SFMTA Staffers Share their Favorite SF Bike Rides

SFMTA Staffers Share their Favorite SF Bike Rides
By Eillie Anzilotti

Happy Bike Month, San Francisco! To celebrate, we’re sharing some of SFMTA staffers’ favorite rides through the city. From protected bike lanes to quick-build projects to Slow Streets, the JFK Promenade, and the Great Highway, all of the routes roll through projects that the SFMTA has completed in the last several years to make biking through San Francisco easier, safer, and joyful. We hope you get some inspiration for your next ride--and share your favorite route with us! For easy trip planning, we’ve included each ride below on an interactive map.

Jeffrey Tumlin, Director of Transportation: “I explore all of San Francisco by bike, but this is a standard trip: Starting from the Castro, I head up the Slow Street on Noe, where I like to admire the trees and people watch in Duboce Park. Then, I ride north on Scott to Fell Street along the Panhandle. When I reach the new JFK Promenade, it’s amazing how the feeling changes. You can hear birdsong everywhere, and I can’t count the number of kids whom I’ve seen learning to ride a bike, scooter, or skateboard. Then, I ride the whole length of the park to the Great Highway. I’ve lived in San Francisco my whole adult life, but thanks to the JFK Promenade I’ve been to the beach more times in the last two years than the previous 30. I love seeing the community out along the Great Walkway, and exploring the restaurants in the Outer Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods for a picnic. I grab a coffee at Andytown or the Kahve truck, then make my way back using Page Slow Street, stopping to pick up fresh flowers from Guy Clark, whose owned his shop on 15th and Noe for almost 40 years.”

Jeffrey Tumlin riding his bike on San Francisco streets smiling and waving.

Soroush Roback, Engineer, Livable Streets; Kimberly Leung, Acting Pedestrian Program Manager, Livable Streets; Victoria Chong, Planner, Livable Streets; Winnie Lee, Engineer, Livable Streets: “We’ve done this ride as a group a few times since COVID began: We start in the Marina, ride through the Presidio the Inner Richmond, then take the Cabrillo Slow Street down into Golden Gate Park, then out to the ocean. The route spans Lake Slow Street, the JFK Promenade and car-free MLK, the Great Walkway, and the Arguello Bike Lanes, with a beer stop at Beach Chalet Fields. From end to end, it‘s a leisurely, safe 18 miles with great scenery and people watching!”

Mari Hunter, Planner, Parking & Curb Management: “I live in southern Marin so I ride back and forth over the Golden Gate Bridge. On the way in, I drop down to the bike path past Crissy Field then roll over Pac Heights and through Japantown using the bike route on Steiner to the Slow Street on Page, which I take down to Market. On the way back, I boogie over to the Webster bike lanes then wiggle up to the Slow Street on Clay, head west to Arguello and go through the Presidio to the bridge. I love the variation: some good hills, gradual climbs, sharrows, bike lanes, and Slow Streets—plus great views!”

View from southern Marin overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco skyline

Kimberly Leung, Acting Ped Program Manager, Livable Streets: “I bike from the Richmond neighborhood to the SFMTA office on South Van Ness taking Cabrillo Slow Street to 8th Ave to car-free JFK to the Page Slow Street to Market! I only started bike commuting in December 2019, and when the pandemic hit, car-free and car-light streets were a game changer for me by giving me the space to practice being more comfortable on a bike. Biking is now my primary way of getting around the city, and I’m so happy that so many other people can experience that on streets that are so much more inviting for people to walk and bike now.”

Mike Sallaberry, Senior Engineer, Livable Streets: “My nine-year-old daughter and I take this route to get ice cream! Starting at Cabrillo Slow Street, we take the 23rd Ave Slow Street north to Lake Slow Street, go along Lake to 5th Avenue, then take 5th Avenue south to get ice cream at Toy Boat on Clement. After we fuel up, we take 5th Avenue to Golden Gate Park, enter in at 6th Avenue, and then take JFK Drive west to Transverse, get on the dirt path along Crossover and take that back to Cabrillo. It’s very safe— almost all either a Slow Street, car-free JFK, or a path (short sidewalk segments too)—and the ice cream stop halfway is perfect to relax a bit and get sugared up for the return trip home.”

Mike Sallaberry and his daughter smiling on their bikes in Golden Gate Park

Jen Wong, Planner, Livable Streets: “I like to ride from the Ferry Building down the Embarcadero, then switch to the off-street San Francisco Bay Trail at Oracle Park, hugging McCovey Cove. From there, I take the 3rd Street Bridge and follow the waterfront past the Chase Center and end at Crane Cove Park or head all the way down Minnesota Slow Street into the Dogpatch. I love the views and how safe it is, with car-free portions and protected bike lanes—and the fun places to eat and drink at along the way, like The Ramp and Spark Social.”

