Bicycle Coalition: "Si Se Puede"

Marc J. Zilversmit wrote:

The Bicycle Coalition is still trying to close traffic lanes on Cesar Chavez. They are having another meeting Tuesday night. If you can make it and let them know that we are not in favor of increased gridlock, then show up and be heard: Tuesday, 6:30 pm, Bernal Gateway Apartments, 3101 Mission Street (at Cesar Chavez).

 

I went to the last meeting. The neighbors seem fairly united against the bike lanes if it means closing traffic lanes. Cesar Chavez is already gridlocked with 3 lanes in each direction. It is a major artery to the freeway that gets people off of the streets. If a lane is closed, traffic is likely to spill into the neighboring streets in Bernal Heights and back up into Noe Valley.

I have proposed putting the bike lane on 26th St., which is residential and much calmer, seemingly an ideal place for bikes. But the Bicycle Coalition thinks it is slightly less convenient for them, so they keep pushing for the bike lane on Cesar Chavez. Also, Cesar Chavez has a lot of day laborers who get picked up on the street. Bike lanes would interfere with the day laborers. It is a completely bone-headed idea.

If you can't make it, please email Dept of Parking and Traffic and Tom Ammiano Jack.Fleck@sfgov.org; Manito.Velasco@sfgov.org; Tom.Ammiano@sfgov.org; jimmer.cassiol@sfgov.org

Here is a sample email that you can cut and paste:

I read the recent Chronicle piece about the Cesar Chavez "traffic calming project." This project is being forced on the neighborhood by the Bicycle Coalition against the wishes of the neighbors. The neighbors are all against this proposal to cut down the street from 3 to 2 lanes in each direction and to add a bike lane. The neighbors and drivers have all been advocating a bike lane on 26th street, a perfect compromise. Cesar Chavez is already backed up with an excess of traffic. Pedestrians and bikers can easily cross the street at all but one or two intersections, because there are traffic lights at nearly every intersection, every 50 to 100 feet. While the street could use some beautification, there is no need for "calming" or further congestion. The closing of traffic lanes at San Jose/Guerrero has already cut off a major access to the freeway. Closing down a lane on Cesar Chavez would further cut off access to the freeway and keep more traffic on the streets instead of on the freeways. Closing Cesar Chavez will further back up onto San Jose/Guerrero, clogging a street even more that is already clogged due to added bike lanes. It threatens the residential streets of Precita and 26th Street with increased freeway traffic. It also threatens to back up into other areas of Bernal Heights and Noe Valley. Finally, Cesar Chavez Street has traditionally been a street for day laborers. Placing a bike lane at the curb would make it difficult if not impossible for trucks to pick up day laborers, or endanger the day laborers by requiring them to run out into the bike lanes. It would be ironic if a street named for a champion of day laborers was made unavailable to them for the convenience of a few bikers, who, for some reason, find the perfectly reasonable alternative of a 26th Street bike lane to be less convenient. The Bicycle Coalition's adoption of Chavez's motto "si se puede" for this traffic-clogging project is a particularly painful irony.