Local advocates are taking action to prevent the cancellation of SF’s popular long-running neighborhood street festival series, Sunday Streets, due to budget cuts, urging residents to sign their petition, contact local officials, and attend a rally at City Hall Monday.

As Streetsblog SF reports, the San Francisco Department of Public Health announced earlier in January the agency’s plan to cut funding for the city’s popular Sunday Streets program after a 17-year partnership in order to reallocate the funds toward covering department deficits. Per Streestsblog, the funds were originally appropriated for Sunday Streets by the SF Board of Supervisors through the health department's Equity & Promotion program.

Per the SF Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco is a healthier and more connected city because of Sunday Streets, which launched in 2008 and often serves neighborhoods with limited access to open space community events.

Livable City, the nonprofit that runs Sunday Streets, has created an advocacy toolkit for residents interested in pushing the city to keep the program going and find ways to stabilize it. The toolkit includes an email template for contacting officials, a petition urging SF Mayor Daniel Lurie and the Board of Supervisors to restore funding, and a guide to giving public comment at the Health Commission hearing, which is taking place  at 4 pm Monday in Room 408 at City Hall, preceded by a rally on the City Hall steps at 3 pm.

Per Streetsblog, the Department of Public Health is moving to cut $17 million in funding from community-based organizations, and Livable City receives a mere 1.3% of those funds for Sunday Streets — $215,758 per year.

Per Streetsblog, Sunday Streets is a hugely popular program that continually exceeds its metrics in providing the community with outlets for physical fitness and wellness each year, while offering a platform for more than 120 city and nonprofit groups to connect with the community through direct services, educational resources, and outreach.

Image: Sunday Streets, Excelsior; throgers/Flickr

Previous Sunday Streets coverage

SF-based Lyft is going through a restructuring, and making some changes in its bike and scooter division to become more profitable, which includes laying off 1% of its staff.

In a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lyft announced plans to restructure and lay off some staff, stating that these changes would mean the company would incur $34 million to $46 million in related costs in the the third quarter of this year. The majority of those costs, $32 million to $42 million, are expected to come from "asset disposal."

The company has plans to refocus its bikes and scooters program, rebranding it as Lyft Urban Solutions, and it will be doing away with all dockless bikes and scooters.

As Fast Company notes, Lyft had been considering selling off its bike and scooter division last year, but company leadership appears to believe that there is still value there.

"One thing has become abundantly clear: Bikes and scooters are core to our purpose and make our company stronger," writes CEO David Risher in a blog post today. "We have created best-in-class products, including an e-bike that’s addictively great. And cities in the US and abroad are increasingly embracing micromobility solutions as a part of their basic infrastructure to help ease congestion, combat pollution and climate change, and support their communities in a healthy way."

As part of the restructuring, 1% of staff will be laid off — it sounds like this week or this month. Per Fast Company, Lyft had around 3,000 employees as of 2023, so these layoffs may only effect about 30 people.

Risher says the company will be "right-sizing our cost structure, including streamlining and restructuring the [bikes and scooters] team, spending less on R&D, and focusing on deployment."

And he explains that the restructuring will mean "discontinuing our dockless scooters in Washington, D.C." and they are "exploring alternatives for our dockless bikes and scooters in Denver."

Lyft says in the SEC filing that these changes will boost company profits by around $20 million annually, beginning in 2025.

Risher has been able to make Lyft profitable since taking over as CEO last year, and the company posted its first profitable quarter in the second quarter of 2024. The strategy has included improving rider pricing to make Lyft more competitive with Uber.

The company operates docked e-bike and traditional bicycle networks in more than 50 markets in 16 countries now, including London, Madrid, Barcelona, Montreal, Toronto, Mexico City, São Paulo, and Dubai.

"We are more confident than ever about the promise that bikes and scooters represent," Risher concludes, in his blog post. "With our industry-leading hardware, user-friendly software, and efficient operations, Lyft Urban Solutions is poised to become the most customer-obsessed integrated micromobility offering for cities around the world. As bikes and scooters become an even bigger part of the global transportation landscape, we will supercharge our business, cities, and riders’ journeys."

