Streetsblog San Francisco

Let's just say right away that Critical Mass is a bike party, and the San Jose Bike Party has a lot more similarities to Critical Mass than differences. A half-dozen San Francisco and Berkeley Critical Mass veterans took a field trip to join the San Jose Bike Party on Friday night as it cruised through the heart of Silicon Valley. We piled onto a "Baby Bullet" Caltrain that got us into downtown Sunnyvale well before the 8 p.m. starting time. (Along the way we pondered how many cyclists it takes to make a Critical Mass and concluded that it takes enough to break into different factions that don't like each other!)

After leaving the train, we soon came upon a couple with a big couch on a bike trailer, their two dogs occupying the seats of honor, and a sound system ready to pump some tunes from within. As we approached the gathering point, not really sure how to distinguish one intersection from another along the sprawling avenues of the South Bay, we were excited to see feeder rides streaming in from all directions, numbering anywhere from a dozen to nearly 100. Riders gathering in a big parking lot, hanging with friends, energy and anticipation rising.

By the time we got rolling there were over 1,000 riders, and possibly twice that many. Unlike San Francisco, there weren't too many white hipsters in this ride. Most of the crowd was Latino and Asian youth on all manner of bikes from beaters to chrome low-riders, and a smaller number of "properly" garbed older white cyclists in yellow reflective clothing with helmets -- classic bike nerds, in other words.

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San Francisco today was named the sixth best city in the nation for cycling by editors of Bicycling Magazine, the best ranking of any city in California. Bicycling editors chose San Francisco in part because of the huge growth in cycling over the past two years and despite the injunction that has prevented the city from substantially improving its bicycle infrastructure.

"San Francisco has one of the most vibrant bike cultures in the nation and in spite of the injunction ridership is way up," said Bicycling Editor-in-Chief Loren Mooney.

Mooney said she has been following the progress of the injunction and has been excited by the recent improvements to the city's streets, such as the protected bicycle lane on Market Street. According to Mooney, San Francisco ranked as high as it did because of the city's bicycle culture and community and because of the hard work of the bicycle advocates in the face of adversity.

Two years ago, when Bicycling did its last ranking, the magazine segregated cities by size; San Francisco received an Honorable Mention behind Portland, Denver, and Seattle in the category of cities sized 500,000 to 1,000,000,

"Not only is San Francisco strong now, it will be great to see where they are in two years on our next list," said Mooney.

Mayor Gavin Newsom's spokesperson Brian Purchia said they were pleased to be the highest rated city in Calfornia. "With street improvements under way and working closely with the cycling community, our ranking is sure to rise."

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Leah Shahum was thrilled with the news. "Despite some unexpected roadblocks in the past few years, we are still experiencing unprecedented growth in the numbers of people choosing bicycling for transportation," said Shahum. "Today 53 percent more people are riding compared to just three years ago."

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In Guadalajara last September I met dozens of cycling activists from around Mexico, and one remarkable woman from Quito, Ecuador, Heleana Zambonino. While riding in a big Critical Mass in Guadalajara, she told me about the cycling scene in Quito, and her organization CiclóPolis. Her story left me inspired and a bit embarrassed. They’ve accomplished a great deal more in a half dozen years in Quito than we have in 20 years in San Francisco!

Chris Carlsson: You work for CiclóPolis, yes? Can you describe the organization, its history, its mission, and your role in it?

Todas en Bici logo.

Heleana Zambonino: By the time I attended the 2nd Annual Mexican Cycling Congress in Guadalajara I was working as Project Coordinator at the gender inclusion program “Todas en Bici” (TeB) supported by ICE (Interface for Cycling Expertise – The Netherlands) and as bike instructor for children and ladies. The aim of TeB project was to include women traditionally marginalized from access to bikes as a means of transportation. Also TeB builds a network of biking women who have tea and chat about their doubts when biking, also building self-confidence and awareness about the gender exclusion and harassment we women have to endure day by day while walking, biking, or using public transportation. (Unfortunately I was too busy as a grad student, so I sadly quit working for CiclóPolis.) CiclóPolis is about 7 years old; they work as a bridge between local government and residents taking back public spaces for family amusement from unhealthy traffic jams which grow geometrically each month in the city. They manage several bicycle advocacy projects as well the organization of the CicloPaseo de Quito, which is a conquest of citizens over automobile visual, environmental and spatial contamination.

