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HOW TO
Bicycle Network Toolbox
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 It's fast and healthy to ride a bicycle!
Click on any picture for a bike-network slideshow.
 On-street bicycle lane, Market Street, San Francisco. Image: SFBC.
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A world-class bicycle network for San Francisco!
In San Francisco almost 50 percent of our carbon footprint comes from transportation. As a result of the challenges of global warming and the finite nature of cheap and plentiful oil, people are interested in encouraging transportation options with lower environmental impact. One of the simplest and most cost-effective strategies is encouraging everyday transportation by human power: bicycles! Not only is bicycling energy-efficient, it also relieves congestion and parking since bicycles are much more space-efficient than cars.
The national bike advocacy group, the League of American Bicyclists, has classified San Francisco as a Gold Level Bike-Friendly Community, with positive reviews of the city's engineering, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation. Still, much is to be done. San Francisco is in the midst of implementing a bicycle network. This is the result of grass-roots advocacy combined with the GREEN aspirations of City government. So far the process has been very slow, made even slower recently as the result of an injunction against the plan for insufficient environmental review. In the next few years the current plan will be implemented and it should foster an emerging bicycle culture. Right now, in spite of the current less-than-ideal situation, 16 percent of San Franciscans use bicycles frequently for everyday transportation. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has set a goal of 25 percent for the year 2012.
What is a Bike Network Toolbox? It's the set of tools the designers have to implement a network that is safe and encourages bicycling. The list below describes accepted strategies to accomplish this state. Unfortunately in California, we have to make do with a partial tool set—one that doesn't facilitate a complete network. Not all strategies in the list below make sense, or make sense without modification for local factors, but the big-picture truth is that cities like Paris have aggressively installed far more elaborate, costly, multifaceted, and connected bicycle networks than we have anywhere in the United States, including Gold Level cities such as San Francisco. The results have been dramatic increases in the amount and share of trips by bicycle, with commensurate drops in congestion and pollution. San Francisco deserves a world-class bicycle network, and it's time to encourage the City to supplement and refine its toolbox in the hopes of getting there.
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 This bike lane is in the Golden Gate Park Concourse in front of the de Young Art Museum.
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Bike Lanes
A common and effective strategy in the United States
These lanes are a common form of domestic bicycle infrastructure. They consist of a 5-foot or wider lane delineated by a painted line. They define bicycle space very effectively and are inexpensive to construct. They are technically referred to as a Class II bicycle facility.
Perceived negatives include the lack of separation from motorized traffic, which leads to the tendency for some cyclists to ride to the inside of the lane, making them vulnerable to "dooring," or running into a quickly opened car door. |
 Sharrow: a shared-road arrow to claim space for bicycles amid cars.
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Sharrows
"Shared arrows": developed in San Francisco
Often it is impossible to complete a bicycle route with dedicated lanes, which require significant roadway width. Small bicycle-route signs have proved to be ineffective in strongly identifying these routes. The San Francisco MTA Bicycle Program came up with the idea of "sharrows", a word made from "share" and "arrow." These symbols work very well. They remind motorists of the presence and rights of bikes and really affect drivers' behavior. Due to our local program's efforts, this symbol has been added to the accepted California Traffic Control Devices, which means that engineers across the state can utilize it without fear of excessive liability. |
 A Share the Road sign on Hayes Street in San Francisco.
 A shared bike-and-baby lane in France.
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Share the Road Signs
It doesn't seem as if every motorist reads or comprehends these signs, which are used in San Francisco in an attempt to discourage rude or dangerous driver behavior.
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 Portland recently instituted a bike box program in response to some "right hook" fatalities.
 London has implemented bike boxes at a high percentage of intersections.
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Bicycle Boxes
This is a device that is allowed in San Francisco, and there are a few implemented around town. It is widely used in European bicycle networks. The notion is to get the bicycles in front of the cars, making them very visible and helping reduce the "right hook" effect and other dangerous maneuvers by unaware or distracted drivers.
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 The green light in Vienna is good.
 Vienna's bicycle traffic lights have the best "stopped cyclist" symbol.
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Bicycle Traffic Lights
This is another strategy that is allowed but rarely implemented in California. In European cities, bike traffic lights are very common. They are frequently combined with bicycle boxes, giving the bikes an official head start on the car traffic behind.
There are a couple of places that could use bicycle traffic lights in San Francisco immediately. One place is at the bike box on 14th Street where it intersects Folsom. Right now there is an extended pedestrian walk light that bikes could start through the intersection on legally with enhanced safety. The second is at the "Schrader Valve" designed by Mike Sallaberry of the SFMTA near the end of the Golden Gate Panhandle mixed use path. The idea is to let bikes cross diagonally across the intersection on their own traffic light, which is a normal one. There is a bike symbol and arrow painted on the street but it's somewhat confusing without the little red and green bicycles.
In general it's a big boost to cyclists moral to have their own little traffic lights.
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 The counterflow bike lane allows bikes to ride legally the opposite way on a one-way street.
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Counterflow Bike Lanes A great tool for special situation
These lanes allow bicycles to travel "upstream" on a one-way street. This is useful, as many streets have been made one-way to facilitate automobile flow, incidentally creating a barrier for cyclists. A local example is the last two blocks of Polk Street just north of Market Street. The SFBC has proposed—and the City is very slowly implementing—a counterflow bike lane on this stretch that will allow much better bike access to City Hall.
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 This on-sidewalk bicycle lane in Budapest is striped with contrasting stone.