A bill to change the way that public transit, bicycle, and pedestrian projects are handled vis a vis the state's environmental impact laws has passed the legislature. And State Senator Scott Wiener, the sponsor of the bill, hopes it will aid in California's economic recovery after the pandemic.

Wiener's bill, SB 288, has been making its way through the legislature for over a year, but Wiener was championing it in June specifically as a way to speed up development of sustainable transportation projects once the state emerges from the current virus-caused recession.

"To recover from this economic disaster, we must prioritize economic recovery and investment,” Wiener said in a statement at the time. "S.B. 288 will put people back to work on projects… It will also reduce carbon emissions by expediting the approval and construction of environmentally sustainable transportation projects. We can’t just cross our fingers and hope that jobs come back. Rather, we need to be intentional about jump-starting our economy."

Today on Twitter, Wiener celebrated the bill's passage, saying, "I’ll always fight for sustainable transportation in San Francisco & California. It’s in my blood & part of who I am."

Critics have attacked Wiener's development-related bills in the past, suggesting that his controversial SB 50, for instance, was a gift to developers who simply had to locate large condo or luxury apartment projects a short distance from transit in order to bypass local zoning reviews and height restrictions. That bill failed in its last iteration in February, in part also because it didn't have strict enough mandates for affordable housing.

From Wiener's perspective, it was simply a path forward toward greater housing density near transit — something that isn't always an easy sell in some parts of the state. And in San Francisco, under the bill's wording, nearly every part of the city would have qualified as "near" transit.

"I don’t just support sustainable transportation when it’s easy," Wiener says today in his Twitter thread, touting the transit project he's advocated for in San Francisco and at the state level.

As Streetsblog previously reported on SB288, the bill will help expedite projects involving bike lanes, pedestrian routes, bus rapid-transit, bridge repairs, and the installation of new zero emission vehicle charging infrastructure. It does this by removing the ability of a few individuals to file requests for review under CEQA (the  California Environmental Quality Act) — something that is often done to slow development projects of all kinds, often making them cost more than they should to complete.

And over the years, many projects large and small, in San Francisco and beyond, have been stalled by CEQA reviews that are rarely ever about protecting the "environment" so much as the interests of a few neighbors.

"In other countries, transit and sustainable transportation projects are commonly presumed to have a positive impact on the environment by reducing driving and greenhouse gas emissions," said Laura Tolkoff, regional planning policy director for SPUR, to Streetsblog back in June. "In Canada, most public transit projects do not have to complete a full environmental assessment. In Germany, agencies can self-certify that they are compliant with environmental laws."

The bill will still have to face Governor Newsom for sign-off.

Related: Group Of Neighbors In Less Dense SF Neighborhood Sues to Block High-Density Housing Project

Photo: Andrew Gook

We're so excited to help turn the @WeWorkSF community into an urban campus with Spin bikes. Details: https://t.co/SxGCS1Dn5g pic.twitter.com/JqcEUs1BKJ

— Spin San Francisco (@Spin_SF) August 31, 2017

Spin, a stationless bike rental startup, might be catching some heat from the San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Agency soon as someone snapped a photo of the app-unlockable bikes parked where they shouldn't be, complete with a missing wheel because hey, it's still a bike parked in the city and all. Such is the tax for riding a bicycle in San Francisco.

According to Hoodline's report on Spin and their wayward bikes, the startup has a "partial" agreement with the SFMTA and co-working space WeWork, allowing them to provisionally operate in the city. The stipulations of that agreement require Spin to only allow their bikes to be parked on WeWork property grounds. Thus far, there are only about 50 Spin bikes in operation around the city (49 if you knock off the one with the missing wheel in the photo above), all of which need to be parked in one of WeWork's 10 San Francisco locations.

If they fail to comply with this rule, the company could be hit with some serious fines. Hoodline also shared the above photo with SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose, who commented, "The two bikes on the left—side-by-side cluttering a very busy sidewalk between a sign pole and outdoor seating—represent the type of situation we seek to avoid by requiring the operator to comply with conditions of our permit."

Previously, Bluegogo, a Chinese company who attempted to do what Spin is doing, pulled all their bikes from San Francisco when city residents complained about seeing them abandoned in their neighborhoods. Spin's trouble here seems minor, comparatively, as they aren't exactly dealing with bikes turning up all over the place.

