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 remains. The majority of its users interviewed by Mission Local this week said they did not feel safe using the center bike lane.
“When it works, it’s okay. When it doesn’t, it fails in catastrophic ways,” said Martin K., who commutes daily between Glen Park and SoMa, and said safety has not improved much between the old and new lanes. “It wasn’t great before. It’s not great now.”
As he rode away, a car made an illegal left turn across his path. Martin was forced to slow in the middle of the intersection and allow the car to pass, as the light turned from yellow to red.
Data from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency shows inconclusive results: In September, one month after implementation, bicycle traffic on Valencia was down between 40 and 50 percent; in its first three-month evaluation, the agency saw only a modest 3 percent increase.
The “bike highway” through the Mission District — a straight, two-way shot between 15th Street and 23rd Street — does make some commuters feel safer, as it isolates them from potential chaos from cars and pedestrians.
“For a cyclist, you’re not near the cars at all, you’re really in a stasis for bicycles,” said John Frediani, who said he rides in the lane once or twice a week, and prefers the new configuration to the previous side-running bike lanes that placed bikers between car traffic and parked cars. Then, they were at risk of getting doored, or having cars and pedestrians appear in the lanes.
Fears about the center bike lane were focused on cars moving into the lane — which is protected by bollards that can easily be run over — and cars making illegal left turns.
Another occasional user of the bikeway, Toni Toscano, said she likes the controversial lane and takes it twice a week during evening commute hours.
“I feel safer in it. I feel like I don’t have to be as alert to people loading and unloading, and people in the bike lane,” Toscano said.
Others, however, were initially open to the idea of the new center bike lane, but have since soured.
“I think when it first happened, I did feel like it was safer. The first month I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing,’” said Margo Urheim, a daily bicycle commuter to the Mission who was riding to work on Thursday morning.
But Urheim said that riding more in the new center bike lane revealed problems: The major changes were experienced by car drivers, she said, and “cars aren’t really receptive to change.” Left turns by cars off Valencia are now banned along the eight blocks between 15th and 23rd streets, but this rule is often disregarded. Drivers making illegal U-turns through the bike lane have also caused collisions.
Despite a perception that “you can just bomb down Valencia” in the bike lane, Urheim said, “I feel like I have to double-check and go really slow.”
Anosh Raj, another bike commuter, agreed. “I would’ve loved [the bikeway] if people followed the rules,” he said. But, in his experience, they do not.
Most of the daily bike commuters Mission Local interviewed took issue with the new bikeway, and those cyclists who were supportive of the new lane were typically less-frequent riders.
And even the supporters had critiques: Toscano, for example, said she feels unsafe making left turns. So she waits until she can use the crosswalks on foot.
Michael Hinks, another daily commuter, said he was supportive of the new bikeway initially, but found the transition areas into and out of the center bikeway dangerous. When the bike-only light turns green to allow cyclists to enter or exit the lane, he said, confused drivers sometimes start driving early, and he has nearly been hit.
“At first, it seemed like a good idea, but I also didn’t know it wasn’t going to go [all the way] to Market,” Hinks said. He added that drivers, who are now forced to stay in a single lane and, at times, face longer wait times, seem “a lot more aggressive” and run red lights.
Meanwhile, enforcement is apparently sparse. This reporter watched cars repeatedly make illegal left turns during the evening commute on Wednesday. A motorcyclist was driving in the bike lane as a police car drove into an intersection; the officers turned and went the other way.
Meredith White said she rides her bike to get around the city, but only uses the Valencia bike lane once a week.
“As a biker, I love it,” White said, pausing on her ride during the evening commute at 16th and Valencia streets. “I feel safe.”
Asked whether she has had issues with drivers making illegal left turns, White said she hadn’t. “I guess I’ve been lucky,” she said.
Moments later, as she rode away, a car made a left turn across her path as she and multiple other bikers crossed 16th Street from both directions. She braked, and the car came to a stop in the middle of the busy intersection, where irritated cyclists rode around it.
I ride this stretch Valencia twice a day 5 to 7 times a week. Often with my 1 year old.
I feel more relaxed and able to enjoy the sights and sounds of Valencia more than I ever before.
Merging out of bike lane does take practice and attention but is possible to do safely.
Yes, cars are breaking the law, and they were breaking the law by double parking in the bike lane before. Seems like that needs addressing. Seems reasonable to ask SFPD to it.
I’ve also seen more people in the primary/middle school age riding on Valencia than prior, which gives me great hope for the progression of SF towards being a more child friendly city.
My read is that what’s irritating cyclists is motorists’ refusal to obey the law. Of course, it makes sense that they don’t obey traffic laws – no one enforces them. What was that stat from a few years ago? Traffic citations went from 10,000 one year to 300 the next? So long as SFPD abdicates any role on the streets, drivers can and will do whatever they want.
