Instead, I was reborn.<\/p>\n
Or at least rebranded. Riding a bicycle has become as much a part of my Chronicle job as exploring new spaces<\/a>, hanging out with cool<\/a> old people<\/a> and breaking big Pacifica Taco Bell news<\/a>. I now take my bike and public transportation to assignments as a rule.<\/p>\n In the process, I’ve gotten healthier, spent less money and saved time cruising past traffic jams. But the results extend beyond all that (and the smugness that often comes<\/a> when cyclists lecture about health, money and traffic). I’ve become a better journalist and a better community member. I may not live longer – did I mention that I bike in San Francisco? – but I’m definitely doing a better job working for you.<\/p>\n It’s not like I had never been on a bike before I braved Market Street for the first time in 2016. I rode a dirt bike with training wheels in the 1970s, a Kermit the Frog Schwinn<\/a> in the ’80s and brought a mountain bike to college in San Luis Obispo when the words “mountain bike” were newfangled. I had a black Trek Antelope during my four years in Los Angeles – covering celebrity court cases by day<\/a> and powering up a Runyon Canyon Park trail after hours.<\/p>\n But when I moved back to San Francisco in 1999, settling in a third-floor studio facing the Panhandle, I locked that bike near the communal washing machine and never touched it again. (Is it still there?) Observing the cars speeding by on Oak Street, with anxious and angry looks on drivers’ faces, I thought to myself, “You’d have to be crazy to ride a bicycle in San Francisco.”<\/p>\n Chronicle reporters Peter Hartlaub and Lily Janiak run into each other on their bicycles in 2018 on Market Street in San Francisco. (Peter Hartlaub\/The Chronicle)<\/p>\n Looking back, my dedication to driving seems cult-like. I would pay $18 to park all day at the lot across from the Chronicle (which buys about three hours now), accumulate parking tickets on assignments, then drive in ever-wider circles around the Haight-Ashbury in the evening, lucky to find a spot a quarter mile from my walkup. I remember getting my car booted for unpaid tickets and thinking, “How will I get to work today?” The 38-Geary Muni line was two blocks away.<\/p>\n My no-bike lifestyle didn’t change when I moved to hilly Maxwell Park in Oakland. My kids learned to ride on our flat back patio, looping in endless tight counterclockwise circles like little NASCAR drivers.<\/p>\n Then in 2016 we moved to Alameda, a city with fast-growing bike infrastructure, two ferry terminals (now four) and traffic-calming turkeys<\/a>. I noticed Janiak, who would sometimes arrive at her desk with sunglasses and red leather bike gloves still on and slay a deadline: badass, in a “Mad Max”\/Furiosa<\/a> kind of way. If nothing else, the aesthetics seemed enticing. She agreed to be my bike mentor as I mounted up for the first time in years.<\/p>\n Janiak met me at the Ferry Building, admired my new Giant Escape starter bike and gave me a crash course on the nuances of city biking. I’ve since learned that bus drivers are the friendly humpback whales of the road and mostly look out for bikes. Lyft and Uber drivers are chaos agents, often unfamiliar with San Francisco streets and focused on the next fare. I started bike commuting daily, and leveled up quickly.<\/p>\n The words “worldwide pandemic” and “perfect timing” rarely belong together. But it applies here.<\/p>\n Cyclists participating in the monthly Fat Cake Club FTWNB + Allies (femme, trans, women, and non-binary) ride pause at Twin Peaks to regroup. (Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle)<\/p>\n Under the leadership of Mayor London Breed and SFMTA Chief Jeffrey Tumlin, the city in 2020 began adding the instant oatmeal version of bike lanes<\/a>; moving quickly with limited resources to build an imperfect but functional network. With new safe passages, I wrote about riding with my 86-year-old dad<\/a> to Golden Gate Park, including on a protected lane past my old apartment. (“Biking through the middle of San Francisco with an octogenarian is not something anyone would have tried five years ago, unless they were looking to collect an inheritance,” it started.)<\/p>\n But my day-to-day travels yielded stories as well. On a bike, moving slowly but deliberately, I see, hear, touch and smell things that drivers don’t. Yes, smell. One of my most read stories of 2021 occurred when I noticed the rotting scent of a corpse flower during a bike ride and wrote about someone who had brought one to an abandoned Alameda gas station<\/a>.<\/p>\n I’ve since strapped on Go Pros to share a harrowing two-wheeled shortcut through the Posey Tube<\/a>, joined a pastry-loving bicycling club’s ride to Twin Peaks<\/a> and pedaled to work with Giants broadcaster Dave Flemming<\/a> – who shared his own bike commuter-fueled San Francisco affirmations. (“I don’t think there’s a more beautiful place in the world.”)<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Culture Critic Peter Hartlaub measures the width of the bike and pedestrian path near the entrance of Posey Tube in Alameda. (Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle)<\/p>\n I’m struck not just by what I see in San Francisco, but how I feel about the city on a bicycle. Biking through the Tenderloin with my father, up close past community members in the throes of addiction, led to a nuanced discussion about the neighborhood’s inspiring roots<\/a> and San Francisco’s complicated history locating recovery facilities near the same corners where fentanyl sales flourish.<\/p>\n Biking through the city also leads to new friends, new communities. Nothing makes me feel more like a San Franciscan than seeing a Muni bus or cable car operator that I recognize. Nothing fills my cup faster than yelling a hearty “Good morning Val!” while passing Valerie Chieng’s flower stand on Market Street<\/a>, and hearing her yell my name back as I zip away.<\/p>\n I biked to assignments for five years for the old Total SF podcast<\/a>, where I’d still have a helmet on as columnist Heather Knight and I hit the record button. And when the podcast ended and Total SF became a newsletter<\/a>, I tripled down on biking and public transit. With just one or two exceptions, every under-the-radar downtown<\/a> and forgotten park<\/a> I’ve profiled the last two years has been explored by some combination of bike, bus, BART, train and ferries.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle culture critic Peter Hartlaub, left, and Giants broadcaster David Flemming bike down Columbus Avenue in 2025. Flemming has been commuting to Oracle Park by bicycle since 2020. (Peter Hartlaub\/The Chronicle)<\/p>\n Just getting on a bike in 2026 feels like a political act. The upcoming Prop G vote for the future of Sunset Dunes – keep our beautiful new oceanside park or turn it back into an expensive highway with reduced safety<\/a> – is the current fork in the road.<\/p>\n Ten years ago I was one of those Great Highway drivers. I’m always open to the opinions<\/a> of San Franciscans who need cars for accessibility. Having a foot in both worlds has turned me into a leap-of-faith believer in everyone benefiting from change. Make our streets safe enough for bikes, and you can have my parking spot – and the spots of my children, their friends who bike, and any reader who might be inspired enough by my writing to hop on a bike of their own.<\/p>\n I made a massive life change that felt like a leap into the void, and it has bettered me in ways I didn’t imagine. Sometimes bicycling seems like a political statement. Sometimes I still get scared riding city streets And yes, sometimes I wish I had my car.<\/p>\n But most days I just feel like saying “thank you.” I can’t think of a greater gift than a decade of Bay Area discovery in the open air.<\/p>\n Subscribe<\/p>\n There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25\u00a2.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Chronicle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/san_francisco_chronicle_hearst_178\/055cb5010445cd95beb45462ca579354.jpg\"\/)
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