Despite San Francisco's famous hills and a court order that halted the striping of new bike lanes for three years, bicycling has increased 58 percent in the city since 2006, according to new data found in the city's 2010 Bicycle Count report.

The Chronicle obtained the report Thursday. It showed the number of tallied bike trips rose from 5,500 when the first count was taken five years ago to 8,713 this year.

The manual count, conducted in August, logged passing bikes at 33 locations and is meant to offer a snapshot of biking trends in San Francisco.

While the number of counted bike trips has increased each of the past four years, this year's increase was significantly smaller, at 3 percent. Last year, the annual increase was 8 percent. In the two years prior, the annual increase was logged at 25 percent and 14 percent.

The report noted the slowdown but attributed it to the weather, which was slightly chillier than during past counts.

Still, the report focused on the overall increase: The "growth trend continues to emphasize the need for adequate and safe bicycling facilities and programs."

San Francisco, governed by a transit-first policy that discourages the use of the private automobiles, has an ambitious plan to add 34 miles of bike lanes to the old network of 45 miles by 2014.

The efforts began to accelerate 13 months ago when a San Francisco Superior Court judge partially lifted a 3-year-old injunction that prevented the city from adding bike lanes until a state-required environmental review of parking and traffic changes necessitated by the plan was completed and certified.

The court fully lifted the injunction in August. Of the planned bike lanes, 11 miles already have been striped; 2.7 miles were completed before the injunction in 2006. Just over 8 more miles have been installed since it was lifted. They can be found on 16 streets, including North Point, Townsend, Howard, Kirkham, Scott, Holloway and Clipper.

"The public opinion used to be that San Francisco never could be a bicycle city because of the topography," said Mayor Gavin Newsom. "But now we're seeing that view change as more people are biking to work and school and to get around the city."

City officials say they're moving forward faster than expected, with the bulk of new lanes set to be completed by July 2012.

In addition, the transportation agency also is installing hundreds of new bike racks.

Other projects are in the development stage, said Bond Yee, the transportation agency's director of sustainable streets. They include modifying traffic signals to give priority to bikes, separating more bike lanes and painting more bike lanes green, like the one on a short stretch of Market Street.

Next week, in preparation for a regional bike-sharing project involving San Francisco and San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, the Municipal Transportation Agency will set up a demonstration where people can test the systems offered by various bike-share vendors. The event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. next Friday and Dec. 18 in Civic Center Plaza.