Dear Kevin,
I am writing to say "thank you."
Yesterday a report on City bike counts confirmed what we've suspected--huge growth in bicycling ridership that you helped make possible! How huge?
The number of people biking in San Francisco has risen an impressive 71% in the past five years, according to the just-released 2011 San Francisco Bicycle Count Report. Learn more about the report and areas that saw the largest growth in ridership at sfbike.org/main/71-increase-in-number-of-people-biking-in-sf/.
With your support as a San Francisco Bicycle Coalition member, our advocacy is yielding powerful results and making our streets safer for you and your loved ones.
These significant increases prove that a relatively small investment of resources in bicycling improvements pays off hugely in making our city more accessible, affordable, healthier and cleaner. Thank you for believing in our organization and the work we do. It is you — the 12,000+ members of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition — who provide the resources and inspiration to make our city a great place to live, work, play and, of course, to bike.
In the past year alone, thanks to members like you, more than 17 miles of bike lanes have been striped (including 2.5 miles of buffered bikeways), and 15 bicycle corrals were added to city streets, making it easier and safer for people of all ages to bike on our city streets.
Now, we look forward to helping the City reach its goal of 20% of trips by bicycle by 2020. To reach that goal, the SF Bicycle Coalition has put forward a vision for Connecting the City with a 100-mile network of inviting, family-friendly bikeways connecting neighborhoods, commercial corridors and transit centers.
Currently, your San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is working hard to gain approval of a separated bikeway on the three critical blocks of Fell and Oak Streets, connecting Scott Street on the Wiggle to the Panhandle. Fell and Scott Streets showed one of the highest growths in the 2011 San Francisco Bicycle Count Report: 108% increase of ridership in the last five years. The automatic bike counter at this intersection shows an average of 15,000 bike trips per week year-round.
This huge increase in the number of people bicycling on Fell Street is a clear indication of the need and desire for better conditions on this critical bicycling connection between our neighborhoods. These new counts support the urgent calls – more than 200 letters sent by members like you already -- for physically separated bikeways on Fell and Oak Streets. This much-needed safety improvement cannot wait.
Thank you again for your support as a San Francisco Bicycle Coalition member. The Executive Summary of the Bicycle Count Report says it best: “One thing is certain, more and more San Franciscans are riding bicycles every year.”
You should feel proud that you are making bicycling in San Francisco safer and more comfortable for everyone.
With much gratitude,
Leah Shahum
Executive Director
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