SF Bike Bookshelf

Selected documents of interest to students of bicycling, sustainable transportation, and quality-of-life policy and practice . . .

Bike & Streets Data

Market Street bike counter (EB Market betw 10th & 9th Streets)

Fell Street bike counter (WB Fell betw Scott and Divisadero Streets)

Bicycle Report cards at the SF Bicycle Coalition's website

Locals

Jon Winston is telling podcast bike stories at Bikescape (be sure to listen to the Octavia Blvd. tour with Robin Levitt and Tom Radulovich)

Paul Dorn's outstanding Bike Commute Tips blog

Brandon Baunach is The Bitter Cyclist

Even the Devil Rides, urban cycling in SF

the SFBike list on Riseup

I choose not to wear a helmet when I ride a bike in San Francisco, here's why

I think mandatory bicycle helmet laws are a bad idea, here's why

The Advocates:

San Francisco Bike Plan 2004 2005 2008 2009

This section is mostly out of date, or anyhow I'm not keeping it up too closely right now — the Bike Plan injunction has frozen all physical improvements in San Francisco since June 20, 2006.

Draft Network Improvement Document

The San Francisco Bicycle Advisory Committee has just completed a public review of the Bike Plan 2005 Draft Network Improvement Document, the "Plan part" of the Bike Plan 2005 (the "Policy part" has passed through the Planning Commission in February and is headed to the Board of Supervisors). The timeline for this review was set for the sake of the DPT Bike Program's submission to the to the SF County Transportation Authority's 5-Year Prop. K funding process, but of course review of the Bike Network Plan as a larger planning process by the BAC will continue as an ongoing matter.

Here are some documents discovered or presented to the BAC as part of this review:

complete Bike Network Improvement Document, at the DPT Bike Program website
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's comments on the DPT Bike Program's Prop. K 5-Year Plan, made in consultation with representative of Transportation for a Livable City and the SFBAC: An overview outline of suggestions, and a spreadsheet of specific suggestions
Dave Snyder's Guide to the Bike Plan Update 2005 (22 Kb PDF)

Do you know a street or route that should be in the Bike Network but isn't? Send your recommendations to the SF Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Bike Plan Update Policy Framework

Here are some documents discovered or presented to the BAC earlier as part of the Draft Policy Framework review in Summer 2004:

Bike Plan 2004 Draft Policy Framework, at the DPT Bike Program website (separate PDF chapters)
the Draft Supplemental Design Guidelines, an appendix to the Policy Framework (1.5 Mb PDF)
Public Comments on the 2004 Bike Plan and the Draft Policy Framework, taken by the SFBC (over the past year) and the SF BAC (over the past few months).
comments on the 2/17/04 Administrative Draft Policy Framework prepared by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (144 Kb PDF)
comments on the Draft Policy Framework prepared by Bridget May, District 5 Representative to the SF Bicycle Advisory Committee (63 Kb PDF)
comments on the Draft Policy Framework prepared by Josh Hart, Program Director, SF Bicycle Coalition (47 Kb PDF)
comments on Supplemental Design Guidelines prepared by Dave Snyder, former Executive Director, Transportation for a Livable City
SF County Transit Authority's Draft Final San Francisco Countywide Transportation Plan
need a quick summary? — here's a slideshow overview of the Plan (1 Mb PDF) presented to the Chamber of Commerce
SF County Transit Authority's Market Street Study, Final Draft Action Plan (3.2 Mb PDF)
Dangerous Conditions in San Francisco's Street System by Greg Hayes (483 Kb PDF)
Walk San Francisco and the San Francisco Police Department conducted two crosswalk stings in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 15 and Thursday, June 17, 2004 - both from 8 to 10 am. Seems like this would work for educating motorists about bike-dangerous behavior, too.

LOS (Level-of-Service), Complete Streets, and Quality of Life

Planning and implementing better, safer streets for bicyclists — and pedestrians and seniors and children and everyone else not in a motor vehicle — is generally complicated by over-representation of automobile drivers' experience (congestion, convenience) in evaluating costs and benefits. Ironically, environmental quality considerations (regulated by CEQA law in California) are often the biggest obstacles to surmount when attempting to making these quality-of-life improvements to city streets, not because bikeways contribute to air pollution / noise polution / water pollution (mostly not), but because taking pavement away from private motorcars is likely to diminish the "Level of Service" experienced by drivers below a failing-grade threshold of convenience.

A bunch of smart people are working on reforms to the LOS rulebook and auto-centric public space planning here in SF, as well as re-framing the question of "Level of Service" to a broader accounting of livability, safety, peace and equity. It may seem like a little thing, but civility is the lifeblood of a successful city . . .

SF County Transportation Authority's Strategic Analysis Report 02-03 on LOS methodologies (246 Kb PDF)
Transportation Impact Significance Criteria, San Francisco Planning Department (Appendix B of the SFCTA LOS SAR, 60 Kb PDF)
CERES (California Environmental Resources Evaluation System) has a clickable flowchart of the CEQA process
South Coast Air Quality Management District's* comprehensive overview of CEQA
SF Bicycle Advisory Committee discussion on LOS practice in San Francisco, 12/17/03 (103 Kb PDF)
The SF Bicycle Coalition's summary study of Bike LOS and non-auto roadway performance measures (137 Kb PDF)
Reconsidering Level of Service as an environmental indicator for the California Environmental Quality Act: a public health perspective, by Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH, Director, Environmental Health, San Francisco Department of Public Health
SF Streets presents a simple proposal for local legislators to strike the CEQA significance of LOS for projects with substantial public health and safety benefits (63 Kb PDF)
Auto LOS is Ruining our City — Needed Reforms for Safer Streets, More Sustainable Travel, and Greater Efficiency of Transportation System (2.2 Mb PowerPoint), a presentation by Transportation for a Livable City and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Completing the streets means routinely accommodating travel by all modes — read about Complete Streets, a "quality-of-life LOS" approach at America Bikes
Quantifying the Benefits of Non-Motorized Transport for Achieving TDM Objectives, by Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute (55 Kb PDF)
Pleasanton (California) Residential Quality-of-Life LOS study (121 Kb PDF)

*the air pollution control agency for all of Orange County and the urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties

Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park Bicycle Improvements Study (1.2 Mb PDF), prepared by the SF Bike Coalition for the GG Park Concourse Authority as part of the Transportation Improvements Plan mandated by Proposition J
Golden Gate Park Bicycle Implementation Plan, prepared by The Duffey Company as part of the Transportation Improvements Plan mandated by Proposition J (2.7 Mb PDF)

Other Bike Planning & Policy

Paul Schimek's superb Dilemmas of Bicycle Planning (courtesy of MassBike, the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition)
Caltrans' Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities in California – Technical Reference (9.6 Mb PDF draft at Alta Planning)
Promoting Safe Walking and Cycling to Improve Public Health: Lessons from The Netherlands and Germany (80 Kb PDF)
A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works — so claims the author of this curious article from Salon, March 2004 (256 Kb PDF)

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