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San Francisco Celebrates 23rd Annual Bike to Work Day

Thursday, May 11, 2017

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees all ground transportation in the city, today joined Mayor Edwin M. Lee, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, other city partners and business leaders to celebrate the 23rd annual Bike to Work Day. The event celebrates and promotes bicycling for transportation, with San Francisco organizing one of the largest Bike to Work Day events in North America.

“With more people, jobs and housing coming to San Francisco, biking plays an important role in moving people throughout our city,” said Mayor Ed Lee. “Encouraging cycling as another transportation option is part of our strategy to reduce traffic congestion in San Francisco. We are creating more safe and welcoming bicycle facilities to meet the growing needs of people cycling in our city.”

The SFMTA recently completed three protected bike lane projects on 7th, 8th and 13th/Division streets. The projects are in support of Vision Zero, the city’s goal to eliminate all traffic fatalities, and were key components of Mayor Ed Lee’s August 2016 Executive Directive on Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety. The directive called on the SFMTA to complete three protected bike lane projects by May 4, 2017. The SFMTA met the challenge and completed these projects by the deadline. New parking-protected bike lanes now line 7th and 8th streets from Market to Folsom streets, and 13th/Division Street has a combination of parking and concrete barrier protected bike lanes from Folsom Street to 9th Street, including a protected intersection at 9th/Division streets.

“The SFMTA is committed to creating better, safer streets for people who bike and all other road users, and that starts with infrastructure that separates cars, bikes and pedestrians,” said Ed Reiskin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. “Over the next five years, we will invest more than $112 million into 92 miles of bikeway projects. These projects don’t just create safer streets, they help us reduce congestion and air pollution at a time when more people are trying to get around San Francisco than ever before.”

Today, the SFMTA is also releasing data on bike ridership in San Francisco throughout 2016. For the first time, this data has been made available online in an interactive, publicly-accessible format at www.sfmta.com/bikecount. The website displays data collected from a network of 44 automated bike counters, census data and manual bike counts conducted around the city in 2016. At the 19 locations where the SFMTA conducted manual bike counts, bike trips increased 10 percent from 2015 and 213 percent from 2006.

“With an estimated 82,000 bike trips taken each day in San Francisco, every day can be considered Bike to Work Day," said Tom Maguire, Director of the SFMTA's Sustainable Streets division. “The rapid growth in biking we have seen over the past several years is exciting and part of a bigger picture. Our work to create safer streets isn’t just for the people biking today; it’s an investment in San Francisco’s future as a more sustainable and livable for city for everyone.”

The growth of bicycling is a key tenant in the city’s Transit First policy to ensure mobility and reduce air polluting greenhouse gas emissions. The SFMTA’s capital investments have been focused on increasing the safety and comfort of bicycling for people of all ages and income levels, and since January 2016 include:

  • Constructed or upgraded 14 miles of bikeways;
  • Completed parking-protected bikeway projects on three key bicycle routes: 13th Street/Division Street, 7th Street and 8th Street;
  • Installed San Francisco’s first “protected intersection” for bicyclists and pedestrians at 9th and Division streets (one of only 10 such intersections in the United States);
  • Started major streetscape reconstruction of Masonic Avenue and Polk Street to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety on these major North-South corridors;
  • Created a car-free area on the eastern half of the Twin Peaks “figure 8” roadway to improve access for people walking and biking;
  • Completed construction of a separated bike path on Mansell Street through McLaren Park;
  • Implemented a raised, parking-protected bike lane on Valencia Street from Duncan to Cesar Chavez streets;
  • Installed 600 bike racks and 7 bike corrals through the SFMTA’s on-demand resident and business bike-parking request program;
  • Completed permitting and siting for over 100 new Ford GoBike bike share stations, which will be installed in summer 2017; and
  • Installed 10 speed humps on western John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park to increase bicycle and pedestrian safety.