On Tuesday, the Valencia center bike lane received very different receptions before two city bodies: A legal challenge from merchants, and applause from cyclists. In the morning, three Valencia Street […]

Cyclists, merchants at odds over Valencia bike lane

San Francisco city officials said Thursday that they are revisiting the option to replace Valencia’s center bike lane with side-running bike lanes, similar to what already exists north of 15th […]

SFMTA says Valencia bike lane improved safety, but it may rethink design 

A little before 3 p.m. today, a Waymo driverless car struck a cyclist at the intersection of 17th and Mississippi streets in Potrero Hill, leaving the cyclist with minor injuries. […]

Driverless Waymo strikes cyclist at 17th and Mississippi

Despite continuing unhappiness about the center bike lane from businesses along the Valencia Street corridor, that eight-block stretch appears to be doing more business than anywhere else in the Mission […]

Valencia St. appears to be doing better than businesses believe

El pasado 19 de enero de 2024, el BART lazó su primera convocatoria de poesía dirigida a jóvenes del Área de la Bahía. El objetivo es conocer y aprender sobre […]

¿Te gusta la poesía? El BART lanzó su “Concurso de Poesía para adolescentes BART Lines”

The bikeway running through the middle of Valencia Street has been controversial since well before it opened on Aug. 1 and, according to interviews with several bike commuters, that controversy […]

Five months in, Valencia center bike lane still irritating cyclists

A report from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to be released next month is expected to show a small increase in bicycle traffic following implementation of the controversial center […]

Valencia center bike lane brings tiny cycling increase

Update: At 10:43 a.m., traffic began to move. A dozen or so demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza closed westbound traffic on the Bay Bridge earlier this morning. At […]

Protesters have blocked westbound Bay Bridge traffic

A driver making an illegal U-turn hit a woman riding a scooter in the Valencia Street center bikeway last week, sending her to the hospital, Mission Local has learned.  The […]

Driver making illegal U-turn strikes scooter-rider in Valencia bikeway

Since they were installed on four intersections of Capp Street in May, the steel bollards intended to deter sex work on this street have been struggling to stay erect.  Now, […]

Capp Street barriers collapsed, unsightly — but effective

Following six-and-a-half hours of public comment, the California Public Utilities Commission decided this evening to give both Cruise and Waymo unfettered access to San Francisco streets for their driverless cars. […]

Cruise, Waymo win green light for robo-taxis across San Francisco

On the eve of the vote to allow unfettered access to San Francisco for driverless car companies, the San Francisco Fire Department has generated some 55 “Unusual Occurrence” reports documenting […]

Explore: See the 55 reports — so far — of robot cars interfering with SF fire dept.

Three days prior to a pivotal Aug. 10 vote on whether autonomous vehicle companies can charge passengers for all rides at all times in San Francisco, firefighters and police officers […]

SF cops, firefighters vent before big vote on driverless car expansion

In a uniquely San Francisco-in-2023 incident, several drivers illegally motored down the center bike lane on Valencia Street last night in order to swerve around a frozen autonomous Waymo, according […]

Driverless car freezes, forcing drivers into Valencia St. bike lane

A generation ago, if you saw someone using an iPhone, you pointed and stared: Hey look! An iPhone! They were a novelty. But then they became ubiquitous. And, then, beyond […]

‘Blanket the city:’ CEO says SF can handle 10x more Cruise driverless vehicles

With construction on the controversial new center bike lane on Valencia Street “substantially complete,” the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on Tuesday announced the official kickoff of its one-year evaluation […]

Incomplete, controversial Valencia Street bike lane officially opens

Longtime Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital nurse Darren Riesz was blindsided on July 12, knocked off his bicycle by a Lime scooter-rider speeding the wrong way on a one-way street. […]

Police blow off cyclist struck by wrong-way scooter

Leer en español Update: The prankster has struck again, covering up more of the Valencia center bike lane signs in the predawn hours of Saturday morning. They were still up […]

‘We regret this bike lane:’ SF cyclist adds new signs on Valencia Street

I’m on the 22-Fillmore, headed back to the Mission from Bay Street, sitting in a 4-seat row running lengthwise across from the back door. I sit at one end of […]

Scenes from humanity: A cake on the 22-Fillmore

Around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, four people gathered at Duboce Park on the Wiggle, each on a bicycle and, most notably, several bright orange traffic cones in their front baskets.  […]

Turning driverless cars into unicorns: A night with the group ‘coning’ Cruise & Waymo

Leer en español With Muni still at only 63 percent of its pre-pandemic ridership, it would seem that fewer passengers would make a driver’s job easier. Instead, drivers said, too […]

Masturbation, sex on the bus, taunts of ‘bitch’ — Muni drivers endure it all

Leer en español Taxi drivers and their allies rallied on Thursday at the California Public Utilities Commission to protest against the unlimited expansion of robo-taxi companies, Waymo and Cruise. The […]

Uber, Lyft & taxi drivers unite against Waymo, Cruise expansion

The unfinished, controversial center bikeway on Valencia Street has caused confusion and at least two bicycle crashes in its first eight weeks, with one cyclist reportedly landing in a hospital […]

Crashes, confusion on unfinished Valencia St. center bike lane

Leer en español Back in the 1970s, Muni general manager Curtis Green hit upon the idea of handing out pins emblazoned with the logo “Muni loves you.”  The ‘70s in […]

Muni, BART facing a crisis. State bailout is just the beginning.

Leer en español Just days after concrete barriers were removed from Capp Street and new steel bollard replacements were left to their own devices, some of the new bollards have […]

One week in, Capp Street barriers falling down on the job

Across the city, vandals keep scratching off the meter numbers that drivers use in mobile apps to pay for parking. Nobody knows exactly who or why, but two things are […]

It’s a meter, not a lottery ticket: Vandals draining transit funds

Leer en español Two weeks after the city began construction on Valencia’s center bikeway, the new bike lanes are steadily making their way down the street.  So far, crews have […]

Crews install Valencia center bike lanes, ban left turns 

When Herman McCoy parked his car and rushed inside Casa Adelante, an affordable housing complex on 16th Street, to grab the keys to his new apartment, a tow truck outside was already taking his car.

No parking at Mission affordable housing means tenants pay the price

On Tuesday afternoon, the Board of Supervisors approved a $3.3 million settlement for a cyclist struck by a city vehicle at the intersection of Valencia and 20th streets in November […]

Valencia St. cyclist struck by city truck receives $3.3M settlement

Leer en español According to a Mission Local analysis of city data, injuries from electric scooter collisions rose 31 percent in 2022, making it the fifth year in a row […]

Scooter injuries rose 31% in 2022

The self-driving future has arrived in San Francisco. And, increasingly and all too often, it looks like a confounded cop, road flare in hand, commanding a wayward autonomous vehicle as […]

‘No! You stay!’ Cops, firefighters bewildered as driverless cars behave badly