Cycle-commuting reader Mickey B. (who also happens to have a great mob nickname) was unable to enjoy the exhilaration of riding down the freshly painted green bike lanes on Market Street this morning thanks to this color-blind driver. He adds:
A friend of mine passed it after I did and said the car was unlocked and there was a purse on the seat…
I wanna know how this car even managed to get in there! She obviously wasn’t able to fit through those narrowly spaced posts, so she must have entered the bike lane at the beginning of the block, proceeded about halfway, and then stopped her car and got out. Do automobile drivers really feel so entitled that they think they can get away with this?
To be fair, on the commute this morning I noticed that even the majority of cyclists themselves prefer to avoid the bike lane when they can in favor of the street, green paint or not (although this stretch of Market is also off-limits to private vehicles so it’s inherently safer):
Anyway, in general the separated green bike lanes are a huge win for cyclists everywhere (not just in SF), and I’m all for them since they encourage cautious people who might be too frightened to bike amongst the cars and buses to try out cycle commuting in somewhat safer fashion.
Don’t forget that this Thursday, May 13, is the 16th annual BIKE TO WORK DAY, so remember to pedal out with your cyclist pride on full display. As usual, the SFBC will be hosting recharging stations throughout the city with free schwag that’s actually useful and awesome (bags, patch kits, water), so volunteer if you have a chance! See you out there!
Previously:
 was unable to enjoy the exhilaration of riding down the freshly painted green bike lanes on Market Street this morning thanks to this color-blind driver. He adds: A friend of mine passed it after I did and said the car was unlocked and […]</p>
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If bikers want to bike in a more secure and safe fashion they should stop and stop signs, not go on the sidewalk, and signal where they are turning. Until then its “stick in the spokes” as usual.
Oh good, the internet tough guy contingent has arrived.
Go get ‘em, Kyle.
so by your logic Kyle, if i see any driver run a stop sign or do something unsafe, it should be open season to smash up any car i see with a baseball bat because we don’t understand the basic concept of punishing individuals and not groups? is prejudice back in style? did a cyclist steal your woman or man?
I think you’re both thinking too much about this. If you are confronted with ANYONE, car driver or bike rider (or, for that matter, don’t-walk-signal-violating pedestrian), who can’t go by the rules of the road (or sidewalk)… well, then, OF COURSE you should fuck them up big time. Rock through the windshield, kick in the spokes, or full-throttle through the jaywalkers — it’s all good. Let anarchy reign.
You not only sound like an idiot, Rod, you sound relatively arrogant too.
missed the sarcasm/missed the tone/missed the point/missed the boat
Is the paint safe to brake on? I remember from my motorcycle days that you can skid pretty easy when trying to brake on crosswalk paint or the letters on the road.
It seems to be a colored asphalt as opposed to the crosswalk paint which is less porous. Might be a little slicker but it doesn’t seem to be too bad.
yeah I don’t like the sheen on that paint.. looks slippery.
either way, I’m all for vigilantes. mark get a good spoke poke stick, and cyclists give that pictured car a good kick in the sideview mirror. you can also bend antennas pretty fast while riding by.
a good old fashioned spit in the open window always does the trick for me.
the green paint wasn’t too bad this morning in the drizzle- there’s some orangey-brown paint though at 6th, and 5th that’s much more slippery. I saw two people bite it last week at low speed, so be careful.
btw- in the 2nd pic, the reason why it’s better to take the lane there is because there have been shuttle & tour buses that park at the end of the bike lane in front of the hotel, so you need to take the lane sooner
See, all the angry bicyclists that have been wrong love to talk about how they punish the rest of us while they ignore practically all traffic laws themselves. Act like human beings, Cyclists, and you’ll be treated as such.
Kyle,
I don’t think anybody is advocating punishing anybody other then those specific individuals who have committed a crime.
Except you – you’re the one advocating assaulting cyclists over some kind of subjective assessment of what they all do….. because we all know that cars always follow the rules.
So I suggest that you go out and do it, go stick a piece of wood into a moving bike… tough guy. Instead of being yet another cowardly internet hypocrite.
surprised they didn’t use sandpaint.
I’ve seen this car “park” here before. They do this to unload stuff from the car to Nick’s Foods right there. Pretty annoying.
I can use the green lane, and then swerve left into the bus lane at every intersection (see second image).
Or, I can just stay in the bus lane, and not have to leap in front of a bus every few hundred feet.
Huh.
I second this sentiment – by staying in the bus lane courtesy, safety, and efficiency all align – unfortunately they all align exactly not in the pretty green lane. I’m not sure suggesting that riders go in and out of the flow of traffic down Market makes things any easier.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz what? Huh? Oh, another bike nazi argument. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
[...] I was going to take a pic this morning of what they posted here (full post here). [...]
On the paint
Look at paragraph 2 on page 2 of:
http://www.sfmta.com/cms/bproj/documents/SF_Colored_Pavement_Experiment_Request_FINAL_9_08.pdf
“Before application of a colored material on public right-of-way, San Francisco will test multiple materials to compare durability, ease of application, ease of maintenance, and visibility under varying light and weather conditions. Based upon an initial review of available products, the preferred colored material will likely be a micro surface binder consisting of a colored synthetic bitumen emulsion, with glass beads added to provide retroreflectivity.”
We’ve had them in Australia for a while now… People still park on them…
I am all for having separate bike lanes, safety, health, exercise, outdoor, the works….however painting the pavement green, takes the “green” out of this initiative. There has to be a better way!
[...] Freshly Painted Green Bike Lanes on Market Apparently Not Quite Enough [...]
i’m all for the separate bike lanes, but they need to make them go straight through intersections so that we aren’t darting in front of cars to stay in the bike lane.
also, i know sometimes in the city you gotta double park, but don’t do it in the bike lane. in the example above the car should double park in the 2nd car lane, that way cars can go around him in the 1st lane and bikes can still get through.
[...] (via MissionMisson) [...]
[...] At least he’s not blocking the whole lane like the last guy. [...]
Driving/Biking/Walking I do them all, and assume most do… I still find cyclist to be a higher percentage of stupid and not following any rules.
Some cars run red lights and annoy me, some people walk in the don’t walk or j-walk, but far more bikes do whatever they want, like ride on the sidewalk and push me out of the way when I walk, or ride on the roads and don’t stop, signal.
Face it; many of us know what it’s like when on our bike or driving. I try to pay attention, but at times a bike will appear from nowhere, and I may cause him some incontinence, but seem like even my heartfelt apologies that I give out when I am in the wrong just can’t be accepted. WHY?
We should all try to assume good intentions, and don’t think everyone hates each other, they are just tired from working to pay higher taxes to provide new green lanes that obviously still get used by the wrong mode of transportation.
[...] for one, was happy to hear the news: San Francisco is seeing firsthand how improvements like the green, fully separated bike lanes on Market Street are increasing everyone’s safety and comfort and attracting more people [...]
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