Bicycle Ticketing Protest Planned Before Tomorrow's Park Station Meeting

Bicycle Ticketing Protest Planned Before Tomorrow's Park Station MeetingLast month's Stop-In on the Wiggle. (Photo: Nuala Sawyer/Hoodline)
Nuala Sawyer
Published on August 10, 2015

The controversy surrounding Park Station's traffic enforcement of cyclists continues, with a second protest in the works, as well as rallying of local advocacy groups, news sources and politicians. 

Tomorrow marks the second community meeting held at Park Station since it was announced in June that officers would begin cracking down on cyclists who didn't stop at stop signs. The enforcement began in earnest last month. Last week it was reported that during one day SFPD issued citations during three separate stings; one during the morning rush hour, one in the afternoon around 5:30pm, and one later in the evening at 10:30pm. 

In response, a second informal "Stop-In" is scheduled to take place along the Wiggle tomorrow. Participants will gather at Duboce Park at 5pm before biking to Park Station for the 6pm meeting. The group will stop at every stop sign along the way, and proceed single-file. Last month's Stop-In created a traffic jam on areas of the Wiggle, and at one point it took 20 minutes to traverse one block of Steiner Street. 

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has put out a call for the cycling community to attend Park Station's meeting tomorrow, "to take part in this dialogue and hear directly from Capt. John Sanford" – although it is not organizing these protests.

Streetsblog posted an article on its site last week asking its bike-oriented community to submit videos of bicycle citations in action, in part to learn exactly what cyclists are being ticketed for. 

Finally, District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener posted a piece on Medium this morning criticizing the SFPD's decision to focus on citing cyclists as opposed to more dangerous forms of transportation.

"Let’s focus our enforcement resources on the behaviors that are actually killing and injuring people, not the behaviors that, while technically violations, aren’t harming anyone," he wrote. 

The community meeting tomorrow will start at 6pm, at 1899 Waller St. Coffee and cookies will be served. Bike parking is limited, and recommendations from SFPD to bicyclists are to lock near the Skate Park, or to bring bikes inside the fenced-in parking lot of the station.

If you can't make the meeting, look for a recap on Hoodline as usual.