Leland Yee: Cycling in the City

Cycling in San Francisco poses unique challenges and sweet rewards. The challenges include: Traversing impossibly steep hills; negotiating around double-parked cars with other cars speeding by; trolley tracks and storm grates seemingly designed to envelope your tires and send you flying; and avoiding getting "doored" by oblivious motorists all too intent on their own errands and issues.

The rewards are as compelling: Leaning on your bike at the crest of a hill and taking in the spectacular San Francisco scenery; shifting gears and gliding down and down and down that hill with the wind whistling by; moving through gridlocked traffic with the ease of a hot knife through butter; and parking right next to the office, store or restaurant you're headed for.

Many residents of the City and surrounding communities already take advantage of the benefits of commuting by bike. And within the local neighborhood, a bicycle is a wonderful resource. With a basket on the front or panniers on the back, any bicycle can be a sturdy transporter of groceries and goods. It is easy to hop on a bike and head for the store, and it is especially satisfying to be able to park right where you want to shop, in commercial areas whose limited parking daunts or deters even the hardiest motorist.

Over the course of the past few years, many additional bicycle lanes have been designated. In some cases, little more than appropriate marking and signage has been necessary to make our streets safer for cyclists. In other cases, traffic modification has been more complex.

In many new or renovated sites in the city, efforts are being made to respond to the needs of cyclists. Thus for example, the remodeled Laguna Honda Hospital will have a bicycle path crossing the hospital campus and the Hospital Replacement Project plan has incorporated improved bicycle lanes on the surrounding streets.

There is now a framework of bicycle transit corridors in the City, although more routes are needed and some congested areas of the City must still be made more bicycle-friendly and bicycle-safe. At present we can only aspire to the kind of bicycle-oriented planning evident in, say, the Netherlands, with its wide bike lanes separated by curbs from both roadway and sidewalk and separate traffic lights for cyclists. Nevertheless, we are moving in the right direction. The fact that some parking garages must now provide parking for cyclists helps.

Resources are available to cyclists and would-be cyclists through relevant city departments and advocacy groups. For example, the useful booklet, "Safe Bicycling in San Francisco," is a shared effort of the SF Department of Parking and Traffic, the Department of the Environment and the SF Bicycle Coalition. It is available for the asking from DPT by phone or from the bike coalition by phone or via the web at (415) 431-BIKE or www.sfbike.org.

Environmentally friendly, healthy and low in cost, cycling is an excellent transit alternative to the ubiquitous automobile. For recreation, commuting and the carrying out of daily tasks, cycling is an increasingly valued transport medium. As we continue to improve the roadways and associated facilities, the popularity and importance of cycling in the City will continue to rise.

If you have questions or comments about cycling in the City or about other civic issues, please contact me by e-mail at yee@sfgov.org or by phone at (415) 554-7752.

Leland Yee is a San Francisco supervisor representing District 4.