THERE ARE FEW things better than riding a bike: breeze in your face, legs pushing languidly, mastering physics to balance, miraculously, on just two wheels. So it’s a shame that the bicycle is caught in the messy world of San Francisco politics, complete with interagency grousing, rivalry between billion-dollar public companies, and plenty of official letterhead.
The dispute, while in many ways particular to the Bay Area, could push cities to change how they think about dealing—and contracting—with the new breed of bicycle- and scooter-share companies seeking access to public sidewalks. For advocates prodding cities to promote cleaner transport options like bicycles, scooters, and public transit, it’s a reminder that their values don’t always align with those of the private companies with which they’ve sometimes allied.
