Not only does San Francisco offer bicyclists some of the most pristine conditions and opportunities to ride, but there is also a wealth of options to donate your bicycle should you upgrade your equipment or find yourself in a position where you’re not able to ride.
No matter what prompted your decision to donate your bicycle, there are a number of groups and areas that specialize in making the donation process easy and allow for your donated bicycle or equipment to both help the environment and let others enjoy all the positives that bicycling in San Francisco has to offer.
San Francisco Bay Area Bike Statistics
Biking in the San Francisco area is not only an effective way to get around, but it’s also extremely popular. According to data from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) found that there are nearly 4.6 million bicycles in the city, and the area offers a network of over 463 million total miles of bike paths and trails to use.
Obviously, with so many bicycles in the city, the opportunity for donation is ripe.
Why Do I Need To Donate My Bicycle?
While your old bicycle or its equipment can seem like clutter, the fact is that a bicycle can be an important resource for people that want to commute through their neighborhood more quickly or simply to provide a more reliable form of transportation. Whether your bicycle was used for more strenuous exercise like trail riding or distance cycling to keep your cardio up, donating your old bike and its equipment can have a variety of different byproducts:
- Helping people attend necessary doctor’s appointments.
- Giving children a ride to school or other commitments.
- Becoming an excellent gift for a child’s birthday.
- Raising money for charity donations by being sold at auctions.
- Giving people reliable transportation to jobs or job interviews.
Once you have made the decision to donate your bicycle in San Francisco, the next step is figuring out where you can actually donate. The city has several options to do this, with some even providing free pickups to go along with on-site donations.
Where To Donate a Bicycle in San Francisco
Making sure your old bicycle meets certain requirements is the first step in the donation process, but past that, there are several organizations throughout the city that will accept and even fix up your old bicycle.
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) is one of the oldest bicycle advocacy organizations in the nation, founded in 1971. The SFBC was formed by a group of activists and community leaders with the goal of building San Francisco into a more bike-friendly city. The SFBC not only provides opportunities to donate bicycles and other related equipment, but it also provides educational resources for safe bicycle use and events that help the organization raise funds and drive more membership. The SFBC’s Bike It Forward Program accepts donations of old bikes and gear, then distributes them free of charge. To set up a donation, complete the following SFBC form.
The Bike Kitchen
Founded in 2003, The Bike Kitchen is a non-profit organization that is run solely by volunteers. These volunteers are made up of riders and mechanics that provide all the tools to fix up or prepare a donated bicycle so that it can be used effectively by the next rider at an extremely low cost. Access to the organization comes via either a $6 per day charge, a sliding scale membership fee of $50 to $100, or six hours of volunteer time. As a non-profit, all donations made to The Bike Kitchen are tax-deductible. Donations can be made at the organization’s headquarters located at 605H Florida Street in San Francisco.
Columbus Cyclery
Columbus Cyclery bike shop, located at 2011 Mason Street, offers the biggest inventory of new and used bikes in the city. The store has partnered with Street Soccer USA to process its donations program. Columbus Cyclery provides a 15-week Mechanic Training program to teach the basics of maintaining and repairing donated bicycles. Donations can be made seven days a week between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM, so long as the bike is in good or repairable condition. The program cannot accept bikes that are severely:
- Rusted
- Damaged
- Irreparable
In addition to these programs, there are opportunities to donate old bikes and gear at one of the city’s numerous thrift stores, missions, or other community-related programs. Making a donation of a bicycle or gear to any of these organizations is a great way to not only provide some much-needed equipment but to contribute to the community at large.
Consult With Dedicated San Francisco Bicycle Accident Lawyers
By making a donation of your old bicycle or equipment, you are taking a step to provide another person with the opportunity to ride through our beautiful city. But the reality is that anytime you or another person gets on a bicycle, the possibility exists that there could be an accident that causes injuries.
At that point, working with our team at the Law Offices of Matthew J. Quinlan can help you recover damages. We know how unfortunate being injured in a bicycle accident can be. If you or a loved one have been injured in a San Francisco bicycle accident, contact us today for a free consultation.
