Women Bike SF: Mary Kay Chin

I know, I know: We just told you how wonderful Mary Kay Chin is. Let’s face it, though, that one blog post is hardly enough to capture Mary Kay’s levels of awesomeness.

In case you missed it, Mary Kay is a co-founder of the San Francisco Yellow Bike Project, a grassroots, pop-up, do-it-yourself community-building machine that empowers people who might not be able to afford a bike otherwise to rebuild one that just needs a little love. SF Yellow Bike is a key partner in our Bike it Forward programs, and they’ve salvaged hundreds of bikes since setting up shop in 2011.

For her commitment to making biking more accessible in San Francisco, we awarded Mary Kay Chin a 2015 Golden Wheel Award this summer. Mary Kay’s commitment also extends to making biking more comfortable for women, trans* and female-identified people, which is why she is joining us for the first anniversary celebration of our Women Bike SF program.

“Organizing women around biking is important because there are so many barriers to access,” Mary Kay told us. “One just needs to look at the cycling news in the media to see that women are grossly misrepresented, objectified or entirely absent.”

Mary Kay Chin, community organizer and San Francisco native.

Besides co-founding the SF Yellow Bike Project, Mary Kay’s also taken on a variety of leadership roles in making space for people who bike in San Francisco. From volunteering with our Bicycle Valet program, to co-founding the SF Bike Party group, bikes are part of nearly every facet of Mary Kay’s life.

“Because of my connections to the biking community, I’ve met some of the fiercest women role models, developed lifelong friendships, met the love of my life, participated in community-changing, worldwide bike movements, aided in advocating for more bike lanes, established a nonprofit dedicated to educating and connecting people to bikes, and engaged with this city in ways I would have never imagined,” Mary Kay said.

For more from Mary Kay, as well as her co-panelists Vanessa Christie of Timbuk2 and Supervisor Jane Kim, please join us Thursday, Oct. 22 to celebrate the first anniversary of our Women Bike SF program.

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