I go to school in Davis and I love that I don't need a car, I can literally bike anywhere. They take better care of the bike paths than they do the streets, and there are miles and miles of them.

I wish Omaha would get with the program...

I'm not sure how SF ended up on this list because as a MUNI bus driver and former bike rider I can tell you this city is anything but bicycle friendly/safe. The bike lanes are in the middle of traffic already narrow busy traffic lanes. Cars have no respect for traffic signals or peds let alone people on bikes and you cannot ride on the sidewalk even if you are a child or riding with a child. Thee are few if any bike racks on the streets for you to safely lock up your bike, even the grocery stores don't have bike racks. Plus the roads are laden with huge potholes.

I think whoever wrote this study was watching movies about San Francisco rather than actually coming to SF and trying to safely ride a bicycle during daylight or nighttime hours. Dangerous and unfriendly.

woohoo!
im proud to say i go to school in davis and grew up in palo alto =)

wow wack. I've lived in SF for 5 years now, I bike EVERYWHERE and I have to say, I think SF is a great place to bike.

I grew up in NYC, and it is WAAAAAY better than NYC (though I love biking there too). There are lots of bike lanes that are well marked and numbered that you can use to get anywhere from anywhere.

I find the drivers much more considerate towards bikes than on the east coast (though I still assume that all of them are about to make a right hand turn without an indicator).

Every parking garage has to have a bike rack. There is number you can call and they'll put in a bike rack anywhere in the city.

AND BEST OF ALL the great signs all over the place that say "BIKES MAY USE FULL LANE. CHANGE LANES TO PASS" I mean how cool is that!?

As some of you know, I biked down the peninsula from SF to work in San Jose twice a weeks for a couple months last year (starting on last year's bike to work day ) and I went through Palo Alto on my way, and that place really is set up for bikes. Wow. But for a major city, SF is dialed in.

Arthur, I work for the city and they do not just install bike rack EVERYWHERE because you call a number. And not EVERY parking garage has bike racks and moreover the ones that do downtown are not necessaryily free. Example 4th & Mission garage, try to park there with your park - or try to park in front of Whole Foods on 4th and Harrison, there are only two bike racks and the store will call DPT if you lock your bike to a meter or a sign. And only 25% of the city streets have desginated bike lanes the rest are officially bike lane free though CVC oridinance says bikes may take up the entire lane IF they act as vehicle and obey traffic laws which is rare in SF.

Yes, our bike lanes in San Francisco are the entire lane of traffic as I said in my original post and that's incredibly dangerous of a single lane or two lane road where cars regularly double park or disregard other cars being in the lane, a small bike doesn't register to a bad driver. At least 3 out 5 days that I'm behind the wheel for MUNI I have to call for an ambulance for a bicyclist who has been hit by a car while riding in a "bike lane" here in your safe city. Being that I spend over 50 hours behind the wheel a week driving and observing what happens here I have an excited perspective on how safe it really is on how well bicyclists and drivers obey the law. I've been here over 11 years and give up riding on city street after the first year because there are not protected bike lanes like there are in Southern California. Safeist to ride in SF is in Golden Gate park on Sunday when its closed to cars.

I'm just sayin' it's better than other places I've lived and biked. WAY BETTER (ok, with the exception of Amsterdam).

Perfect, not close. No doubt biking in traffic is filled with potential dangers.

Um well....Yay Palo Alto! I went to school there up until college. I'm happy it made the list.

Yeah Burlington, VT!!!!

During the 2009 National Bicycle Week in mid-May, visit Newport Beach in Southern California and watch motorcycle police chase bicyclists. California has Statute AB-1581 of traffic signal detection for bicyclists, but the Newport Beach Police Department (NBPD) shows productivity by fabricating vehicle citations from bicyclists. The NBPD is located two blocks from a left-turn signal into a state preserve used by hundreds of bicyclists each week. The Newport Beach traffic engineers replied to my email that the signal had been set back to not detect bicyclists. In a telephone call with Sergeant Mike James, he supported the chasing of bicyclists. During another call with Lieutenant Steve Shulman, he laughed. He sent me a letter recommending that bicyclists first test a signal in the left lane and then dismount to go across the traffic lanes to the pedestrian button. I was trying his method one day during my bicycle commute to the main post office, and a Newport Beach Fire Department paramedics van without sirens or flashing lights turned in front of me. Newport Beach city and safety employees are laughing at bicycle commuters. Despite National Bicycle Week, it will take generations of change for U.S. cities to accept bicycling. Mayor Ed Selich of Newport Beach is uninterested in bicycles. And the original author of California Statute AB-1581, Assembly Representative Jean Fuller, did not reply to my message about the lack of oversight for enforcing the bicycle signal detection with cities.