My friend the Glassmaker is in town for a while having reconstruction fun performed on her knee, again. The first time she was out here for such surgery the country was still reeling from the financial crisis and San Francisco in particular was still experiencing fallout from the dot-bomb. On this trip she observed that somehow the people on the street seem both younger and taller – and there are more of them.
And I will add that more of them are on bicycles. A little more than a year ago my 6:30 AM morning ride was a pretty solitary exercise from the ‘hood to the FiDi. This morning a rider sailed by as I was rigging my bike on my quiet street, a sight I see at least three times a week now. Another rider was on San Jose Avenue and there were four by 26th Street and Valencia.
At Market and 8th I was riding with at least seven others and the cyclo-counter on the sidewalk adjacent to Twitter read 210. It’s the highest total I think I’ve seen at that hour on a morning that was not an official bike-to-work day.
About 370,000 riders passed this pylon so far this year on this busy stretch of Market Street.
This pic was taken later that same day, about six o’clock. The evening commute was more like a peloton than a gaggle. I left later than usual to satisfy a last-minute request from my manager, placing me squarely in the middle of the evening commute. In such a situation there is safety in numbers, as a group diverting around a traffic-choked intersection is far more visible than a solo cyclist.
