By Steven T. Jones
San Francisco bicyclists have become increasingly pissed off about the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency’s decision last week to try to remove the bike lane at Market and Octavia. They’ve written angry letters, placed irate phone calls, and will tomorrow be holding a rally at the site during the morning commute.
The MTA’s argument that its needs to remove the bike lane in order to save bicyclists from cars making illegal right turns has been pretty much universally rejected by bicyclists, who say it’s akin to the Vietnam War tactic of burning villages in order to save them.
Meanwhile, city officials have definitely felt the sting, and they’ve repeatedly tried to explain the decision to the Guardian and others, so far without being terribly convincing. Will this protest do anything to thwart city plans to seek court approval for the change in a week? We shall see.