Highlights from Bike to Work Day
San Francisco’s biggest bike holiday of the year doesn’t disappoint
On San Francisco’s 23rd annual Bike to Work Day, what is the state of bicycling in our city?
“In many ways, it’s better than ever. But in a lot of really important ways not good enough,” said Brian Wiedenmeier, the executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
Not to rain on what to many — especially the first timers — is the greatest bicycling day of the year (the theme this year is Bike Together), but San Francisco hasn’t exactly reached its game-changing moment.
Advocates have to fight hard for protected bike lanes — which should be a citywide standard — and people walking and biking continue to die and suffer injuries on our streets. Next Wednesday’s Ride of Silence will remember and pay tribute to every person who has been killed while biking in San Francisco.
At a City Hall press conference, Mayor Ed Lee, advocates and other city officials celebrated the completion of parking-protected bike lanes on Seventh, Eighth and 13th streets. But it was only after the deaths of Heather Miller and Kate Slattery that the mayor issued his executive directive to get the lanes built.
“The fact that the popularity of bicycling continues growing faster than any other mode in our city should be a striking reminder of how important it is to invest in infrastructure,” Wiedenmeier said. “Too often it seems like tragedies and mobilizations are the only way to see protected bike lanes delivered with urgency.”
Supervisor Jane Kim noted that all three of the new protected bike lanes are in her district. “The difference that a protected bike lane provides for a biker like me, who is a rather new cyclist, is literally night and day,” she said.
Kim pledged to work on improving Sixth, Folsom, Howard streets — all high injury corridors — and “we’d not forgot,” she said, “a protected bike lane on Turk Street,” which was followed by cheers.
SFMTA officials had planned a parking-protected bike lane on Turk Street that was scaled back to a buffered bike lane because of Fire Department concerns about the parking and overhead wires. But at Kim’s request, the SFMTA is studying how to go ahead with it.
SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin said the agency is devoting $112 million over the next five years to build 92 miles of “improved bike infrastructure, everything from protected bike lanes to neighborhood improvements.”
Besides Mayor Lee, there were three other elected officials who rode in this morning’s convoys: Kim and Supervisors London Breed and Katy Tang. It was one of the lowest supervisor attendances for Bike to Work Day.
Perhaps the most exciting Bike to Work Day news was just how many more people are riding bikes in San Francisco. As we reported earlier, there was a 10 percent increase in the number of people biking last year. And they are from all walks of life, as Supervisor Breed noted.
“It’s so amazing to see so many people out. Folks who are taking their children to school on their bikes, folks who are riding electric bikes, elderly people riding bikes. This is what the city is all about,” Breed said. “We need to make sure that we do everything we can so that our infrastructure works for the diversity of people who want to ride their bikes all over San Francisco.”
While the city still has much work to do, there was a lot of joy on the streets today, as there is every day, for people who ride bikes. So let’s celebrate our power in numbers and diversity as we Bike Together.
We’ll have more on the state of bicycling in the coming days. In the meantime, enjoy these fun-filled moments from Bike to Work Day, courtesy of our talented Human Streets photographer, Adrienne Johnson.
“One of my favorite parts of Bike to Work Day, my favorite day of the year, is the palpable joy you feel in the air. There’s no single day of the year when San Francisco’s streets are more welcoming or when strangers all around are so happy to see one another. Let’s dream of the day when our streets feel so welcoming every day, and let’s put the elbow grease in to make sure that dream becomes a reality.” -SFBC Executive Director Brian Wiedenmeier
“Biking to work is incredibly important for so many reasons. As we continue to grow, as more people are attracted to the Bay Area, we know that not everyone is going to be able to continue to drive, and cycling, Muni, walking are going to be those alternatives. So being one less car on the road is my commitment.” -Supervisor Jane Kim
And let’s not forget the San Francisco Bike Coalition’s 300 volunteers who make Bike to Work Day happen!
