Complete Streets
Livable City is working to ensure that city streets, which cover over 25% of San Francisco's land area, are designed and maintained as a safe and attractive public spaces that support walking, bicycling, and public transit.
Our current efforts are to improve the City's designs and standards to improve the appearance, safety and accessibility of city streets, protect neighborhoods from excessive traffic, and remove dangerous conditions for bicylists and pedestrians. Livable City supports streetscapes that integrate street trees and landscaping, energy- and resource-efficiency standards, and that minimize impermeable pavements to improve the livability of the city while reducing environmental impacts and infrastructure costs.
Livable City's complete streets campaign works at three scales: citywide, neighborhood, and individual projects. We are working citywide to improve streets standards, improve the effectiveness, responsiveness, and coordination of city departments, and increase funding opportunities for complete streets projects. At the neighborhood scale, we are working to empower every neighborhood to create its own complete streets plan, and to secure the funding and bureaucratic support to implement neighborhood plans that have already been completed. We are also engaged in innovative projects all over the city to create complete streets, and that demonstrate what is possible.
Citywide projects
Better Streets Plan
In 2006, Livable City led a coalition of transportation and public space advocates to insist that the city develop an integrated, multi-modal, multi-objective, and multi-agency approach to designing and planning San Francisco's streets. The result is the Better Streets Plan, a merger of sorts between the Planning Department's Streetscape Master Plan and the MTA's Pedestrian Master Plan.
In September Planning Department held two public meetings to present their draft street types. The street types are meant to be the template for future street improvements. Each street type has a set of basic improvements that will, hopefully, be standard elements on all streets of that type, as well as a menu of additional options that could be applied to individual streets.
Complete streets standards
Livable City will work to advance the inter-departmental effort to create a comprehensive set of complete streets standards. These standards should address all transportation modes and street types, and include environmental and aesthetic standards. The city's standards should include both minimum (least acceptable) and optimum (best possible) values.
Great transit streets
Livable City is working to make sure that the dozen or so corridors that comprise the city's rapid transit network, focus both on improving transit speed, reliablity, and accessibility, and on creating “great streets” that integrate pedestrian, bicycle, and streetscape elements with light rail and rapid bus projects.
Home zones
Home zones are residential streets that are designed around pedestrians and cyclists, and limit traffic to low speeds. Home zones are designed to allow everyone, including children and seniors, to move safely on foot and on bike
San Francisco's General Plan has a decades-old policy that designates most of the city's residential neighborhoods as "protected residential areas", yet has never prioritized making these home zones a reality. Livable City is working to create a process and standards for creating home zones, and getting the city to commit staff and resources to implementing them.
Neighborhood transportation plans
Livable City will work with the Planning Department to get the Mission Streetscape and Transportation Plan underway, Secure funding for a comprehensive Downtown and SoMa Transportation and Streetscape Plan, and to fund complete streets plans for other neighborhoods.
Citywide streets assessment
Livable City will work to secure funding for a citywide assessment of existing street conditions, and where they fall short of complete streets standards. This assessment can form the basis of a complete streets action plan to guide future years’ capital plans.
Complete streets demonstration projects
Livable City will continue to work with the Mayor’s Office of Urban Greening so that the $12 million in Caltrans funds are used to demonstrate complete streets of different types.
Address San Francisco's systemic street capital shortfall
Livable City is working to create a blue-ribbon committee, composed of representatives of users of the transportation system (pedestrians, transit riders, bicyclists, people with disabilities, etc), as well as neighborhood, civic, environmental, and urban greening and beautification groups and city staff, to recommend solutions to the city’s long-term capital funding shortfalls in the aftermath of the failure of Prop. B at the ballot box last fall. The committee’s recommendations should complete streets thinking into an approach to these infrastructure deficits that is equitable and both financially and ecologically sustainable.
Neighborhoods and individual projects
Market Street
Livable City is working with the SF Bicycle Coaltion implement multimodal improvements to Market Street identified in the SFCTA's Market Street Plan, including completion of the Market Street bike lanes.
Cargo Way Streetscape Project
Cargo Way is an industrial street in Hunters Point that serves as part of the Bay Trail and the city's Blue Greenway, as well as supporting the industrial and maritime uses in the area. Join the Redevelopment Agency and Port of San Francisco for a community workshop to discuss conceptual design alternatives for Cargo Way in the India Basin Industrial Park project area and help improve this important street for bicycling and all its uses.
