Meet the Women’s Community Clinic, just one of the many organizations encouraging clients and staff to bicycle in San Francisco, in part through their newly installed bike corral, an on-street bike parking area. The 25 well-used bike corrals across the city, provided by the SFMTA, have been benefiting local businesses and neighbors by providing six to 12 visitors a central place to park. These smart investments free up sidewalks and encourage the huge number of people on bikes to stop and shop, or, in the case of the Women’s Community Clinic, help provide necessary medical care.

Carlina Hansen, Executive Director of the Women’s Community Clinic, shares her story about how the new bike corral in front of her clinic is great for her organization:

How many of your employees and clients bike to your facility?

Of our 24 person staff, eight are very regular bike commuters. Plus, our Clinic has over 100 active volunteers and I would estimate that about 15 of them are bicycle commuters. In our recently client survey, we found that 5% of our clients ride their bikes to their appointments and hope that with our corral we will see that number go up even more!

How does this new bike corral improve your business?

During business hours, we have five to 10 bikes in front of our clinic. The two sidewalk bike racks only held four bikes and were always full. So the bike corral gives us greater capacity to provide a safe place for everyone to park their bikes when they come to the Clinic. Most importantly, it encourages staff, volunteers and clients to ride to work. As a health care organization, it is important to us that we are encouraging folks to be healthy – and biking is definitely a healthy (for them and our beautiful city!) and fun mode of transportation. Because the Clinic serves low-income and uninsured women and girls, we also want to promote biking as a cost effective way to get around and to get to the Clinic – no parking tickets, no meters.

How has the new bike corral improved the street overall?

The Clinic is located in a dense commercial corridor and there is a lot of traffic, and parking can be an expensive challenge. The corral also helps our block stand out – some of our store fronts are obscured by beautiful trees, but this makes it one of the less visible commercial areas on Fillmore. The corral creates a marker of an active commercial area – I hope will draw more people to the block and make the Clinic even easier for our clients to find.

How did you find out about bike corrals and how to apply?

Many of our staff are active members of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and found out how to apply through their newsletter.