Alliance > Media center > People Powered Blog

Entries tagged: San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Like many advocacy organizations, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is working to create a city where all residents — from ages 8 to 80 — feel safe and comfortable walking and biking for transportation and recreation. But, to make that inspiring concept a reality, SFBC knows they need more than crosswalks and bikeways. They need to expand their resources and redefine who they serve, too.

If you survey the streets, it’s not just individual riders pedaling to work. It’s moms with newborns and dads with toddlers two-wheeling to daycare and swinging by the grocery store. So SFBC is making sure the needs of the modern family fit seamlessly with the bicycling lifestyle.

With a large and growing membership, the SFBC recognized that: “Family biking is often a very different experience than biking on your own. Whether you biked a lot before becoming a parent, are just getting back to biking after years away, or want to teach your kids to bike, you very likely have questions about how to approach each stage of family biking.”

So Kit Hodge, along with some SFBC board members and advocates, have endeavored to answer those very questions. The first resource is a new online Family Biking Guide that tackles important topics like:

• Biking pregnant, including advice for each trimester and general tips like what type of bike to ride to accommodate your baby bump
• Biking with your baby or young toddler, including tips for before and after your baby can sit up and suggestions for overcoming legitimate fears for your baby’s safety
• Teaching your child to bike, including an outline of skills to teach to get your kid street ready

But the guide is just the first step. This week, SFBC is kicking off of a three-part family biking class. The free, 90-minute sessions include Biking Pregnant, Biking With Your Baby & Toddler, and Biking Your Child to School.

Kit says she hopes the guide and classes will be an inspiration to current cyclists who don’t want to give up riding because they have a family.

“I suspect that we’ve been losing some people to that transition, at least for a few years,” she says. “The initiative is also part of our overall messaging about 8-to-80 biking in San Francisco, and goes hand in hand with our communications focus on safe and respectful riding this Winter and Spring as we head to crucial votes on new, next generation bikeway projects and implementation.”

Interested in learning more about innovative bicycle safety and education courses like this? Click here for the Family Biking Guide — and stay tuned to our upcoming list of 2012 Mutual Aid Calls!

Recently, one of our member organizations told us they didn’t just want to match the more than 12,000 members of San Francisco Bicycle Coalition — they wanted to exceed it. What better way to do that than send their membership coordinator to learn tactics and methods from Kate McCarthy, the well-known and respected Membership Director of SF Bicycle Coalition, and Ellis Robinson, a leading guru in the membership development field.

Thirty-eight bicycle and pedestrian advocates — representing three countries, 24 states and provinces, 33 cities, and 30 Alliance member organizations — attended the second Alliance Membership Development Training, July 20-22. Hosted with special support from the Active Transportation Alliance in Chicago, the training offered two-and-a-half days of instruction, sharing of best practices, small group break-outs, and, of course, outside-the-training networking time for Alliance leaders to connect with each other and build those long-lasting and supportive peer relationships.

It also set out an ambitious goal for the bike-ped movement: The Alliance challenged the attendees to double their organization’s membership within three years. With the skills they learned, they’re ready and willing to take on that mission.

“I appreciated this training so much,” Elizabeth Stampe of Walk San Francisco said. “I can’t wait to implement the terrific ideas I got from my colleagues and the trainers to double our membership!”

Sue Prant from Community Cycles in Boulder, CO, echoed that sentiment: “This training gave us tools to help us refine our membership program, as well as giving us tips and ideas for new activities to engage and recruit new members.”

Tom Rousculp, from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance in Portland, OR, added: “The Alliance training has given me the skills and tools to take our membership program to the next level in a thoughtful and professional way.”

In addition to the training itself:

• SRAM hosted a “Welcome to Chicago” social on Wednesday evening
• Participants observe a pit stop — Active Transportation Alliance’s adaptation of the SF Bicycle Coalition’s Service Station
• Attendees gained first-hand knowledge of the city’s infrastructure with a bike ride and walking tour
• The entire group ended Thursday with a gathering in Millennium Park

Whether participants connected with peer groups working in similar geographic or modal scope, or gained insight on the improvements they need to make within their organization to grow their membership, the evaluations indicated that every participant walked away with new and powerful knowledge.

“Connecting with my peers over the better part of three days has not only given me new ideas but also a network to contact with questions and concerns as I grow our membership,” Cait Costello from Palmetto Cycling Coalition in Columbia, SC, said.

