If your bike was rudely snatched recently, you might want to peruse these photos of bikes and bike parts that BART police recovered after one victim spotted his property for sale on Craigslist.
After a San Francisco man saw his stolen bike posted for sale on Craigslist, he contacted the seller to arrange a meeting -- but not before alerting the cops, according to press reports.
"I would ride a bike, if only..."
I hear that a lot. It might be a friend or a coworker or the guy I just met at a party. He spots the helmet clipped to my backpack and, seeing in it some kind of hidden sanctimoniousness or moral challenge, he feels the need to justify himself: "I would ride a bike, if only..."
In most cases, it's something along the lines of, "If only traffic downtown wasn't so goddamn horrifying" -- though really there are plenty of respectable reasons not to bike in San Francisco. "If only I didn't live at the top of a hill." "If only I could find a bike my size or within my price range." "If only biking didn't mean actually having to exercise."
Stubbornly car-and Muni-bound friends, rest at ease: I will be the first to admit that biking around the city is not without its inconveniences.
Tonight will be the last Critical Mass of 2012 -- and my first ever.
Maybe it's not so surprising that I've never joined the amorphous, self-propelled fray. Though biking is my preferred method of getting around, I lack a certain militancy when it comes to my vehicle of choice.
If I'm being completely honest, I am, as a cyclist and otherwise, a total square. I stop at stop signs and wait patiently for green lights. I wear a helmet, puzzle over why my fellow riders don't do the same, and when a mother in a minivan waves a friendly thank you when I inch to the inside of the lane, letting her carbon-belching monstrosity make its unwieldy right turn through a red, my Quisling heart swells with pride because I have been constructive and helpful.
Call me a sheep, but Critical Mass' flagrant and celebratory defiance of commonly understood traffic ordinances just isn't my style.
I have a friend who is a very serious cyclist. His name is Alejandro.
Next week, Alejandro will take part in the Festive 500, a biking challenge put on every year by the high-end cycling outfitter Rapha in which spandex-clad masochists worldwide compete to see who can clock the most kilometers on two wheels between Dec. 23 and 31. While we mortals spend our few vacation days lounging around in pajama pants, quelling our eggnog hangovers with second helpings of pumpkin pie, my friend Alejandro has decided to usher in the New Year by cycling distances that I'd feel disinclined to travel in a car.
In full disclosure, let me be absolutely clear: I write this purely out of self-interest.
Because sometime in the next few months, I'll be moving to Oakland. And by crossing the bay, I will begrudgingly break from the ranks of the bike-to-work set and join the resourcefully bimodal commuters who bike to BART to bike to work.
And blessed though we are to have you, Bay Area Rapid Transit, you do not make it easy for us well-traveled few. Well, not so few, actually. Of the some 15,000 BART commuters who make their way to their nearest station each morning on two wheels, over half take their bikes on board -- whether they're supposed to or not.
A San Francisco cyclist is in critical condition today after he was pinned underneath a street sweeper vehicle when he collided with the truck early this morning in the city's SOMA neighborhood.
According to police, the accident happened about 12:30 a.m. when the street sweeper vehicle made a turn near the intersection of Sixth and Brannan streets, hitting the biker. The cyclist -- who was described as a 31-year-old man -- was dragged before the vehicle came to a stop.
See also: DA Hopes New Campaign Will Make Pedestrians and Drivers Not Hate Each Other
The only thing more frustrating than getting hit over the head with a high heel by a drunken Marina girl is having your brand-new bike stolen, even though you locked it up.
This really isn't hard to believe, but bike theft is on the rise in San Francisco, with more than 500 bikes reported stolen last year. In the Mission District, at least one bike a day is reported stolen, said Officer Matt Friedman.
But here's your chance to stop those thieves from pedaling off with your new fixie. SFPD is teaming up with a slew of other groups that care about you and your bike enough to hold a bike theft workshop next week.
See also: SFPD Releases Photos of 114 Stolen Bikes
You thought Critical Mass created commuting hell on Friday? Just you wait until this weekend, when nine major events are expected to draw tens of thousands of people, cyclists, and cars to San Francisco's streets.
And that's in addition to the ongoing road construction this weekend.
See also: Critical Mass to Be Critically Massive Tonight
Well, the results are in, and what we can tell you is that most people don't care if you bring your bike on BART -- until they do.
The transit agency ran a fun experiment in the month of August where they allowed bikes on BART every Friday during peak commute hours -- when the train is jammed-packed and hot as hell. The idea was to see whether passengers and cyclists with bikes in tow could cohabitate on the stressful commute.
However, the results haven't done much to resolve this debate. It appears passengers surveyed were evenly split on whether to allow bikes on BART during peak commute hours or not.
Also See: BART Riders Seem Optimistic About Bike Fridays