The Cargo Way study completed two public workshops in November in February, and the report on the preferred alternative will be released this spring. Check out the Redevelopment Agency's India Basin Industrial Park web page for further information, or contact Kelley Kahn to get on the Cargo Way email list: Kelley.Kahn@sfgov.org.
Divisadero Street Greening and Traffic Study
The Department of Public Works (DPW) secured $3 million in Federal funding for greening and streetscaping Divisadero. DPW and MTA will present their findings and a block-by-block proposal for greening, streetscaping, and potential traffic and transit changes. See DPW's project page for more information.
Tenderloin
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority's Tenderloin/Little Saigon Community Transportation Study was adopted by the Transportation Authority commission. Livable City worked with Transportation Authority staff and attended community meetings throughout the planning process, which yielded a program of transportation and streetscape improvements for the neighborhood that included better lighting, safer sidewalks, slower traffic and more reliable transit. Unfortunately, some of the more provocative ideas, like converting some of the Tenderloin's unsafe streets from one-way traffic sewers to safer, calmer two-way streets or adding bicycle lanes, are relegated to further study, but the plan does document the community's strong desire for safe, well designed streets that make the neighborhood better for walking, cycling, and transit.
Two-way Ellis and Eddy streets
Ellis and Eddy streets are a one-way pair that serve as important east-west transit, pedestrian, and bicycle routes through the dense Tenderloin-Little Saigon neighborhood, and serve as a gateway to the Tenderloin from the Powell Street BART-Muni Station. The Tenderloin-Little Saigon Neighborhood Transportation Plan, adopted last year by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, recommended restoring two-way traffic on these streets, as well as making the streets more walkable, simplifying the twisting and confusing Muni routes, and adding bicycle lanes.
A resolution authored by Supervisor Chris Daly was approved by the board of Supervisors in Fall 2007. It calls for restoring two-way traffic on Ellis and Eddy and improving the important pedestrian crossing at Ellis and Cyril Magnin streets next to Powell Street Station. The resolution also tasks the MTA with creating a comprehensive plan for further improvements, including corner bulb-outs, landscaping and lighting, and better transit access. Livable City is working with City agencies and Tenderloin advocates to get the traffic changes enacted, and the next phases planned and funded.
Two-way 7th, McAllister, and Leavenworth
this proposal would allow the 5-Fulton Muni line to run both directions on McAllister, eliminating a hairpin turn at 8th and Market that adds about 3 minutes of delay to the route. This change will also link up two-way bicycle routes on Mc Allister, Market, and 7th streets. It will also allow wider sidewalks on Mc Allister and Charles Brenham (7th Street North), creating a more pleasant transit center and gateway to the neighborhood.
Lighting, street trees, and corner bulb outs
The Tenderloin and Little Saigon deserve complete streets, and the City agencies need to adopt standards and an implementation plan for making streets in the neighborhood safe and livable.
Better transit in the Tenderloin
Converting one-way streets to two-way streets allows transit routes to run on the same street in both directions, which makes transit lines more easily understood (legible), and allows streets to be optimized for transit operations, rather than for through traffic. Muni's Transit Effectiveness Project proposes some route changes that will take advantage of the proposed two-way streets in the Tenderloin and SoMa, and Livable City is supporting adoption of those route changes.
Complete Streets ideas and resources
"Intersection Repair" by Street Films
10 minute film, available online at the Street Films web site
City Repair in Portland, Oregon hosts an annual Village Building Convergence where hundreds of people come together to build diverse projects for the benefit of their communities and to take back their streets via a process known as the Intersection Repair.
Intersection Repair involves painting streets with a high-visiblity mural that creates a public square for residents to gather and one which gently encourages drivers to slow down when approaching these spaces. Over time the neighbors further enhance the transformation by adding amenities like benches, community bulletin boards, and introducing gardens & art. As you’ll see, the possibilites are endless.
Intersection Repair is the latest film by the amazing Clarence Eckerson for Street Films, which has created dozens of short films about making more livable cities.
The case for physically separated bike lanes
The amazing Clarence Eckerson of the Open Planning Project has created another short film, The Case for Physically Separated Bike Lanes, posted on New York's addictive (for us, anyhow) Streetsblog.
