the future smart "car"?

The other week I was volunteering at a fancy pants bikey event. I was outside in the wind and this guy rolled up in this ride. He tried to say he was involved with the event, but I had a hunch that he just wanted his product to be seen with the current transportation movers and shakers. 

Either way, lots of people along market street stopped and gawked at this latest transportation vehicle. What do you think about this trike? It is electric assisted...

Trying out this blogger app while waiting to board a plane to go far far away for a couple of days! See y'all on flip side of the border.

bike to work day 2013

took some photos on the way to work today. energizer stations and bike counters oh my!



this guy recognized me from my organizing with SF bike party.


wrenching.


intersection of market and van ness


through the foggy (non-purple) haze, you can see SF's very own new bicycle counter.





this guy just wanted to be number 1000, but he was really one of the cheerleaders near the bike counter.



from standing near the bike counter, public bikes' dan and i both noticed that the counter seemed not to be very good at counting when groups of riders passed by the counter. it also doesn't count them if they are NOT in the bike lane. the sensor is just near the bike counter.



baby steps but BIG baby steps for SF's very own bicycle counter! happy bike to work day everyone.

RE: Market Street's New Bike Boxes: Use them!!

Dear Market Street Commuters:

I, like you, ride Market Street daily to get to work. This has been rather well documented on the blog.

Being that we ride on Market quite a bit, you've probably noticed that there are new bike boxes around the intersections of Van Ness and 9th streets. (btw: THANKS SFMTA!!)

Some of these bike boxes are more useful than others, but one in particular is amazing and very very much needed: the box at the intersection of Van Ness going eastbound. I've talked about the perils of crossing that intersection before. What I have noticed lately is that NO ONE (except yours truly) that I've seen communting around me is actually using the box. There is a bike box on the wiggle at Scott and Oak that people use, so what is it about the new Market Street bike boxes that have people staying out of the box? It's arguably more necessary to use the eastbound Van Ness bike box than any other one on Market Street.

Just in case you don't know what to do with the awesomeness which is our little bikey bright green space on Market Street and Van Ness, here's two StreetFilms videos describing how to use a bike box.





In the immortal words of biggie smalls, "if you don't know, now ya know."

So fellow Market Street bike commuters: use the box! It's ours to use!!

Much Love,
CTX

Market at Powell, and a nutcracker

San Francisco was quite quiet and beautifully dry for a few days while what seems like, the bike lane was on Holiday. Market bike lanes taking naps often.

Last days of December 2010, Market at Powell.

End of year skies. I forget where this was.

Frenchie and a nutcracker. Not looking very jolly over there...

The Dying Of The Light

According to the weather report, today was the last day of lovely light and long shadows. This last week has been spectacular, the kind of weather that makes you thrilled to live in Northern California. These may be my last pictures of Autumn.

When next you see me, I will be ready for near freezing rain.

Our Farmers Markets in San Francisco are year round. They may not produce quite so inviting a pannier tableaux by Saturday morning.

Here we go, people! The long, dark months are upon us! Get those lights on your bicycles (now! Stop reading this and go put some damn lights on your bike!), shake out the weather proof gear, make sure your panniers have adequate drainage, lube your chains and stop worrying about the extra weight and get some fenders already!

surveys and such

photo by sfbike

last friday on the above stretch of market street as i was going to work, i noticed a woman dressed in what appeared to be a SFMTA vest holding a clipboard. she was in the green painted part of the bike lane close to the end of the paint near the crosswalk. as i have the lights pretty timed, i was mainly concentrating on making the light and continuing on my way.

perhaps she sensed my hesitation because she didn't talk to the cyclist in front of me, but rather asked me three questions:

1. would i please participate in a quick survey?

--yes

2. on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least safe and 5 being the most safe, how safe do you feel in the lane you are in right now?

--two

3. on a scale of 1 to 5, using the same scale, how safe do you feel biking on green bike lanes?

--four

i was extremely interested in what this was all about, and if she did indeed represent SFMTA. in my quick glance at her, i didn't see a logo of any sort, just yellow and reflective things everywhere.

did anyone else encounter this? if so, what did you say? did you ask her questions back?

please let us know in the comments, and thanks always for reading.

market street bike lanes, an attractive nuisance?

attractive nuisance: (doctrine; lay definition): [a] landowner may be held liable for injuries to children trespassing on the land if the injury is caused by hazardous object or condition on the land that is likely to attract children who are unable to appreciate the risk posed by the object or condition.

i ride market street everyday. i don't particularly care to do so, other than it is the main artery of the city, therefore it is the way that leads me from here to there. so in order to get to where i need to go, market street is a necessary part of my commute and other errand type of biking.

as a regular market street rider, i can say that it has gotten better since the installation of separated bike paths, delineated with those green painted spaces or with those "safe hit posts" (oxymoron anyone?). within the past year, personal car traffic has been direct to turn left at two intersections, 10th street and 6th street. traffic earlier in the year was directed to turn right at 8th street and 10th street by traffic cops, but they have since discontinued that practice, presumably there in the first place to get regular drivers used to the new practice.

is this a "safe hit" post? foto by ade

in the past couple of weeks i have noticed a few things on my morning (aka pre-caffeinated) commute, two of which are disturbing to me as a daily commuter, and as a frequent weekend market street rider.

first, at 10th street, bike traffic is directed to the left of the mandatory right turn, with the bike lane sandwiched next to and to the right of to the F rail train. so it's muni tracks, bike lane, mandatory (car) right turn lane. like this (except now the bike lane is painted green):

foto by meli

this does not leave a lot of room for those mandatory right turners to go straight through the light, as they have to cross paths with east-bound bike traffic. which is exactly what has been happening in the mornings in the past couple of weeks, and can be pretty unnerving. apparently the sign saying "LANE CLOSED" has been down. today, thankfully, i noticed it was reinstated and that the mandatory right hand turners were obeying traffic signs.

