San Francisco to double number of bike lanes

Just a quick note on some breaking news here in San Francisco; within the last hour, the MTA (Municipal Transportation Agency) has unanimously approved at least forty five new bike related projects around the city. Most are new bike lanes, or improvements to old ones. This follows a four hour meeting down at the Town Hall, into which were packed numerous representatives from the San Francisco Bike Coalition.

The SFBC has been campaigning for these improvements for a while, and this success represents three years or more of planning and lobbying. It will also double the number of bike lanes in the city, making the streets safer for all of us who ride along them. As someone who was almost doored on Monday night as I road home, I’m pretty happy about this.

More bike lanes should also result in more people using bicycles as their primary mode of transport about the city, which, as well as the obvious environmental benefits, should help to reduce the number of accidents by increasing awareness amongst drivers. It’s a natural human reaction – if you know someone who is riding to work, you’re going to be more careful when you’re in your car. Hopefully, a large enough number of people will be taking to the roads that we won’t have to wait another three years for this to happen!

This is really good news, however, and a real cause for celebration. Congratulations to everyone at the bike coalition who worked so hard to bring this about.