A hot tip from reader Eric E.:
Not exactly Mission but I heard from some various sources (i.e. friends at work & this guy on twitter) that SFPD is orchestrating a “no bikes on the sidewalk” ticketing sting in front of the Ferry Building this morning. Guess Spare the Air days would be the most profitable time to do it, no? =P Lame.
Careful out there, everybody!
 that SFPD is orchestrating a “no bikes on the sidewalk” ticketing sting in front of the Ferry Building this morning. Guess Spare the Air days would be the most […]</p>
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Or how about not ride on the sidewalk like a total douche?
Are you kidding? Who do you think you are? Hitler? Riding a bike in SF is an entitlement. You can run red lights and bump into anyone you want. Don’t like it? Go the frak out of the way, Goebbels!
Why don’t they do this normally?
This shouldn’t be a “sting” operation, this should be normal traffic policing.
I thought that that sidewalk is one of the ones where you _can_ ride your bike.
Herb Caen Way or something…
Hey thanks for posting my tip! I was shocked to hear it b/c as far as I know while it might be technically against the rules, it’s never been enforced. And yeah, this is not even about bikers zipping around dangerously between pedestrians. From my personal experience, it’s mainly people exiting the BART station and *slowly* kick-push-coasting their way across the huge Ferry Building plaza on the way to NB or SB Embarcadero. Not to mention all the BMX dudes out there every single day!
Yeah, they shouldn’t be enforcing a rule that keeps a 20 mile per hour wheeled vehicle from running over or crushing into people. What are they thinking? Shocking!
If by “never been enforced” you mean “hasn’t been enforced in the past few years,” then yes.
when will they have a sting operation for driving/double parking in the bike lane on Embarcadero?
Word up!
My understanding was the sidewalk along the Bay was a multi-use promenade under the Port of San Francisco’s control and cycling was legal on it.
http://www.spur.org/files/u7/PATRI2009.pdf
“Though bicyclists can legally bike on the Promenade, it is not an ideal place to get from one location to another, and it is often frustratingly crowded for both bicyclists and pedestrians.”
This is why we need above-ground velo-tubes.
Word up X 2
So they’re going to hand out tickets to European tourists?
Good luck with that.
The city is spending so much money on bike lanes, why the hell do you need to ride on the sidewalks? vote miller
YAY!
you gotta pick your battles, just cause this antagonizes cyclists doesn’t make it worth celebrating. this is a really wide scenic sidewalk, almost all of the riders on it are slowly-moving tourists and weekenders terrified of riding on the streets. the everyday cyclists take the bike lane on Embarcadero. where a sting like this would really be effective would be Fell st or certain strips of Market.
SFPD in general are on a ticket writing binge this year. http://bit.ly/abGelA
On Wednesday, I saw a uniformed officer in a cruiser ticketing a parked car on a back street in Mission Terrace for an expired license plate tag. A few months back, I was pulled over for making an “illegal U-turn” with my car on San Jose whilst pulling out from a parking spot on the street to return home from a corner shop.
I look at this excessive ticket-writing and over-enforcing of petty regulations as yet another tax we have to pay to corrupt bankers and politicians. Just as the Sheriff of Nottingham shook down the folks in the Sherwood Forest, SFPD terrorizes harmless cyclists commuting to work down the promenade. This larceny perpetrated by the city is really merely another poorly advised campaign to sustain the unsustainable property values, rent, and mortgage “wealth” the city of San Francisco pretends to have at its disposal to tax.
Now that the imaginary property values are beginning to recede, the property tax revenue is also going to decrease. So, you’re going to see an increase in the number of punishments meted out by SF and the State of California for trivial offenses like this.
Yes! I’m totally in favor of ticketing bikes on the sidewalk. Would love to see them ticket bikes for running stop lights too, but the sidewalk thing is definitely a bigger issue…
“No riding on the sidewalk” is one of those bike rules that I think most of us bicyclist can totally agree with (except the one who got a ticket)
If SFPD wants to send a message out they should post themselves in the Wiggle, especially Waller @ Pierce. They’ll rake in the ducats.
Near misses every day and a weak Doppler effect, Soooorry, doesn’t cut it.
SFPD should be cracking down hard on all bicyclists that break the rules. Helmets, running lights, ignoring crosswalks, sidewalks. And big fines too. We’ve spent a lot of money on making SF more bike friendly. Cyclists need to show appreciation by following the rules, and if they can’t then they need to pay up for all those lanes.
i don’t think we’ve spent a lot of money on cycling, and i don’t think SF is quite bike friendly right now (RIP Nils), bike tolerant, maybe.
it’s a bit silly to see sting operations targeted specifically at cyclists while car-related accidents are the ones that rack up the most deaths and injuries. i don’t really care about the ticket stats, i think safety should be the priority. there’s a lot of drunk driving in this city and that’s what really scares me.
i’ve been a driver, cyclist and pedestrian here for years and the only times i’ve felt my life threatened on the road have been encounters with unsafe/drunk drivers and taxis. i’ve been pissed off by stupid stuff that bikers and pedestrians have pulled, but they were never life-or-death situations. i guess my opinion with traffic enforcement is safety first. cars are inherently more dangerous than bicycles and should command more responsibility and harsher punishments. i guarantee no lives were saved today by stopping people from riding on the embarcadero. a drunk-driving sting on Valencia, Polk or Masonic on a Saturday night would have a much higher chance of keeping people safe.
This year’s pedestrian accident numbers are about half the fault of the driver, half the fault of the pedestrian/bicyclist.
They can enforce the laws for bicyclists at the same time that they keep enforcing the laws for drivers too. It’s not a one or the other kind of thing. I doubt that we’ll see any less drunk driving checkpoints this weekend just because some bicyclists got ticketed for breaking the law.
WHEN CAN I VOTE FOR YOU FOR MTA BOARD? Or Supe?
Yesterday I got yelled at by a Desoto taxi: “Get out of my way!” Thought to myself, “but I’m just here on my bike, signaling to go left, waiting for the path to be clear (ped was crossing in the Xwalk) and… oh nevermind”
sigh
Doc, that’s a good point. i have no idea how they allocate resources. does having a sting during the day mean they can’t have another at night? i don’t know.
“WHEN CAN I VOTE FOR YOU FOR MTA BOARD? Or Supe?”
[[[THAT WAS FOR ROD.]]]
thanks lex, but i’m sure it’s not as simple as i make it out to be and there are more considerations that go into these kinds of policies. i speak from a selfish point of view, but i think most people can share my aversion to injury or death.
I know, I know. I’m not really a single-issue political junkie; I just play one on the internet. Not sure about your assumption re: injury or death based on some of the driving behavior I see out there.
My wish came true! I was walking from pier 3 to the ferry building last week and it was pretty annoying almost being run over every few seconds by packs of tourists on bicycles.
Next wish. Start aggressively ticketing bikers without lights. I bike everyday in the mission and am really psyched to see more bikers but it’s so dangerous to ride at night without a light. The cars can’t see us without lights. Since I don’t see the bike community strongly promoting this I think the only way to educate bikers and keep them safe is to start ticketing.
http://www.sfbike.org/?lights
how active are you in the bike community? last Bike To Work day the Bike Coalition was handing out lights for free.
There are a lot of bike stings going on right now, actually. It’s not just the Ferry Building. It’s been the Wiggle, various pedestrian areas, and so on.
It’s absolutely the new plan/policy to hand out a lot more bicycling tickets.