Golden Wheel Awards Honor SFMTA’s Livable Streets Staff, Union Square BID

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Golden Wheel Awards event last night paid tribute the SFMTA’s Livable Streets staff for the green protected bike lanes on Market Street, and honored the Union Square Business Improvement District for the Powell Street promenade, which began construction this week.

“Both of these projects are connecting our city by making it more enjoyable to live, work, shop, play and visit by bicycling and walking,” SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum told the estimated 350 people who attended the 19th annual awards ceremony in the green room of the War Memorial Building across from City Hall.

“I need to thank the Bicycle Coalition for bringing fun back onto our streets,” said Mayor Ed Lee, adding that he planned to boast about San Francisco’s new bike lanes at the U.S. Conference of Mayors this week. He said he would tell other mayors that “if you want to be a World Series Champion city like San Francisco, you’d better get working on your bike lanes.”

The SFBC also debuted its latest promotional video (above) for “Connecting the City,” which envisions 100 miles of new crosstown bikeways in the city. The video was beautifully shot and edited by Streetfilms’ John Hamilton and produced and written by SFBC Policy Director Andy Thornley.

For more on last night’s event, see Steve Jones’ nice write-up in the Guardian. And check out some photos below the break, and on the SFBC’s Flickr page.