Thing is, even city-approved rental bicycle companies that use docks are having issues of their own. Earlier this year, Ford's GoBike program was met with much controversy as local neighborhoods all around San Francisco and Oakland rejected the placement of the docks in their areas. According to the SF Examiner, the problem, many said, was that neither Ford nor Motivate, the managing company behind the bikes, communicated very well that such installations were being made. Truth be told, the stations felt a bit like they popped up overnight, and so, too, did reports of abandoned GoBikes found in trees or in Lake Merritt.

Spin feels a little bit like the same deal here, as again, it's a company that's started pretty small, only to have bikes suddenly turn up in public where they're a bit in the way. To their credit, they're trying to work with the city to make sure they're sticking to regulations, and save for this relatively minor incident, they seem to be doing pretty well in that regard.

Related: Chinese Bike-Share Outfit Warned Not To Drop Thousands Of Bikes On SF Streets Without Permits

Woman bicycling @GoldenGatePark killed by hit and run driver, @SFPD interviewing witnesses now #KTVU pic.twitter.com/8rg1soD4CW

— Debora Villalon (@DeboraKTVU) June 23, 2016

Scroll to the bottom of this post for updates.

Hit-and-run drivers claimed the lives of two cyclists in San Francisco yesterday, following collisions in Golden Gate Park and SoMa on Wednesday evening.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, the first collision occurred at 6:01 p.m., when a man in his early 20s driving a white Honda Fit fatally struck a cyclist near John F. Kennedy Dr. and 30th Avenue in Golden Gate Park.

Though police did not provide any details on the victim, saying they were "unknown" in an email sent Thursday morning, according to ABC 7 the cyclist was female.

ABC 7 reports that "Paramedics worked frantically to save the woman's life as she lay in the road in Golden Gate Park, her twisted bicycle lay nearby." CBS 5 reports that the victim was rushed to the hospital, but did not survive.

Witnesses told ABC 7 that two men were in the Honda Fit driven by the suspect, who was "going 50 or 60 miles an hour and passing other cars."

"They clearly went into the opposite direction traffic," a witness said, "and went far enough over to run right into that lady head on."

KRON 4 reports that the Fit was discovered, abandoned, near the scene of the collision. ABC 7 reports that the car had dealer plates, and had not been reported as stolen.

The second collision occurred at 8:24 Wednesday evening, at 7th and Howard Streets in SoMa. Though police said in an initial email that the cyclist struck in this case was male, they sent out an update saying that details on the victim were, as with the previous case, "unknown."

KRON 4 reports that the driver in this case "ran a red light and hit the cyclist, and then sped away."

The cyclist was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police confirm that the suspect, a 32-year-old man driving a BMW X-3 with California plates, was arrested at the scene. According to Reddit user "maurin14," he or she "chased [the suspect] down with another pedestrian and demanded he sit and wait for the police, he obliged. Definitely not sober." An SFPD spokesperson could not confirm this account of the incident.

That spokesperson was also unable to provide the suspect's name and booking information as of publication time. However, we should expect more details on the collisions this morning, as according to a press release sent by the SFMTA, at 10 a.m. today "Mayor Ed Lee, SFPD and SFMTA will hold a media availability to discuss the most recent details about last night’s fatal bike collisions and the city’s ongoing Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities," they say.

Lee will be joined by SFPD Commander Robert O’Sullivan and SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin at the press event, which will be held at the SFMTA Headquarters at 1 South Van Ness Avenue.

Update: Additional information has become available following this morning's press conference. Hoodline reports that in the case of the Golden Gate Park hit and run, the 2016 Honda Fit turns out to have been stolen after all. The abandoned car was reported by a passerby who noticed it was extensively damaged and called police. The suspect (or suspects) in that fatal crash is still at large, and police ask that any witnesses call (415) 575-4444. The victim, whose identity has not been released, was a woman in her late 40s.

In the case of the SoMa hit and run, police confirmed that the driver ran a red light and fled the scene after striking the cyclist. SFPD Commander Robert O'Sullivan said charges in that fatal crash will include felony hit-and-run and vehicular manslaughter. At this time, O'Sullivan said that neither drugs nor alcohol appeared to be a factor.

