Comment on SF activists protect Mission bike lane with their bodies

“I’m helping to organize this protected bike lane because clearly our city officials lack the political will to do this, and it’s only by putting our bodies on the line that we’re going to show that this is an important issue,” said Persico, 53, who has been biking in San Francisco for 17 years. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and other activist groups want more of the city to follow the example of Valencia Street further south, on the stretch from Cesar Chavez to Mission streets where parking separates the bike lane from vehicle traffic. When paint is the only thing distinguishing a bike lane from the rest of the street, it’s easy for cars to use the bike lane space for double-parking, forcing cyclists to navigate around them and into traffic, cyclists say. Observers who counted the number of cars using Valencia Street bike lanes as a loading zone one evening in 2016 found that 53 cars blocked the lane on one side of the street between 6 and 7 p.m. “My wife is forced to veer into traffic and I’m worried about her safety every day on her ride home from the school where she teaches to our neighborhood,” said Matt Brezina, 36. Brezina said two of his coworkers have broken elbows cycling, and his wife and one coworker have both been injured on the same treacherous stretch of Sanchez and 17th streets — a hotspot for accidents because bikes sometimes get caught in the Muni tracks. On June 22, 2016, two female cyclists were killed by cars on the same day, which brought more attention to the issue but didn’t lead to widespread changes, activists say. Despite the seriousness of the problem, there was a festive mood of camaraderie in the air on Valencia Street on Thursday, with some passing drivers offering a thumbs up and many cyclists holding out a hand for high-fives as they rode along the line of bike lane protectors.