The Bicycle City

I have been following the issue of the Bicycle City, an initiative to create more bike lanes, bike parking spots, and bike capacity on MUNI, supported by some members of the Newsome Administration, and also by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC). The SFBC and other community members have been fighting to make these improvements to the city's transportation infrastructure for a long time, but as of late must wait while an impact study is done for the proposed changes to the city streets of San Francisco. Some community members argue that since bikers account for only roughly 10% of citywide commuters, this initiative ignores the needs of the vast majority of San Franciscans, and is thus unfair.

I personally would love to see more bikers and more bike related infrastructure like additional bike lanes and bike routes. Pro-bike city planners have a grand dream of making San Francisco more European, and more of a bike town, where peddling to work and around the city to a large extent replaces cars. The moment I heard this, I loved it. I would love to see freed up streets with little or no exhaust fumes, where bikers can coast up to their favorite outside cafe and share a drink with friends, then later pedal off into the sunset. Where the sounds ding-ding-ding replace HONK HONK HONK!