San Francisco Makes Illicit Bike Lane Installation Permanent After Activist Intervention

Guerrilla Intervention Leads to Official Change

Following the installation of protected bike lanes by an anonymous activist group, the San Francisco Transformation Agency (SFMTrA), along John F. Kennedy Drive, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has decided to make these changes permanent. The activists used soft-hit posts to create the lanes, which were initially an illegal intervention.

SFMTrA's Objectives and Methods

The SFMTrA, a collective of individuals, aims to improve street safety for cyclists and pedestrians through tactical urbanism. Their objectives include increasing safety, highlighting unsafe areas, and pressuring city officials for rapid improvements in street safety. While they often use temporary traffic cones, the use of more robust traffic delineators (soft-hit posts) in this instance may have influenced the city's decision.

City's Response to Unsanctioned Installations

The SFMTA typically removes unsanctioned installations due to code violations and potential traffic conflicts. However, in this specific case, the agency stated it plans to install official safe-hit posts and will leave the temporary ones in place until their review process is complete. This marks a departure from their usual protocol for such interventions.

Precedent and Comparison to Other Cities

Similar guerrilla urbanism efforts in other cities have yielded varied outcomes. For example, in Seattle, an activist group's installation of delineators was initially removed by the city, but officials later agreed to reinstall them. Seattle traffic engineer Dongho Chang noted that issues like post height and state control of streets can complicate such interventions.