Abdallah Abou-Ismail starts his day with a 14-mile electric bike ride down Middlefield Road to his job at Stanford Shopping Center and an extra $5 in his pocket.

Abou-Ismail, a Redwood Shores resident, is a user of Bike Love, an app the city of Palo Alto launched in 2022 that tracks traditional bike, e-bike, e-scooter and e-skateboard commutes and rewards them with cash to spend at local businesses. It’s one of the ways the city, just about 34 miles south of San Francisco and a neighbor to Stanford University, is gamifying the carless commute to minimize carbon footprints and reduce road congestion. 

“My energy levels are up,” said Abou-Ismail, a Neiman Marcus salesperson, in a phone call with SFGATE. He dines at nearby Zareen’s on California Avenue with his bike earnings. “I don’t need to worry about whether I’m walking or running enough. I feel a lot more sharp and fully awake.”

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In 2025, Palo Alto Transportation Management Association programs reduced demand for 482 parking spaces around town, and led to roughly 2.9 million fewer vehicle miles traveled and 1,152 fewer tons of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the organization. PATMA also provides free transit passes, refurbished bikes and an after-hour Lyft ride service to people who work or live in the city and make less than $111,700 per year. 

Billy Riggs, a University of San Francisco professor who studies transportation innovation, said programs like Bike Love are effective in changing commuting habits, but they’re difficult to fund. One city that’s figured it out is Healdsburg, which provides a $400 rebate to residents to purchase e-bikes.

FILE: Spring arrives early in Northern California’s Wine Country, allowing cyclists to take to the backroads on March 8, 2014, in Healdsburg, Calif.

The state has tried to step in to encourage replacing car trips with e-biking. The California Air Resources Board distributed 2,246 e-bike vouchers (worth up to $2,000) to low-income residents from 2022 to December 2025. But the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the initiative was plagued by website glitches and cut short when $18 million of the budget was redirected to electric car trade-ins.

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Don't let Google decide who you trust.

At the same time, many people do not feel safe biking along the Peninsula’s main thoroughfares. There have been several instances on the Peninsula of drivers running over and killing pedestrians and cyclists. Other locals have stated that bikers don’t belong on busy roads like El Camino Real.

Four people died on e-bikes or traditional bicycles in San Mateo County in 2023, according to federal statistics, and Santa Clara County ranked fifth statewide for the most serious injuries in bicycle accidents, with 66 in 2023, according to a 2025 report.

These statistics don’t offer a holistic view of bike safety because they don’t tend to include records of bicycle accident near-misses, a 2023 grand jury report pointed out, but it’s clear that improving bike safety needs to become a priority for officials trying to make their cities less auto-centric

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Cities efforts to improve bike safety

Some places are already making great headway.

In Belmont, leaders are pushing for bike lanes on the state’s first highway, El Camino Real, as part of San Mateo County’s Grand Boulevard Initiative to modernize the 25-mile stretch of the roadway that runs throughout the county. El Camino was deemed the deadliest road in the Bay Area, with 71 deaths in San Mateo County and 58 in Santa Clara County from 2002 to 2022.

FILE: Buildings in downtown Belmont, Calif.

After hot debate in San Mateo, controversial bike lanes, which some residents wanted removed for more parking, are staying — for now — on Humboldt Street. One council member floated the idea of making it a one-way street, but some residents think this is just kicking the can down the road, according to a San Mateo Daily Journal article.

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U.S. Rep Kevin Mullin secured $850,000 to help build a two-way bicycle path on Huntington Avenue in San Bruno, and another $500,000 to fund a 12-foot-wide pedestrian and bicycle path on the Holly Street and U.S. Highway 101 overpass in San Carlos. This summer, the city of Menlo Park plans to add a new bike lane on Pierce Road in lieu of shared bicycle markings and build buffered bike lanes on Bay Road.  

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Max Mautner, a leader of Move San Mateo, said he believes that infrastructure changes, like speed bumps and flashing lights, disproportionately help keep bikers and pedestrians safer. Projects like this are hard to fund though, he noted in an interview with SFGATE in August 2025.

Incentive programs like Palo Alto’s are also effective, but require cities to form transportation management associations to implement them, said PATMA Executive Director Justine Burt. Their biggest barrier is financing, she said. 

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“I’m personally a fan of ‘feebates,’ which is where you put a fee on the behavior,” she said in a phone call with SFGATE. Feebates can be metered parking or charging for parking permits.

FILE: North of Hillsdale Junction in San Mateo, Calif.

“You’re trying to discourage people from driving, and using those funds to subsidize low-wage workers who are willing to leave their car at home if you’re going to buy them a bus pass or a bike,” Burt said.

Redwood City officials are in the midst of forming a transportation management association but, in the meantime, have launched a two-year pilot to test several transportation management association-style programs, including e-bike leasing, according to Nick Mathiowdis, the city’s communications manager. 

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There are more far-flung ideas.

USF’s Riggs envisions Bay Area cities mimicking those in the Netherlands — where streets are slow, sustainable and safe. This might look like the pedestrian mall on downtown San Mateo’s B Street, which is permanently car-free and includes a colorfully painted walkway and furniture for dining. The area has seen an increase in foot traffic because of the closure, reports show. 

“I think it’s not just about pursuing cycling and walking; it’s about connecting more people with transit,” he said in a phone call with SFGATE, referring to the so-called “last mile” of commuting. “It’s giving people more options. … Sometimes that actually involves new forms of transportation, like there’s been some experiments with connecting people to transit via rideshare, via autonomous vehicle, via shuttle.”

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