Bicycles

Again?

SFPD Announces Yet Another Cyclist Crackdown, Insists It's For Bikers' Own Good

— By Jack Morse (@jmorse_) |

The San Francisco Police Department is once again going after cyclists. The announcement, made yesterday, details a department-wide plan to ticket bikers in what officials describe as high-injury areas. In an interesting twist, this time around pedestrians are also to be on the receiving end of citations.

Per SFPD:

[Officers] will cite for violations when pedestrians cross the street illegally or fail to yield to drivers who have the right of way. Bike riders will be stopped and citations issued when they fail to follow the same traffic laws that apply to motorists. All riders are reminded to always wear a helmet – those under 18 years of age must wear helmets by law. Pedestrians should cross the street only in marked crosswalks or at corners.

The victim-blaming crackdown, which is scheduled to take place today and several other days this month, is reminiscent of past efforts by Park Station Captain John Sanford to ticket cyclists on the Wiggle. His campaign led to a series of protests along the popular bicycle route, with people on bikes coming to a full and complete stop at every stop sign — jamming up traffic in the process.

The locations of today’s enforcement action are unknown, with SFPD saying only that officers had “mapped locations over the past 3 years where pedestrian and bike collisions have occurred along with the violations that led to those crashes.”

Interestingly, SFPD appears to have learned at least one thing since the widely criticized 2015 crackdown. Namely, this time around the department is going after drivers as well. “Special attention will be directed toward drivers speeding, making illegal turns, failing to stop for signs and signals, failing to yield to pedestrians in cross walks or any other dangerous violation,” the announcement clarifies.

Perhaps they realized that cyclists’ Idaho Stops didn’t cause the 18 pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2016.

[Photo: San Francisco Bicycle Coalition]

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 
This Can't Be Good

Bike Share Expansion Into Mission & Castro Delayed Due to Vendor Bankruptcy

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Following the fairly successful rollout of Bay Area Bike Share last summer in downtown areas, SFMTA was poised to expand the bike-sharing program to residential neighborhoods earlier this year.  However, that expansion has been delayed until the fall “at the soonest” as Bixi, the company that provides the hardware and software for BABS, has filed for bankruptcy.  Streetsblog reports:

“Our main technology and software provider is actually for sale,” said [SFMTA bike-share program manager Heath Maddox]. “We should know what becomes of that sale later this month. Hopefully, it’ll be bought by our current operations and maintenance provider [Alta Bicycle Share], and they could just move, without a hitch, and once again fire up production.”

Maddox said after the sale and re-organization is completed, “it takes five to six months to produce the equipment once it’s ordered.”

The immediate future of the program looks pretty grim, as Maddox noted the fall expansion would only happen if “everything went very well.”  Of course, the local bike thief business community might bring bike-share to the neighborhoods soon enough.

[Photo: Streetsblog]

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

One More "One Less" Sticker

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Cyclists have long had a grip of “one less” stickers to adorn their bikes with—everything from the “One Less Car” classic to the post-hip “One Less Fixie.”  Now Lil Tuffy has made a crop of “One Less Techbus” stickers for some top tube levity in these boomtown times.

You can score some for yourself Sunday afternoon at Pop's (noon-5pm), and Tuffy plans to drop a few off at Bender's.  Word is they're going fast, but he's accepting donations so he can print another run of them.

Pushbike Pushes Off

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

In the closing days of 2013, it seems Pushbike packed up their fine little store at 22nd and Shotwell and closed up shop.  When we rode past yesterday morning, the walls, once decorated with vintage cycling memorabilia, were stripped bare and “For Rent” signs were taped up to the window.

Their website and Facebook say nothing about the closing, but we imagine the location didn't lend itself to much foot traffic.

It's a bummer, too.  Pushbike was a reliable venue for events and fundraisers (including repeated fundraisers for Chuey's legal fund), and it was one of the best shops to get local bike merch around.

Bike Thieves Are Stealing Mailmen's Keys to Get Into Buildings

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Bike thieves have long been breaking into people's garages or plucking bikes from the streets, but now it appears they're exploiting a way to get into building lobbies directly.  As one Uptown Almanac reader writes, a thief recently used a crowbar to break into their mailman's key box to gain access to his building off of of 18th Street, by the Women's Building:

A thief at 4:45am Monday morning tried breaking into my building's garage, failed, but then proceeded to break into the building's key box and used the keys to get into the hallway lobby. The thief quickly grabbed my red Mission Bicycle fixie that I had lazily stopped locking indoors.

