SFBC Completed Study 7+ Years Ago, Monday a Repaved JFK Drive to be Celebrated

New paving starts at Transverse Drive, continues to Great Highway

Smooth and safer at last: west-end John F Kennedy Drive

The Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden in waiting

One of the first to bike the new JFK

Last days of repaving operations

We've all waited a really long time for this: a chance to celebrate a new smooth and safer John F. Kennedy Drive through Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway. It's an improvement the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition called for in a study* completed more than seven years ago. In April 2003 study authors Leah Shahum, SFBC Executive Director, and Joshua Hart, then SFBC Program Director, recommended repaving JFK west of Transverse Drive as one of many proposed bicycle facilities in the park.

More recently the SFBC Good Roads Campaign pushed for safer cycling and better pavement on JFK. In September of 2008 campaign volunteers first reported street defects after circling 32 potholes with spray paint. Every few months after that, the Good Roads Crew returned to find new holes or widening cracks with chunks of asphalt missing down to the concrete base. Mostly JFK was beyond maintenance; repairs had been delayed for so long that temporary fixes were no longer sufficient. Repaving began late in 2009.**

Join the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the Parks and Recreation Department and the Department of Public Works for a smooth spin Monday, May 3rd at 5:30 pm. Meet at the McLaren Lodge (Stanyan & Fell) for congratulatory remarks followed by fun park facts through the ride.

*SFBC conducted the Golden Gate Park Bicycle Improvement Study for the Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority.

** Once the repaving got underway last year, BIKE NOPA posted eleven stories tracking the progress. We're ready to move on.