The main traffic arteries. Bikes have no place there when there are hundreds of other, safer streets to use.

impeding traffic, with the possible exception of downhill grades.

Voters rejected the plan twice I believe, then the bike folk by-passed the citizens and went to the board and got their way.

The left turn from the wiggle and the few blocks to the pan handle is hardly dangerous as is. Before the bike lane I just rode up the street that is between Haight and Oak and then crossed over after Divis. It takes a little common sense to get around the city. Maybe fixing things up a bit in front of the Arco station? Tearing out all those parking spots for the bike entitled is a waste.

Motorists buzz cyclists on Page just the same. If I am going to have to deal with motorists anyway, might as well take the most direct, flat route.

As a walker there, I've enarly been hit a couple of times by bikes. The problem is that there is no bike lane in the Panhandle - it's actually a mixed-use path and of course park users must have priority over commuters.

So maybe a better solution is to ban bikes from the Panhandle altogether and pur a bike lane the entire length of Page. There's really only one short hill, and it would separate traffic far better than an invasive bike lane on Fell.

Back in the mid-1990's the SFBC pointed out the acute need for a super bike highway linking the core SF job corridor along Market St to populated westside neighborhoods. A safe, direct, and efficient route from the Ferry Bldg to the panhandle (more than 50% of the distance to the ocean) is the spine from which many other direct, safe and relatively flat routes would get cyclists to within a few blocks of their home. Aside from a few segments that need a little better engineering, this crucial bike route is mostly in place.

Two key segments where this core route is not in place, however (and have been the cause of signficant safety issues over the years), are the few blocks of Fell and Oak between Scott and the panhandle. Out of the totality of SF asphalt and parking spots the space at issue amounts to about .00001% of total public space (and I may not have added enough 0's). It's a small segment of public space, but it needs a drastic redesign since the benefits are so significant.

This Fell/Oak project is critical for newer cyclists, as well as for younger, elderly, and more cautious cyclists. There is no way the city will come close to meeting its increased ridership goals unless these types of riders are accomodated, especially along such a core route into and out of the city center.

There is currently a nice segregated path through the panhandle, and a lovely cruise on the wiggle through the lower Haight, and a relatively nice ride on Market St (which is getting better all the time), but the few blocks along Fell and Oak create significant safety concerns. I hope the court reviewing the EIR adequacy is made aware that cyclist's lives are in danger each day these route improvements aren't in place.

As for segregated bike paths, for decades many cyclists have been clamoring for segregated bike pathways, at least for the major bike arteries. We want to be able to get to Point Z from Point A without having to worry about dying or significant injury from an "accident" with a car. Society doesn't expect peds to share the same transit space with cars, and we shouldn't expect bikes to share space with cars on busy streets. Of course, with the city's cross-street layout there are hundreds of problematic intersections that require all road user types to accomodate each other, which mostly happens already. At some super busy intersections one can imagine four different signals for cars, peds, bikes and MUNI.

If the litigants prevail on the need for a separate EIR it's a bump in the road. It will cost the city some time and money, but this project will be implemented one day because it's a crucial link in an effective bike network and both the mayor and BOS are 100% committed to a core bike network. If additional EIR work is required, let's hope the city learns how to craft EIRs better for the hundreds of other future bike projects so that future litigants are routinely rejected by the courts and vexatious litigant penalties imposed.