Plan To Transform SF's Market Street Would Eliminate Buses To Accommodate Bicycles
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— What would San Francisco's Mission Street be without buses Safer, say many bicyclists. The latest plan to revamp Market Street would take all buses off Mission Street and move the bicycle lanes from Market to Mission, which would be altered to make it bike friendly.
Even with stretches of dedicated bicycle lanes, Market is a tangle of transit with streetcars, buses, taxis, private cars and bicycles all vying for space on one roadway.
Rachel Gordon from San Francisco's Department of Public Works said there are different ways of approaching the issue.
"You could have a dedicated bike lanes; one is kind of an innovative way in Golden Gate Park on JFK Drive where parked cars serve as the barrier between the bicyclists and the traffic lanes," said Gordon.
Then there's the simple option of separating cars and bikes by planted medians. Whatever the design, the idea is to make Mission safe for bicyclists by moving the buses to Market, just one block north.
Plan To Transform Market Street Would Eliminate Buses From Mission Street To Accommodate Bicycles
"We already have a big chunk of the bus lines going down Market Street. This would put the 14 Mission [bus] on Market Street along with those buses. It reduces the conflict between bicyclists and buses," she said.
In the meantime, city planners are expected to study the issue and plenty of hearings would be necessary to implement these changes.
(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
