Record-breaking bicycle traffic on Market Street nearly broke the 100,000 threshold in July, according to the bike counter on SF's most heavily-pedaled thoroughfare. Last month, 99,461 people were counted in the bike lane on eastbound Market at Ninth Street, topping the previous record of 97,302 in March.
The record for daily bike counts was also set in April at 4,475 (monthly total: 91,685). July's daily counts didn't approach that record, generally ranging between 3,400 and 4,000 bikes. But July had enough consistent days of high bike counts to add up to a new record.
It seems safe to say that joining the waves of rush hour bike commuters on Market is the closest thing to experiencing a bicycling mecca like Copenhagen or Amsterdam this side of the North Atlantic.
And the momentum is only poised to grow after private auto drivers were banned on Tuesday from turning on to Market between Third and Eighth streets. With more car restrictions, the downtown section of Market east of Eighth, which lacks bike lanes, will only become friendlier to biking, walking, and transit. And just wait for the Better Market Street redesign (whenever that happens).
Now, it is possible that bicycling records on Market have been broken in recent years. After a design tweak to the bike lane in January, the counter captured bike trips more accurately. On the other hand, some bicycle riders still don't ride over the sensor in the bike lane, so we may have already hit that six-digit milestone.
Hat tip to Joe Chojnacki for keeping an eye on the bike counter data.
