SFMTA’s Own Video Punks Valencia Bike Lane, Highlights Agency Incompetence

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SFMTA dropped a six-minute instructional video on Friday, explaining to cyclists how to use the now-infamous unprotected bike lane they installed on Valencia this past summer.

Advocates of all stripes were appalled by the video’s implication, that the serious crashes that have occurred since the experimental lane’s installation were a matter of people not understanding how to use it. Over the weekend the Tweet for the video was thoroughly ratioed, with about 43,000 views and over 50 comments as of Monday afternoon. Almost all of the comments were negative; many expressed outrage.

“This video provides information on how to navigate Valencia street with the new safety measures installed, such as the center running protected [emphasis added] bikeway and several new traffic regulations that are part of the pilot design,” goes the video’s narration.

First, the narrator lies repeatedly and calls it a “protected” bike lane. There are no protective barriers–just a plastic curb that any car can easily mount and plastic posts that are designed not to damage or otherwise interfere with automobiles.

The video then describes how to navigate it as a cyclist mainly, but also as a driver, adding that U-turns and left turns are banned for motor vehicles. As we’ve documented, these turns happen continually and the video’s not going to change that fact.

As Bruce Halperin points out in his Tweet above, clearly, if a street design is so confusing that it requires an educational video, it’s failed. Besides, just look at the lead image, taken from the SFMTA’s video, of a turning driver nearly clipping a cyclist waiting in the bike box. Going by the voice-over, the video makers apparently think having cyclists wait exposed in the middle of an intersection full of turning cars is a good thing.

Meanwhile, successful, Dutch-inspired designs are intuitive and don’t require an educational video. All they require are videos to show American planners and politicians who aren’t familiar with them how they work. Those are the videos that SFMTA’s Board of Directors and other politicians really need to watch.

As many people pointed out on Twitter, it’s hard to believe the Valencia video isn’t intentional self-parody. Maybe SFMTA staff made it because they’re like a POW blinking in Morse Code, pleading for help from the bowels of One South Van Ness.

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