The Wiggle

37°46′18″N 122°26′01″W / 37.77164°N 122.43357°W / 37.77164; -122.43357

Map
The path of The Wiggle
The Wiggle's city-installed route sign on Haight Street.

The Wiggle is a 1-mile (1.6 km) zig-zagging bicycle route from Market Street to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, that minimizes hilly inclines for bicycle riders. Rising 120 feet (37 m), The Wiggle inclines average 3% and never exceed 6%. The path generally follows the historical route of the long since paved-over Sans Souci Valley watercourse, winding through the Lower Haight neighborhood toward the Panhandle section of Golden Gate Park.[1]

City route signs are posted visible to riders heading up or downhill. One downhill rider, pictured, is turning south on Pierce Street from the eastbound direction of Haight Street.

The lower end of the route begins at either end of the Duboce Bikeway in the block of Duboce Avenue just west of Market Street. The elevation is approximately 100 feet (30 m) above sea level. It then moves in a zig-zag toward the northwest along Duboce Avenue, Steiner, Waller, Pierce, Haight, Scott, and Fell Streets to the Panhandle Bikeway, 215 feet (66 m) above sea level. After climbing 50 more feet, the peak of The Wiggle is reached near Stanyan Street at the peninsular drainage divide, i.e., the dividing point between surface water flowing to the San Francisco Bay on the east side and flowing to the Pacific Ocean on the west.[2]

Bicyclists can travel The Wiggle between major eastern and central neighborhoods (such as Downtown, SoMa, The Mission District, The Castro) and major western neighborhoods (including the Panhandle, Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park,[3] and The Richmond and Sunset Districts).

  1. ^ In 1994, Tubular Times printed an article on The Wiggle
  2. ^ Map of The Wiggle (with terrain and elevation contour lines at 40-foot intervals) in Google Maps [1]
  3. ^ MapMyRide charted popular route to the De Young Museum of Art in Golden Gate Park from near Market Street [2]