As an alternative to driving, also being advocated here with the Parkway trail as a main route from the suburbs into downtown Sacramento, the experience in San Francisco is illustrative.
An excerpt.
Cycling supporters on a roll in S.F.
Bicycle Coalition has political clout and backing of public -- but resistance by some motorists is still creating tension
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer, Monday August 21, 2006
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, revived 16 years ago by disgruntled cyclists, has emerged as one of the most potent political forces in the city.
The organization, founded in 1970, went into hibernation through the 1980s and was reborn in 1990. Now -- with a paid membership of 5,800 and its top executive sitting on the board overseeing San Francisco's public transit, parking and traffic operations -- the bike coalition is moving aggressively to enact its goal of making the streets of San Francisco a bicycling mecca "where cars are rare and travel slowly.''
In the past decade, the city -- responding to the demands of the Bicycle Coalition -- has added bike lanes, required commercial developers to provide bike parking and equipped Muni buses with bike racks.
But as the crusade moves forward and cycling in San Francisco gains in popularity, a pushback can be felt.
The coalition's lobbying for a proposal to make a portion of Golden Gate Park car-free on Saturdays won a narrow victory at the Board of Supervisors this spring, but Mayor Gavin Newsom applied the brakes with a veto.
And in June, a San Francisco Superior Court judge put the city's bike plan on hold. The plan, which won unanimous backing by the supervisors and the mayor last year, maps out an ambitious five-year strategy to make it easier and safer for cyclists to get around town.
Critics sued, charging that the city did not conduct a review that adequately analyzed the plan's effects; for example, the city may have to remove street parking and traffic lanes to make room for cyclists.
The judge's ruling effectively prevents city officials from moving forward with much of the plan until the court rules on the merits of the litigation. The hearing has been set for Sept. 13.
Despite the setbacks, bicycle advocates in San Francisco aren't deterred.
"There is broad public support for better biking conditions,'' said Leah Shahum, who runs the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. She said a new poll of 400 likely voters by David Binder Research found that nearly 3 in 4 respondents favored creating more bike lanes in San Francisco.
The fact that the monthly Critical Mass ride -- an event organized independently of the Bicycle Coalition at which anywhere from dozens to thousands of bikers take to the streets on the last Friday of the month -- hasn't erupted into chaos for nearly a decade probably has helped move public opinion in that direction.
"The bike coalition is at the cutting edge of urban environmentalism. It reduces our reliance on foreign oil, cuts down pollution, helps ease traffic congestion and makes the city more livable,'' said Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, who represents the Richmond District in a famously liberal city where politicians work hard to put green-friendly credentials on their resumes.
