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On San Fran’s Market Street Bikes Outnumber Cars for a Day

1:19 PM EDT on May 22, 2007

Gavin_Newsom.jpg

From the San Francisco Chronicle via Carfree USA:

For the first time ever, at the height of the morning rush hour there were more bicycles than cars heading downtown on Market Street in San Francisco, officials said.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, in a black track suit, survived the ruts on Valencia Street on his loaner mountain bike and made it to City Hall, where he was joined by a half dozen supervisors on bikes.

"You should see the potholes in this town,'' the mayor said.

Newsom seized the day to unveil the city's new cycling strategy, a 10-point plan now being held up pending an environmental review.

"Turnout was huge,'' said Leah Shahum, executive director of the bicycle coalition. "We gave away 3,000 canvas bags and we're down to our final bunch of bananas.''

Photo: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Leah Shahum of the SF Bike Coalition, by Drew Rogers via Flickr 

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