Fell Street is a high-volume, three-lane, one-way arterial heading west. A Class II bike facility (bike lane) exists to the left of the left-most through vehicle lane on Fell Street. An Arco gas station popular for its low prices is located at the southeast intersection of Fell and Divisadero Streets and has two driveways on Fell Street. Queuing cars sometimes block the bike lane as they wait to enter the gas station, and cyclists are forced into the busy through lanes to the right of the bike lane. In addition to queues entering Arco, vehicles also cross the bike lane when turning onto Divisadero Street.  In addition to the more important safety and circulation issues, queuing cars that blocked the bike lane forced cyclists into the vehicle lanes and around an in-pavement bicycle counter that had been installed in this block.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has made multiple attempts to discourage motorists from blocking the bike lane and to reduce the conflicts at this location. In late June 2010, the SFMTA removed parking to create a queuing lane for the gas station on the left of the bike lane. Additional outreach was done to motorists on site throughout July 2010. Finally, on August 3, 2010 the SFMTA painted the bike lane green (dashed where the solid white lines are dashed), in order to improve motorist awareness of the bicycle facility.

The results of the Fell Street treatment were positive. Observations of motorist behavior recorded during the evening peak period showed that cars queuing to enter the gas station were approximately 40% less likely to block the bike lane after the application of green paint.

A full description of the data collection process and results is detailed in SFMTA’s evaluation: http://128.121.89.101/cms/rbikes/documents/Memo_2010-10-14_000.pdf