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Please also review our goals for 2009.

See also our 2008 Annual Report highlighting our accomplishments and successes in 2008 along with our financial report.

Working for a bicycle-friendly, greener and healthier San Francisco since 1970

Through day-to-day advocacy, education, and working partnerships with government and community agencies, the SFBC is dedicated to creating safer streets and more livable communities for all San Franciscans.

Our active 11,000 members represent San Franciscans of all ages, from all neighborhoods, who are working towards more safe, efficient, and green ways to move around our city.

Because of our efforts, the number of residents biking for transportation has doubled in the past 10 years. Today, over 30,000 San Franciscans use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation. (Source: 2006 David Binder Poll)

Feel free to explore our site to learn more about all we do. Then join us and get involved!

• SFBC Successes
• Did you know?
• SFBC Partnerships
• Our Mission
• Our Vision
• Our Values
• Our History

SFBC Successes:

SFBC members have successfully fought for bicycle accommodations that are now enjoyed by thousands of San Franciscans and visitors:

• Bicycle access on the Golden Gate Bridge
• Bicycle access on mass transit such as BART, Muni, and Caltrain
• 201 miles of bicycle lanes and paths, including on Market, Valencia, Howard, Cabrillo, Arguello, and Potrero streets
• The unanimous approval, in 2005, from the SF Board of Supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom for a Citywide Bike Plan with a goal of tripling the number of people biking for transportation, to reach 10% of all City trips by 2010

Did you know?

The SFBC also...

• Offers free urban cycling classes to the general public?
• Distributes hundreds of free bike lights and helmets to cyclists in underserved communities?
• Fought for the popular Car-free Sundays and Healthy Saturdays in Golden Gate Park?
• Hosts Family Bicycling Day, where kids are taught how to ride safely on a car-free stretch of Golden Gate Park?
• Campaigned for the removal of the Central Freeway and its replacement with the community enhancing Octavia Blvd.?
• Provides free, valet bike parking at SF Giants games and other major events and festivals?

SFBC Partnerships:

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has working partnerships with major government and community agencies to improve the overall transportation network and livability of San Francisco:

• MTA: Co-sponsored "CoExist" campaign encouraging bicyclists and drivers to share the road.
• Caltrain: Worked together to open new bike parking station at Caltrain 4th & King.
• BART: Worked together to expand bike access on trains and to open Embarcadero bike parking station.
• SF Dept. of the Environment: Partnered on Cycle and Recycle program to encourage the use of sustainable transportation and to recycle/compost more.
• SF Police Department: Co-produced a first-ever, police training video educating officers of bicyclists' rights and responsibilities on the road.
• YMCA: Partner together on middle school, after-school bike education program.
• Senior Action Network & Walk SF: Work together to improve street safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. Recent joint actions include rallies at dangerous intersections such as Fell and Masonic and Market and Octavia.
• San Francisco Giants: The SFBC provides free valet bike parking at all home Giants games.

Our Mission

The mission of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is to transform San Francisco's streets and neighborhoods into more livable and safe places by promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation.

Our Vision

Our city remains a city of distinct neighborhoods, in which people of all kinds and means enjoy safe and easy access getting to work, play, and satisfying other needs. Our neighborhoods have less pavement and more green space and gardens. We find ourselves frequently interacting with our neighbors. Bicycling is commonplace with children and grandparents riding roads everywhere. Many people use all kinds of public transit - clean, quiet buses and trains; ferries; and motor and pedal taxis - which are inexpensive and run frequently. The wide sidewalks are busy and alive, free of parked cars but crowded with kids and adults playing games or holding sidewalk sales. Fast motor vehicles are used only for emergencies, and other cars are rare and travel slowly. The streets of San Francisco are inviting, free, social spaces where everyone feels welcome. The air we breathe and the water we drink are clean and healthy.

Our Values

We value...

  URBANISM

• Our vibrant streets and public spaces; our diverse people & neighborhoods; and our capacity for bringing together a critical mass of people to create a new and better world;

  DEMOCRACY

• True democracy, with maximum informed public participation;

  EQUALITY

• The equitable distribution of public resources, including a balanced transportation system that works for all and equal access to public spaces;

  SUSTAINABILITY

• Our natural environment, and belief that our impact on it must be sustainable;

  HEALTH

• the health of our bodies and communities;

  BICYCLING

• The bicycle not as an end, but as a means, and sometimes a particularly joyous means, to realizing our vision and living our values.

Our History

The SFBC is one of the oldest bicycle advocacy organizations in the country. Founded in 1970 by a group of activists representing a coalition of environmental and neighborhood groups, the SFBC started the convention of calling an advocacy group a "coalition" while riding groups were known as clubs. It quickly evolved into a powerful alliance of individuals working for a more bicycle-friendly city, winning bike lanes on upper Market Street, removing the ban on bicycling through the Broadway Tunnel, and gaining access to the Golden Gate Bridge and, along with the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, gaining access to BART. Mostly defunct throughout the 1980s, it was rejuvenated in October 1990 with the first issue of the newsletter, then known as "the tubular times." Operated entirely by volunteers for the first several years, it has been dominated by a grassroots volunteer ethic ever since, growing into one of the strongest bicycle advocacy organizations in the country. Its biggest victory in the 1990s were the bicycle lanes on Valencia Street, supported by the Board of Supervisors despite a Department of Parking & Traffic Director who declared "they'll be bike lanes on Valencia Street over my dead body." The SFBC, in conjunction with the Bicycle Advisory Committee, was also responsible for some of the strongest requirements for indoor bicycle parking and public event attended bicycle parking in the country.