Everyday we fight our way through these City streets, avoiding potholes big enough to qualify as the black hole, pedestrians who meander aimlessly through our bike lanes, and the ubiquitous MUNI bus slaloming down the rode. One danger we shouldn’t have to contend with are other cyclists. We’re all part of the same team, people. So when you see a fellow cyclist making a left-turn, slow down or maybe even stop, if they have the right-of-way. No need for collision course mentality out there. Life doesn’t have to be a series of petty torments so let’s achieve Peace on Bikes…

SF Bicycle Coalition LGBTQ Meet & Mingle

Mon., Jun. 21 | 6-8pm | Duboce Park Cafe, 2 Sanchez St (at Duboce)

Start the Pride party early this year at this casual happy hour to raise a glass with other LGBTQ bike lovers and support the SF Bicycle Coalition’s work to make better biking conditions in our city!

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is proud to boast a large and diverse membership, and we want to bring our LGBTQ community together to meet and mingle and support big changes to bicycling in San Francisco. Duboce Park Cafe is generously donating 10% of profits from the party to the SF Bicycle Coalition. Both members and non-members alike are encouraged to come with both friends, partners, kids, or just bring yourself and meet other amazing LGBTQ folks working to make our City better.

No need to RSVP, just stop by for some fun on your way home from work and show your support. Complimentary bike valet provided.

Today on the Board of supervisors agenda was the review of the Bike Plans Environmental Impact Review. Today’s meeting wasn’t to discuss if the Bike Plan is good or bad for San Francisco, it was to discuss whether the EIR was adequate in it’s review. The meeting was held and it was decided that the EIR was through and adequate. Now that the study has been approved it’s time for the City Attorney to head over to the judge overseeing the case and have him lift the injunction.

Read up on the bike plan here and here.

Stay safe!

Bike Sharing is a relatively new transportation solution. The idea has been around for a while now, the most recent inception is Paris’s Velib sharing program.

Today SFGate tackled the idea of San Francisco implementing a Bike Share Program. In January the Mayors Office announced a bike sharing plan for San Francisco. The idea has drawn criticism from many that the program is starting too small, San Francisco doesn’t have the proper bicycle infrastructure to handle a bike share program and a complaint that the bike share program would be funded by Clear Channel.

That being said this Sunday at car -free Golden Gate Park, a mini bike share program, BIXI, will be letting people give bike sharing a shot.

Read more about the plan here.

Transit seemed like it might be getting a fair shake via state stimulus funds. Turns out many transit agencies across the country are cutting funding and raising fares.
Streetsblog reports that Illinois is facing the loss of $1 billion of stimulus funds devoted to transit projects and planning as a stop loss measure due to increasing budget woes. Even though transit ridership has increased over 9% in the last five years highway development and improvement projects are given a green light. Meanwhile AC Transit is cutting service by %15, Muni is facing a loss of $61 million over the next tow years and the state as a whole cut transit funding by $536 million.

We’ll see what happens. Let’s hop on bikes and hope for the best!

Celebrate Bike to Work Day on May 14th by dusting off an old bike that has been sitting in the garage or by checking the air pressure on your well loved ride.

Bay Area Bike to Work Day is an annual event that encourages cyclists of all ages and skill levels to participate in a friendly, safe, commute to work, play or school.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has set up some amazing resources to make the event the best if can be from Commuter Convoys to Energizer Stations.

Take a look at last years pictures and click this link for more information about this years Bike to Work Day!

San Francisco is notorious for it’s super steep hills. I have heard many a public transit commuter say that they only reason they don’t ride a bike in the city is because of the hills. According to Sf Gate there are three categories of hill riders; avoiders, acceptors and lovers.

Learn more about your San Francisco hill riding style is here.

Streetsblog has a very informative article concerning options for moving San Francisco’s stalled Bike Plan forward.
The process for re-adopting the Bike Plan is fairly long due to bureaucratic process. While the final Environmental Impact Review will be done sometime in late June, that doesn’t mean new bike lanes will start being constructed July 1st. As the article describes, the process goes something like this:

• Planning Department prepares responses to comments on DEIR, publishes comments and responses document (Final EIR), probably sometime in June
• Planning Commission deliberates and certifies EIR
• MTA Board deliberates and adopts the Bicycle Plan
• City Attorney goes back to Judge Busch and asks him to lift the injunction
• MTA Board deliberates and approves bike network improvement projects
• MTA issues work orders and begins implementing new bicycle facilities and other improvements like bike racks and sharrows

Take a look for yourself and see what projects can move forward, stay put or have the possibility of rejection.

“San Francisco wants the parking meter to be your friend. It’s rolling out a next-generation model that can take credit cards and coins, raise rates automatically, and beam news of that rarity of city life, an empty slot.” Sounds good for drivers but what about city cyclists who rely on parking meters to lock their bikes to? Considering the gross lack of bike parking in the city, it seems that a new generation of parking meter will only hurt cyclists more.
Each new parking device as they’re called will replace 8 parking meters. Figure two bikes per parking meter that’s 16 spaces taken away for use as bicycle parking. 6,000 are to be installed this year, including installation in SF city parks, which currently don’t charge for parking.
That being said, the idea of congestion pricing in San Francisco is a good one that could reduce traffic flow downtown. Also we are in a serious budget crisis, raising revenue via parking charges may not be such a bad idea.
Form you own opinion on the matter, read the article here.

Rahman Gramly LLP’s very own Shaana Rahman, gave her expertise about riding visibly on city streets. Without giving too much away, the article focuses on how cars perceive cyclists, how that prerception leads to motor v. bicycle crashes and what to do to remain visible while riding.

Enjoy!