Transportation officials want to make Embarcadero more bike friendly

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco transportation officials are working to make the Embarcadero safer for bike riders and tourists.

In the last five years, 102 people were injured while walking or biking on the Embarcadero.

Now San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency is drawing up plans for a possible "protected lane" for bikes and pedicabs in the area.

The idea is to create a buffer to physically separate vehicle traffic and bicyclists. The buffer would be either planter's, trees, poles or a raised platform.

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"It has happened many time where someone will pull in quickly on the right without noticing a bike in the blind spot or open a door to get out after a car," said Adam Farren, who bikes in the Embarcdero area often.

"Unfortunately, the Embarcadero is on the city's high injury network which are 12 percent of city streets that make up 70 percent of collisions," said Patrick Golier, who is the project manager for SFMTA.

There are already protected bike lanes on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.

The MTA says the Embarcadero project is only in its early planning stages, and there will be opportunities for the community to weigh in.