We need enforcement to keep motorists in check. All the double parking throughout the busiest streets in the mission adding to congestion, the illegal turns throughout valencia making cycling unsafe, and all the cars racing down the muni lanes on mission needs to go. I wouldn’tmind cameras, cops, and citations to keep people in check. That money could be used for great stuff, like improving public transit and transit infrastructure.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. However, as a longtime cyclist in SF, a lot of cyclists also deserve to get citations. Constantly blowing through red lights, nearly running down pedestrians, doing maneuvers around cars that frighten or anger their drivers, going the wrong way down one way streets, etcetera. They think the traffic laws don’t apply to them, that their anarchy approach is somehow cool. Try those tactics in Europe and see what happens to you! For years I have feared that one day I will get run down by some motorist not for anything I’ve done, but because of a general rage toward cyclists, which some people have. Unfairly, but it’s there.
After having ridden my bicycle several times down the Valencia bike corridor, I find it to be a vast improvement over the driver treachery we had to deal with before. I feel safer and can go faster. Nothing will be perfect because humans are imperfect, particularly when driving. My only complaint is that it doesn’t stretch far enough. Keep the Valencia Street bike corridor and make one on Geary Blvd and/or California Street, San Bruno Avenue. SF for all its money is pitiful when it comes to supporting infrastructure for bicycle riders safety.
Thank you for this! I had only done informal interviews when riding in the mornings around 8:30am during my daily commute. There are relatively few cars around that time and it’s really a lovely ride. The evenings are a bit more hectic than the mornings, but I still find it more chill than when I would bike on the double-parking zone, I mean bike lane, before. Thanks for going out there to interview!
I’m a daily biker on it and love it. especially compared to the other options. Often these articles compare the bike like to a hypothetical ‘perfect’ solution, rather than compare it to the alternatives.
The previous bike lane was a complete mess. There was never a time when are car wasn’t parked in it. So much so that it was completely useless. As a driver turning right, bikers were constantly passing on the right even when you had your blinker on. Comparing the new bike lane to this or other possible solutions and its a big win.
I commute up Sycamore to Valencia. There is no easy way to enter the bike lane from that corner, and when I need to turn right I have to stop my bike to wait for cars to clear out, but then I’m worried that I’m partially blocking the bike lane. Regardless, the lane is so short and so unlike anything else in the Bay Area that it invites disaster.
If the city wants a good commute, how about making Valencia and Mission both one way streets and putting a bike lane that cannot be used for cars or parking on one side of each street. Manhattan, Boston, Chicago and many European cities do fine with mostly one way streets.
I ride the new lane now and then and I like it better for myself, but I worry about less paranoid riders.
The way I ride I’m expecting idiot drivers to do crazy sh*t at any moment and I’m rarely disappointed. The illegal left turns don’t surprise me. But for someone less experienced…. it could be deadly.
I’ve shared my feelings with drivers about their behavior and they are unrepentant. I hesitate to rely on the police here and these are largely ride share and delivery drivers. I wish we had a way of causing those companies trouble for their representatives’ bad driving.
The center bike lane is indeed more dangerous than the side bike lanes because of the left turn that some cars make illegally. It also makes it far harder for the bikers to make a right turn. They should have put the bike lane between the sidewalk and the parking area for the cars. That’s how other cities in North America do bike lanes and as a biker who didn’t have a car for 6 years, I felt quite safe riding in such bike lanes.
Having said that, I should point out that bikers in San Francisco are not as orderly and safety-minded. In all the years I biked in Montréal, I never ever saw a bicyclist making a left turn on green light like cars do by moving in the middle of the intersection waiting for the incoming traffic to clear. Instead, they just cross the street when the light turns green and then they wait for the green light on the other side to cross and complete their left turn. In other words, they wait for two green lights instead of one to make their left turn.
Sure, this might make their travel time a bit longer but beats the hell out of getting hit by a car while waiting in the middle of the intersection. When I bring this up, bikers tell me it’s perfectly legal to make a left turn like a car. Well, lots of things are legal but dangerous. Sort of like the center bike lane on Valencia: legal but dangerous!
I agree with you. More than thirty years ago I saw that many bike lanes in Germany were between the parked cars and the sidewalk. Made so much more sense! It sometimes means you can’t go quite as fast because you have to watch out for pedestrians who wander into bike lanes, but I’d rather deal with that than the danger of moving or parked cars. Also—just as a side note—I wonder why most people have taken to refer to cyclists as “bikers”? “Bikers” always used to mean “motorcyclists.” Also, why do people refer to what “cars” do? Cars don’t do anything by themselves, only their drivers. I advocate the practice in other English speaking countries: motorists.
Ozzie, the reason for the center bike lane is space. The street is not wide enough in that section for 2 lanes of parking, space for doors to open, 2 bike lanes and 2 car traffic lanes. That is why we have center lanes. On Valencia there are exactly what you propose for parking protected bike lanes. Rather dangerous in my opinion.
The center bike lane generally works OK as a “bike highway” to travel _through_ Valencia; the problem is it’s challenging for getting around Valencia itself, with the risk/anxiety involved in turning off of it.
We wouldn’t have this problem, of course, if the Valencia businesses had been sensible and accepted the original plan for parking protected bike lanes (which work pretty well for Valencia between 14th and 15th). Some of them will probably just continue rejecting anything whatsoever to improve traffic safety, but hopefully more of them will see the light now.
