4.1 Status of San Francisco’s Bike Lanes In the current development of bicycle traffic, San Francisco cannot compare with Amsterdam or Copenhagen, but it has done quite well in the nation. San Francisco is one of the initial seven members of the Green Lane Project in the U.S. Green lanes are next-generation bike lanes being built across the country. They are dedicated and appealing spaces for bicyclists that are protected from vehicles and independent from pedestrian sidewalks. Most of them are printed green to attract attention. Fig.01 Green Lane Project Membership. (Source: http://greenlaneproject.org)
San Francisco is quickly catching up after last few years’ development since 2007. By 2014, has a total of 14 protected green lanes, most of them are in downtown core and Mission District. However, these are not enough …show more content…
However, bicycle usually use for the 3 miles or less short trip, its own speed isn’t a problem. The main issue is the fluency of bicycle trip. Most of the unbuffed bike lanes and share roads are often blocked by cars, pedestrians and intersections. The person who is riding on this kind of bike lane has to be very careful and prepare for a sudden stop or detour. Fig.10 Bike lane was blocked by a car.
Additionally, the shortage of dedicated bike lanes is the biggest barrier for the development of bicycling. In San Francisco, there are only 14 streets have green bike lanes, and almost all of them are less than 1 miles. This means if bicyclists want to go to a destination safely, they have to spend much more time to detour to those streets that have green bike lanes, and cannot take the shortest route.
Safety, convenience and speed are major concerns to hinder people to choose bicycle as the first choice for their trips. The best way to encourage people to ride a bike is to create safe, convenient and fluent bicycling environment for