Cycling in San Francisco
[1] San Francisco's compact urban form and mild climate enable cyclists to reach work, shopping, and recreational destinations quickly and comfortably.
Though San Francisco's famed steep hills can make cycling difficult, many parts of the city are relatively flat, including some of the most densely populated.
[2][3] The 1848 California Gold Rush transformed San Francisco from a small isolated town to the richest and most populous city on the West Coast within a single year.
The city's compact neighborhoods result in short trip distances for work, shopping, and recreation, which can be conveniently made by bicycle.
The events allow residents to bicycle, skate, run, walk, do yoga, or just people-watch in public spaces normally devoted to automobiles.
San Francisco's Bike to Work Day, held in May of each year, aims to encourage commuters to try bicycling as a healthy alternative means of getting to work by organizing groups of cyclists to ride together starting from various neighborhoods, matching new bicycle commuters with more experienced "Bike Buddies", and providing free snacks and coffee at "Energizer Stations" along the busiest routes.
The first Critical Mass bicycle ride took place on September 25, 1992, in San Francisco, and has since spread to hundreds of cities worldwide.
Tour de Fat is a one-day bicycle parade and festival sponsored by the New Belgium Brewing Company and takes place each summer in Golden Gate Park.
Profits from beer sales at the event are donated to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council.
[16] Winterfest, held in December of each year, is the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's main fund-raising event.
In San Francisco, the festival shows bicycle-related films on three consecutive nights in July at the Victoria Theatre near 16th and Mission streets.
Most of the bike lanes are located in relatively flat neighborhoods close to the center of the city, including SoMa, the Mission, Haight-Ashbury, and the Richmond.
Since 2010, the SFMTA has installed ten "bicycle corrals", which are groups of five to eight inverted-U racks located in the street next to the sidewalk (usually replacing one automobile parking space).
[18] In 2017, private bicycle-sharing company Bluegogo attempted to launch a dockless system in San Francisco, but pulled out due to legal concerns.
Founded in 1971, dormant through much of the 1980s, and re-founded in 1991, the SFBC in 2011 has a dues-paying membership of over 12,000,[24] making it the largest bicycle advocacy organization in the United States.
