Despite its hills and traffic, San Francisco is a great city to ride a bicycle. The city’s bicycle infrastructure (bike roads, bike parking, and more) is good and getting better every year. The San Francisco Bike Coalition and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority continue to make improvements that help support cycling in the city.
San Francisco Bike Routes
Riders should understand San Francisco’s different road options for bicyclists:
- Bike Route – A bike route is a roadway shared with cars. They often have road markings called “sharrows” - an icon of a bicycle crowned by a double arrow - that point to where in the street a cyclist can safely ride without being hit by a suddenly opened car door. (According to California Vehicle Code, cyclists are allowed to move to the left in the lane to avoid unsafe conditions – even if it means taking the entire lane.)
- Bike Lane – A bike lane is dedicated for bicycle use and is marked by a solid white line. Usually, it is located next to the parking lane. San Francisco currently has 45 miles of bike lanes including a couple that are separated from automobile traffic (such as those on Market Street and on Laguna Honda). The city has plans for plenty more bike lanes.
- Bike Path – An off street path dedicated for use by bicycles. In San Francisco, bike paths are mainly found in parks (such as Golden Gate Park, Fort Funston, Harding Park, Glen Canyon Park, Crissy Field and Lake Merced).
San Francisco Bike Resources
The excellent San Francisco Bike Map and Walking Guide graphically shows all the above mentioned road designations while indicating street grades so that bikers (and walkers) can avoid the steepest streets. The map is available from the San Francisco Bike Coalition, in bike shops, and some other stores in San Francisco.
Another useful tool is the San Francisco Bike Coalition’s Bike Mapper, an interactive website where prospective riders can plug in starting point, destination, and preference for flattest or shortest route to get a suggested way to go.
San Francisco Bike Education
Both the San Francisco Bike Coalition and the SFMTA’s Bike Program have websites that offer a lot of information on cycling safely in the city. They also jointly offer a couple of excellent classes on urban cycling. Their Intro to Safe Cycling course takes place in a classroom and gives tips on how to safely ride in traffic, how to deal with road hazards, biking rights and responsibilities, and more. Their Street Skills Primer course allows participants to practice the skills learned in Part 1 on the streets of San Francisco.
Bike Friendly San Francisco
Another way San Francisco supports the bicycle as transportation is by offering bicycle parking. The city has installed many bike racks around town. In some areas, the city has transformed a former car parking space into a “bike corral” that fits a lot of bikes. Many public garages in the city offer bike parking.
The city also makes accommodations for bikes on transit. Many MUNI buses have a front rack that can hold two bicycles at a time. Bikes are allowed on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) except during peak commute hours.
All the above mentioned bike amenities help foster a supportive bike culture in San Francisco that is conducive to commuting by bike or riding for recreation.
Virginia Balogh-Rosenthal - Virginia loves walking around the world’s great cities and riding their subways. Since becoming parents thirteen years ago, Virginia ...
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