Elena Santogade from Transportation Alternatives in NYC described the training as “Inspiring, exhausting, exhilarating — a must-attend.”

Carol Feucht from the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition summed it up: “After this training, I have confidence that my job matters. Members and volunteers matter, and I’m glad a training like this exists for bike and ped orgs.”

Find all the resources and training materials in the Alliance Resources Library here.

• This week, America Bikes released a new study that proves building bicycle and pedestrian facilities creates significantly more jobs (46 percent) than road-only projects. With the debate on a federal transportation bill imminent, this report provides valuable insight about the important economic benefits of biking and walking. It’s a (quick) must-read; download it here.

• Another new resource out this week came from the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. Their Safe Routes to School Local Policy Guide highlights numerous and diverse local policies that support SRTS programs by encouraging safe walking and bicycling and physical activity by children. (Want to learn more about local SRTS policies? Join us for a Mutual Aid Call on July 27.)

• The advocates at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition debuted another video associated with their Connecting the City campaign, which envisions 100 miles of separated bike facilities in the heart of the city. Check out “Stephanie’s Story” and “Crosstown Bikeways for Everyone!” here.

• Bike share systems are spreading quickly across North America. The AP profiled the trend in a great piece this week. Watch it here.

• For statewide organizations, a specialty license plate can be a significant and sustainable source of funding. If you missed our Mutual Aid Call with Robin Stallings of BikeTexas, Nancy Tibbett of Bicycle Indiana and Tim Bustos of the Florida Bicycle Association, click here to listen to the recording and download the Tip Sheet.

• Speaking of funding: Want a glimpse into the process of grantmakers and foundations? Check out this interesting article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review on “The Elusive Craft of Evaluating Advocacy.”

• As I’ve mentioned in past weeks, we’re working hard to update, improve and add to the Alliance Resource Library. This week we got help from…
  • The Safe Routes to School National Partnership, which helped us fill out our SRTS Program Resources section with a number of helpful reports, presentations and curricula
    
  • The League of Michigan Bicyclists, which shared a handful of materials related to fundraising rides, like a route marking guideline sample and contract forms.

As always, we’re eager to share your best practices and model resources for the benefit of all Alliance members. Contact Carolyn@PeoplePoweredMovement.org if you can help!

Blog contributed by Kate Hopkins

In San Francisco, 58 percent more people are biking today than just four years ago. The boom is largely thanks to new bike paths and events geared toward cycling.

One of the boldest efforts to boost biking in the Bay Area is the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Connecting the City campaign, which envisions an extensive and practical network of safe and inviting bike routes across the metropolitan region. The goal by 2020 is 100 miles of bikeways that encourage residents to pedal to shop, work, and play, while preserving the city’s historic integrity and relieving traffic congestion and strained transit systems.

To advance that ambitious goal and build the movement for a connected city, SFBC launched a new website this month, which lays out the routes, tells how to volunteer or donate to the campaign, and highlights recent news and events. The site is accessible, user-friendly and offers visual renderings of the proposed lanes. The Coalition also created a short video — Stephanie’s Story — to give a snapshot of everyday use and grassroots demand for family-friendly bike infrastructure. Stephanie shares her family’s transportation needs, the ease and convenience of bike travel, and the innocent joy of a kid on a bike. She says that safer bike paths will allow her children to be more independent and her husband safer in his commute.

To make sure policymakers are aware of the grassroots demand, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition sent a letter to new Mayor Edwin Lee just a few days after he took office, welcoming him and asking for his support in Connecting the City. The letter has specific suggestions for new areas to develop, upkeep and repair of existing bikeways, and a concrete timeline for putting it all into practice.

Check out the routes that Connecting the City is working on here and keep up with the entire project here.

Photo from Connecting the City: Artist rendering of Market Street

We’ve got a parade of new, but familiar, faces taking the helm of Alliance organizations in 2011. Many of you know Dave Snyder from his frequent role as the expert facilitator of our Winning Campaigns Trainings. But now that he’s the executive director of the revitalized California Bicycle Coalition, we wondered what he’s been up to in recent years and what winning ideas he has planned for the Golden State.

When and how did you first get involved in bike-ped issues way back in the day? 

I got involved on Earth Day 1990, when I decided that bicycling promotion was a good way to channel my activism. I published a newsletter (this was pre-world wide web) to facilitate communication among the various flavors of bicycle activists and coordinated them under the name of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, an organization that had gone legally defunct after its 1971 founding but was being maintained in name, at least, by one stalwart dedicated activist.

