One of the things I’ve learned about San Francisco is the nature of Supervisorial prerogative. Basically, nothing happens in your district if your Supervisor isn’t on board. While I used to think that largely extended to the way they vote, it’s clear it also plays out in the way that many other projects happen in our city.

There’s a whole lot of San Francisco missing green dots

Take bikeshare, for example. Many stations are clustered around the downtown core in District 6. It’s dotted with GoBike stations. Compare that to District 3 where there are far fewer stations. Yes there are more hills, but it seems strange such a system would not go all the way up to Fisherman’s Wharf. Better yet, compare that to District 2, which has no stations even though the Marina is flat. What’s the difference between those Districts?

Unsurprisingly, Jane Kim is Supervisor of District 6 and is one of our most pro-bike Supervisors, championing Vision Zero as well as better bike lanes and access throughout her district. I see examples of that when I see her at the same hearings I’m at also speaking in support of the Townsend Corridor Improvement Project.

The same cannot be said for Aaron Peskin of District 3 or Catherine Stefani of District 2. I biked in the Financial District for 4 years. There has been no action on making important bikeways such as Kearny safer even though it’s a part of the Vision Zero High-Injury Corridor. We can’t afford to wait until someone dies there before we make it better; there has been no meaningful action or sense of urgency by Peskin to improve this or any other biking facilities in his district, including, sadly, the Embarcadero, where he can only say a protected bike lane will “eventually happen”.

Stefani has shown little will to move forward with meaningful projects like the Broadway Safety Improvement Project, just as she has shown little appetite to support bikeshare in the Marina. She cloaks it in process, saying there has not been enough outreach, even though there has been ongoing outreach about station locations in San Francisco for 3 years. She’s not alone in these kinds of actions, with Jeffy Sheehy opposing expansion in Glen Park as one of his final acts as Supervisor for similar reasons.

I keep going back to the thought I had last week: Until we have more Supervisors who truly support greater mobility options, they will keep using process as a shield to stop things like robust bikeshare. Bikeshare is barely a topic on the west side because it barely reaches us. Our Supervisors don’t even have to take a position when it’s unavailable and not likely to be here any time soon; there’s no indication any of them have made a push to make our current limited bikeshare options more available. I cannot recall Supervisor Fewer even mentioning bikeshare and it didn’t come up on the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s 2016 Candidate Questionnaire.

I bike through 3 districts every day; if you’re a person biking in this city, I bet you also bike through several districts each day. This isn’t just a single District issue. I believe we can have a protected bike network just like a robust bikeshare system throughout our city. It’s why I care just as much about what’s going on at 6th and Fulton as I do at Grove and Masonic or 3rd and Newhall.

For a city that talks big about its climate action goals, we do little to decouple our lives from automobiles. Biking is a great way to can get around our city without contributing to climate change. When will we meaningfully commit to our Climate Action plan? We cannot do that without making biking more available and safer. Remind our leaders of that we will not achieve these necessary goals while we continue to fight over a couple parking spaces where we could see dozens of new bikes for folks to ride instead. Keep it in mind the next time you vote. Show up and write to give our leaders who support better biking cover when they face a loud minority that still cannot imagine getting around without a private automobile.

Ridership keeps increasing even as the stations level out. Image courtesy of Kevin Burke: github.com/kevinburke/gobike

People want to ride bikes. That means giving them more options to ride and creating safe streets for them to ride on. We need to start electing true champions of those ideals, not just based on how they answer surveys, but based on how they serve their districts. Everyone will tell you they support bikeshare. I want them to show us they do.

We have a responsibility to show our government we support better bikeshare. As expansion hits a wall in places like the Haight, let Vallie Brown know you support more options for how folks get around over a couple parking spaces. By all means, let Catherine Stefani know you are a strong supporter of better biking options in the Marina and that docked bikeshare is not comparable to Blockbuster. Ask Aaron Peskin when we’ll have more stations along the Embarcadero along with a protected lane to ride them in and that you prefer it’d be sooner than eventually. GoBike has more suggestions on how you can get involved when it comes to supporting more stations elsewhere right now.

We count on our leaders to lead. If they will not, then we must lead. Take action to support better bikeshare today.