Biking equity : the unresolved puzzle piece in San Francisco’s biking renaissance

The surging bicycling rates in U.S. cities and the growing interest to improve avenues of active transportation substantiates the growing presence of the American biking renaissance. San Francisco’s sizeable share of bike-related improvements in the planning pipeline along with its third highest bike mode share amongst U.S. cities affirms that the city is in its most bike-conducive planning phase of history. As cities continue to invest their public dollars towards “Let’s Make Our Cities Bikeable” vision, growing number of planning studies are beginning to show that bike shares and biking infrastructure are inequitably distributed throughout the cities and in a manner that low-income households or communities of color do not use them as often or as comfortably (Smith, 2015) and San Francisco’s case is no different. With numerous Federal and State level grants being used to develop and expand the biking infrastructure in U.S. cities, communities are beginning to realize that biking can be a means to social justice. Additionally, for a high cost of living and housing price area like San Francisco, the low-income communities might benefit the most from the positive externalities accrued from improved access to the biking infrastructure. These benefits include but are not limited to - improved household transportation savings, lower fuel consumption, lowered health risks related to cardiovascular diseases and improved carbon footprint. The intent of this study is to inquire whether San Francisco’s existing biking infrastructure (including bike share programs) are absent or less accessible in communities of lower socioeconomic status. And if yes, how is this persisting inequity being influenced by the upcoming bikeway improvement projects and bike share programs. The study finds that bikers in San Francisco tend to be young, white, males with lower-to-middle income background. The study ran Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) between perceived bike accessibility index and socioeconomic indicators to observe that the low-income neighborhoods in San Francisco have an inequitable access to biking infrastructure. Households in low-income neighborhoods of San Francisco with high dependency rates, low educational levels and with no access to health insurance show low bike accessibility. The study elicits that although the city’s long-term bike and ped planning projects are geared towards addressing this persisting inequity, a closer look at bikeway improvement projects implementation since 2012 hasn’t mended the equity gap. Improving access to safe and convenient biking infrastructure through physical planning and design is a traditional model of addressing inequitable distribution of civic amenities. The study gathers evidence from other U.S. cities in promoting equitable bike share lessons. It postulates that San Francisco with its bike sharing expansion stands at an opportune moment, where appropriate sequencing of bike infrastructure expansion, bike share station siting in low-income communities, active bike sharing advocacy, discounted membership for low-income households, improved bike share and transit integration, and predicted surge in ridership in the newly expanded residential neighborhoods might bridge the equity gap that traditional modes of bike infrastructure improvements have not been able to accomplish