Those San Franciscans in the market for a rare, handmade antique bicycle in the shape of a seahorse are in luck this week as an exceptional ride has been posted for sale to Craigslist. The bike, apparently only one of a few of its type ever made, was constructed in the 1890's and put on display at Sutro Baths and later the Cliff House. And it can all be yours for the low low price of $25,000.

The man behind the listing, Dan Horenberger, told the Chronicle the only reason he's selling the wooden steed is because of an upcoming move.

Horenberger describes the piece as a "golden fantasy sea-theme bicycle" that comes complete with what looks to be an intact crank and chain. And yes, it's definitely "a full size bike" (48″ L x 36″ H) notes the listing, though it would be hard to image anyone trying to ride that thing.

If you find yourself (understandably) wondering who the potential customer base is for an item like this, Horenberger helpfully points out that in the 1980's George Lucas paid $60,000 for a similar ride. He lists additional information on his website, quoting a letter to the The Heritage Museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts, inquiring as to the providence of the seahorse bicycle (that museum has a similar one in its collection).

“The bike was in the Cliff Side Museum from 1901 until 1966, the year the building had a fire," the 1970's letter reads. "It is believed to have been made by a Chinaman. The chain is in the 1890 period."

Horenberger lists a ton of other unique items for sale as well, including the original 1844 carriage used by General Tom Thumb — the stage name of a little person who performed with P.T. Barnum in the mid 1800's. The asking price? $310,000.

Horenberger's website quotes a one-time owner of a similar bicycle, Al Sphil, as saying the bikes were used for ornamental purposes — but not in the manner you would perhaps expect.

“There were eight or 10 of these bicycles made by a Chinese man, and that all of them were bought for Sutro Baths by George Whitney," explained Sphil. "One was put on a rope and ran back and forth above the baths."

So maybe the next time you head to what's left of San Francisco's Sutro Baths, take a moment to picture this "golden fantasy sea-theme bicycle" passing back and forth over the heads of the bathers once gathered there — it suddenly makes the experience seem, well, a bit psychedelic.

Related: Watch The Sutro Baths Go Up In Flames

This being San Francisco, where even a penny-farthing is an acceptable mode of transit to and from work, it's only a matter of time before we start seeing these pretty stupid-looking tiny folding electric bikes around town. CNET got a look at one at the Digital Experience show prior to CES 2016, dubbed the Urb-e, and they report that it is super light-weight, made mostly out of aluminum and carbon fiber, with much of its 35 pounds coming from the battery and motor. It goes a top speed of 15 miles per hour, and can go a maximum of 20 miles on a single charge, and is guaranteed to make you look like an overgrown pre-schooler at recess.

A Porsche designer is one of the people behind the Urb-e, Sven Etzelsberger, who is now co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Urban626, the company behind the bike/scooter. And if your walk from the train to the office is just too long, you can buy one now for $1,500 and become the biggest dork on the block.

CES 2016, the annual consumer electronics show, is happening now in Las Vegas, and Endgadget has just listed its favorite items from the show. One of those is a "soul time tracker" called the Conceptor Soul, a wearable that — no joke — helps you keep track of how much time you spend with your loved ones, and lets you know when you should be spending more.

Five years ago, Anthony Mangieri relocated his acclaimed, one-man pizza operation Una Pizza Napoletana from New York City to San Francisco, thereby blessing us with our first taste of pizza royalty. If you haven't been, you can rest assured that Mangieri continues to produce the most perfectly blistered, smoke-kissed, chewy-crisp and delicious Neapolitan pies you'll find anywhere in the Bay Area. His monk-like dedication to his craft has been written about many times before, but now Mangieri, who's also an avid cyclist, has been brought together with pal Sean Walling from Soulcraft Bicycles in this new documentary short, Una Pizza Bike Show.

The first bit of the film, made by Wilson McCourtney of Baby Blue Film, focuses on Mangieri and his love for pizza-making, comparing it both to punk rock and jazz, and describing how he finds his rhythm each night. "When [the pizzas] are coming out really great, or in that little window (hopefully) every night where they're really like in the zone where I liked them to be in, it feels awesome for those few minutes. It's very rhythmic and it's exciting and it's hot and it's really physical."