Anyone who’s been to an Alliance Winning Campaigns Training knows you’ve had many and varied successes in your long career; what was the very first campaign you worked on?

It was one I wouldn’t have worked on if I had had the training! Highway One between Stinson Beach and Mill Valley had closed due to mudslides. It became a beautiful bike ride: We fought to keep it closed to cars forever. It would have been amazing but utterly un-winnable and not exactly on message or mission in any case. We had fun, though!

You grew the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition into a powerhouse organization; what’s one of your best memories or biggest lessons learned from those years?

Turning out about 150 people to a hearing on the citywide bicycle network, and coordinating the testimony to make an incredibly strong statement about the need for the network.

I’m assuming you left SFBC to start Livable City? Why? What else have you been up to since SFBC?

Creating bicycle habitat by changing land use is equally, if not more, important than adding bike facilities to streets, as it also can make housing more affordable and therefore especially improve the lives of lower income people. After I passed Livable City on to another great leader I decided to work for the Alliance for Biking & Walking (then the Thunderhead Alliance) as the Director of Program Development. After that I served a stint as the Transportation Policy Director of a local think tank called San Francisco Planning & Urban Research, and most recently as the project director of yet another startup organization: the San Francisco Transit Riders Union.

What are some of the successes of the California Bicycle Coalition that you’ll be building on in 2011?

California started the Safe Routes to School movement and was the first large state to adopt a complete streets policy. We’ll build on that by working to ensure the complete streets policy is implemented, and that the California delegation to Congress voices strong support for the federal safe routes to school program.

California often pushes the envelope for the rest of the country on progressive issues like transportation and energy. Do you see CBC helping to advance that reputation on the bike-ped front?

I think that we can work with our new governor, Jerry Brown, to create a transportation policy for the state that can be a model for reauthorization of the federal bill. Brown is known as a frugal, practical leader, and California’s challenges in transportation policy — huge deficits coupled with extreme difficulty in raising taxes — call for creative solutions that the rest of the country can learn from.

You took the helm of the SFBC back in 1991; now you’re taking over the CBC in 2010. How has the national/state/local atmosphere change? How does this gig feel different?

I think that state level advocacy is so different from local advocacy that it’s hard to say what’s different. There are communities in California that are no more advanced than San Francisco was in 1991, so for those communities, there’s little difference. Except for this: There’s a general acceptance at all levels of government and among a majority of the population that bicycling is a realistic transportation option for some people. It used to never occur to policy makers that bicycling mattered. The implications of this are huge, because a supportive context can allow a community to become more bicycle-friendly in much less time than it took us in the early ‘90s. Fresno, California, has made as much progress in the past two years as San Francisco has made in a whole decade. Also, the example of New York City shows that supportive policy makers can utterly transform a city and do it quickly.

I look at this job from two perspectives. One, I’m going to simply try to do my job well and make sure the CBC plays its part as a player on the larger team: the federal effort, state efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and reform transportation policy, and strengthen local efforts. Second, I’m looking for the big win, but I’m not sure what that is, yet. Age has not made me more patient. If anything, it’s done the opposite, because I’ve seen 20 years of bicycle activism increase bike to work rates from about 1 percent to about 4 percent. I want to see 10 percent or 20 percent and I don’t want it to take another 20 years!

Excited to be back to bike-specific advocacy?

Heck yes.

Keep up with Snyder’s effort on the CBC website. Photo from Bike Commute Tips Blog.

Thanks in part to Advocacy Advance Grants from the Alliance for Biking & Walking, two statewide organizations recently announced the hiring of new, full-time executive directors. And they’re both familiar faces.

Out on the west coast, Dave Snyder took the helm of the California Bicycle Coalition this month. Dave has a long history of bike-ped success, including growing the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition into a political powerhouse with thousands of engaged members and starting several nonprofits aimed at environmentally sustainable and socially just transportation options in the Bay Area. Dave’s got a long history with the Alliance, too — not only has he led a number of our Winning Campaigns Trainings, but also served as our director of program development back when we were still called the Thunderhead Alliance.