Laura Stonehill, Engineer, Livable Streets: “We like to take weekly weekend rides as a family, and around a third of them go from our home in the Mission to Golden Gate Park so my five-year-old can ride on the car-free streets. My husband and I both have e-bikes, and we take a route that’s a bit steeper but more low-stress and car-light: We ride from 17th Street to Valencia, then take Octavia to the Slow Street on Page, all the way into Golden Gate Park. Once we reach car-free JFK, my five-year-old gets on her own bike and we ride to any park destination she wants—recently, we went all the way to the Boat Playground at 45th Avenue using the car-free route. On the way back, we like to stop at the Panhandle Playground before taking the Wiggle back to the Mission.”

Laura Stonehill and family riding in Golden Gate Park

Eillie Anzilotti, Public Relations Officer, Livable Streets: My favorite ride crosses the whole city: I start at the Ferry Building and take Better Market Street to the Wiggle. In my childhood memories, Market Street is jam-packed with traffic, and I love how safe it is for biking now. Mid-Wiggle, I stop for a coffee at Café Reveille, slide my to-go coffee into my water bottle cage and keep pedaling! From there, I ride along the Panhandle in the Fell Street protected bike lane—it was installed as a social distancing response during COVID, and I find it to be super useful when the Panhandle path gets crowded. Then it’s on to the car-free route through Golden Gate Park and out to the Great Highway for some ocean views! Unless I take a longer coffee break, the whole ride takes me less than an hour—and it’s safe, (mostly) flat, and beyond pleasant.”

Published May 13, 2022 at 11:32PM
https://ift.tt/Rk3V0e2

Comments

New top story from Time: Angry Youths Rattle Spain in Support of Jailed Catalan Rapper Pablo Hasel

https://ift.tt/2NUGSpC BARCELONA, Spain — The imprisonment of a rap artist for his music and tweets praising terrorist violence and insulting the Spanish monarchy has set off a powder keg of pent-up rage this week in the southern European country. The arrest of Pablo Hasél has brought thousands to the streets for different reasons. Under the banner of freedom of expression, many Spaniards strongly object to putting an artist behind bars for his lyrics and social media remarks. They are clamoring for Spain’s left-wing government to fulfill its promise and roll back the Public Security Law passed by the previous conservative administration that was used to prosecute Hasél and other artists. Hasél’s imprisonment to serve a nine-month sentence on Tuesday has also tapped into a well of frustration among Spain’s youths, who have the highest unemployment rate in the European Union. Four in every 10 eligible workers under 25 years old are without a job. “I think that what we ...

New top story from Time: How Facebook’s Australia News Ban Could Hamper Vaccine Rollout to Aboriginal People

https://ift.tt/37E8rL1 The COVID-19 vaccine rollout was never going to be easy in Australia’s sparsely populated, desert-covered Northern Territory. With many small towns located hours apart by road, organizers even considered using drones and dry ice to make deliveries. But the vaccination campaign is facing an even greater uphill battle after Facebook removed news content across the country of 25 million on Feb. 18 following a battle over a bill that would force Big Tech companies to pay for the use of news stories. The ban also swept up Indigenous media organizations, meaning that Aboriginal people, who make up more than 25% of the region’s population may not have access to reliable information about vaccinations. Many Aboriginal people rely on Facebook as a portal to the Internet. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook has become “a primary vehicle for promoting health information to remote Aboriginal communities,” says Malarndirri McCarthy , a senator in the Northe...

New top story from Time: How a Belarusian Teacher and Stay-at-Home Mom Came to Lead a National Revolt

https://ift.tt/3bD4WG2 On a hot summer day last August, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was pacing up and down her empty apartment in Minsk, the capital of Belarus in Central Europe, her life—and her country—in turmoil. With her husband in jail, she had sent her two small children out of the country, to safety, and she now faced a stark choice, bluntly handed to her by the nation’s hard-line security forces: flee into exile herself, or face arrest. “I had a couple of hours, but I could not pack anything, because I was so overstressed,” she recalls. “It was a shock. I was not prepared for this.” Indeed, it is hard to imagine how Tikhanovskaya could have prepared for the jolting transformation of her life. Within the space of a few months, she emerged from obscurity to become the leader of Belarus’ biggest revolt in decades, determined to bring down President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet republic with an iron hand for more than 26 years as what many call Euro...

New top story from Time: President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines Has Changed His Mind About Scrapping a U.S. Security Pact

https://ift.tt/3fe21WW MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has retracted a decision to end a key defense pact with the United States, allowing large-scale combat exercises between U.S. and Philippine forces that at times have alarmed China to proceed. Duterte’s decision was announced Friday by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a joint news conference with visiting U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin in Manila. It was a step back from the Philippine leader’s stunning vow early in his term to distance himself from Washington as he tried to rebuild frayed ties with China over territorial rifts in the South China Sea. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “The president decided to recall or retract the termination letter for the VFA,” Lorenzana told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Austin, referring to the Visiting Forces Agreement. “There is no termination letter pending and we are back on track.” Austin thanked Duterte for the decision, which he sai...

