You likely know that San Francisco's 300 miles of bike lane are legally reserved for bicycles and the people who ride them, and you just as likely know that operators of motorized vehicles violate those laws every day. Is there anything that can be done to McDLT our streets and keep the bike side bike?

I'm not talking about drivers who, as mandated by law and common sense, are merging into the bike lane 200 feet before an intersection to make a right turn, or those who briefly pull into the lane as they parallel park. These are the drivers (of cars, motorcycles, trucks, cabs, etc) who use the lane as another lane of traffic — or as an illicit place to park. Like these folks, whom KRON 4's Stanley Roberts attempted to shame Tuesday evening:

As anyone who regularly watches Roberts' work knows, his purpose is to shine a light on bad behavior, not to fix it. So for a proposed solution I consulted San Francisco Bike Coalition spokesperson Chris Cassidy, and asked him what the SFBC believes should be done to cease bike lane abuse.

"The first and best solution is engineering," says Cassidy, arguing that transforming San Francisco's bike lanes from a painted line to a barrier-protected place to ride would "disincentive and end bad behavior."

San Francisco also needs "better enforcement" of current bike lane laws, Cassidy says, from both the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (which is who would bust SF's double parkers if that sort of thing actually happened) and the San Francisco Police Department (which is who would nab those motorcyclists, drivers, and cabbies we see abusing the lane in Stanley's video above).

Finally, Cassidy says, we need better education for drivers and cyclists, as both groups aren't always aware of the rules of the road.

"But we won't be able to reach everyone to educate them," Cassidy says, which is why reengineering streets is, in the SFBC's opinion, the best way to ensure bike lanes remain free for bikes.

One place where that re-engineering might soon happen, Cassidy says, is on Upper Market Street where "double-parking in the bike lane is a chronic problem." In fact, there's a public meeting next week to take a look at the SFMTA's "set of changes to incentivize drivers to be able to pull all the way over to the curbs to make their drop-offs along Upper Market Street," the SFBC writes on their website. To learn more about the plan, you can check out the SFMTA's Upper Market Safety Plan page, or attend the open house on the plan on Thursday, May 5 at 5:30 p.m. at the IBEW Local 6 Meeting Hall at 55 Fillmore Street.