Dear San Francisco Bike Rider--

We have a bypass that goes crosstown for cyclists called the wiggle. This is a bike path that follows streets around the Haight-Ashbury hill. A person new to town does not understand that it is possible to get from the Mission to the Haight without going up any major hill. In San Francisco, we have 43 hills over 47 square miles. This means we have one hill for every 1.1 square miles. Although SF is not one continuous grid pattern, most hills can be avoided by simply jogging over one block.  

Dear bike riders, take the parallel street! Usually there is a nice residential, less commercial street just off of a transit artery that is immensely safer for less conflict collision: Scott Street or Baker off Divisadero for starters—Page Street instead of Oak or Haight—Valencia instead of Mission. Howard Street, for example, has marked bike lane sharrows instead of scary Mission Street. Take Polk Street instead of busy Van Ness, which is highway 101. The list goes on. It just is not safe to be on Van Ness or Divisadero during Peak Period-- what most commuters call Rush Hour.

Sharrows are the arrow like bike icons indicated a shared lane with vehicular traffic. They are stenciled in the center of the lane so cars are not in a reduced width lane because of a separate lane for bikes. All these extra paint marks on the street do make for a confusing first time if you are in a car visiting San Francisco. What with transit islands and taxi and bus lanes, the driving space for regular traffic becomes constricted. This philosophy is extended to discourage automobile use, but with the advent of ride share vehicles in large numbers, the squeeze play can become not unlike a video game. But unlike on a screen, injury and collision is real.

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