The veteran advocate will be the CBC’s first ED in four years, thanks to a $30,000 Startup/Capacity Grant from the Alliance’s Advocacy Advance program. According to the CBC: Snyder will lead efforts to secure substantial long-term funding, strengthen relationships with bike industry allies and the local bike advocacy community, and increase California’s influence in national bike advocacy.

“The recent midterm elections signaled a sea-change for the national transportation agenda,” CBC president, Chris Morfas, said in the group’s most recent newsletter “Fifteen years of gains for bicycling nationwide are now under serious threat. This couldn’t be a better time for us to have someone with Dave’s skills.”

On the other side of the country, Georgette Yaindl is leaving her ocean paradise and returning to her roots. Her hiring as the first executive director for Bike Walk Connecticut is also being funded, in part, by a $15,000 Advocacy Advance Grant from the Alliance.

According to Bike Walk Connecticut: “Yaindl is returning to Connecticut where she worked for many years, including as the first Executive Director of the Connecticut Bicycle Coalition. She left the CBC in 2000 to work for the Hawaii Bicycling League as its Community Liaison. In 2007, she graduated from the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law and focused her practice in Hawaii in the areas of environmental, and labor and employment law. Bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to the position of Executive Director, Georgette also has a lifelong passion for biking and walking, and wants to help re-establish Connecticut’s identity as a center for innovative transportation technology.”

“Dorothy was right,” Georgette says. “There is no place like home. I am stoked knowing I shall soon be back in the mix helping improve the health and vitality of our residents and communities via the simple yet revolutionary acts of bicycling and walking. Aloha!”

Read more from the CBC and Bike Walk Connecticut.

Sadly, those nights of riding home from work or happy hour in the golden evening glow are behind us. For the next several months, the sun will set before quitting time and bicycle commuters will be cruising home on darkened streets.

From Alaska to New York City, many bike-ped advocates are making sure their area cyclists stay safe — and visible.

This week, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition kicked off its ongoing “Light up the Night” program. Teaming up with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the local police department, the Bay Area organization is giving away 2,400 front white and rear red blinky lights.

“The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is proud to be a partner in helping promote safe night riding by distributing free bike lights to those who can’t afford or don’t have access to them,” Renée Rivera, Acting Executive Director of the SFBC, said in a press release this week. “Bicycle lights are a key item for safe night riding and we want everyone to use them, especially during the winter months when it gets dark earlier.”

Just the first night of the effort resulted in the distribution of hundreds of lights and bike safety brochures. But the SFBC isn’t advertising where and when its blinky ambassadors will take to the streets. According to the SFBC: “The locations are being kept under wraps in an effort to light up riders who truly need lights.”

Read more here.

Kids today could be the first generation with a lower life expectancy than their parents. Many studies chalk up that disturbing possibility to the fact that nearly 80 percent of children don’t get enough exercise.

It used to be that students got a daily dose of physical activity simply traveling to and from school. In 1969, at least 50 percent of students walked or biked to school. Today that number has dropped to less than 15 percent.

Across the U.S., school leaders and local advocates are making strides in reversing that trend with International Walk to School Day activities. Drawing on inspiration from the United Kingdom, the Partnership for a Walkable America sponsored the first National Walk Our Children to School Day in Chicago in 1997. Five years later, more than 3 million parents, students and advocates in all 50 states marked the second international event.

Today, an impressive 3,213 schools are participating in Walk to School Day — and many Alliance member organizations are celebrating, too.

In California, for instance, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition highlighted yesterday that Walk to School Day marks a tripling in the number of schools participating in San Francisco’s Safe Routes to School Program. ““Safe Routes to Schools is a smart way to improve our streets and neighborhoods, which will encourage more families to walk and bike to school,” Renée Rivera, Acting Executive Director of the SFBC said in the press release. “Walk to School day is a great one day event that allows more kids and parents to experience firsthand how fun and easy walking to school can be.”

Up in Illinois, the Active Transportation Alliance helped a handful their local schools plan particularly festive celebrations with mini grants of $500. In addition to funding, Active Trans kicked in school safety patrol equipment, a banner to promote the event, snack bars, T-shirts, safety vests, signs, and stickers, as well as a Safe Routes to School consultation for the entire school district and safety resources for a Walk and Roll to School Day assembly.

How are you celebrating Walk to School Day?

Back in 2006, a Superior Court put the brakes on San Francisco’s new Bike Plan. With the stroke of a judge’s gavel, officials were restrained from adding any new bicycle facilities in the Bay City. For more than four years, the legal wrangling over the environmental review handcuffed concrete plans for more bike-friendly streets.

