S.F. is getting a new bike parking option

San Franciscans will get a new secure bike-parking option in the Yerba Buena area starting early next year: bike hangars, or lockable, half-cylinder-shaped metal sheds along the curb.

The colorful hangars, which will cost 5 cents an hour and are already placed in two locations — at Fourth and Minna streets by the Metreon, and at Howard and Second streets — are part of a two-year pilot project supported by Mayor London Breed meant to provide a safer bike parking option, said San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency spokesperson Stephen Chun.

“Its goal is to provide shared, limited access, and mediumterm bike parking that’s more secure than our current short-term bike parking,” Chun wrote in an email. It will also “enhance the city’s thriving bike and micromobility culture,” he said.

The city currently offers both short-term and long-term bike parking options across the city. Short-term parking includes sidewalk bike racks and onstreet bike corrals, which are several bike racks in an on-street parking space. Long-term parking, which is provided by SFMTA as well as agencies like BART and Caltrain, includes bike lockers in city-owned parking garages and near transit stations.

Bike thefts are a perennial problem in San Francisco. Several thousand bicycles are stolen annually in the city, according to the San Francisco Police Department’s website, with about half of the reported thefts occurring in the downtown area, including around Union Square, the Tenderloin, Civic Center, Market Street, South of Market and along the Embarcadero.

The new bike hangars, which SFMTA has partnered with the Yerba Buena Community Benefits District and the company BikeLink to roll out, are intended to be shared like a parking garage in an apartment building, Chun said. To use them, people will need to get the eLock/BikeLink app, which will get them access to the hangar.

Once they open the door, which has a hydraulic assist to make it easier to open and close, people can dock their bikes inside. SFMTA recommends people also use their own bike lock for extra security. The team is also working on an interactive panel on the hangar that will provide ADA accommodations and access for those who do not have a smartphone.

For the pilot, SFMTA will keep track of usage with metrics like the number of rentals per day and average length of stay, as well as security and turnover, to determine whether the hangars are a good fit for the city, Chun said. The agency will also collect qualitative feedback from users to determine areas of improvement.

In a statement, BikeLink, which has also partnered with SFMTA at seven bike locker locations in the city, said that bike hangars are “ubiquitous” around the Netherlands and other parts of Europe, but have not caught on in the United States.

“SFMTA is always thinking outside of the box to improve bicycle and pedestrian access around San Francisco,” the company said.

Scott Rowitz, the executive director of the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District, said SFMTA contacted the group about the pilot and asked which locations would be best. The group decided on the two spots — one by the Metreon and the other near the LinkedIn building — because they offer two different experiences of the neighborhood, with one being a shopping corridor and the other a commuter location. Both have high bike traffic, and existing bike racks in the areas are heavily used.

“Any thriving neighborhood has multiple modes of transit, so if this is a solution to provide more bike access, in addition to what there already is, we are 100% behind that,” he said, adding that he hopes the new option provides parking that’s “safe and clean and beautiful.”

He said the community benefit district commissioned the local artist Amandalynn to create the decorative designs for the hangars, which have also been covered in an anti-graffiti film to protect the art. He said his group was excited to be a part of the pilot.

“We think it’s great,” he said. “We look forward to more opportunities like this.”

The hangars, which can fit 12 standard-size bikes, will go through additional testing before opening to the public early next year.

“We think it’s great. We look forward to more

opportunities like this.”

Scott Rowitz, executive director of the Yerba Buena

Community Benefit District

Courtesy SFMTA A new bike storage hangar at Fourth and Minna streets.