I use the new bike lane everyday to go to and from work. I love it most of the time. The biggest issue is lack of enforcement with drivers making dangerous left turns. Without enforcement, it will not be never be a success story. I like the idea of a one way mission/valencia street. I think this could be a success for all citizens.
My scariest experience biking in the center lane happened late on a Friday night. I was biking southbound on Valencia around 21st or so, and a normal car was driving straight towards me at normal speed in the center lane. I think I managed to squeeze by on the right side of the car. It was frustrating because even after passing me I don’t think the driver was aware it was doing anything wrong. There was little time for me to react, and I was lucky the driver stayed more to one side of the center lane. A head-on collision could easily have been fatal to me. Being a Friday night there’s a good chance they were drinking, but who knows.
I use it far less frequently and on a couple of occasions, I’ve almost been run over by cars mistaking the green for cyclists for the green for cars! I don’t know what the answer is, but personally, I feel more unsafe now than before, because you just don’t know where the danger is going to come from.
i find it amusing that cyclists blame cars for illegal behavior they themselves commit with regularity when it serves their needs or convenience.
both get away with violations that put everyone at risk. surely ML reporters must have seen cyclists behaving just as badly as vehicles (as i have seen repeatedly) yet somehow didn’t report it here.
both cars and bicycles abuse their privileges at the expense of pedestrians.
i believe the only reason cars aren’t driving on the sidewalks is because they won’t fit.
Gotta give up to SFMTA for doing the impossible – making a major commercial corridor that saw success during COVID become a total trainwreck in 2023/24. Closing the street to cars made that area a huge success and rather than build on that they momentum they took a U-turn and made the streets unintuitive, hostile to all modes of transportation, and ugly as sin. Thank you SFMTA for being an excellent case study in what NOT to do. Sincerely, an avid cyclist and ex-mission resident.
CC,
Keep in mind that Mayor Breed is completely responsible for SFMTA.
She chooses all of the commissioners.
She signs off on Fare Increases.
She learned to Rubber Stamp Cost Overruns working for Willie at a ‘Ballot Oversight Committee’ and then at Redevelopment and now she’s in charge giving ‘low bid’ contracts to cronies who then ask for more porriage.
So far this job has cost 4 times the initial projected cost and out my window overlooking the intersection of Valencia and 14th where the markings are worn off and from ‘4 barrel’ to headed North on Valencia there is an every man woman and child for their man woman and self.
Irritating… everybody. Over the last few years it is as if MTA, Rec&Park and the Presidio are in a competition over who can design the stupidest/most dangerous street layout.
And the winner is…
Third place: Actually “only” third, SFMTA. Valencia center bike lane (nough said)
Second place: The Presidio. All these recent changes since the pandemic may make sense on a construction drawing. Looked at at street angle, those now roundabouts and channelizations are a clutter of poles and signs and paint on asphalt. Driving, riding, walking – this induces quite the confusion, in particular to the scores of tourists unfamiliar with the area in the first place. I vividly remember a cyclist almost getting wiped out by a clearly confused motorist down at that new roundabout at Girard and Lincoln Blvd. Second place though was earned for the Washington Blvd slow street, in particular the intersection with Arguello. Before the pandemic, making the left turn from Arguello on Washington riding bike was easy, using that short dedicated left turn lane. Now you get to thread through a 10ft wide two-way bike lane which is gated by a rather harsh metal pole. This arrangement was messed up even better a few weeks ago when, in approach to the intersection, they added poles to the bike lane on Arguello. Now you not only need to sort yourself into car traffic, which has gotten harder to time due to the speed bumps they added. On top of all that, you get to do this exercise while threading the needle around those poles. Yes, last year a rider was wiped out by a driver too drunk to drive straight, but this can’t be the answer.
First Place: Rec&Park. JFK from Kezar to 9th Ave. Wasn’t this stretch connecting the Sunset to the east side of town, no? It wasn’t enough to squeeze riders year round by turning it into some kind of open air museum. For this winter, right in the middle of JFK, they dropped a massive light installation which used to be fielded over to the side. To be sure, it is a great piece, except, where it’s at, you get the entire width of JFK blocked, with the installation itself and a flock of admiring spectators.
Congrats to Rec&Park, stupidest and most dangerous!
If I bicycling I avoid Valencia. It’s a nightmare concocted by some out of touch $#€~@&/“?. SF has too many nonsense projects like this while ignoring the basics: like fixing the god damn road. And increasing parking space for cars, and also installing bike racks everywhere that parking meters got removed, which used to double as a bike locking spots. I shouldn’t have to beg the city and wait forever to get those things installed. But instead the city wastes money on nonsense that no one needs. It’s infuriating to say the least.
The previous configuration was just fine. This should serve as an object lesson that when people demand that government do something, anything and do it now, that yes, they can make matters worse.
Less is more.
Naw, the previous configuration was horrible.
Show us on the doll where you were traumatized by having to around a blocked bike lane within line of sight of the SFPD station on a street that’s timed for 13 mph.