As of this week, the brakes are off.

On Friday, the injunction was finally — and fully — lifted, making way for the near-immediate striping of 35 bike lanes.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, an organization with more than 11,000 members, applauded the ruling.

“We are celebrating San Francisco’s freedom to once again make streets safer for everyone and look forward to real improvements on streets in a matter of days,” Renée Rivera, Acting Executive Director of the SFBC said in a statement. “This is the first time in San Francisco’s history that this many bike lane projects are approved and ready to be striped. These long-awaited improvements will help growing numbers of people feel more confident, comfortable and safe when they bike to shop, to work and to play.”

That growth has been dramatic. Even with the injunction in place, bicycle ridership has surged by more than 53 percent over the past four years. And the new facilities could drastically increase that number: Surveys have shown that more than one-third of San Franciscans would ride if their routes included bike lanes.

With the lifting of the injunction, the city is now poised to nearly double its miles of bike lanes and position itself as one of the nation’s top cycling towns. According to SFBC: “Today’s ruling coupled with the City’s commitment to safer, friendlier streets will propel San Francisco into becoming one of America’s most bicycle-friendly cities.”

Read more from SFBC here.

At the 2008 National Bike Summit advocacy leaders from across the country came up with a campaign that could raise the visibility of cycling in cities from coast to coast: Gas-Free Fridays.

Jumping on the concept, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition quickly launched the program, setting up Energizer Stations on major thoroughfares on consecutive Fridays to give residents an incentive to abandon the gas pump and pedal to work.

“We do it in July to play off of Independence Day — being patriotic by riding bicycles and lessening our country’s dependency on oil,” says Kate McCarthy, SFBC’s membership and volunteer director.

With the oil spill in the Gulf and President Barack Obama’s call for a “national mission” to wean Americans off of gasoline, SFBC hopes Gas-Free Fridays will spread to other cities this summer. So they’re making it easy for advocacy leaders to start a campaign in their community by sharing SFBC resources, like Energize Station checklists and model fliers.

According to McCarthy, the visible initiative is worth the effort.

“There are no hard numbers for participation with Gas-Free Fridays, but a couple hundred pass each Energizer Station each of the four Fridays, so on varying routes, that’s about 800 to 1,000 people, which is great,” she says. “We know that in San Francisco over the past three years, while there has been no on-ground bicycle improvements, bicycling increased by a whopping 53 percent, indicating that our encouragement campaigns are hugely successful.”

It’s been a boon for membership, too. The SFBC hooks as many as 10 new memberships at each Energizer Station. “Also the anecdotal evidence is great; riders stopping by and telling us they decided to ride because they heard about it on the news or because they heard about our stations from a friend,” McCarthy says.

To get more information and fire up this campaign in your community, check out SFBC’s campaign site, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or download the resources from the Alliance library.

According to a press release issued by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, ” Hundreds of thousands of people, including members of the Board of Supervisors, community leaders, and other first- and long-time bike commuters, will pedal to work as part of the 16th Annual Bike to Work Day on Thursday, May 13. This year’s event is a celebration of the city’s first fully-separated,  green bike lane on Market Street and other innovations and additions that are improving streets all across the city.

“Scores of people will be experiencing the comfort of bicycling in the newly separated and now green Market Street bike lane for the first time on Bike to Work Day,” says Renee Rivera, acting Executive Director of the SF Bicycle Coalition, a non-profit which promotes bicycling for everyday transportation and organizes Bike to Work Day in San Francisco. “We are thrilled to have Mayor Newsom leading these exciting biking innovations on Market Street, the city’s busiest biking street. This is a great first step towards a separated bikeway the full length of lower Market Street.”

San Francisco has seen a whopping 53% increase in the number of people bicycling in the city since 2006, according to counts by the SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). This number is expected to surge in the coming year with dozens of bicycling improvements planned for streets all across San Francisco.

“We are taking hold of an incredible opportunity to transform Market Street into one of the greatest streets in the world,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom. “San Francisco is an innovator and this newly separated, green bike lane is one example of how we can make Market Street safer and more bike friendly for the tens of thousands of people who use it everyday.”

The SF Bicycle Coalition is organizing “Commuter Convoys” which will escort VIPs on tours of Market Street to show them firsthand the positive changes transforming the city’s most important biking, walking and transit street. These tours will converge on the steps of City Hall at 8:30am for a press conference celebrate and build support for the fully separated and continuous bikeway on Market Street from Van Ness all the way to the Embarcadero.