The film makes the case for physically separating bicycle lanes from traffic on New York's busy streets, where bike lanes are plagued with the same problems we have in San Francisco: intrusions by double parked and right-turning cars, with the same lax enforcement by the transportation department. The film features interviews with New York City cyclists and advocates, as well as Livable City heroes like former Bogota Mayor Enrique Penalosa, Danish urbanist Jan Gehl, and former New York City Deputy Transportation Commissioner "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz (would that we had traffic engineers like Gridlock Sam...)
Share or Segregate?
Are segregated bike lanes appropriate for every bike route? Possibly not. The detractors of separated lanes cite possible difficulties at intersections, where bicycles need to merge with right-turning traffic.
Another idea is that of shared space; creating narrow streets where cars move at slow speeds, and share the right-of-way with pedestrians and bicycles. The Dutch woonerf is one sort of shared street.
The video flashes an image from Transport for London's excellent Cycling Design Standards (image to the right). London's approach is to create segregated lanes on streets with high traffic volumes and speeds, but to calm lower-traffic streets to create shared spaces. To learn more about London's approach (including London's naked streets), come to Greening Europe's capitals here at Livable City's offices (see details above)
Lessons From New York: The Hudson River Greenway
The Hudson River Greenway, with its separated bicycle path and pedestrian promenade along the water's edge, is featured prominently in the film. The path attracts 5000 cyclists on an average day, and feels usable and safe for both experienced cyclists and inexperienced ones.
Last year, Clarence produced a 12-minute film called Lessons from San Francisco: The Embarcadero Freeway Removal. The film features Livable City's Tom Radulovich, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's Andy Thornley, and historian and activist Chris Carlsson, talking about the Embarcadero and Octavia Boulevard.
The Hudson River Greenway, with its bicycle and pedestrian paths and green piers, is a great model for San Francisco's Embarcadero. While the Hudson River Greenway could have benefitted from a waterfront streetcar line like the Embarcadero's F line, San Francisco would do well to create a separated bicycle path on the bay side of the Embarcadero like New York's.
Ongoing planning efforts
Mission-Geneva Transportation Study Community Workshop: on Saturday July 8, the Transportation Authority hosted the second of three community workshops on transportation in the Mission-Geneva area, where they reviewed proposed transportation solutions before a final plan is unveiled later this summer. For more information, call 415/585-0110 or cjohnston@bhnc.org, and visit the study website for more details and a project fact sheet.
24th Street BART Plazas: BART hosted a community design workshop on Thursday, June 15 to help shape the future of the plazas at the 24th Street BART Station. The meeting revisited the 2001 for the 24th Street plazas, reviewing lessons learned from the 16th Street improvements, and prioritizing the first improvements for 24th Street Station. BART's plans for the plazas and station can be found here. A grant application for a first phase of improvements was submitted based on the input from the workshop.
Mission Street (from Cesar Chavez to Randall) Transportation and Pedestrian Safety Workshop: Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center hosted a public workshop on transportation and Pedestrian safety on Saturday, July 15 as part of the Transportation Authority's Mission Street Community Vision project. The meeting will be held at the Bernal Gateway Apartments, 3101 Mission Street at Cesar Chavez. Visit the study website for more information.
Mint Plaza: Mint Plaza is a new downtown urban plaza, located on block of Jessie Street beside the Old Mint near 5th and Mission Streets. The Plaza, which opened in 2007, is being financed by an innovative special property tax which the Martin Building Company agreed to assess on their adjacent properties. to learn more about the project, check out the Mint Plaza website.
Balboa Park Station Area The Balboa Park Station Area Plan, created several years ago by the planning department, envisioned a revitalized and reconnected neighborhood centered on Balboa Park Station, where BART, Muni Metro, and Muni bus lines converge. The Planning department held a "check-in" meeting on July 24th to discuss the new public plaza at the Phelan Loop, near Phelan and Ocean; a residential and retail project on the Kragen Auto site on Ocean Avenue; an update on the Muni-led effort to redesign the Balboa Park BART/Muni station, and a review of new zoning, parking regulations, and design guidelines. Visit the plan website for more details.
