(Bay City News) People biking to work just got a boost from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which gave initial approval today to an ordinance requiring commercial building owners in the city to accommodate bicyclists in their buildings.
The proposal, introduced by Supervisor John Avalos last August, would allow tenants to bring bicycles into a building or require building owners to provide secure bike parking nearby.
Owners who want to put limitations on bike access to their buildings would have to complete a bicycle access plan and submit it to the city's Department of the Environment for approval, according to the ordinance, which will go into effect 30 days after its passage.
Owners could also ask for total exceptions to the ordinance if a building's elevators were not available for bicycle access or if there was secure off-street parking or indoor, no-cost parking within three blocks of the building.
The application for the exception would require an inspection of the building by the city's Department of Building Inspection and an inspection of the parking site by the Livable Streets subdivision of the Municipal Transportation Agency.