Features

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco cycling enthusiasts are congregating in the South of Market neighborhood today to celebrate new bike lanes on half of busy Howard Street -- painted just in time for Bike to Work Day on Thursday. 

The gathering and news conference are slated for the Community Garden on Howard, between Seventh and Eighth streets, with district Supervisor Chris Daly on hand for the festivities. 

According to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the striping along Howard between Fifth and 11th streets was completed last week. 

The advocates are part way through completing an ambitious plan to create a viable and safe network of bicycle lanes between Market Street and the wharf. SoMa committee members for the bicycle coalition report on the group's Web site they have already seen Folsom Street marked off for biking between 11th and the Embarcadero and hope that the rest of Howard Street will eventually be similarly set up for biking commuter traffic. 

They note that the Board of Supervisors voted in January in favor of the partial striping of Howard and will consider further proposals for that part of town in the coming weeks and months.