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Now that the new police chief has announced he is going to "review" department procedures with respect to Critical Mass, I think it might be a good time to "review" the history of the relationship between Critical Mass and the police. I have to emphasize that this relationship has evolved in the context of a police department that has been consistently biased against bicyclists for as long as anyone can remember. Recent efforts to bring the SFPD into the 21st century have not yielded noticeable results yet. Chief Gascón has an opportunity to direct the department culture towards an altered cityscape with thousands more bicyclists and pedestrians, or he can maintain an obsolete approach to reinforcing a car-centric society's prejudices. I have to admit that I'm not hopeful. Also, I hope this review further debunks the silly reporting from KPIX starting last summer, that somehow Critical Mass is not paying for the police that accompany it, and thus costing the city some $100,000 a year in police overtime.

Back in the beginning of Critical Mass, when we first gathered at PeeWee Herman Plaza at the foot of Market to "fill the streets with bikes and ride home together" in September 1992, there was no police presence at all. Between 40-50 riders went straight up Market Street, turned left on Valencia and pulled in to Zeitgeist. That was it. But it was a revelation too! No one knew how euphoric it would be to ride in a big pack. It was a happy surprise to discover a new public space, in motion, rolling up the street with a crowd of bikes, no cars to dodge, a solid mass that took the road and changed it in so doing. It was an open mobile meeting space where you didn't have to buy anything to participate, and you could meet countless interesting, good looking people and often have amazing conversations!

In the following months, the ride grew steadily, hitting a couple of hundred by February 1993, and still there was no police presence. I think there may have been one motorcycle cop who came upon us during those months and just rode on. In April 1993 it changed though. The ride had grown to several hundred cyclists, and those of us who were publishing the monthly "Critical Mass Missives" and preparing proposed routes with maps, writing flyers, handing out stickers (all under the happy neologism of "Xerocracy") were already worried about the culture of the ride. Too many people were bleating that Orwellian chant "Two Wheels Good, Four Wheels Bad!" and admonishing motorists in an entirely unpleasant self-righteous moralistic tone.

Behaviorally, we already had identified the "Testosterone Brigade" as a problem, young men who seemed to be looking for confrontation, perhaps exercising unresolved anger with their parents by taunting motorists or deliberately riding into oncoming traffic. Another group was dubbed the "snails" because no matter how often we stopped at the front to give everyone a chance to "mass up," a bunch of folks would just dawdle way at the back and never catch up. This led to long stretches of thinly-occupied streets, where just a few cyclists were noodling along. In April 1993 in just this kind of scenario, a motorist tried to cross Market to Guerrero and when cyclists surged in front to block him, he hit one girl. Her bike was totaled, ending up under his car, which careened into a hydrant on the corner while he was trying to escape. The girl was not physically harmed luckily, but her boyfriend, not knowing that she wasn't under the car, reached in and took the keys out of the ignition. The cops came up and arrested the girl and her boyfriend and let the motorist go, treating him as the victim, even though it was widely felt by all present, including bystanders on the street, that he had behaved with homicidal intent.

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I caught Mikael Colville-Andersen's inspiring talk on urban cycling from the Copenhagen context at San Francisco's SPUR on the last Friday of October. I suggested we could do an interview when I came to Copenhagen in December and he graciously agreed, stepping outside into the drizzling snow at a December 10 awards ceremony he was hosting. (The title of this post is a quote from him when he was on stage at the ceremony, and is a new tag line on his blog too.) They were handing out prizes for the best new designs for the next generation of Copenhagen's bikeshare program. He is well known for his blogging at Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycling Chic. The photos throughout were taken by me in Copenhagen during the last couple of weeks there.

Chris Carlsson: What was your experience in San Francisco? Did you have a good time there?

Mikael Colville-Andersen: I had a brilliant time. I just blogged a film with three of my friends, about Critical Mass.

C: Did you get in to the Halloween Critical Mass?

