SF Cab Drivers Allowed Use of Bike Lanes

Move over, San Francisco cyclists: the taxi drivers are coming.

San Francisco taxi drivers are allowed to use the city's bicycle lanes to drop off and pick up passengers, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

Not being able to use the bike lanes to drop off passengers is a safety hazard for both taxi drivers and their customers, according to Mark Gruberg, who heads the United Taxicab Workers, one of the city's several drivers' organizations. "The City is always talking about 'sharing the road, and for the bicyclists to get exclusive access of the bike lane goes completely against that mantra," he told the newspaper.

Cabs cannot park in bike lines or travel in them; the bike lanes are to be used for pick up and drop off purposes only, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

The bicyclists, predictably, dislike this rule immensely. "If you give cabs an inch, they’ll take a mile," bike courier Josh McDonald told the newspaper. "They’re going to be parked in the bike lanes, and I’m going to have to move around them into regular traffic. Anytime I have to do that, my job becomes a whole lot more dangerous."