Cassidy Blackwell. Photo by RHDG:Riezebos Holzbaur Group

Cassidy Blackwell, an employee by day at Fern Tiger Associates and founder of “Natural Selection” tells the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition how much she loves biking in San Francisco.

It’s funny, the one question that people who don’t bike always ask me is? “How can you ride up those hills?”  And the truth is that hills are one of my favorite parts of riding in the city.  They’re so much fun — the steep ones and the not-so-steep cruisey ones — once you get to the top of one of San Francisco’s [in]famous hills, you not only have a really sweet vista, but also the thrill of the downhill.

But the not-so-secret tip to biking in San Francisco is that there are also a lot of flat routes. I love riding on these routes too, like the Valencia Street bike lanes, the Panhandle to Golden Gate Park and I ride every day down Market to the Embarcadero BART station. One of the huge new improvements to my commute home from work is the separated bike lane on Market Street — I wish this bike lane would take me all the way down to the Embarcadero — it’s a comfortable, protected space to bike in. Having felt how much safer the improvements on Market Street make me feel, I hope this improvement can be brought to other streets, like Fell Street, which would benefit from a safer space where I could ride protected from vehicle traffic.

The only regret I have about riding in San Francisco is not getting on two wheels sooner! To those who haven’t tried biking in San Francisco, i say just do it. Biking is a quick way to get around the city, not to mention it’s fun.  I also love that it keeps me in shape!