Road Cycling - SF Bay Area: "Bike to Work Day" is Thursday May17th

Volunteers from the SF Bike Coalition will be handing out bags full of neat bike stuff as well as coffee and snacks.

Below are the locations:

--Morning Stations -- 7:30AM - 9:30 AM.

Bernal / Mission: Cesar Chavez at Route 101 Bicycle Underpass
City College: Phelan Campus (8-10AM)
Civic Center: City Hall, Polk Street Steps
Downtown: Market at Battery(7:30-2PM)
Embarcadero: Bike Hut (Pier 40)
Inner Richmond: Cabrillo at Arguello
Inner Sunset: Irving at 7th Avenue
Mid-Market: Market at 12th Street
Mission: Valencia at 17th Street
Presidio: Main Post, Halleck & Lincoln (6:30-9:30AM)
SF State: 19th Avenue at Holloway (8-10AM)
SOMA: Caltrain (4th and King)
SOMA: Folsom at 7th Street
UCSF: Medical Center, Irving at 2nd Avenue
UCSF: Mission Bay, 16th at 4th Street
UCSF: Mt. Zion, Divisadero at Post
Veritable Vegetable: Cesar Chavez at 3rd Street
Western Addition: Kaiser Hospital, Geary at St. Joseph’s

--Evening Stations --- 5PM - 7PM.

Castro: Duboce Bikeway at Market
Embarcadero: Bikestation, Embarcadero BART
Mission: Valencia at 17th Street
SOMA: Caltrain, 4th and King
SOMA: Howard at 8th Street
Upper Haight: Panhandle, Fell and Masonic

http://www.sfbike.org
"Promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation"

And if you're in another bay area city:
http://www.bayareabikes.org/btwd/ind...=energizer.php

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5763/cityhalldk1.png

^^^ how do you get a B- from a C average?

^^^ how do you get a B- from a C average?

The SFBC did a survey of thousands of cyclists- there were other variables included such as bike parking, theft, traffic calming, police enforcement of traffic violations (cars parked in the bike lane), etc

I'm fortunate that I have a short 3.5 mile bike commute to work, and that a grocery store is only a little over half a mile from my house. My kid also bikes to school a 1/2 mile away. On Sunday though, as I was locking up my bike at the local Nob Hill, a Ford GT pulled up into the parking lot. What a way to be tempted by the dark side :D

^^^ how do you get a B- from a C average?

My thoughts exactly.

I sure wish that's how it worked, i'd have a 4.0

My thoughts exactly.

I sure wish that's how it worked, i'd have a 4.0

:roflmao:

Now we just need the Critical Mass bozos to negatively spin any positive awareness raised by Bike To Work Day. :)

Or to save time, maybe combine the two so that while riding to work we disobey traffic laws, harass a few drivers and slow the commute for all working class motorists?

SFBC...sponsor of the monthly critical mass ride where hundreds and up to 2500 a-holes on bikes flaunt traffic laws (royally screwing up traffic) and damage cars in the name of sending a "ride your bike and be green" message. This group (and their affiliation with SFBC) has done serious damage to real road riders by alienating vehicle drivers. I have had numerous conversations with non bike riding people asking if I support critical mass and their disruptive actions/behavior...answer is hell no. CM, you are not doing bike riders any favors with your actions. Read below to learn about their April ride. The woman driver (article says her husband was there too...not so), has given numerous interviews and no "damaged bike" or rider (as SFBC/critical mass claims) has come forward.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/04/BAGF7P12RN23.DTL

Um, wtf does critical mass have to do with bike to work week? Bike to work week isn't a constant mob of once a month bike riders blocking intersections, its just people riding their bikes to work. Bikes are more than just a toy to ride on the weekend you know.

Um, wtf does critical mass have to do with bike to work week? Bike to work week isn't a constant mob of once a month bike riders blocking intersections, its just people riding their bikes to work. Bikes are more than just a toy to ride on the weekend you know.

1. SFBC sponsors both
2. Both are organized public displays intended to raise awareness to bike and green issues
3. Critical Mass's effect is to negatively affect public opinion toward bicycle riders
4. Bike To Work Week also affects pubic opinion (hopefully a lot more positively)

My thoughts exactly.

I sure wish that's how it worked, i'd have a 4.0

+1 (Googol!)

1. SFBC sponsors both [Critical Mass and Bike to Work Day] ...

I'm no fan of Critical Mass, but actually, no, that's not true. From http://www.sfbike.org/download/press/CMass.4.27.07.PR.pdf:

Following media reports of trouble at last month’s Critical Mass bike
ride, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) — which does not organize or manage
the ride — urged all road users to behave courteously on Friday night’s ride and every
time that they travel on San Francisco streets.

(end quote)

I expect there's overlap of members in the one and participants in the other, but SFBC as an organization isn't officially connected to CM.

We had an unfortunate incident here across the Bay in Berkeley last Friday at the monthly CM, where somewhere between one and three bicycles were run over and an elderly couple in the responsible minivan had their windshield cracked:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/search//ci_5892254

From the article it's unclear where the balance of the fault lies, but vigilante justice is a scary thing (in part because I can easily see myself getting sucked into it).