Both Mangieri and Walling share a similar passion for the physical stuff of their crafts, and both insist on touching and building each pizza and bicycle, respectively, themselves. And the doc finishes with the actual bike show that the pair have now hosted a couple of times at Una Pizza Napoletana, showcasing Walling's bikes alongside Mangieri's pizzas.

• A new manufacturing center that could provide space for local makers of all stripes, run by the non-profit SFMade, may be headed for the Design District. [Chron]
  
• The Civic Center Hotel on mid-Market is a horrifying mess that receives city subsidies and the property may now be worth many millions, if it were ever sold. [SF Examiner]
  
• Doing a complete about-face from this NYT Magazine piece last month, the NYT now says Marissa Mayer is doing a great job at Yahoo. [NYT]
  
• Hey! You can now "adopt" an animal from the SF Zoo. [ABC 7]
  
• New map illustrates the almost 7,000 Airbnb and VRBO rentals in San Francisco. [TheVerge]
  
• That brand new median barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge appears to be encouraging people to drive faster. [KRON4]
  
• Two little-known public open spaces, in the form of terraces, at the Intercontinental Hotel in SoMa, along with multiple others, may revert to being private if a new amendment gets passed by the city. [SocketSite]
  
• San Mateo cops had to use their patrol car to run over an aggressive, out-of-control dog following attacks. [Examiner]
  

On August 14, 2013, 24-year-old Amelie Le Moullac was cycling through SoMa when she was killed in a collision with a semi truck at Folsom and Sixth Street. A wrongful death trial began last week, naming both the truck driver and the company he worked for, Daylight Foods of Milpitas, and as KQED reminds us, we have the SF Bicycle Coalition to thank for the fact that the SFPD didn't blame Le Moullac for her own death.

As the SF Bay Guardian originally reported, the SFPD failed to seek out surveillance footage of the collision, which clearly showed that the driver, Gilberto Alcantar, entering the bike lane as he turned right onto Sixth Street from Folsom, hitting Le Moullac.

The attorney arguing on behalf of Le Moullac's family said in opening arguments that she was "following all the rules of the road" on her way to Caltrain that morning, and Alcantar was at fault.

Defense attorneys are arguing that Le Moullac had headphones in at the time, a set of white earbuds to be exact, which can be seen tangled in her helmet in evidence photos. They're also arguing that she was traveling twice as fast and should have gone around to the left of Alcantar's truck when she saw him signal.

Le Moullac's case was one of the more dramatic and publicized cases of cyclists being killed in SF last year. Two months later, at Bryant and Division Streets, a 78-year-old man was killed in a collision with a Muni bus.

Previously: Witnesses Sought In Cyclist Amélie Le Moullac's Death

Rather than enact some clear plan that does not confuse longtime residents and tourists alike, the SFTMA is continuing in their piecemeal approach to banning vehicle traffic on Market Street with yet another proposed change. As SF Streets Blog reports, as of last week, a new set of plans dubbed Safer Market Street was presented that includes a new rule that would forbid all turns by private vehicles onto Market Street between 3rd and 8th Streets. Currently, you can still turn on and off Market Street from 5th, 6th, and 7th Streets, even though you're supposed to turn immediately back off of it.

It is already technically illegal to drive past 8th Street if you're heading down Market Street and you are not a taxi or bus, however as Stanley Roberts recently showed us, even with the addition of extremely obvious, bright red, transit-only lanes, cars still drive down there anyway, and the people turning onto Market from the side streets remain perpetually confused. Because it's confusing!!

The plan states that they have an overall "goal of eliminating all traffic-related fatalities by 2024" and, these new changes are all with a view of getting everyone used to not driving on mid-Market Street in preparation for the Better Market Street makeover that's happening in 2017, after which pretty much all vehicle traffic will be banned on the entire lower stretch of Market. This makeover is also supposed to include raised "cycle tracks" modeled on European designs that will increase bicycle safety.

Previously: Police Worry Bike Lane Confusion Is Causing More Accidents
New Market Street Changes Will Banish Even More Cars

The San Francisco Police Department's anti-bike theft unit continued their great work on social media this week. Professional and recidivist bike thief Sean Sixta, wanted by the SFPD since last year, was spotted by surveillance cameras inside the parking garage of a building at Bryant and 20th Streets in the Mission. Before he could get out of the building with the two bikes he was attempting to steal, he was picked up by a security patrol and arrested on the property.

