Four-inch heels. That’s what Tifanei Nikol Moyer wears to work. Nonetheless, Moyer, who moved to San Francisco a year ago, decided to borrow a bike and ride it to her job at 101 Market Street for the first time ever. The heels turned out to not be much of a problem, she said. “You can use them as a kick start.”
Moyer was enticed to bike instead of taking public transportation as she usually does because of the opportunity to show her support for District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim.
Just a few blocks away, Moyer’s politician of choice was showing that she too can ride a bike in high heels. Bright red ones. “I wanted to demonstrate that people could bike in their dress for work,” Kim said, riding on a bicycle built for two to Civic Center Plaza, where a press conference about Bike to Work Day was about to start.
Kim’s co-pilot on the tandem, Peter Masiak, a 29-year-old San Francisco Bicycle Coalition member, pedaled up in front and looked out for potholes. Every supervisor participating in Bike to Work Day rode in tandem with a Bicycle Coalition staff member, Kim said. One motivating factor for her was curiosity. “I wanted to see what kind of danger bikers face in their everyday life on the street,” she said, watching as the bikers around her swerved between cars, buses and light-rail cars. “The most unsafe point is between McAllister and Market Street,” Masiak said. “It’s dangerous to turn there.”
“Mr. Mayor!” said District 9 Supervisor David Campos, speaking on the steps of City Hall. “It’s so good to see you on a bike!” Campos’ talk at the rally touched on several topics, among them: competition (cities such as Barcelona and Washington, D.C. are ahead of San Francisco with things like bike lanes and bike-sharing programs, he said) and neighborhood pride (the Mission District is the neighborhood with the highest number of everyday riders).
It’s true that most cyclists interviewed in the Mission itself said they were regular commuters. Dylan Mire, serving coffee at Kafé 99 on Treat, didn’t even realize there was an event today. “I always ride my bike to go to work,” he said. “Every day is Bike to Work Day.”
A group of cyclists bound for a day’s work at Kink.com described themselves as both first-timers and regular commuters. They have an incentive for bicycling, said Kink’s CEO, Peter Acworth. “We don’t provide car parking. We encourage people to cycle in and we tend to hire locally, so people don’t have to drive. If our employees have a quick commute then they have a better life. It’s healthy.”