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Release date: May 9, 2013

*** Press Release ***

Mayor Edwin M. Lee and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees all transportation in the city, today joined the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, other city partners and business leaders to celebrate the 19th annual Bike to Work Day.

The SFMTA announced that 76 percent of all trips traveling eastbound on Market Street during this morning’s commute were bike trips, based on a count taken between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. at the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Market Street. As of 2 p.m., San Francisco’s new bike counter unveiled on Market Street between 9th and 10th Streets had counted 2,037 bike riders since it’s activation at 12:01 a.m. today. In total, the number of people riding their bikes on Bike to Work Day has increased by 29.6 percent over the past five years (2009 - 2013).

“Year after year San Francisco has seen tremendous growth in the number of people getting around by bicycle,” said Mayor Ed Lee. “With the continued enhancements of our bike network, such as the new protected bike lanes on Oak Street and the new bike counter on Market Street, we’ll continue to see rapid adoption of the bicycle as a fun, healthy and convenient transportation alternative.”

Today’s Market Street eastbound and westbound morning bicycle counts showed a total of 1,158 bicycles, compared to last year’s count of 1,093 bikes, a three percent increase. Today’s Market Street count is also an increase of 10 percent over a similar count by the SFMTA just one month ago. Today, bicycles made up 66.54 percent of the total vehicles headed eastbound today, while automobiles came in at 29.88 percent (transit and taxis accounted for the remaining 3.58 percent).

“Every year, biking to work and to school is becoming more commonplace in San Francisco, and we need to meet the rising demand for bikeways fit for anyone from an 8-year old student to their 80-year old neighbor,” said Tom Nolan, Chairman of the SFMTA Board of Directors. “It is amazing that the number of people using bicycles for transportation has grown 71 percent since 2006. The city is at a watershed moment for bicycling, and the SFMTA is working hard to meet the growing and future demand to make every day a Bike to Work Day.”

“Bike to Work Day is a chance to encourage San Francisco’s businesses and residents to try out bicycling as an alternative commute option,” said Ed Reiskin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. “San Francisco is fast reaching a transportation tipping point as more people realize that bicycling brings more joy to their commute. With more people getting on their bikes, the SFMTA is committed to providing safer and more direct bicycling connections throughout San Francisco.”

A key element supporting the increase in bicycling in San Francisco is the SFMTA’s continued work over the past year to enhance the bicycling experience, such as:

  • Completing 16 new projects and installing 6.9 new miles of bike facilities, bringing San Francisco’s bike network to a total of 217 miles.
  • Adding 1,120 new bike parking spaces in 560 racks and 14 corrals, bringing the total number to 3,350 bike racks (in 3,128 sidewalk bike racks as well as 222 bike racks in 38 corrals) to accommodate high bike parking demand throughout the city.
  • Gearing up for the launch of San Francisco’s bike share system for August 2013 with 350 bikes and 35 stations as phase one of the regional bike share pilot program.
  • Installing San Francisco’s first bicycle counter on Market Street between 9th and 10th Streets to celebrate and encourage traveling by bicycle.
  • Completing San Francisco’s first bicycle bay on Market Street to help the high numbers of bicycle commuters to make a safer left turn from westbound Market to southbound Valencia Street.
  • Installing San Francisco’s first on-street, two-way protected bikeway on Cargo Way, featuring bicycle traffic signals, green intersection markings and physical separation from motor vehicles to provide a safer connection from Bayview and Hunter’s Point to Third Street.
  • Implementing a variety of bikeways that are physically separated from motor traffic to encourage more people to try bicycling along some of San Francisco’s highly-traveled corridors, including: John Muir Drive, Cesar Chavez, Fell Street and Oak Street.

"Today’s record-breaking Bike to Work Day counts reinforce what we see every day in the bike lanes: huge numbers of people biking in San Francisco. We’re thrilled to see that today bikes accounted for a whopping 76% of inbound morning Market Street traffic. And even more delighted that on an average workday, bikes account for 66% of traffic.If we continue to connect San Francisco with safe, separated bikeways, San Francisco can certainly meet its goal of 20% of trips by bike by 2020,” said Leah Shahum, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

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