Drivers, bikers, and pedestrians: hold onto your hats. In October 2019, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board came to a unanimous decision to ban private cars on Market Street which will start on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 (with goals of completion by 2025). Not that anyone in SF really drives, but this is big news.
Via Picjumbo
Via Better Market Street
Brian Wiedenmeier, executive director of SF Bicycle Coalition, told San Francisco Chronicle, “Market Street is by design our central boulevard, and it could be... a street that reflects the best of our values: community justice, sustainability, elevating people and their daily experience above cars getting someplace quickly." With the wild amount of growth in the Bay Area over the past few years, this plan is striving to create better conditions for this expanding community while preserving the SF culture.
Market Street's new infrastructure, Better Market Street Project, aims to create a safer environment for the half-million individuals who take SF's busiest artery on the daily. This $604 million dollar project will extend from 5th to 8th Streets as well as the entire path from Octavia Boulevard to Steuart Street. Once construction is underway, drivers will need to cross Market Street at intersections and risk a moving violation should they find themselves on Market.
While construction is underway, SFMTA's Quick Build program has prepared to implement pedestrian and bicycle safety precautions to keep the streets moving at a safe pace. In hopes of creating a protected environment, there will be 100 new cross-street passenger and commercial loading zones to accommodate safe loading, as well as peak hour loading restrictions on Market Street to reduce conflicts between people on bicycles, transit, and commercial vehicles.
If you usually drive on Market Street, you can find what your new commute is going to look like here, see how your commute will be effected using the interactive map. Also, you can see the Muni route changes here.
Traffic changes beginning as part of Quick-Build on January 29:
Via sfmta
What does it mean once it's done? For bikers and pedestrians, it means fewer traffic collisions and traffic jams, safer biking paths, on-time public transportation schedules (a foreign concept, we know), and a much easier way for everyone to travel in between neighborhoods
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And because Uber and Lyfts are private vehicles, we can't say what it means for those drivers making their way through the city. Also, the ban doesn't apply to taxis since they're public vehicles, so you can still get legally drunk in them while rolling down Market on your way to the bar, they just can't cross into the car-free areas in Market Street.
Written by Janellah Zamora
