Editing Palo Alto, California (section)

===Cycling===
[[File:Caltrain_bikes_palo_alto.jpg|thumb|Commuters at Palo Alto Station boarding [[Caltrain]]]]
Cycling is a popular mode of transportation in Palo Alto. 9.5% of residents bicycle to work,<ref name="US Census 2010-2012">[https://www.census.gov/acs/www/ "American Community Survey 2010 – 2012, Table S0801, ''Commuting Characteristics By Sex''"], U.S. Census Bureau.</ref> the highest percentage of any city in the [[San Francisco Bay Area|Bay Area]], and third highest in the United States, after [[Davis, California]] and [[Boulder, Colorado]]. Since 2003, Palo Alto has received a Bicycle Friendly Community status of "Gold" from the [[League of American Bicyclists]].

The city's flat terrain and many quiet tree-shaded residential streets offer comfort and safety to cyclists, and the temperate climate makes year-round cycling convenient. Palo Alto pioneered the [[bicycle boulevard]] concept in the early 1980s, enhancing residential Bryant Street to prioritize it for cyclists by removing stop signs, providing special traffic signals, and installing traffic diverters, and a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over Matadero Creek.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} However, busy arterial streets which often offer the fastest and most direct route to many destinations, are dangerous for cyclists due to high volumes of fast-moving traffic and the lack of bicycle lanes.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} El Camino Real, Alma Street, and Embarcadero and Middlefield roads, all identified as "high priorities" for adding bicycle lanes to improve safety by the [[2003 Palo Alto Bicycle Transportation Plan]], still contain no provisions for cyclists.

The Palo Alto Police Department decided to stop using [[tasers]] to detain bicyclists after a 2012 incident in which a 16-year-old boy, who had bicycled through a stop sign, was injured after police officers pursued him, fired a taser at him and suddenly braked their patrol car in front of him, causing the boy to crash.<ref>{{cite news|last=Green|first=Jason|title=Palo Alto: Police no longer using Tasers to stop fleeing cyclists|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_24875516/palo-alto-police-no-longer-using-tasers-stop|access-date=January 11, 2014|newspaper=San Jose Mercury News|date=January 9, 2014}}</ref>