San Francisco-based companies also understand that a Market Street bikeway will be good for business, good for employee health and safety, and key to a vibrant future for our city’s main street.

“We support a fully separated, continuous bikeway on Market Street as a way to improve the safety of our employees that bicycle regularly to our office as well as to meetings at other companies in the area,” says Christopher Sacca, Managing Partner of Lowercase Capital. “I also anticipate that this improvement will be just the encouragement needed to get more of our employees and the founders of our portfolio companies choosing this healthy form of transportation.”

Market Street is just one of many streets that has improved in the last few months. California’s first colored bike box (an advance stop line for cyclists) was added to Scott Street at Oak on the busy ‘wiggle’ bike route, new bike lanes have been striped on numerous streets and hundreds of new bike parking racks installed all over the city. These additions are making it easier and more inviting for people to choose to bicycle every day.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition will host 27 morning and afternoon Energizer Stations in neighborhoods across the city to fuel up commuters with free snacks, fair trade certified coffee and distribute bicycling information. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition will end the day in style with the Bike Away from Work Party and Fashion Show (6-10pm, Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell Street) where dozens of models will pedal the runway in functional finery.

Bike to Work Day 2010 is presented by Kaiser Permanente, the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and hundreds of local volunteers. For more information on San Francisco’s Bike to Work Day, visit http://www.sfbike.org/btwd.”

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition recently announced that they have joined forced with Streetsblog San Francisco and the SF Chronicle to create Bay Area Transit, a new blog that will appear on sfgate.com. According to the Coalition, “This blog is an opportunity for us to write about our work and highlight all of the exciting new bicycling improvements (hello Market Street separated bike lane) that are making San Francisco a better place to ride a bike. We’ll certainly be sharing the faces and stories of some of the 120,000 San Franciscans who bicycle frequently and showcasing great biking events and rides that are bound to get even more people riding. You can check it out here: Bay Area Transit.”

According to a press release issued today by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, “Responding to the growing interest in bicycle transportation, the city began installing its first physically separated bike lane on Market Street today, the busiest corridor in San Francisco for two-wheeled transportation.

White, soft-hit posts are being added to the existing bike lane on Market Street between Octavia Boulevard and Eighth Street, creating an exclusive path of travel for bicycle commuters and deterring cars from illegally parking in the busy bike lane.

This first-of-its kind improvement in San Francisco comes as a welcome addition for the more than 120,000 people who bicycle regularly in San Francisco. Biking increased 53% on the streets of San Francisco between 2006 and 2009, according to counts from the SF Municipal Transportation Agency.

“Physically separated bike lanes are a proven way to encourage more people to ride bicycles for transportation, and what better street to add this safety innovation to than Market Street, the city’s most important bicycling corridor,” says Neal Patel, Community Planner for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, an 11,000-member nonprofit group that promotes bicycling for everyday transportation. “We expect to see the numbers of people choosing to bike on Market Street grow dramatically as the city continues to invest in more welcoming conditions for riding.”

Businesses along Market Street are also seeing the positive impacts of more people bicycling. “A lot of our customers arrive by bicycle” says Josefine Gylleback, Manager of Cafe Trieste on Market St. and Gough. “I think these improvements will attract more bicycling customers, which is good for business, and the addition of the posts means bicyclists don’t have to worry about cars parked in the bike lane.”

In a February survey, 90% of bicyclists said the one-block separated bike lane on Market St., which was piloted initially, made them feel safer, and 80% of respondents said they would bike on Market Street more often if the separated bike lane was extended farther.

“The separated bike lane has transformed my commute and vastly improved this stretch of Market Street, making it safer and more pleasant for me and other people riding bikes,” says Steve Hall, a Marketing Director for an investment firm who has been bicycle commuting from his home in the Mission to his office at the Ferry Building for more than a decade. “I would love to see this separated bike lane extended to the full length of Market Street, so I would feel more comfortable bicycling regularly with my 7-year-old son to the Embarcadero.”

The SF Municipal Transportation Agency reported that Market St. often has more bike commuters than automobiles during the peak morning commute, according to counts taken at Van Ness. “We are eager to see the city continue this fully separated bikeway on Market Street from Octavia Blvd. to the Embarcadero, which will encourage more first-time bicyclists to ride comfortably,” says Neal Patel, of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “This will attract people of all ages and skills to travel our city’s main corridor in a healthy, non-polluting way—whether for work, for shopping, or just for fun.”