M: Oh yeah, all the way!

C: I saw you wrote some vaguely critical comments about Critical Mass in general.

M: I have done… it’s just that marketing thing. You’re not selling it if you’re pissing people off. Riding around… I didn’t see any bad behavior. There were so many people at that Critical Mass that it was more tame?

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For all of you with a second at work today, check out the awesome trend on Twitter that has been building the past few days: #whyweride. 

There are some good explanations of the benefits of bicycles in a city, like "@velobration no parking, no gas, better view of nature, feel great, quads & glutes look awesome, fresh air."

Some others I liked:

• "@dudeonabike: I ride my bike so my kids know that they can too."
• "pdxtyler To get someplace. To feel rain on my face."
• "@Area45 Because this Brooks isn't going to break itself in."

But what if you're faced with a more daunting problem than the morning commute?

"@GraphikDeziner: I ride because a bike is the most reliable means of escape from Zombies."

With the gradual thawing underway in the three-year freeze of bicycle infrastructure in San Francisco, this year's SFBC Winterfest celebration, one of the best bicycle parties in any year, is sure to warm this Sunday night up right.

"It's a place where cyclists of all shapes, sizes and creeds come together to celebrate cycling and the SFBC," said Jodi Madeiros, SFBC Development Director. "The timing couldn't be more perfect with the green pavement, the bike boxes, the separated bike lane on Market Street. We didn't say that 2009 was going to be the year of the bicycle for nothing and now is the time to come celebrate that."

There will be ample beer from New Belgium and an art auction featuring works from David Byrne, Dave Eggers, Guy Overfelt, and other local artists. They will also auction up to 20 bicycles, so it's a great opportunity to get out on a new bike and ride [download auction catalog PDF].

There is a fee to get in, but the proceeds go to benefit the SFBC and help them advocate for better biking in San Francisco. $15+ for current SF Bicycle Coalition Members, $40 for non-members includes one year of Bike Coalition membership. 

The party is at the SOMArts Gallery at 934 Brannan St. (@ 8th St), from 6pm-10:30pm. DJ's Laron & ShOOey will be spinning and as always you can park your bike with free valet bike parking. This is what it looked like last year:

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Chrome Bags has undertaken a new initiative to further root themselves in the local bicycle community that affords them much of their customer base: using bicycle couriers to deliver bags in San Francisco. Starting November 20th, anyone buying a bag in San Francisco by 3 pm will get that bag same-day, delivered by a hot and sweaty Godspeed Courier, at no extra charge. 

"The focus here is Chrome supporting the working messengers and this further embeds that," said Rob Reedy, Chrome's spokesperson. "I think most folks are going to be stoked for that instant gratification."

Same-day delivery by courier hearkens to the heady days of dot-com hyper-convenience, when messengers were dispatched to deliver everything from DVDs to ice cream and beer. Chrome manufactured the bags for one of those short-lived companies, Kozmo.com. Reedy explained that Chrome had loosely talked with Godspeed and other couriers about bag delivery by messenger since then, but the idea hadn't been implemented. Asked whether the effort was to help Godspeed avoid the plight of downsizing or closure that has hit bicycle couriers across the country, Reedy said his consideration was more about the connection to the messenger community in general.

"Godspeed is doing extremely well, they're fast, dependable, legit. We've organized events and parties with them in the past," said Reedy. When asked how far Godspeed would ride, Reedy said, "Godspeed will pedal everywhere, they're animals. They'll ride over the bridge if needed."  He admitted some longer-distance deliveries might have to be next morning, depending on just how far away and how much business the new promotion engenders.

"The retail store is going to act as the epicenter," said Reedy, who envisioned a swarm of couriers coming in and out on runs. "It's going to add to the mystique of the retail store." The new Chrome store, located on 4th Street and Brannan in SoMa, suffered a break in and theft of goods a couple of months ago, but has been doing well, according to Reedy.

For a small business, working with Chrome can be a significant boost. The kids over at Bicycle Coffee Company, who we profiled in July, recently finished a promotion with Chrome, where each new bag purchase included a half-pound of their coffee.

