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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

November/December 2006

Merit Awards:
Peter Tannen: Right Person at the Right Time

Tannen
Peter Tannen stands near one of San Francisco’s many bicycle lanes that he helped create as the city’s first Bicycle Program manager. (Photo: Noah Berger)

When Peter Tannen was hired in 1992 as San Francisco’s first Bicycle Program manager, the city had about two miles of unconnected bike lanes and no overall bicycle plan or network. By the time he retired in early 2006, San Francisco could boast 43 miles of bike lanes, a 200-mile bike route network, some 3,000 bike route signs and 1,500 bike racks for over 3,000 bicycles. The number of city commute bicyclists had more than doubled, while the number of injury and fatality bicycle collisions in the city decreased about 30 percent. “I would say the improvement is quan- tum,” said Bond Yee, executive director of the city’s Department of Parking and Traffic.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, San Francisco has the highest percentage of commuters who bike to work in cities between 500,000 and 1 million residents, including such bicycle-friendly cities as Seattle and Portland, Ore.

If ever there were a right person at the right time for a job, it’s Peter Tannen, a transportation planner and lifetime cyclist who pedaled across the United States, has biked to work since the 1970s, regularly rides 60 miles on weekends and does not own a car.

When he began the job, the city had a very small budget and no staff for the bicycle program. “I realized I couldn’t do much with the small amount of money,” he said. “So I spent time applying for grants to fund projects and build up staff.” He also supervised development of the city’s first bicycle plan.

As he routinely bicycled around San Francisco, Peter noticed that many catch basin drain grates were oriented in the wrong direction for bicyclists. So he secured a grant to replace them. In order to locate and mark all these grates on a map, he also began his own campaign to bicycle every street in San Francisco. “It took a couple of years to do it,” he said, “but I saw parts of the city I had never seen before.”

Peter credits the Board of Supervisors, the city’s Department of Parking and Traffic, the San Francisco Bicycle Advisory Committee and Bicycle Coalition, and Bicycle Program staff (which now number seven) with moving the city’s bicycle program to where it is today. “Everyone has been very supportive,” he said.

Although he’s retired, Peter has not given up bicycle advocacy. “I would like to see more bicyclists in San Francisco and more bike lanes,” he said. “While there is greater awareness of bicyclists in the city, I hope to see more acceptance of bicycling as a transportation mode because it’s much more convenient and economical than driving.”

When he’s not bicycling around the city or up to the top of Twin Peaks, Peter spends time planning his next vacation — a bicycle trip through the Canadian Rockies.
— Marjorie Blackwell

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