SFMTA engineers look to redesign center bike lane on Valencia Street NBC Bay Area [Video]

After months of complaints from business owners, and bike and pedestrian safety advocates, the controversial center bike lane on San Francisco’s Valencia Street will soon be ripped out.

And on Tuesday, SFMTA engineers laid out their proposal for what would replace it. But that new plan is already facing criticism  as well.

Almost as soon as the center bike lane was installed, critics began lining up to explain why it was a bad idea.

The restricted turning options for cars onto and off of Valencia, and re-designated parking spaces, only added fuel to the fire.

But Tuesday’s SFMTA meeting marked the beginning of the end of that center bike lane.

Bicyclists at the meeting say the new design is an improvement.  

“I think in general they are great. Curbside bikeways are better for business, they’re better for people biking and they’re better for safety and the planet,” Luke Bornheimer, a …