Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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10/06/2011: "A Glory of Bikes in San Francisco"
Gina and I were riding around San Francisco pretty much at random a few days ago, exploring the city and evaluating its bikeways wayfinding signs, when we ended up in Golden Gate Park.Which we also rode through pretty much at random. It was a sweet cool sunny day, the dahlias were blooming around the Conservatory of Flowers, and folks were strolling or pedaling around contentedly while we roamed about with nothing much in mind except getting back to the hotel sooner or later.
So we turned down the park's John F. Kennedy Drive, since it headed towards the Golden Gate and a number of bikepath choices back to downtown, when we came upon the phenomenon Gina captured in the iPhone video at the upper left:
A vast array of temporary bike racks, almost entirely filled with thousands upon thousands of bikes. It was stunning. On and on we rode, around the gentle curve of the road, and it seemed never to end. When it finally did, we found we were at the entrance to the "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" music festival, which was winding down that day.
In other words, as Gina noted, all this bike parking was not for a cycling event! And this wasn't even the only bike parking provided for the festival.... (Though it is true that several park roads were closed to cars for the occasion.)
San Francisco has been doing it right, These were not "enthusiast" or "lifestyle" cyclists--I doubt there are that many hardcore cyclists in SF--they were for the most part everyday folks who ride bicycles to get around, some or much of the time.
What a happy sight!
Well, I won't feel too bad for LA in comparison, as our own CicLAvia is coming this Sunday.
But that's a bicycling event, of course.
