Cyclists are allowed the full use of street lanes when no bike lane is available. There are even signs stating so, but as
Matt Smith of The Snitch notes, these signs are being hung too high for most to easily see them:[S]ign-hangers working for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
seem to have become flummoxed when hanging "Bicycles Allowed Full Use
of Lane" signs. One gets the feeling they mixed up the metric system
and the U.S. system of yards and feet, bolting the signs 7 meters high
even though the city's standard calls for hanging them at seven feet.
[...]
Though they're everywhere, most people have never seen one, because
they're typically positioned high in the air, as if intended for
seagull traffic.
I asked SFMTA spokeswoman Kristen Holland why
the city would post signs in a way that nobody could see them. She
eventually got back with the following note:
"I
spoke with our traffic engineers. Generally, the bottom of any single
post sign placed in the sidewalk area must be at least 7 feet off the
ground for safety reasons. This is standard for all regulatory,
warning, and guide signs. Low level, dual post parking signs are used
to allow new trees to grow; those are generally replaced with 7 foot
high signs when the trees get taller."
However, an actual look at the signs shows that many of them are actually placed far closer to seven meters high, more than three times higher than the standard Holland cites.
Read more, and see photographic evidence, at The Snitch.