According to a note sent to building residents by the building's management, Sixta probably snuck into the building through the garage, possibly behind another resident. An independent contractor monitoring the security footage saw Sixta acting shady and alerted the security patrol. In addition to the stolen property, he was found in possession of wirecutters, a garage door opener and other burglary tools. He was charged with "several felonies" and a probation violation. He was also found guilty of taking a really awful mugshot for the second time in a year:

Sixta was also arrested last year and according to Officer Matt Friedman, who runs the thief-shaming account, he has quite a rap sheet with at least six other arrests for stolen bikes. During one of his arrests he was found with a modified car jack that he uses for busting open U-locks. The guy just can't keep his hands off of bicycles, it seems. Here's how he looked getting into a squad car last October:

[MissionLocal]

A woman whose $900 bike was stolen from one of the racks outside Macarthur Station in Oakland managed to get it back with some help from BART police, and get the thief arrested. As is often the case, she found her bike for sale on Craigslist and enlisted the help of BART cops to come with her when she went to "buy" her bicycle back.

The thief had cut the woman's U-lock off to take the bike, but she could still prove it was hers because she had a key that fit the Pinhead locks she had for the wheels and seat. As BART reports, "The suspect was also arrested for possession of narcotics, an outstanding warrant out of Reno for $25,000.00, probation violation, and possession of forged identification."

BART police lately are encouraging people to use two U-locks when locking bikes up at public racks like this to discourage thieves from having to hack through both.

Also, if anything similar happens to you, they encourage you not to try to recover your bike without police assistance. Program BART police's number, 510-464-7000, into your phone, and make sure you have your bike's serial number recorded somewhere to aid in recovery.

[BART/News]

The oppressive era during which BART riders with bicycles were forced to limit their train rides to non-commute hours is finally over. The BART Board of Directors unanimously gave you permission to bring your bicycle on BART whenever you want, starting today.

The landmark decision by the transit agency's elected officials reversed a longstanding ban on bicycles during rush hour times. It also comes after several lengthy trial periods that, more or less, made it OK months ago. Which is great! More bike access is a good thing. One of my favorite modes of transportation is by bicycle.

That said, there are a few things to keep in mind when bringing your bike aboard BART, especially during those already tense rush hours:

Your Bike Is A Large Cumbersome Object

I know, because mine is too. Remember that your bike is awkwardly shaped and takes up a lot of space. Probably more space than you think! And it has lots of pointy parts! Bikes are still not allowed on the first car of any train or the first three cars during rush hour. Those folding bikes that never look cool when you're riding them are allowed on trains at any time. Just treat them like annoying luggage with a lot of metal things hanging off of it.

Crowded Cars Do Not Want You

You will know this by the empty gaze looking back at you from some person crammed in the middle of a car, desperately clinging to a strap, hoping half the train car empties at the next stop. That person hates your bike. "Do not put your bike on this car," they'll say with their eyes. Also: It is official BART policy: no bikes on crowded cars.

Take The Stairs

Seriously, don't stand on the escalator taking up space. No one can get by and now all the angry fast escalator walkers hate you too. Take the stairs or the elevator, which is probably broken anyway. If there's absolutely no one on the escalator in front of you, then by all means march on up and keep moving. (Just note that it's still against BART policy.)

Don't Block The Seats

Only the lowest sort of human being blocks perfectly good open seats. That goes for folding bikes, luggage, backpacks and feet too. If you're blocking a seat with your bike and the train isn't more than halfway empty then you should be subject BART's repeat offenders rule.

Definitely Don't Block The Handicap Spaces

You have the opposite of a handicap. You have a machine that makes you go faster than most normal humans. Don't be a jerk about it.

Previously: Etiquette Week: How To Behave on Public Transportation

A bicyclist and pigeons on Chula Lane come together in peanut butter-and-chocolate-like harmony in this photo shot by Gerard Livernois. Huzzah, pigeons! (Our apologies to those of you who, inexplicably, loathe the winged rats.)