed!

Read for yourself to learn more!


Here's the SFgate article.

Here is the Draft Bike Plan.

S.F asks court to allow bike improvements

Why does the city have to ask permission to keep it citizens safe?

'In 2006, the San Francisco Superior Court blocked the city from enacting any improvements intended to benefit cyclists without special permission."

In April of 2008 the court granted the installation of a dedicated bike/pedestrian signal at the notoriously dangerous Fell and Masonic intersection.

Today, eight months later,San Francisco city attorney, Dennis Herrera, is back in court, filing a motion to ask for a more safeguards at some of S.F's most dangerous spots for cyclists.

Let's hope this works in the cyclists favor. Whatever anyone's motives are for creating political drama, it should be put aside for the safety of San Francisco riders.

Click on this link to read more.