Hey JMc, you are wrong. Both Leah and Kate are spokesmouth's for CM. I saw her (Leah) on the news defending the bike rider who smashed the lady's mini-van with the kids in it...either of those two are not the poster girls the real bike community needs/wants. The vast majority of CM riders are in it for the vandalism and free-for-all party of running lights, clogging traffic, and creating a mess. Again, this is polar opposite of what the bike industry/culture wants to project. Somebody intentionally damages my car gets to meet me up close and personal.
Read and learn:
http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_094202942.html

call me crazy or a dummy but :
I like the whole bike to work event, but just wish it was the city of SF doing it and not SFBC.
I like the idea of CM but i oppose the whole way it's done and even if SF Bike Coalition as a whole may not support the CM event they do have several spokes people and members who help get the thing rolling ... SFBC needs to act like like a real group not some extreme radical Org disqized as a polite peoples interest bike coalition. The City well at least in the case of San Francisco should take charge of CM and make it a City sponsored event. Heck tax payers dollars are being spent on the cops who monitor the whole event.
Not all CM riders are into causing problem or making the event a free for all just when you get a large crowd together that is not monitored you will get a bunch of nut jobs and kids who will take advantage of being masked by so many other riders.
Besides even when I am out riding in the city 75% of the time I see cyclist failing to stop at stop signs and lights, even if it’s a 4 way stop or red for the rider. To many cyclist just don't follow basic laws. 90% of time cyclist in this city fail to use proper hand signals when turning or slowing down. It just makes me sad.
Last months SF incident with the mini van and riders is so full of hole it's hard to know which side is telling the truth. that story was so one-sided the news companies did not do any real investigation work into it before spewing out the info to the world. They only gave the spot light to the mini driver and made the cyclist sound like a bunch of apes. So the whole story is not clear . One of the news papers has the story told differently than the other news outlets. It could be the SF examiner or the chronicle not sure but weeks after the whole thing took place it looked more like the driver accelerated when approaching the cyclists and then mayhem spewed forth... driver's fault but the other cyclist went a little to far in trying to stop the van what ever the story there are still no official arrests or charges for the incident.
ok flame me now :P

Hey JMc, you are wrong. Both Leah and Kate are spokesmouth's for CM. I saw her (Leah) on the news defending the bike rider who smashed the lady's mini-van with the kids in it...

http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_094202942.html


I read the article carefully and found no suggestion that the "SFBC sponsors both [Critical Mass and Bike to Work Day]," which was the specific claim I had said was incorrect.

I had also said "I expect there's overlap of members in the one and participants in the other," so I'm not at all surprised to read your confirmation of that, any more than I'd be surprised to find that there are a lot of people who are members of (e.g.) both the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy - not to compare those to either of the cycling-related "groups."

I put the last word in quotes because everything I've read about Critical Mass suggests it's a pretty anarchic ... um ... thing ... and "group" implies a structure and membership and that kind of stuff. It may be that every single participant in CM is also a member of the SFBC (or vice-versa), and that would make it a distinction without a difference, but I still don't see any evidence that the Coalition as the Coalition sponsors or in any other formal way is connected to Critical Mass, notwithstanding the statements and activities of individuals, even individuals in leadership.


... either of those two are not the poster girls the real bike community needs/wants. The vast majority of CM riders are in it for the vandalism and free-for-all party of running lights, clogging traffic, and creating a mess. Again, this is polar opposite of what the bike industry/culture wants to project...

Since I don't trust the media to present controversial matters accurately and since I've never participated in (and rarely and then only by accident even seen) a CM event, I don't know whether your statement is true about the motivation of the "vast majority of CM riders," but if it is I completely agree with your last sentence. Maybe I'm just an ignorant sap - and it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong! - but when I read "As we told members in a special email message last week, the SFBC does not organize or manage Critical Mass, and we condemn any violent acts that happen on the ride or anywhere on our streets. (http://www.sfbike.org/?bb&bbid=190#2, I take it at face value.

The SFBC will also be handing out free bike maps of the city. They show all the bike route, bike paths, street grades, and bike shop locations.

With all these Critical Mass incidents, I'd like to make it clear that the SFBC is not Critical Mass. It's a member based advocacy organization. The only connection (if any) is that they do mention it in their Events calender the time and location of CM. It is ironic that the local newspaper (the SF Chronicle) also printed this information on the front page last month, yet no one accuses them of sponsorship.

For those who are interested in the history of all this- in 1992 a group of cyclists in San Francisco approached the SFBC with the idea of a monthly Friday night group ride. The SFBC wasn't that receptive to the idea, and so the ride started as a grassroots effort with people handing out flyers on the street.

It grew bigger each month and caught on in a few other cities. In 1997, our beloved Mayor was delayed by a critical mass ride- calling bicyclists exerting their right to the street as "the ultimate arrogance." He promised a police crackdown- and the next month 5000 showed up, hundreds were arrested, and it made the national news.

Now it's in over 250 cities worldwide, and the SFBC has the distinction of being the organization connected to it genesis.

They just added another Energizer Station downtown at Rainbow Grocery (Division/13th St. @ Folsom) from 5-7PM. Just a month or so ago, Rainbow started offering a 10% discount on groceries to those who shop by bike.

Also this week's SF Bay Guardian has a front page article about Bike to Work Day and the status of the lawsuit against the city's Bike Plan. The good news is there are over 60 bike projects that could be implemented at a rapid speed once it's over. That's if the politician's don't withdraw their support. It's kind of our job to keep the pressure on them.

There's still the Evening Stations from 5-7PM if anyone is going to be outside riding.

Any of the evening stations in the east bay? I still wanna get some goodies I missed this morning....