BAY AREA BARGAIN : SAN FRANCISCO WEIGHS `FREE BIKE' SYSTEM FOR COMMUTERS TO GET AROUND CITY.

Byline: Diego Bunuel San Francisco Examiner 

The concept emerged on the streets of Amsterdam 40 years ago: free bicycles for commuters. Now some bicycle enthusiasts in city government think the program is worth trying in San Francisco.

There would be no memberships or security deposits, just yellow bicycles at racks, fresh air and a community sharing an environmentally friendly way to get around.

``I saw the yellow bikes in Portland on TV and I thought to myself, `If it worked there, it sure can work here,' '' said Sharon Bretz, vice president of the San Francisco Transit Commission, who is pushing the idea. ``If someone needs a bike, they just have to grab one and ride it to another bike rack and drop it off.''

Portland, Ore., Fresno and Tucson are among 25 cities across the country where free bikes are available to any commuter who wants one.

In San Francisco, a Yellow Bike Program would be part of Mayor Willie Brown Jr.'s car-pool plan to reduce commuter traffic, Bretz said. Once under way, she expects that the first bike racks ``would be located near motor pool parkings and then in front of museums, libraries and factories.''

But the proposal is only in the talking stage.

``We are contacting other cities to find out how they have managed their programs,'' said Peter Tannen, bicycle program manager for the Department of Public Transportation.

Free bikes might be introduced to city employees first as a pilot project, he said, while other details are worked out.

The free bike program in Portland has been a well-publicized success with more than 700 bikes on the streets. That city, like others, has experienced some thefts, but doesn't seem to mind.

``We recycle bikes from scrap yards and don't claim ownership - they are for the community,'' said Tom O'Keefe, founder of Portland's Yellow Bike Program. ``It's true that some are stolen, but they are put out there to be used.''

O'Keefe has 300 more bikes in a warehouse and gets 60 a month from scrap yards.

``Our bikes are low budget ones reduced to one speed,'' he said. ``Everyone uses them, from students riding to school to businessmen out for lunch. I even have people calling us to keep the bike for a few months, and that's what they are for.''

In Tucson, though, most of the bikes were stolen or vandalized within a few months.

``We put about 100 bikes out and they all disappeared,'' said Kim Young of Bicycle Intercommunity Action and Salvage (BICAS), a Tucson organization that made the bikes available to the public.

The concept is popular with the media and has a symbolic value, she said, but ``the truth is that it did not work.''

Instead of having free bikes, Young said, there should be a bike library where people could check one out and be responsible for returning it.

``(Tucson) City Hall heard about what was going on in Portland and decided to do the same thing,'' she said. ``It's terrible to see them all disappear.''

To prevent the theft of bicycles in San Francisco, Bretz is considering using high-tech tracking devices.

``We are thinking of asking (Microsoft's) Bill Gates to provide us with microchips that could be placed on bikes so that we could track them down,'' she said.

There are already 10,000 people who ride bikes to work in the city, said Bretz, who often commutes by bike. About 1,000 bikes would be needed to make the program work. In anticipation of having more bicycles on the streets, she said San Francisco will be increasing the number of bike lanes in the next couple of years.

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Photo: Sharon Bretz of the Transit Commission favors a `fre e bike'' program.

Associated Press