We asked Officer Matthew Friedman, the man behind SFPD's Anti Bike Theft Twitter account, if this is a common issue and what can be done about it:

Unfortunately, this is not uncommon.  I saw this happen a few times when I worked in the Mission District.  The SFPD has worked with the US postal police to investigate this type of crime.  In the past we have also been able to help expedite with changing the locks (this should be done ASAP regardless), better securing the mailbox key, or even changing how the mailman gains access to the building (including the location of delivery).

Also consider not locking up or leaving anything in the lobby of a building.  Thieves scout out apartment buildings where they can access a security door steal property (bikes) then get out quickly.  In some cases I have discovered it is easier to gain access to a secured building lobby then a garage door.

Friedman also recommends working with San Francisco SAFE, which offers security assessments on apartment buildings and give “advice on how to overcome security issues.”

Chrome Industries Coming Soon to Valencia

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Accepting the fact no one walks by 4th and Brannan, Chrome is opening another bike culture-themed apparel shop at 20th and Valencia, next door to Mission Creek Cafe.  Mission Local reports:

The proposed Valencia Street location would be Chrome’s fifth store nationwide, and its second San Francisco location. At 1,500 square feet, the Valencia store would be smaller than it’s SoMa headquarters, said Steve McCallion, the company’s president, yet was lured to the Mission by the substantial foot and bike traffic.

“We have a lot of business friends there, Benny Gold, Betabrand, Four Barrel – all amazing local brands that we cherish and admire,” he said. “We spend so much time there we might as well spend more time there.”

While this makes for the bajillionth bike shop to grace the congested streets of western Mission, Chrome has a long history of offering up their shop as a no-rent events and fundraising space for the cyclists, which we can only see as a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

[Mission Local | Photo by Kennejima]

ARTCRANK, the Poster Party for Bike People, is Tonight

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

ARTCRANK, the yearly bike poster sale and fundraiser, returns tonight at SOMArts on Brannan.  Here're the details:

Our fifth show in the Bay Area will feature hand-made, bike-inspired posters created by local artists. Limited edition, signed and numbered copies of all posters will be available for $40 each. Admission is free.

We’ll be working with Widmer Brothers Brewing, Clif Bar, Neenah Paper and SF's own Hot Italian to celebrate bikes and local artists, and support World Bicycle Relief.

The show runs from 5:30 'til 10:30, and you can score posters from over 30 artists (including the impressive Golden Gate Hub piece pictured above by Chad Kriz).

Behold the Mission's Sea-Sourced Fixed Gear Barnacle Bicycle

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Once upon the time, a widely-mocked sub-class of human known as “hipsters” were infesting the Mission with their fixed-gear bicycles.  They adorned their “fixies” with everything from stickers and spoke cards to colorful Aerospoke rims and anodized seatposts.  How quaint!

Eventually, the hipster scene was killed off by high rents and stepped-on coke, and their bicycles went away too.  But one local Mission artist is reviving the lost art of “custom builds” via a bike frame reclaimed from the Bay.

Chris Sollars of 667Shotwell explains how this gruesome shipwreck in the making came to be:

Fixed Gear 2013 is a barnacle-covered Motobecane bike frame, pulled from Mission Creek and rebuilt as working fixed gear bike with the help of the bicycle mechanics at Pedal Revolution.

He even provided a short video of a blond-haired seamonster riding it:

If you want to see this ride in person, it's on display at Steven Wolf Fine Arts through December 23rd.

TCB Courier Gets a Storefront (And It's Opening Tonight)

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

TCB Courier, the bike messenger company that began humbly as a service delivering condoms and cat food (among other things) at 3am around the Mission, has grown to a 50+-person company delivering everything from catered lunch orders to flowers.  And now they're taking things a step further by opening a small shop at 565 Ellis in the Tenderloin.

TCB's John Daniel Reiss tells us a little bit more about what they're looking to do with the space:

We have begun a small push towards selling soft goods, both to promote TCB and explore other means of income.  Following the release of our team cycling kits earlier this Summer, the benefits of merchandising became obvious. We have a strong amount of creatives among our rider base and now we have an effective outlet to showcase this.  With that in mind, we are offering a variety of TCB branded items at the store and online, including t-shirts, cycling caps, water bottles, jackets, cycling kits, etc.  We will also be featuring items from local California bike culture producers, such as SF-based Archive Bags and LA-based Yanco & Tracko, and consignment for high-end bike parts as well.  We hope to entertain all friends and visitors that have a fascination with bike messenger culture, but the TCB office won't be functioning as a traditional bike shop, we're not going to be setup to fix flats or sell frames. 

You can check out their opening party tonight from 5-8pm, and they promise “cases of beer will be provided for social lubrication, candy for diabetes and merch will be for sale.”  (And if you cannot make it tonight, their regular hours are M-F 10am-5pm and Saturdays 12-5PM.)

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