Mikael Kirkman, who roasts the coffee in his pottery studio in Berkeley, said they had moved 600 pounds through the Chrome deal, an enormous boost to their fledgling company, but one that required near-constant roasting.

For Chrome, the coffee promotion grew out of a connection they had to Matthew McKee, one of Bicycle Coffee Company's co-founders, who had done some artwork for the company's San Francisco store. Reedy was drawn to the path McKee and Kirkman followed to start their company and said Chrome was looking for similar entrepreneurs.

"For us that was just a cool story, period," he said. "Chrome can be tied to bikes, to urban culture, to art. If something feels good and legitimate, that's when we jump on it."

Former Talking Heads frontman and current bicycling icon David Byrne used his celebrity and the publication of his new book, Bicycle Diaries, to instruct a capacity audience of more than 900 people at San Francisco's Herbst Theater on the many ways that the bicycle has become a more acceptable and mainstream form of locomotion. Rather than read a single line from his book, he took the opportunity to assemble a panel, including Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) Executive Director Leah Shahum, and Berkeley City and Regional Planning Professor Emeritus Michael Teitz, and show a largely older audience of City Arts devotees a number of photos from his travels, photos contrasting cities around the world where bicycle infrastructure is more than a-nod-and-a-wink, to American cities, where the car is king and any other form of transportation has suffered from neglect or marginalization.

The event last night was the kickoff for the 29th Annual Literary Events hosted by City Arts and Lectures, a series decidedly literary and focused on the writer's craft, with upcoming readings by Margaret Atwood, Nick Hornby, Joyce Carol Oates, and Michael Chabon. As evidenced by the demographics of the audience and the many negative or hostile retorts about rude and masochistic cyclists blowing stop lights in the question-and-answer period, this was not a typical event organized by the SFBC or city planners, where a talking head or visiting livable streets luminary extols the benefits of the bicycle to a pack of avid cyclists nodding their helmet-marked heads.

One white-haired woman in the audience explained that she wanted to like cyclists, but was on a walk recently with her little dog and they almost got "hit six times" by a crazed cyclist, and there was another time when a bike rider swerved in front of her car and how could they be so crazy?  Another man, with a thick salt-and-pepper beard, asked: "How can we get people who ride bikes to stop at red lights and to stop at stop signs?" Teitz, with a droll British cadence responded: "Bicyclist of the Month: somebody who has been noted for stopping at stop signs...the mayor shakes hands, an award is given....."

Still, Byrne and his guest panelists delivered an entertaining ninety minutes for everyone, no matter how familiar they were with urban cycling.  Each speaker explained how they came to ride bicycles and what a world would look like where the bicycle was an equal transportation partner with cars and other modes (short answer: Copenhagen). Byrne explained that he has been riding a bicycle in New York City for more than 30 years and he has taken a bicycle on tour with him nearly everywhere. In his slide show, full of humorous anecdotes about his travels and his bicycle, he ran through a number of photos and images of master-planned cities as they have been imagined by the likes of le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and General Motors, cities built around cars and naked, empty public spaces, cities devoid of neighborhoods, cities "antagonistic to [their] own citizens."

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Pairing environmentalism with a do-it-yourself ethic, a couple of guys who live the bike culture opened Marin County's first co-op bike repair shop, Bicycle Works, and already have people clamoring to sign up.

Less than a month after the grand opening Aug. 9, "Spokey" Godfrey and Jelani Bertoni have more than 70 members and provide classes on basic bike maintenance and repair free to members, and $10 to the public.

They set up in the old Breezer Bikes storefront, nestled on a busy bicycle corridor between Fairfax and San Anselmo. And the non-profit co-op bills itself as "a community hub for culture and technology."

Membership is $100 a year, giving members free use of bike tools daily between 11 a.m. and 7p.m., space to work and free advice from Godfrey and Bertoni. In addition, classes on an array of topics from basic how-to-change-a-flat to more sophisticated efforts are free to members, or $10 for the public.

"We wanted a non-profit workspace that allowed people to come together to work on bikes. A key issue is just giving people a place to have a good time," Godfrey says. "It's amazing to me to see the hunger in people to learn how to do this."

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