{"id":460979,"date":"2026-09-11T22:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/460979\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:30:18","slug":"sfmta-fails-again-to-provide-safe-bike-lane-detour-during-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/460979\/","title":{"rendered":"SFMTA Fails Again to Provide Safe Bike Lane Detour During Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Workers were busy closing off Howard Street on Thursday afternoon between 3rd and 4th Street in anticipation of this year\u2019s Dreamforce Conference, which starts Tuesday, Sept. 15, at Moscone Center. They have already blocked the street\u2019s protected bike lane\u2014a major commute corridor for cyclists heading to and through SoMa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sf.streetsblog.org\/2026\/06\/26\/howard-street-protected-bike-lane-blocked-again-no-detour-provided\">When Streetsblog asked SFMTA about the lack of a safe detour for the Howard Street bike lane during the Config Conference at Moscone in June<\/a>, agency spokesperson Madhu Unnikrishnan sent the following: \u201cWe support conferences and other city events that require bicycle and vehicle reroutes \u2026 We\u2019ll look into what happened here and get back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They did, and the \u201cplan\u201d is unchanged. Streetsblog has confirmed that Dreamforce, which runs through Sept. 17th, will again close Howard Street without a safe bike detour. With conference preparations still underway, the sidewalk is still open, but that will be closed too. Cyclists will have to use a bus-only lane to get to Mission, mixing with heavy traffic to continue west. Or they can dismount and walk their bikes up and around the conference through Yerba Buena Gardens.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"768\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/PXL_20260910_191645239.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-494863\"  \/>A cyclist follows the detour sign on the bus lane on 3rd. Photo: Streetsblog\/Rudick<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, neither of these are legit \u201cdetours.\u201d They\u2019re just what a cyclist would have to do anyway with Howard Street\u2019s protected bike lane closed off.<\/p>\n<p>But \u201cthe city can\u2019t afford concrete protection\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And once again, the city has installed concrete barriers to protect the conference from <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sf.streetsblog.org\/2025\/01\/06\/commentary-why-do-leaders-only-react-to-traffic-violence-when-it-comes-from-terrorists\">automobile-based terrorism<\/a>. These are the same kinds of quick-build barriers used by <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sf.streetsblog.org\/2024\/02\/06\/commentary-two-more-traffic-horrors-underscore-why-we-need-concrete-barrier-speed-limiters\">New York<\/a>, <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sf.streetsblog.org\/2025\/01\/17\/san-francisco-builds-a-jersey-barrier-protected-bike-lane-in-the-tenderloin\">Paris<\/a>, and other cities to protect cyclists from getting mashed by errant drivers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"768\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/PXL_20260910_192554746.MP_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-494856\"  \/>Concrete barriers on the wrong side of the Howard bike lane. Photo: Streetsblog\/Rudick<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, almost as if out of spite, San Francisco once again placed the concrete barriers without protecting the bike lane. They will be removed after the conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s no mystery <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sf.streetsblog.org\/2026\/08\/05\/sfmta-report-shows-higher-number-of-severe-crashes-now-than-when-vision-zero-was-signed-in-2014\">why San Francisco continues to fail at Vision Zero<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Workers were busy closing off Howard Street on Thursday afternoon between 3rd and 4th Street in anticipation of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[109921,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-460979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-promoted","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}