which brings me to the second, and instigator of this whole post: seeing the below picture of two buses blocking the bike lane at 8th and market:

foto by adam

two wednesdays before this photo appeared in my feed, i noticed something very similar happen, but on a much larger scale, on my way to butterlap. sigh. there were at least 5 large tour buses in that very spot, NO DOUBT related to the big tech company convention that was all over the news. sigh.

a block away i was already busily thinking how to navigate around that nonsense with taxis in front of me, who are able to go straight through on market street until embarcadero. i must have worn the confused look on my face because the other cyclist turned to ask me with a wry smile, "how are we going to get past that?" "i have no idea, was just thinking the same thing myself," i replied.

foto by meli

i show this pic of meli cause i think it illustrates several of the obstacles of which i refer: grates, and those pinche muni tracks on either side of the double yellow line. UGH. i have seen many a competent (and newbie) cyclist get stuck in those tracks, then fall down, go boom, spawning this sticker:

the comments which started in the picture above with the buses were very interesting. adam, whom i know is a parent (thus familiar with the term), mentioned market street being like an attractive nuisance in that market street with its green lanes and "safe hit posts" thus creating the analogy that market street's new sporadic bike infrastructure may make it attractive to cyclists of all levels, including newer and other inexperienced riders, and get them encouraged to ride, despite its obstacles.

that conversation stuck with me for a couple of days, enough to for it to jump without me past the flickr picture and on to spark a lively facebook page discussion and then produce a vimeo video taken just yesterday (as of the writing of this post)

2010-10-04 Blocked, by Clear Channel from TyrellVoightKampff on Vimeo

so, are the newer bike lanes on market street like an "attractive nuisance" to newer riders?

i'm certainly not a new rider. i'm comfortable in trafficky conditions, as a frequent pedestrian (nyc baby) a frequent bike rider and an occasional car driver. i know i'm not the oldest hat at bike commuting, but i'm confident in traveling in urban traffic in my own patient way.

i cannot even fathom to promote what can be done with market street as i am not an engineer nor am i an urban planner. i am, however, a bike rider who commutes daily. i would like to feel safe in my designated and provided separated bike lane, and i would like to know that cars on market street will turn at appropriate intersections because it makes the remaining stretches of the commute for the rest of us (public transporation, taxis and bikes) more bearable and predictable.

but those buses...... those buses really are a problem for muni buses, passengers, taxis and bike riders alike.

for all of the obstacles shown above, market street now really is rather enjoyable, compared to what it could be, during the morning commute.

what about the afternoon commute west-bound on market street you may be asking? well, let's save that for another long post, shall we?

Precious cargo

The other day I had a few minutes to spend and observe the recent changes to Market st. from the view of a muni rider. I decided to step out of the bike lane universe, got off frenchie and walked over to the little Muni island, which stands in the middle of the street. I luckily had my camera within reach because it was a really cool moment to see this happy mom, telling her daughter about some kind of cartoon I am not quite familiar with.
I thought that was nice. A good sign of the times and the good things to come ---- and already happening. Here and now.

Market street at 9th.

Street Life

There is a lot of manufactured enmity out there. Not sure why.

Seems to me like people are getting along just fine.

Happy Friday!

tuesday injection of fun: pride and perpetual indulgence

so, being that 75% of the contributors of this blog live in SF, i do think it would be remiss not to mention that this month, june, is pride month. rainbow flags are happily flapping in the fierce winds, tangling themselves around their posts from the financial district to the beach.

and just the other day i stumbled upon a sister. a sister of perpetual indulgence that is.

photo by Steve Rhodes
NOT the actual sister i saw. i think.

i was at an intersection on the border of the castro on joanie baby patiently waiting to cross market street, when i see a single solitary sister enter the cross walk. and she just looked so awesome and confident, i just HAD to say something.

me: (dingding) oh heeeey gurrrl! (waving)
sister: (looks around confused, sees me, smiles) hey! happy pride!
me: happy pride!

so, yeah, happy pride everyone!

addendum: now that i think about it, this post fits under the first (and already closed) part of the fun and inspiring LGRAB summer games! if you haven't checked it out yet, please do! you could win a rad bat and be like ade riding all over your town.

friday fun times: casual friday panda

it is a bright and beautiful day here in san pancho, califas, usa.

today's version of running into someone on the market street bikeway: paraphrased convo.

scene: on the way to werky times today. running late edition.
calitexican?
oh hai. sssup.
i read yr blog.
i read yr blog.
[bikestuffbikestuffblogstuff]
[pedal around stupid car making dumb decisions behind a bus he shouldn't have been behind anyway cause he was supposed to turn, but DIDNT and a rush of bikers surrounded him on all sides]
ok, here's my stop.
bye!
laters, see ya around!

"hey, i know that bike"

one of my favorite things about riding on market street during the morning commute (a short list to be sure), is talking to friendly people on bikes. another one of my favorite things is running into people i know. san francisco is so small, that the chances are high you'll see someone familiar on the bikeway.

today's installment was one omar. friend of meli. on way to werky times.

"omar" by meli

i was getting ready to pass someone and thinking how i like how my new shoes are on my pedals when i heard, "hey you." i turn and i see mr. omar. i was running super late to work, but there's always time to say hi and chat it up a bit.

you just can't get that in a car. or on muni/bart (for the most part). nice start to the day.

happy friday!