Bicyclists fight speed limits on Golden Gate Bridge

SAN FRANCISCO — Plans to put the brakes on bicyclists riding across the Golden Gate Bridge has cycling enthusiasts crying foul in this urban center of two-wheeled activism.

Hundreds of commuters, residents and tourists ride the bridge's stately span each day, and occasionally there is a smash-up when bikers run into one another or collide with tourists drinking in the views. Still, the city was taken by surprise this week when bridge officials proposed speed limits as a way to reduce the accident rate on San Francisco's signature landmark.

The initial plan would hit riders with a $100 fine if they don't slow to 5 mph around the bridge's iron towers, or 10 mph along the bulk of the 1.2-mile span. There is currently no speed limit, and authorities say some riders have been clocked going more than 20 mph.

But after groups of bicyclists raised sharp critiques, the bridge's board of directors decided to postpone a vote on the limits to allow public debate.

"Five miles per hour is definitely slower than I would ever go," said Uri Friedman, a manager at Pedal Revolution, a nonprofit bike shop near the hip cafes of San Francisco's Mission District. "This just kind of penalizes someone who knows how to ride their bike. As it is already, having to navigate through the tourists as you're trying to get out of town on a ride makes for a potentially frustrating experience."

On Saturday, as busloads of German, Mexican and Korean tourists snapped photos using the verdant Marin County hills as a backdrop, Frances Denner was recovering from a near wreck on her rental bicycle. Pausing for a minute to admire the sailboats and surfers dotting the bay below, she said she thought speed limits sounded wise.

"This person wearing full bike gear came around me and I wasn't expecting it. It was a little scary," said Denner, who was visiting from Janesville, Wis. "I think having a speed limit would be a good thing."

A committee of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District recommended the limits after commissioning consultants to do a cycling safety study.

According to the Berkeley-based firm Alta Planning + Design, there were 165 bicycle crashes from 2000 to 2009, and speed was cited as a factor in 39 percent of those accidents. Over that same time period, there were 235 reported vehicle incidents, including anything from a fender-bender to a more serious collision, said bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie.

Several cycling activists questioned how many wrecks involved tourists on rental bikes, and said it was misguided to craft a safety policy to address speed if that was not a problem in a majority of the accidents.

"There is poor visibility, and there are surfaces on the bridge that when the fogs rolls in can get really slippery or can catch a cyclist's tire," said Kim Baenisch, executive director of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, which opposes the limits. "To be ticketed for going 11 mph because you have some tail wind behind you seems really unreasonable. We don't want to see limits that are going to discourage any type of cyclists from using the bridge."

The Golden Gate, which was the largest suspension bridge in the world when completed in 1937, has been considered one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century. Riding its narrow paths requires a keen sense of how to navigate the gusty winds, fog and storms that blow through the gate and into the San Francisco Bay.

Scott Klimo, who bicycle commutes from his home in Marin County to his office San Francisco's financial district, said he and his fellow commuters know how to ride at safe speeds because they do it every day, even if most lack speedometers. In his 10 years of bicycle commuting, he has seen one accident, he added.

"It's not that the tourists are bad people, but riding a bike safely isn't their first priority. It's enjoying the view," he said. "A little bit better education or orientation from the bicycle rental companies would be a far more effective safety measure than imposing some sort of random speed limit on all of us."

Bridge officials will have to balance a host of competing considerations as they consider future safety proposals. Space is one. This summer, bridge authorities plan to close the bridge's west side, which serves as an afternoon bike lane, to complete a long-needed seismic retrofit.

Tourism is another. In 2009, more than 15 million people visited the city, pumping nearly $8 billion into its economy, according to the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Bicycle ridership and the clout of local cycle advocacy organizations are also growing. According to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, ridership has increased by 58 percent since 2006.

The bridge and its adjacent coastal parklands also often play host to organized bicycle tours and festivals of all stripes. Saturday, a group of Tibet supporters held a ride from the city's downtown to the Golden Gate to highlight the missing Panchen Lama. Even the once-monthly Critical Mass bicycling movement has on occasion barnstormed its way through Friday rush-hour traffic all the way to the bridge.