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McDowell Street starts at the Aquatic Park breakwater & follows the shoreline toward Fort Mason. Before long, it becomes a default walking path under the shade of tall trees. It heads up a short, steep hill to climb up to a grassy park above the Fort where you can lay in the sun & watch the sailboats at the marina below.

Once you reach Fisherman's Wharf &--following the shoreline--wander off the traveling party that is the Embarcadero, you are on Jefferson Street.

Walk past the bubbling crab pots [or don't!], buy a t-shirt at one of the many souvenir shops, then continue on down to the street's end at Aquatic Park. There's a beach here, with swimmers training for the "Escape from Alcatraz" or taking dive training.

From here, it's a short hop to Ghirardelli Square or Fort Mason. If you're on a bike, head over to Crissy Field or the Golden Gate Bridge with all the folks who rented bicycles at Fisherman's Wharf.

Like most, or all, older American cities, San Francisco neighborhoods developed along cultural lines. North Beach is the Italian neighborhood & Columbus Avenue is the heart of it. Threatened with extinction in the past as Italians mainstreamed into American culture & Chinatown expanded, North Beach is now more of an attraction than an ethnic neighborhood.

Packed with great restaurants & cafes, you'll also pass historically significant sites like Washington Square. The street has a pleasant walking scale but also offers great biking: you can rent one at several shops along the way.

Columbus runs arrow straight & obliquely across the regular square grid of the San Francisco street plan, carrying cable cars directly across the city. For some reason, this angle seems to open up the rigid grid, making you feel like you are seeing more of the city.

Throw your bike on BART & head down-peninsula to Daly City. From here, work your way over to Skyline Drive & pedal through pleasant residential areas, parks along the beach, past Lake Merced & the San Francisco Zoological Gardens, then join up with the pathway that parallels the Great Highway.

You can keep going on pathways & residential streets to reach the Golden Gate Bridge & beyond.

The Presidio is a vast, undeveloped military complex-turned urban parkway, and Lincoln Blvd. winds right through the middle of it. While Lincoln is the main automobile artery & can get quite busy, the side streets in the Presidio tend to be quiet & shady for excellent biking & walking.

You can pedal from here to the West Peninsula beaches, Palace of Fine Arts, the Golden Gate Bridge & beyond.

The Great Highway is aptly named. Running along the west side of the peninsula, right next to the Pacific Ocean, it provides a real California beach experience that feels oddly out of character with the urbane city life just blocks away in downtown San Francisco. This is the local place to go toss a frisbee, lay in the sun or surf a beach break.

Ride your bike along the parallel pathway linking Golden Gate Park with Lincoln Park, then thread your way along the non-motorized paths & quiet residential streets past China & Baker Beaches into the vast Presidio, then on to Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Field , Fort Mason & the Embarcadero.

Market Street begins at the Bay Bridge. Hop off BART & you are in the heart of the financial district & the most striking of San Francisco's skyscraper architecture--look for the eerie, draped human figures at the top of one of them.

From here, you can turn onto the Embarcadero along the waterfront for a great pedestrian/bike experience. Or thread your bike through the suits, bike messengers, taxis & trains to head up Market into the city as it gradually transitions into the smaller scale, great restaurants & diametrically opposed vibe of the Castro District.

Highway 101 crosses the Golden Gate to reach San Francisco. In the city proper, the 101 becomes Lombard Street, a classic San Francisco hilly street, with Victorian row houses, views of landmarks like Coit Tower & the Transamerica Pyramid & that infamous steep, twisty section that tests bikers legs.

Lombard is like an aorta that connects you to the rest of the city & its fantastic restaurants, attractions, waterfront. Bring a bike & strong legs to really appreciate it.

Highway 101 is a famous American road-trip highway that is perhaps at it's best where it passes through San Francisco. Crossing over the Golden Gate Bridge, it offers both pedestrian & bicycle access to this stunning orange icon. With it's lovely parks, attractions, nearby restaurants & Olympian scale, the bicycle is definitely the best way to see this stretch of road.

On the bridge itself, prepare for wonderful views & often a transition from fog to sun. You may even be treated to a mainstay of San Francisco culture in the form of a costumed protest gathering.

To the north, the route continues on to the fishing village turned tourist haven of Sausalito where you can catch a ferry back to the city if your biking legs are shot.

The Embarcadero shows just how successful urban design can be when you plan for people, not cars. It demonstrates how a city becomes truly great. Amazingly, this waterfront used to be a freeway, but now is a surface street with broad pedestrian & gathering areas on both sides. So wide, in fact, that there's room for walkers, skaters, fishermen, street fairs, baby strollers & bicycles without having to duke it out with the cars.

The really great thing is how this street now connects people to the history of the city & draws them to the waterside as the piers are being renovated into businesses, parks & museums. You can use the broader public transit system to connect to the Embarcadero via BART or the famous cable cars. A bicycle is the perfect way to visit this street, since the scale is quite large & well-connected to the rest of the city. You can rent bikes along the way.

The street runs most of the way between the Bay Bridge & Aquatic Park. You can connect with other waterfront streets to continue on through Fort Mason & Crissy Field out to the Golden Gate Bridge & beyond, which many bicyclists do. Along the way, you pass by the tourist meccas of Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39, as well as lesser known attractions like the Ferry Building & Pier 45.