Market St Traffic Reduction Experiment Starts This Week
Cyclists of San Francisco: go ride Market Street this week! Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, September 29, any private vehicles headed eastbound on Market Street in San Francisco will have to turn off at 8th Street to make way for bikes, pedestrians, public transit, taxis, and delivery vehicles. Mwah ha ha haaaa!! AT LAST!!!
For those who don’t know, Market St. is one of San Francisco’s busiest thoroughfares and many cyclists use this crowded street for their daily commute — despite it being total crap for bike commuting.
The San Francisco Market Street blog says the “trial will be effective all day, seven days a week.” It’s not clear how long the experiment will last, but city officials will be monitoring the results and will presumably be making recommendations for more permanent changes based on what they observe.
In its present state, Market St. is not at all safe for cyclists. The street is dense with buses, Muni cars, frustrated taxis, distracted tourists on foot, aggressive drivers, potholes, puddles hiding worse potholes, metal grates, pigeons, drunk hobos, and jaywalking Muni-riders snaking through stopped traffic. And maybe even aggressive hobos hiding in puddles.
I think a lot of cyclists ride on Market St simply because…a lot of cyclists ride on Market St. But I’m not sold on this “safety in numbers” strategy. First, some of the more adept cyclists use Market St as their chance to prove something and pass other cyclists way too close with no warning. On the other end of the spectrum are the cyclists that are not yet skilled bike handlers and are twitching all over the place and they just make me nervous.
When I ride Market, I actually try to stay away from the little pods of cyclists — sad, that I feel safer avoiding the other cyclists. I’ll also use other streets altogether, like Mission or Grove, depending on where I’m coming from. But I’m curious to see how the removal of private vehicles might improve the cycling experience on Market, and I can’t wait to try.
See you on the street!