Livable City-supported complete streets campaigns in neighborhoods
San Jose/Guerrero Coalition to Save Our Streets is a coalition dedicated to improving the San Jose/Guerrero Neighborhood. Livable City serves as fiscal sponsor to the coalition.
Better Valencia Project is a neighborhood effort dedicated to making San Francisco's Valencia Street a complete street. Livable City is actively involved in this neighborhood coalition.
RenewSF is a coalition of neighbors and businesses dedicated to improving San Francisco's Columbus Avenue. Livable City has provided technical and policy support, and helped publicize RenewSF events.
Leland Avenue: Livable City is participating in the community-driven effort make Leland Avenue, the main commercial street in San Francisco's Visitacion Valley neighborhood, into a complete street.
Past successes
Livable City worked hard to make 2006 the year of the Complete Street. Our goal is that, starting in the 2006-2007 budget year, that every street project in San Francisco is a complete streets project.
- Complete Streets Ordinance: In 2005, Livable City worked with Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi on a resolution in support of complete streets. later that year, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi authored the Complete Streets Ordinance [PDF version], which requires that street resurfacing projects be coordinated with bicycle, pedestrian, and transit improvements and upgrades. It gave city departments a year to develop a plan for implementing the ordinance, including development of new standards that address pedestrian, bicycle, and transit access and safety, as well as street lighting, landscaping, and street trees.
- Better Streets Ordinance: Livable City organized in support of the Supervisor McGoldrick's Better Streets Ordinance, which was adopted in February 2006. [PDF version] Together with Walk San Francisco and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Livable City worked with Supervisor McGoldrick to include provisions that expand public participation, ensure that faster and more complete implementation.
- Streetscape Master Plan and Pedestrian Master Plan: Livable City led a coalition of advocates to integrate the Planning Department's Streetscape Master Plan (SMP) with the Municipal Transportation Agency's Pedestrian Master Plan (PMP) into a multi-modal, multi-objective, multi-agency plan that will, as Planning Director Dean Macris said, "Reinvent the way San Francisco thinks about its streets". Thanks to our coalition's efforts, the new integrated planning process will be overseen by the Director's Working Group, a roundtable of the City's transportation department heads.
- Valencia Street: Livable City, as part of the Better Valencia Project, worked with neighbors, transportation advocates, and city agencies to develop a complete streets plan for Valencia Street, which will transform the street into a great walking and bicycling street. In June, the Department of Public Works team presented a design include much wider sidewalks, pedestrian bulb outs at the corners, a wider bike lane and parking lane, and landscaping, lighting, and street trees. (click here for a pdf version of the City's presentation). Livable City worked to secure funding for streetscape improvements between 15th and 19th streets, which will be built in conjunction with the reconstruction of Valencia Street in 2007.
- Support neighborhood-based complete streets projects: In 2006, Livable City supported community-based planning efforts on San Jose and Guerrero streets, Cesar Chavez, Valencia Street, Columbus Avenue, Leland Avenue, and other streets.
- Mint Plaza: Livable City helped secure official approval for Mint Plaza, a 250-foot long block of Jessie Street beside the Old Mint at 5th and Mission Streets that was transformed from a rutted alleyway into new pedestrian plaza. The project is sponsored by the Martin Building Company, and was funded will be built through an innovative public-private partnership. It is the first of what we hope will be many transformations of downtown streets into vital public spaces as envisioned in Livable City's Livable Downtown Initiative.
Future campaigns
Car-free Market Street: develop a proposal for closing the section between 3rd to 5th streets to cars.
Vision Boulevard: Extending Octavia Boulevard into South of Market and renaming Division and 13th Streets to "Vision Boulevard" would help revitalize the neighborhood and eliminate the Central Freeway.
The Vision Boulevard Project could increase the neighborhood tax base, allow for new land uses including housing, bring sunlight to the area and help many businesses.
Livable City supports Vision Boulevard, an extension of Octavia Boulevard across Market Street and through the North Mission/West SoMa neighborhood on the surface. Caltrans will have to close the Central Freeway in just ten years, when the deck of the metal bridge portion of the Central Freeway needs to be replaced. The Transportation Authority should study alternatives to a simple rebuilding of the overhead structure, so that we have an opportunity to restore the sunlight and vitality of the neighborhood we're enjoying in 2003-2004 while the overhead structure is gone.
For more information, see http://www.somawest.org/visionblvd