Open Letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors:

I did not ride my bike to work today. Why should you care? Well, my tush and shoulders are sore. Why is this? Because they have been battered by the bumps and potholes from riding on San Francisco streets. At most, I can ride to work about three days a week, and I have a mountain bike with nice cushy tires. How those messengers ride every day on those road bikes is beyond me. They must have buns of steel.

I live in the Mission. If you live there or nearby, I'm sure you are aware that the once-beautiful Valencia street bike lane is now a mess of steel plates and gravel. I don't even try to ride down that street anymore. It's too dangerous swerving here and there to avoid bumps and other hazards, it makes it too hard to pay attention to traffic. Westbound Market Street is also a mess, especially from the Embarcadero to City Hall. On my way home, I have resorted to taking Howard, but the pavement is not much better, and the traffic is way too fast.

I understand that you guys may cut the funding for street maintenance. This is really hard to fathom, especially if you are committed to making San Francisco a bike friendly town. Most of the cyclists I know don't ride around town, and they all say the same thing; the streets are in terrible shape which makes riding too much of a headache, not to mention a bum-ache too. We have to deal with drivers who run us over, and then only get a tickets for illegal right turns; we have to deal with people parked in the bikes lanes (usually the cops, can they write their own tickets please?) so we have to swerve into traffic to avoid them; the pavement is a mess, which also makes us swerve to avoid the holes, or we can take a nice jolt in the butt and shoulders. All options are dangerous and nerve-wracking. And now you’re going to make the problem worse? Please tell me how this makes sense.

As supervisors, I'm sure you don't want your constituents to have bruised hands, shoulders, or tushies. It makes us irritated, and frankly, when you consider cutting funding for street maintenance, it is tantamount to adding insult to injury. I'm offended that you would even consider it an option. Even motorists know that San Francisco streets are an embarrassment to our beautiful city. In my opinion, if you need more money in the budget, why don't you cut the funding for the Keystone SF Cops? I mean, they can't solve any real crimes, so they resort to ticketing cyclists. Somehow, I think that they have their priorities backwards. Perhaps they should put more effort into solving real crimes, instead of looking the other way when we get run over, and parking in our bike lanes while they write us tickets. Frankly, the cops are a bigger embarrassment to San Francisco than the roads!

Believe me, I will be thinking about all of you at city hall the next time my bum feels like a victim of Barry's bat. For the sake of my cheeks, please do not cut the funding for road maintenance and repair. If anything, you should double it and get the streets fixed. Thanks for your time.