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is working with city officials to plan an event to officially unveil the completion of the new physically separated bike lane on Market Street in the coming week.  Please stay tuned for an announcement.”

For more information, visit the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

According to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, tens of thousands of adults and kids flooded the car-free Embarcadero on this year’s first San Francisco Sunday Streets event. The second 2010 Sunday Streets event is planned for Sunday April 11th from Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway. According to the SF Bicycle Coalition, “the Sunday Streets route will be hopping with activity from bicycling to dancing and rollerskating, yoga to hula-hooping.”

The SF Bicycle Coalition is coordinating the volunteer corps that make all Sunday Streets events possible. For each of the nine 2010 Sunday Streets events, more than 150 volunteers will make the event happen. If you’re in San Francisco and want to get involved, sign up at sundaystreetssf.com/volunteer.

For more information on SF’s Sunday Streets see http://www.sundaystreetssf.com.
Read press coverage of the 1st 2010 Sunday Streets event at the SF Chronicle.

The SF Bicycle Coalition recently celebrated the official opening of the “Showplace Triangle” street plaza (at 8th and 16th streets) where San Francisco’s mayor Gavin Newsom, announced that the City’s Pavement to Parks program will be completing 12 more trial street plazas and “parklets” by the end of 2010. This program takes car parking spots and other street spaces and transforms them into various gathering spots for the community.

Since the very first plaza opening in May 2009, the trial street reclamations have proven to be very successful and popular among the public. The new public spaces are built after the idea of PARK(ing) Day, where automobile parking spots are turned into mini public spaces for a day. These temporary spaces include mini-gardens, bike parking, plazas, etc.

The SF Bike Coalition will continue to work closely with the Pavement to Parks program through their own Great Streets Project in order to scout good locations and connect community groups and businesses with the city’s program.

For more information:
Great Streets Project: http://sfgreatstreets.org/
Pavement to Parks Program: http://sfpavementtoparks.sfplanning.org/
PARK(ing) Day: http://www.parkingday.org/
SF Bicycle Coalition: http://www.sfbike.org/

According to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), “SFBC is celebrating another new bike lane on Otis Street which has created an important one block link between South Van Ness and Gough Street.

Otis Street is the ninth new bike lane to be striped since December. These bike lanes are the direct result of years of hard work by SFBC staff and countless hours of grassroots organizing by committed Bicycle Coalition members. The Coalition is pleased to see these new improvements for bicycling being added all across San Francisco and creating important links in the bike network.”

To find out more about the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and its efforts, visit sfbike.org.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is continuing to see its re-paving project efforts pay off with a now smooth ride from Golden Gate Park to the Pacific Ocean.

The newly paved road means a safe, smooth, and enjoyable ride for commuters and other bicyclists and a win for the Coalition. SFBC and its team of volunteers have been working hard to identify San Francisco streets and neighborhoods in need of both re-paving and adequate bike lanes through their “Good Roads” campaign. Volunteers ride the city streets and tag/spray paint the most dangerous spots. These markings are an immediate help to many cyclists, but more importantly a designated legend for the Department of Public Works (DPW) who has committed to patching and smoothing the indicated spots. To view other resurfacing updates and projects visit www.sfbike.org/?goodroads. 

For more information on SFBC and the Good Roads campaign, visit www.sfbike.org

According to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, “We’re pleased that (Mayor) Gavin Newsom announced the 2010 Sunday Streets schedule—with even more routes, dates and neighborhoods than last year!

More than 20,000 San Franciscans enjoyed car-free streets at each of last year’s Sunday Streets by participating in healthy activities ranging from bicycling to dancing, rollerskating to hula hooping. We expect even more people to enjoy the event this year, which will happen on nine Sundays starting in March and ending in October. Check out www.sundaystreetssf.com for the schedule and route details. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition was proud to initiate the idea of Sunday Streets in 2008 and have it championed by a broad coalition including the Mayor’s Office, Shape Up SF Coalition, Livable City, Walk SF and many others. The Bicycle Coalition has worked for years with the Mayor, city leaders and community groups to create more car-free recreational spaces for healthy activities like biking. Car-free recreational areas open minds and show how streets can be used differently—come out and play!” Learn more at www.sundaystreetssf.com.