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On-Sidewalk Bicycle LanesIn the States we always place bike lanes in the street, while Europe frequently has bike lanes on the sidewalk. One factor against sidewalk lanes in San Francisco is the opposition of senior and disabled advocates, who are concerned about people being run over by rogue cyclists. Also, there is a fear that cyclists will shoot out across intersections from the sidewalk area and be hit by drivers who don't anticipate their presence, and whose view is obscured by parked cars, newspaper boxes, or some other sidewalk feature.
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 This bicycle crosswalk in Paris uses multiple bike symbols.
 This bicycle crosswalk in Paris uses colored pavement to alert cars to the presence of crossing bikes.
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Bicycle Crosswalks
Not sanctioned in California!In the U.S., we never extend our bike lanes through intersections. The result of this is when a rider come to a challenging place to ride, the protective lanes disappear, contrary to all logic. This isn't by accident: This strategy is prompted by liability concerns. A city can't be sued by a person injured in a bike lane that wasn't there in the first place. There is also the idea that a terrified rider is going to behave in a more conservative manner. The European systems tend to be complete: The lanes are striped right through the intersection, with colored pavement and bicycle symbols alerting drivers to the presence of bikes. It may not be any safer, but it feels safer, and the result is more people cycling.
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 Colored counterflow bike lane along the Marne River near Paris. The green lane allows cyclists to ride against traffic on a one-way auto street.
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Colored Bicycle Lanes Not sanctioned in California!Widely used in Europe, this tool is being used to denote more hazardous cycling situations in Portland, Oregon.
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 A separated bike lane, almost a road, in Jiaxing, China, near Shanghai. Chinese bicycle traffic is still great, although people are buying cars as fast as they can.
 This separated bike lane in Budapest effectively keeps the cars from encroaching on cyclists, yet allows regular street cleaning and drainage.
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Separated On-Street Bicycle Lanes
A more secure bike lane with a one- or two-way lane separated from car traffic by a barrier. Again common in European cities, it is infrequently implemented in the U.S. Objections include the difficulty of allowing frequent curb cuts, and concerns about cyclists shooting out into intersections from behind a screen of parked cars. The European designs address this by installing a number of warning devices at the intersections, and by a less-generous curb-cut policy. Additionally there is concern about the separation barrier obstructing street sweepers. This is an equipment issue. San Francisco has small street sweepers, but even so, curb barriers complicate street sweeping. One of the first American examples was just implemented in 2007 in New York City, where it seems to be working very well. |
 A bus-bike lane in Paris. The sign on the curb specifies hours when deliveries are allowed as long as the trucks pull halfway onto the sidewalk.
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Bus-Bicycle Lanes
This is a controversial technique, but one which sometimes makes sense. In Paris for example, the boulevards cut through a nest of ancient streets. Their original intent was to facilitate rapid travel between different districts. Road space on these boulevards in in great demand, and the Parisian traffic engineers' solution has been to install bus-bicycle lanes, frequently separated by curbs, with extreme video enforcement to keep cars out.
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 This giant bike symbol denotes a Berkeley Bicycle Boulevard.
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Bicycle Boulevards
The idea is to designate an entire street as a Bicycle Boulevard. Berkeley has done a nice version of this by using very large bike symbols to claim the space for bikes. Also Berkeley's secondary streets feature frequent closures that keep cars from using them as speedy shortcuts. This enhances the bicycle boulevard by eliminating aggressive non-local automobile traffic.
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 Next to the Marne River, this French traffic-calming design includes both a pinch (an abrupt narrowing of the street) and a speed table (a ramped sidewalk-level stretch of road), strategies that force cars to slow down.
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Traffic Calming
There are a number of design strategies to reduce the speed of motorized traffic. These result in a friendlier environment for bicycles as well as greater pedestrian safety. |
 This off-street mixed-use bike path in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle is a nice ride. It gets a lot of use by joggers and would benefit from 30-inch gravel "shoulders", which are good for runners and reduce pedestrian conflict with bicycles. For some reason, the San Francisco DPW refuses to mark the path with bicycle symbols.
 This off-street bike path next to Crissy Field in San Francisco's Presidio features three separate but equal asphalt lanes. It's not a successful design since it doesn't accommodate runners well and doesn't make intuitive sense, so people don't stay in the specified slot.
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Off-Street Bike Paths
This is a wide, completely separate road for cyclists, though frequently shared with walkers and runners. It has a recreational character, even though it's a great way to commute. There is a nice example in San Francisco in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. Caltrans recommends a 10-foot-wide path, with shoulders on either side for joggers, which works well. If the shoulders are paved with decomposed granite (or D.G., a compacted dirt surface that is relatively smooth), the width of impervious paving is limited. This is good for shared trails, as runners like the more resiliant dirt surface. In more rural situations, the entire path can be D.G., making a very relaxed and beautiful trail such as the one alone the Marne River near Paris.
Technically this is referred to as a Class I bicycle facility in the U.S. 
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 "O" racks, a variation on "U" racks at Mint Plaza, a public right-of-way in San Francisco. The galvanized finish has a lot of character and is less costly than stainless steel.
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Bicycle Parking Providing secure and convenient bicycle parking is a key element in encouraging cycling. Unfortunately bicycle theft is very common, so being able to properly secure a bike is extremely important. There's much more detail on bicycle parking here.
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 A bicycle wayfinding sign in Paris.
 A bicycle wayfinding sign in Vienna.
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Bicycle Wayfinding Signage
There are international standards for these signs, which are placed along major bicycle routes to direct cyclists and advise them of distances. Berkeley has done an excellent implementation of these signs.
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 Velib!
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Bicycle Sharing Systems
Paris has implemented an ambitious—more than 20,000 bikes—automated bicycle-sharing program named Velib. It has been an instant success, with many Parisians newly taking to the streets on bikes.
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