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Video:
Commuters All Across the Bay Hop on Their Bikes for
Biggest Bike to Work Day Yet
Friday, May 14, 2010…Thousands of Bay Area residents packed up
their briefcases, backpacks, kids and dogs to bicycle to school, work and errands
yesterday. While their ranks included veteran bicycle commuters, for a good many
of Thursday’s cyclists, the act of getting around by two wheels instead
of four was a novel and uplifting experience.
Early numbers show a significant
increase in Bike to Work Day participation across the Bay Area – as
much as 10 percent across the board, according to Bike to Work
Day Coordinator Andrew Casteel.
Casteel reported brisk business
at the morning Energizer Station at the Marin County side of
the Golden Gate Bridge. “We were pretty packed for most
of the morning over there,” he said.
In San Francisco, bicycles
accounted for 75 percent of the morning roadway traffic on Market
Street, according to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and
the city of San Francisco. That equates to one-third more people
choosing to pedal to their jobs in San Francisco on Bike to Work
Day this year compared to last year’s
event, based on counts at Market and Van Ness from 8 a.m. to
9 a.m. Advocates for bicycling attribute this record-breaking
increase to the newly separated, green-painted Market Street
bike lanes (between 8th and Gough streets) and other improvements
that are making streets all across the city safer.
San Mateo reported
a 19 percent increase in bike traffic at its energizer stations
during the morning commute compared to last year, while Alameda
county was showing an average 10 percent increase in traffic
at select energizer locations, according to reports from the
East Bay Bicycle Coalition. Bike traffic at Energizer Stations
in Santa Clara County was up 12.5 percent over the prior year.
The free pancake breakfast for bicycle commuters at Oakland’s
City Center was a sell-out affair, while the free, all-day valet
parking for bicycles was packed by 8:30 a.m. In a greeting to
the crowd, Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan vowed to
make Oakland “the bicycling-est city” in the nation.
The month-long Team Bike Challenge is also picking up steam,
with the 2,220 participants registered to date already logging
129,016 miles by midday on Bike to Work Day – enough to circle
the globe over 5 times, while saving the planet over 71 tons
of harmful toxic emissions. Participants form groups of up to
five members, recording their daily bike trips in an effort to
earn the most points and win prizes. This year’s Team Bike
Challenge contestants have a cool new tool in the form of a GPS-enabled
iPhone app that lets them record their trips and miles while
on the road. Casteel said that based on the mileage to date,
participants are on track to log nearly 300,000 miles by the
end of the May competition, which would be a 10 percent increase
over last year’s Team Bike Challenge.
Santa Clara County Supervisor and MTC Commissioner Ken Yeager
did his part for the planet by not only bicycling to his office
at San Jose’s county government center yesterday, but also
cycling an additional 12 miles for an appearance at another event.
Bike to Work Day is a project of MTC and the Bay Area Bicycle
Coalition, with major underwriting this year by Kaiser Permanente,
and sponsorship by a number of other cities, local bicycle coalitions,
bike shops and the like.
– Brenda Kahn
Bike to Work Day and Team Bike Challenge by the Numbers
10 percent: overall increase in participation
in Bike to Work Day compared to 2009
75 percent: bicyclists’ share of morning
traffic on Market Street in San Francisco on Bike to Work Day
281: number of Energizer Stations fueling
riders around the region on Bike to Work Day
7,655: number of people regionwide who pledged
to make at least one trip on two wheels during May
562: teams competing in the month-long Team
Bike Challenge
2,400: number of riders participating in
Team Bike Challenge
316,359: miles collectively recorded by Team
Bike Challenge riders (40,000 more than in 2009)
1,926: miles recorded by the Team Bike Challenge
winners, Team Nom Nom Nom of San Francisco
24,264: miles traveled by employees of Apple
Inc., winner of the Company Bike Challenge (which coincided
with Team Bike Challenge)
174: tons of harmful emissions avoided by
the Team Bike Challenge participants
17,059: virtual medals accrued during May
by users of the iBike Challenge phone app, a GPS enabled tool
for recording bike trips
SFMTA Counts More Than 1,000 Bicycles
on Bike to Work Day
Annual Ride Comes as City Increases Cycling Infrastructure
San Francisco—The San Francisco Municipal
Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced that more than 1,000
cyclists traveled eastbound on Market Street during this morning’s
commute on Bike to Work Day (BTWD) 2010, based on a count taken
between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. at the intersection of Van Ness Avenue
and Market Street, an increase of 34 percent over last year.
A total of 1,038 bicycles were counted, compared to 307 automobiles.
Bicycles made up 75 percent of the total vehicles headed eastbound,
while automobiles came in at 22 percent (transit and taxis
accounted for the remaining 3 percent of the vehicles). In
2009 bicycles accounted for 66 percent of the vehicles and
automobiles for 32 percent. Read more (PDF) |
MTC
Commissioner Ken Yeager (Photo: Karl Nielsen)
MTC
Commissioner Ken Yeager (Photo: Karl Nielsen)
The
scene at 24th and Mission BART in San Francisco, as riders assemble
for a caravan to the South Bay (Photo: Noah Berger)
San
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (Photo: Noah Berger)
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
San
Francisco's new bike lanes on Market Street (Photo: Noah Berger)
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: Noah Berger
Photo: David Beaty
Photo: David Beaty
Photo: David Beaty
Photo:
Peter Beeler
Photo: Peter Beeler
Photo: Peter Beeler
Photo: Peter Beeler
Photo: Peter Beeler
Photo: David Beaty
Photo: David Beaty
Photo: David Beaty
Photo: David Beaty
Photo: David Beaty
Photo:
Sean Co
Photo:
Sean Co
Photo:
Sean Co
Photo:
Sean Co
Photo:
Brenda Kahn
Photo:
Brenda Kahn
Valet
bicycle parking at Oakland City Center (Photo: Brenda Kahn)
Photo:
Brenda Kahn
Photo:
Brenda Kahn
Photo:
Brenda Kahn