San Francisco Bike Blog

I stumbled upon Access SF yesterday, the public access channel for San Francisco (Channel 29). Of course my first thought was, ‘I wonder if there is any bike programming on there?’.

In fact there was. I’m unable to locate it at the moment, but around 3 a.m. Sunday morning, there was a program on the schedule titled, ‘Bicycle’. I could not find any other info on it, but it could have been some programming from Bike TV, which lists on its home page the following text — “San Francisco: East Coast West Coast Bike Stuff airs Saturdays at 12pm on cable channel 29″. That’s pretty close.

I remembered I’d seen a bunch of other San Francisco-related videos, one in particular that was super-fantastic. I thought I’d dig them up and try to get them in one location.

As you might expect, most if not all of the videos have significant involvement with the SFBC and its volunteers. This is not a comprehensive list of all videos of biking in the bay ever - just some good ones I could pretty easily find. If I’ve missed any, please drop a comment or email. They are not in any particular order.

I hope we can see these showing up on TV, starting with our public access channels. I’m sure that would require getting permission from StreetFilms, and BikeTV, and Clarence, etc. We’d also have to assemble the films into some kind of package that could easily be shown on AccessSF and other stations. My limited experience in working with public access stations suggests that it’s pretty easy to get just about any kind of video on the air that you want - you just need a community-based non-profit to ’sponsor’ you (SFBC??) (just a ‘legitimacy’ thing, not financial), assemble the video(s), sign some waver saying that you’re responsible for anything in the video (free speech is really free on public access tv, generally speaking, but there are limits to free speech — you can’t say/show/do anything illegal - which is why you’re saying you are taking responsibility for the content of the video), tell the station how long the video is (43 minutes, 15 seconds), when you might like it to show (once or more per week? at some different times?), and hand them the media - DVD or whatever else they might accept. The station will usually want you to sit through a quick and informative (and usually free) introductory orientation.

Riding Predictably (link) - how to decrease uncertainty on the road, which should lead to you staying safer out there:

SFBC Stencil Project (link) - marking potholes and other dangerous road conditions so Public Works can help make the roads less challenging for us bikers. The ‘Monthly Pothole Ride‘ is fun - you can participate without any special skills, and you help fix our streets. The ride is usually the first Saturday of every month. It’s listed on the SFBC calendar (and ours). (more):

Berkeley’s Bike Boulevards (link) - traffic calming goodness:

Berkeley’s Secure Bike Parking (link):

BikeTV: East Bay Bike Tour (link):

BikeTV: San Francisco Bike Coalition (link) - Clarence Eckerson, Jr. (of BikeTV, and StreetFilms fame) kicks it with Andy Thornley of the SFBC:

BikeTV: Painting Sharrows (link):

SFBC Winterfest, 2003 (link) - rockin good time every year:

Bike to Work Day, 2008 (link) - Introduction to Bike to Work Day by Cole Portocarrero, Executive Director of the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition:

Bike to Work Day, 2007 (link) - more Bike to Work Day:

National Bike to Work Day, 2008 (link) - five cities, including San Francisco:

How to Ride in Wet Weather Safely (link):

SFPD Bicycle Training Video (link):

Bikes Belong In Traffic - SFPD Training Video - Free videos are just a click away

San Francisco Sunday Streets (link):

PARK(ing) Day San Francisco 2006 (link):

San Francisco Giants Valet Bike Parking (link):

San Francisco: Removal of the Embarcadero Freeway (link) - my new personal favorite:

BARTtv is working on allowing their videos to be embedded in blogs, the same way as YouTube and StreetFilms videos.

…Watch Clarence talk to Brian Lehrer on Brian’s CUNYtv show - a public television channel in New York City. In the video we hear Clarence say that StreetFilms now has one person dedicated half-time to sending out DVDs of StreetFilms all around the country, all around the world. Let’s make sure these great StreetFilms videos get the attention they deserve here in the Bay.

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