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With shorter crossing distances and motorist forced to slow around turns, it's just easier to cross the street thanks to these protected intersections
Streetsblog watched a crew on Friday put in the last of the K71 bollards, which appear more robust than the safe-hit posts generally favored in San Francisco. They're installed by drilling a hole in the asphalt and then filling the hole with epoxy. A threaded mount is then inserted into the hole and, after it dries, the bollard is bolted onto it--making replacement quick and easy. Streetsblog thanked the crew for doing the messy work. "Anything to help keep people safe--it's not fun to ride [a bike] through here," said one of the workers.
Workers filling holes with resin to glue down the threaded mount that will hold the bollard
Why do San Jose and Oakland have near-term protected bike intersections and @sfmta_muni won't even paint bike lanes through intersections? Lack of staffing? Lack of funding? Inability to read NACTO guidelines? Apathy? Lazy leadership? SF deserves better. https://t.co/xLyNkL1EHH
"Protected intersections work best when you are able to set the bikeway away from the right lane by a car length and when you are able to get turning vehicles to be close to perpendicular when crossing the bikeway," wrote Ben Barnett, spokesperson for SFMTA. "Some intersections are more conducive to this than others. We are planning to implement such a design for northbound 7th Street at Townsend Street as part of the quick build project going to public hearing July 9th and it will be evaluated along with the rest of the bikeway as part of our evaluation program."
Meanwhile, if you follow Grochmal's Twitter exchange, there's also a bunch of neat videos and suggestions for minor improvements to the Lake Merritt treatments from Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz.
Streetsblog has a suggestion too--shortly after the posts were installed at 7th and Madison they were pretty much ruined by an incompetent and dangerous motorist(s). Maybe it's time to install something made out of steel and/or concrete, that can damage or disable a car? Maybe a concrete block next to the posts? Wouldn't that be better than allowing a motorist who is this dangerous to continue on their way, so they can mow down a person a mile or two farther down the street?
Come on DMV... how do you keep issuing drivers license to people who clearly can't operate a car safely?
Let's hope longer-term improvements will depend more on concrete. Let us know your thoughts below.
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