After the San Francisco Superior Court was exposed to a city report stating that bicycle ridership has increased 53% since 2006, the court ruled to partially lift the Bike Plan injunction set three years ago. 

Since the ruling, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) has been working hard to make sure changes are happening and that the City is taking full advantage of the court’s partial lift. Just days following the lift, SFBC welcomed the City’s first bike lane in three years along with its first green-colored “Bike Box” (an advanced stop line that gives bicyclists priority waiting room in front of cars at stop lights). Various neighborhoods have also received additional improvements such as “sharrows” (shared lane arrows), new sidewalk bike racks, a temporary on-street bike parking corral as well as improved bicycle way-finding signage.

These improvements are a step in the right direction but more than 35 bicycle related projects still remain on hold until the injunction is fully lifted. In the mean time, SVBC will continue their efforts and push for a full lift of the injunction with a hearing set for June 2010. To view current improvements, follow the injunction’s process, and more information on SFBC’s involvement, visit www.sfbike.org

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) — According to a press release issued today by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, “Parents and students will be taking to the sidewalks and forming ‘walking school buses’ all across the city when SF schools celebrate Walk to School Day, Oct. 7th. Walk to School Day is also the kick off for a new program that will help raise a new generation of walkers and bikers. The new two-year Safe Routes to Schools program, funded by a $500,000 grant from the federal government, aims to make biking and walking to school easier for parents and kids through education, safer streets and incentives.

The Safe Routes to School Program is led by the SF Department of Public Health and supported by the SF Bicycle Coalition, SF Unified School District, SF Police Department, and the SF Municipal Transportation Agency. It will be launched at five elementary schools this school year including: Bryant (Mission District), George Washington Carver (Bayview), Longfellow (Excelsior), Sunnyside (Sunnyside), Sunset (Outer Sunset). 68% of the students at these schools live within one mile of their school, so there’s an amazing opportunity to increase the number of kids who get to school by bike and foot. Next year 10 additional schools will be added to the program for a total of 15 schools.

“The Safe Routes to Schools program teaches students and parents about how easy it can be to save our earth by reducing pollution,” says Phyllis Matsuno, Principal of Longfellow Elementary School (SFUSD) Principal Phyllis. “We’re thrilled that Longfellow was selected to participate in this program, it’ll help us promote healthy, active and attentive students.”

Getting more children to walk and bicycle to school is a much-needed solution. In San Francisco, one quarter of children are overweight and studies show that 75% of these overweight children will become overweight as adults, translating into more cases of diabetes, asthma and other chronic diseases. During the past four decades the obesity rate for children ages 6 to 11 has more than quadrupled (from 4.2 to 17 percent), and the obesity rate for adolescents ages 12 to 19 has more than tripled (from 4.6 to 17.6 percent). In addition, communities throughout the U.S. report that as much as 21 percent of morning traffic can be parents driving their children to schools.

The Safe Routes to School is a popular nationwide program that has a proven track record at over 5,440 schools for helping more children and communities become healthy, safe, and green. Schools in Oakland, California reported an amazing 10% increase in students walking and biking to school after just one year of launching their Safe Routes to School.

“Safe Routes to Schools is one of the best ways to improve conditions for walking and biking,” says Leah Shahum, Executive Director of the 10,000-member SF Bicycle Coalition, which promotes bicycling for everyday transportation. “We know that fewer and fewer kids are walking and biking to school today and that this is having a direct, negative effect on kids’ long-term health and habits. Fortunately, we know we can turn this alarming trend around.”

Studies show that 78% of school age children are not getting enough exercise and that this generation will likely be the first to have a lowered life expectancy than their parents. “Bicycling and walking are wise public health investments because they encourage active lifestyles that will help prevent disease,” says Mitch Katz, MD, Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH).

“Walking is an important part of our day and a great time for us to talk about what she did at school, go over her spelling words and take in the view from the top of Morse and Allyson streets,” says Jacquie Chavez, ‘Walk to Win Wednesday’ co-founder and mother of a first grader at Longfellow Elementary. “My daughter is learning to be safe, smart and independent and we are making the streets safer by not adding another car to the road.”

For more on International Walk to School Day in San Francisco, see: http://www.sfwalktoschool.com. For more information on the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the SF Safe Routes to Schools Program see http://www.sfbike.org.”

 1 2 >