After four years, court lifts ban on new bike infrastructure in San Francisco

[Newsjock]

Source: Streetsblog

After nearly four years of legal wrangling, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter Busch lifted the city's bike injunction this afternoon, freeing the SFMTA to begin working on implementing the remaining projects in the Bike Plan, and soundly rejecting the objections made by plaintiff Rob Anderson and his attorney Mary Miles.

"We are celebrating San Francisco's freedom to once again make streets safer for everyone and look forward to real improvements on the streets in a matter of days," said Renée Rivera, acting executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "This is the first time in San Francisco's history that this many bike lane projects are approved and ready to be striped. These long-awaited improvements will help growing numbers of people feel more confident, comfortable and safe when they bike to shop, to work and to play."

Busch's ruling late today ends a long legal ordeal for the city, bike advocates and the increasing numbers of San Francisco bicyclists who have been starving for significant improvements in bicycle infrastructure. Though the city got a partial lifting late last year, the SFMTA has been held back from moving full speed ahead on innovative projects it has in the works, and very often was hesitant to make even minor improvements, fearing it would jeopardize the city's case.

... In his ruling, Busch said he disagreed with all of Miles' key arguments and found that the city's exhaustive EIR on the Bike Plan fully complied with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). "The Court finds that the City did not abuse its discretion in certifying the EIR as in compliance with CEQA, nor did the City abuse its discretion by the process of approving the EIR."

Read more: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/08/06/cyclists-cheer-as-judge-finally-frees-san-francisco-from-bike-injunction/

[onehandle]

1. Good. I wish I lived in a bike friendly city... state... region. nt

[AsahinaKimi]

2. I wonder if this will bring back

The bike messenger service. Those guys were pretty crazy cool!

[onehandle]

3. It wasn't roads that did in most of the bike messengers, it was fax machines and the Internet.

[Cant trust em]

4. Bike messengers still exist in San Francisco.

Just go to the Uptown Lounge on 17th at Capp. That's their hangout. Great jukebox there.

[mopinko]

5. i could not imagine biking in san fran.

around the waterfront, cool. over those hills? argh. don't think so. kudos to those that do.

[Newsjock]

6. There are ways

A well-known part of the existing bike network is The Wiggle, a series of block-at-a-time maneuvers that steer cyclists around the worst hills on the main east-west route from the bay to the ocean. But yes, going almost anyplace other than that, you're talking about hills. Some streets have grades that exceed 30%, but mere mortals don't even try cycling on them.

One intrepid cyclist did, and made a short movie about it. Warning: 20MB download. Doesn't appear to be on YouTube.
http://www.chanarchy.com/rhr/video/russian-hill-roulette-20051114.mpg

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. I live on one of those hills --

No way to wiggle up to my house. :D When I was a kid I had the strength to push my bike back up the hill after a day of riding, but those days are loooong gone. I would love to bike more around town but coming home is just too daunting.

[mopinko]

9. well i guess that beats how i feel about

dragging my bike up a half dozen stairs at the end of a ride!

[Froward69]

8. Comie plot!!!

at least that what tea baggers think. ;-)

[Karenina]

10. In my city, you can pick up a sturdy bike with the swipe of a card

and leave it at your destination. They appear on the streets in spring and disappear in winter. Red brick marks the bike paths and a bike symbol is included on traffic lights.