San Francisco’s Hairball is due for a new ’do. Early next year, city transit engineers will take a fresh look at the ugly mess of city streets, underpasses, freeway ramps, and pedestrian and bike paths at the intersection of Highway 101 and Cesar Chavez Street.
The intersection is in a critical spot, linking the Mission and other central neighborhoods to the Bayview, Portola, and other parts of southeastern SF that have limited access to the rest of the city. The Hairball is also a key pinch point among many of the city’s most dangerous roads in its high injury network.
The upgrade, which will focus on bike and pedestrian safety, will be a major test of the city’s willingness to protect people who want to get out of their cars and move around SF safely.
A pledge isn’t enough; nearly a decade after promising to eliminate traffic deaths by 2024, the city has little to show for it with 30 deaths this year. (There were 31 when the city started Vision Zero.)
SF’s first bike lanes appeared on Lake Street in 1971. Since 2008, the city has more than tripled its bicycle network, to 466 miles as of last year.
Not every mile is created equal. Various bikeways offer different levels of protection — mostly in the “not so much” category. They range from regular streets marked with “please share the road” arrows (aka sharrows) to narrow side lanes marked off with paint, all the way up to completely separate lanes and Slow Streets.
If you don’t frequently ride a bike in SF, these differences might feel abstract. When you’re on a bike, they’re visceral, maybe even life-saving. That’s why we’ve done this story.
As city planners mull the design for the new Hairball, not to mention many bike-friendly roads to come, here’s a taste of what the options feel like from a biker’s viewpoint. (All videos are by the author.)
SF has plenty of streets, like Franklin above, that don’t make room for bikes, which makes for nervous riding if you find yourself on one. I bailed out quickly.
Sharrows (“share the road” arrows) are the bare minimum of bike infrastructure and signal that bikes are allowed full use of the lane. From this ride on 7th Avenue at rush hour, it’s clear that drivers have no idea what the rule is.
State law says passing cars must give cyclists three feet of space. Along 14th Street in the Mission — part of the city’s high-injury network — the painted lane clearly doesn’t allow for that space. One suddenly opened door from a parked car could spell a “dooring” disaster. It was a relief to turn onto the slow Shotwell Street!
Masonic Avenue from Geary Boulevard to the Panhandle now has green “buffered” bike lanes — raised like gentle curbs — and no parked cars alongside. It’s an improvement, but not without problems. For three northbound blocks, the lane is only painted, not raised, and still on the high injury network, so it’s not surprising that I get cut off by a right-turning truck here.
Even when Masonic’s bike lanes are buffered, cars often go faster than the 25 MPH limit. All protections go away between Grove and Fell streets, and I’m hoping drivers see me as they merge right.
Protected bike lanes like the one on Polk Street near Civic Center are so much better. But this one only runs a couple blocks, and then I’m dumped onto Market Street, which was supposed to be a cyclist’s paradise by now. The Better Market Street project has been scaled back, and delays just cost the city $15 million in matching federal grants. Market Street remains on the high-injury network.
Along the Panhandle, Fell Street has one of the best protected lanes in the city, with more than three feet of separation from parked cars that serve as a buffer from traffic. Still, the lane is narrow — watch an e-bike barely squeeze past me. And where Fell meets Masonic, the busy intersection still presents obstacles.
At least the Panhandle’s own bike path is guaranteed 100 percent car-free, and it’s minutes away from the JFK Promenade, which after last week’s election will be car-free forever.
Correction: This story has been changed to clarify the focus of upcoming hearings on the Hairball design.