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On the Same Page: New Center-Running Bike Lane Brings a Safer Page Street

By
Aaron Bialick
Friday, February 19, 2016

An SFMTA crew installs a bike lane in the center of Page Street with dashed green coloring and white striping.

Page Street commuters may have noticed a green center-running bike lane installed this week near Octavia Boulevard to help bike commuters get downtown safely.

The idea of this one-block bike lane is to create a safer, more predictable street design that reflects the way most people biking and driving already negotiate with limited space. In other words, we want to help ensure everyone traveling on this street is on the same page.

Particularly during the morning commute, eastbound Page is frequently backed up with drivers queued up to make a right turn on to Octavia toward the Central Freeway. That creates a safety hazard for the many bike commuters who rely on Page, which is an otherwise convenient and comfortable route for many.

We heard from community members that safety solutions on Page were a priority when we conducted open house meetings, walking tours and neighborhood meetings for the Octavia Boulevard Enhancement Project last year. The intersection of Page and Octavia is also on the bicycle and vehicle High-Injury Networks and the San Francisco Bike Network, which means it’s a priority location for safety improvements, based on collision data.

This isn’t the first center-running bike lane in San Francisco. Similar lanes have been installed on the Wiggle (on northbound Scott at Fell Street) and eastbound Market at 10th Street in recent years.

As on those streets, we’ve also added green bike boxes and sharrow markings at Page and Octavia. Bike boxes are intended to provide a more intuitive, comfortable and visible space for people on bikes to wait at the traffic signal. Two bike boxes are intended for people biking on Page in each direction, and another is for those making a left turn from southbound Octavia on to Page.

To learn more about the Page bike lane and other nearby safety improvements on the way, check out our Octavia Boulevard Enhancement Project page and sign up for updates.

SFMTA crews install a green colored bike box with a left-turn arrow in the intersection of Page and Octavia.
SFMTA crews install a green left-turn bike box and green-backed sharrows at the intersection of Page and Octavia.​

People on bikes roll down the newly-striped center-running bike lane before green color has been added during construction.
People on bikes roll down the newly-striped center-running bike lane before green color has been added during construction.​

A scene of the Page and Octavia intersection before the bike lane and boxes were added shows people on bikes waiting in the opposite traffic lane and the crosswalk.
Before the bike lane and boxes were added, people on bikes often occupied the opposite traffic lane and crosswalk to wait at the traffic signal.