New top story from Time: ‘I Will Cry When I Deliver That Last Yogurt.’ Small Ranch Owners Are Selling Their Herds For Lack of Water

https://ift.tt/3l9IavO Gail Ansley delivered her final batch of homemade Picabo Desert Farms goat yogurt to Atkinson’s Market in Hailey, ID two weeks ago. As usual, each 16-oz unit of rich, creamy goat’s milk yogurt was packaged in a plain plastic container with a simple disclaimer stuck to the lid: “We know this label isn’t Chic, but the Yogurt inside is the best you’ll Eat!” it proudly proclaims . The ingredients: raw goat milk, culture, and sometimes gourmet vanilla bean paste sourced from nearby Boise, or fresh lemon curd, or peach jam. But this chapter is all over: she sold her last goat, a Nigerian dwarf named Kea, the weekend before. Kea was the final remaining animal in Ansley’s hundred-plus goat herd, which she grew and raised over the past six years on her small farm in Richfield, ID. “ And I will cry when I deliver that last yogurt tomorrow, ” Ansley says over the phone, audibly tearing up. “ When we started, my husband had a pickup truck and a camper, that’s wha...

New top story from Time: Protests Against an Abortion Ban Continue for a Fifth Day in Poland

https://ift.tt/2HDCNDx WARSAW, Poland — Women’s rights activists and many thousands of supporters held a fifth day of protests across Poland on Monday, defying pandemic restrictions to express their fury at a top court decision that tightens the predominantly Catholic nation’s already strict abortion law. In Warsaw, mostly young demonstrators — women and men — with drums, horns and firecrackers blocked rush-hour traffic for hours at a number of major roundabouts. Some of them took off their shirts and stood topless on top of cars. Many held banners with an obscenity calling on the right-wing government to step down. A group of far-right supporters held a counter-protest in front of a church and police in riot gear kept the two groups apart, using pepper spray at one point. Some of the people protesting the court ruling were detained and others sat down in the street to stop the police van taking away the detainees. A protesting woman was taken to hospital with slight in...

New top story from Time: DOJ Reportedly Investigating Whether New York Gov. Cuomo Manipulated Data on COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths

https://ift.tt/3u8AJab (ALBANY, N.Y.) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced mounting challenges to his leadership on the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday as state lawmakers threatened to strip him of the power to issue emergency orders and federal investigators scrutinized his administration’s handling of nursing home data. The U.S. Justice Department has been examining the governor’s coronavirus task force and trying to determine whether the state intentionally manipulated data regarding deaths in nursing homes, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The people, who weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Cuomo administration had not been cooperative with prosecutors, especially in the early stages of the probe, and for months had not produced documents and other data the Justice Department had requested. The inquiry began months ago in the Justice Department’s civil division, and parts of it have ...

New top story from Time: We Have No Idea What We’re Fighting For Anymore

https://ift.tt/3ymywZs Once again, we are we seeing Americans being airlifted to safety amidst chaos and defeat, abandoning many of those who helped us. There will be much finger-pointing and political posturing about who is to blame . We can have those conversations. But the question no one is discussing is why for decades successive administrations of both parties continue to involve us in wars that not only we don’t win, but that for years we keep on fighting even when we know we can’t win and our objectives in those wars are confusing and malleable. If you look back over the history of our war in Afghanistan, it was clear as early as 2002 that we didn’t fully understand what we were doing there anymore or how to go about doing it. Yet we remained for nearly 20 more bloody years. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Why do we keep doing this? How can we stop? We get into these wars on the recommendations of presidents who are influenced by their staffs, most of whom are s...

'Situation not normal, don't lower guard': Delhi's 1st COVID patient cautions people https://ift.tt/35GmCxs

As many continue to take leeway during the festive season, Delhi's coronavirus patient has cautioned people to stay indoors as much as possible because "situation is not back to normal". Rohit Datta, who was diagnosed with the infection on March 1, appealed to the masses to "not lower guard" by getting into a casual festive mode.

New top story from Time: The Security Perimeter Around the Capitol Starts to Recede — and Washington Feels a Little More Normal

https://ift.tt/3ssgaEo This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday. Washington isn’t a city particularly known for its rationality. We do overreaction better than most, and that talent is rivaled only by underreaction. Passions fuel far too much public policy, personalities dictate what is possible and personal relationships often triumph over pragmatism. It’s something I usually bemoan and curse under my breath — or, increasingly, in this newsletter. So you’ll forgive a moment of indulgent irrationality and some merriment. For, you see, the fencing around the U.S. Capitol has come down. Well, not all of it. And the barriers that remain don’t have an expiration date and may never get one. But at least some of the garish barricades that went up in response to the deadly failed insurrection on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 have been dismantled. The razor-wire on its top is gone, too...

My precise view

Search This Blog