New Sweepers Hit The Streets

There are more than 15.5 miles of protected bike lanes in San Francisco, with more on the way. Keeping them clean is essential to their operation and litter can accumulate. But because they’re narrow, they cannot be accessed by the regular mechanical sweeping trucks, which are too wide. The alternatives had been manually sweeping the separated bike lanes, which is costly and inefficient. With $536,000 from the SFMTA, Public Works purchased three compact and narrow mechanical street sweepers. The new trucks are easy to maneuver, relatively quiet and have been effective at vacuuming up the loose debris on the street. They can also hold a surprising, 1½ tons of debris. The Market Street corridor and SoMa lanes are swept at night due to the high volume of traffic in those areas during the day. All the other areas are swept during the day. The sweepers operate seven days a week, so keep an eye out for these new beauties and enjoy the clean lanes.