See also: Motion To Lift Bike Plan Stalling Injunction Filed
A court date has been scheduled for next month for a judge to consider lifting an injunction on San Francisco’s long-stalled bicycle plan, according to the city attorney’s office.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a motion in San Francisco Superior Court today to lift the court-ordered injunction on the San Francisco Bicycle Plan.
The plan proposes to add 34 miles of bike lanes to the city’s existing 45-mile network, as well as dozens of other improvements, including 75 miles of shared-use lanes with cars, expanded access to transit and bridges, and hundreds of new bike racks.
“After years of environmental review and public participation, the San Francisco Bicycle Plan reflects an unprecedented consensus to create a city that is safer, healthier and more environmentally responsible,” Herrera said in a prepared statement.
The bicycle improvement plan was originally drafted in 1997 and is aimed at promoting physical health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving traffic congestion in the city.
Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors approved an updated version of the plan in 2005, but opposition groups were granted an injunction until an environmental review of the plan could be completed.
An appeal of the Planning Commission’s June certification of the environmental review was denied by the Board of Supervisors on Aug. 4. The board then approved the plan the next week and Mayor Gavin Newsom signed it into law.
Herrera argued in his motion, to be heard before Judge Peter Busch on Sept. 24, that the injunction should be lifted because the environmental review has been completed. He also argues the plan is necessary because of a greater number of bicycle-related injury accidents in the city.
Herrera said today that he was “confident that the exhaustive process we’ve now completed will finally enable us to move forward.”
Should Busch order the injunction lifted, work on the plan could begin within days afterward, according to San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority spokeswoman Kristen Holland.
Holland said SFMTA staff are preparing to implement the plan “as soon as possible.”
