Breed: Speed up safety improvements for bicyclists, pedestrians

A bicyclist is forced to swerve into a traffic lane by a truck that double parked in the bike lane while making a delivery on Valencia Street near 16th Street in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Dec. 26 2012. less A bicyclist is forced to swerve into a traffic lane by a truck that double parked in the bike lane while making a delivery on Valencia Street near 16th Street in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Dec. 26 ... more Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2012 Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2012 Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Breed: Speed up safety improvements for bicyclists, pedestrians 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Mayor London Breed is calling on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to speed up safety improvements on the city’s most dangerous arteries, beginning with a stretch of Valencia Street where bicycles weave tightly around cars and delivery trucks.

“I can’t remember a time when I’ve cycled on Valencia Street in the past year that I haven’t had to leave the bike lane because of an obstruction,” said Taylor Ahlgren, an avid cyclist who zips down the corridor six days a week on his 1998 Raleigh R700 road bike.

Although the street currently has a painted bike lane, cyclists and pedestrians say it’s often clogged with ride-hail cars or other vehicles dropping off people and goods. For years, members of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition have urged the city to put up a barrier to separate the lane from traffic — a plan that seems to have broad support but has been stalled by a bureaucratic process that coalition members say is too onerous.

Now Breed has told the agency to get moving. She’s asked SFMTA staff to create a protected bikeway along Valencia Street between Market and 15th streets within the next four months, by shifting the bike path closer to the curb and girding it with a parking lane.

That four-block stretch would be a precursor to safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists along the rest of Valencia Street and other priority corridors. About 70 percent of traffic injuries and fatalities in the city occur on 12 percent of its streets, according to data collected by the SFMTA.

Breed has also directed the agency to reaffirm its commitment to creating a rapid-response team to assess the scene of a serious traffic collision within 24 hours, and recommend possible street improvements. And she’s asked MTA officials to evaluate their process for funding and delivering safety projects, which are essential to the city’s “Vision Zero” goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2024.

“I refuse to accept that these public safety projects are dragging on for months and years,” the mayor said Tuesday. “Our streets should be safe for everyone, whether you are a child walking to school or a senior running errands in your neighborhood.”

She described the protected bike lanes on Valencia Street and the rapid-response team to collisions as “an important first step” to expedite safety throughout the city.

The mayor first cited the slow pace of bicycle and pedestrian upgrades in a sharply worded letter to SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin last month, which also detailed her concerns about Muni bus delays and other mass transit issues. Since then, Reiskin and his agency have been working under a microscope.

The director sent out a statement showing collegiality with the mayor on Tuesday.

“No one should die on our streets just trying to get around the city,” Reiskin said, adding that his staff is working with the mayor to accelerate work on Valencia Street and immediately respond to fatal traffic collisions.

“These efforts represent our continued dedication to the safety of all those on our streets and will help us meet our goal of zero traffic fatalities,” he said.

Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Brian Wiedenmeier welcomed the mayor as an ally, saying the Valencia Street upgrades “are sorely needed,” but that the MTA has been slow to act.

Street-safety measures took on new urgency for Ahlgren after he witnessed the death of Russell Franklin, another cyclist who was hit by a car at Howard Street and South Van Ness Avenue — an intersection at the lip of another treacherous downtown corridor.

“I heard this simultaneous thud and screech of car brakes, and I looked up from the sidewalk to see a man and his bicycle flying 8 feet in the air,” Ahlgren said, his voice shaking as he described the moments that followed: He tried to perform CPR on Franklin, who was lying limp and bleeding from a head injury, as the frazzled driver dialed 911.

Howard Street has drawn intense scrutiny from bike advocates in the past few months, and it’s among the areas that transportation officials have targeted for fixes. Other stretches include the Embarcadero waterfront and Townsend Street between Fourth and Eighth streets, near the Caltrain station.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan