[filed by Sharon Gadberry, PAR board member]
On Saturday May 24, a dozen Richmond neighbors and local folks joined Andy Thornley, long time member of PAR and the SF Bicycle Coalition, biking all the way from the sunny Panhandle to foggy, windy Ocean Beach. We wove in and out of many of the bicycle-prioritized entrances and exits to the park, north, south, east and west, criss-crossing JFK Drive.
The goal of the ride was to explore bicycle access to the park, surveying the various ways that families and visitors and commuters and fitness riders can get to and through to park by bicycle. We test-rode recent and older bike improvements on the streets, projects and plans meant to help make the streets more bike- and pedestrian-friendly. Unfortunately, we also traveled along some fairly scary streets and intersections which, even though designated as bike routes, were often unmarked with bike lanes, riddled with pot holes, clogged with double-parked trucks, and prowled by speeding autos, buses, and trucks weaving over lane lines and ignoring stop signs.
Sometimes smooth bike connections to the park fall through the cracks between city departments. The Recreation & Parks Department claims park streets, distinct from conventional city roads maintained by the Department of Public Works and managed by the SF Municipal Transportation Agency, so coordinating budgets and operations and perspectives can make the business of providing good bicycle access to and through the park challenging. Of course, Rec & Park's priorities are not necessarily street improvement and parking enforcement, as they are with DPW & SFMTA. For me as a driver, biker, walker, and bus-rider, it was a real eye-opener to imagine a family with children attempting to bike safely into the park on the weekend.
There is definitely more community involvement needed to pave the way for our neighborhoods to pedal to the park, along with tourists and other Bay Area visitors. Janice Li of the SF Bicycle Coalition was on the ride and described some of the ongoing and future projects that the coalition is working on, with the City and public agencies. If you want to get involved, be sure to contact Janice at [email protected] or Andy at [email protected].
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