Bicycle Friendly Community

San Francisco, CA | Gold Level

Community Highlights: The 2000 U.S. Census showed that San Francisco had the highest percentage of residents who commute to work by bicycle among cities with a population of more than 500,000. Bicycles are allowed on commuter rail within San Francisco, on commuter heavy rail – at least one car of each train has been retrofitted with interior bicycle racks, and on all ferries and bike rack equipped buses. There is even a bike shuttle across the Bay Bridge during rush hour. San Francisco promotes Bike Month with numerous events and activities, centering on Bike to Work Day. Bike to Work Day is their largest bicycling promotional event every year, with an estimated 35,000 people riding a bicycle in San Francisco that day.

The San Francisco Police Department is intimately aware of the concerns of cyclists, from safety on the streets and bicycle theft to injury collision reporting. The San Francisco Bicycle Program launched a highly successful, widespread bicycle safety ad campaign which received national attention for its message and design. The campaign addressed current safety concerns for bicyclists in San Francisco; such as safety around bus, trucks, and large vehicles, as well as lighting one’s bicycle starting in fall, sidewalk bicycling, and right-of-way respect. The city has an excellent partner for promoting bicycling and educating cyclists and motorists with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC). The SFBC's is undertaking an educational bike safety program for various kinds of professional drivers including taxi, USPS and other delivery drivers such as UPS and FedEx.

San Francisco has been at the cutting edge of innotative strategies to promote cycling and better accommodate cyclists. The city has removed car parking to make room for bike parking, placed two Bikestations in the city, distributed Watch for Bike stickers that are placed on the drivers-side rear view mirror on automobiles, and Mayor Gavin Newsome recently announced that San Francisco will be launching a pilot Bike Sharing program in 2009.

Best Result of Designation: The San Francisco Bicycle Program's official recognition as a Bicycle Friendly Community has enabled the city to disseminate more information nationally and to utilize the BFC status as a stepping stone for further evaluation such as in the city’s latest benchmarking report.

Most Compelling Community Statistic: Bicycle collisions have steadily declined from 412 in 1998 to 343 in 2006. At the same time, the number of bicycle commuters in the city nearly doubled between 1990 and 2000. Furthermore, citywide counts showed a 15 percent increase in bicycle traffic at 33 locations from 2006 to 2007.