What’s new on the west side?

What’s new on the west side?
By Andrea Buffa

The west side of San Francisco is home to some of San Francisco’s most beloved recreational destinations — Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, Lake Merced, Fort Funston and Ocean Beach, among others. But many of these natural attractions — and others like Mt. Sutro and Twin Peaks — are also geographic barriers that can make travel to and from the west side of the city more difficult.

This may be one reason why three out of four people traveling within, to or from the west side do so by personal car. It’s also why we need to make sure there are more safe, reliable and affordable transportation options between west side neighborhoods and other citywide destinations.

This month we released an interactive website, San Francisco’s West Side on the Move, describing local experiences, transportation challenges and solutions in neighborhoods from the Richmond and the Sunset to Lake Merced, Parkside and West Portal. The website pulls together our latest efforts to make it safer and more convenient for people on the west side to get where they need to go. Our goal is for people who want to take Muni to have reliable and frequent service; for those who want to walk or bike to have safe streets; and for people who drive to face less congestion.

Beyond the geographic barriers that impede west side travel, other transportation challenges on the west side include street closures caused by construction projects and frequent closure of the Great Highway for sand removal. Street transformations that began during the pandemic, like Slow Streets and the closure of some roads in Golden Gate Park to cars, also altered some residents' trip patterns. We've been listening to and collaborating with community members on the west side about how to better address these challenges and meet their needs as well.

San Francisco’s West Side on the Move describes the solutions we’ve implemented or plan to implement soon on the west side. Our Transit team has already made major strides in improving west side Muni lines like the 38 Geary and 5R Fulton Rapid using tools like red transit lanes, bus bulbs and smart traffic signals. Travel times on the 38 Geary are up to 20% faster than they were previously, and travel times on the 5R Fulton Rapid are up to 12% faster. We’ve also improved travel times on the 1 California and the N Judah.

While the L Taraval Improvement Project is still in construction, it has already delivered important safety benefits. On the completed section of the L Taraval, which finished on time and on budget, pedestrian injuries decreased by 60%. Improvements like this are vitally important in all San Francisco communities, and especially so in this part of the city which is home to so many older adults and families with small children.

When it comes to reducing congestion, we are adjusting signal timing to keep up with changing traffic patterns, adding turn lanes and restrictions in key locations and providing more loading zones in commercial areas to reduce double-parking. We also monitor the network for opportunities to improve bottlenecks, such as the recently re-opened MLK Drive between Chain of Lakes Drive and Sunset Boulevard.

To slow down traffic on residential streets and make walking and bicycling safer and more enjoyable, we’re using traffic calming tools like speed bumps to slow vehicle speeds. In 2021, the SFTMTA invested in a comprehensive package of traffic calming measures in the Outer Sunset to address local concerns. Monitoring indicates that traffic speed and volume was reduced, which ideally creates safer conditions for all road users.

While the Slow Streets program has provided valuable, safe routes for people who walk, bike and roll, we've heard from residents that they're not working well for every community, particularly the Sunset. There, the Sunset Neighborways program is replacing Slow Streets to create a network of safe streets for active transportation. The emphasis of Sunset Neighborways will be on slowing down traffic to improve safety, rather than restricting it. In the Richmond, Anza Street is a key corridor for biking and active transportation, and in response to community requests for a better east-west bike route through the neighborhood, we added bike lanes and safety improvements like speed cushions to slow traffic and create a street that can be easily and safely shared by cyclists and drivers.

By releasing San Francisco’s West Side on the Move, the SFMTA hopes to deepen its dialogue with west side community members about what’s working well and what can be improved when it comes to keeping the west side moving. Please share your ideas by emailing WestsideProjects@SFMTA.com

Should we say how important the decrease in pedestrian injuries is so significant given how many seniors and families with small kids live in the area?

Published October 29, 2022 at 02:49AM
https://ift.tt/F6qJ5eH

Comments

New top story from Time: Sunisa Lee’s Incredible Journey to a Historic Olympic Gymnastics All-Around Gold Medal

https://ift.tt/3zRsjGq The women’s gymnastics all-around final at the Tokyo Olympics was the coronation everyone expected it to be. Only the star was different. After Simone Biles withdrew from the competition to prioritize her mental well-being, American Sunisa Lee stepped into the gaping void left by her iconic teammate and stepped up to win her first gold medal and Team USA’s fifth straight in the event. With a steely calm, the 18-year-old Minnesotan leaned on her consistent execution and a spectacular uneven bars routine—the hardest of any gymnast competing—to triumph in a competition that until days before had seemed a foregone conclusion. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The absence of the defending gold medalist opened the door for the rest of the field, including Americans Lee and Jade Carey, who replaced Biles . “We were all coming in to compete for second place,” said Lee. “I just had to switch gears. I feel like the whole season I was second to her, so when th...

Enhancing Safety on Franklin Street

Enhancing Safety on Franklin Street By Mark Dreger We're excited to share an update on the Franklin Street Quick-Build Project, an effort to enhance traffic safety on Franklin Street between Broadway and Lombard Streets. This roadway stretch was the site of 38 collisions between 2017 and 2021, including the tragic loss of a Sherman Elementary School paraeducator in November 2021. Our data-driven approach focuses on several key safety improvements, and we are ready to share the evaluation results and the next steps to bring further safety changes to Franklin Street. The project includes the implementation of a suite of safety measures focused on the intersections where neighborhood stakeholders expressed most concerns during the outreach process. Painted safety zones (PSZs) have been installed to increase pedestrian visibility at crosswalks by keeping the corners of intersections clear. Slow-turn wedges have been added to encourage drivers to turn at safer speeds...

As the city gradually reopens, mechanical street sweeping enforcement is set to resume

As the city gradually reopens, mechanical street sweeping enforcement is set to resume By Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) today announced that the City will resume enforcement for parking violations related to street sweeping beginning on Monday, June 15. Mayor Breed had announced on March 17 that SFMTA would not ticket for street sweeping following the Stay Home Order for COVID-19 in order to allow people to stay home without worrying about receiving a parking ticket. While the City had still encouraged people to move their vehicles if they could, street sweeping crews from San Francisco Public Works continue to see a large number of vehicles failing to do so, as many as 18,000 per day. Resuming enforcement for mechanical street sweeping is necessary to ensure that streets remain clean as the City begins to allow more businesses and activities to resume. “At the beginning of the Stay Home Order we wanted to ensure that people wh...

Gene Henderson: Honoring Muni’s First Black Division Manager

Gene Henderson: Honoring Muni’s First Black Division Manager By Jeremy Menzies In recognition of Black History Month, we bring you the story of Gene Henderson, the first Black man to become the head of a Muni bus division, Muni’s Kirkland Division. Henderson’s Background Gene Henderson was born in Houston, Texas, in 1916. He married his wife Naomi in 1939 and then served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Following the war, Gene and his family moved to San Francisco where he began his career at the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Early Career On February 1, 1946, Henderson was hired as a streetcar motorman out of Sutro Division, which was located on the corner of 32nd Ave. and Clement St. He was hired just five years after Muni’s first Black transit operator, Audley Cole, had successfully fought to integrate the carmen’s union in 1941. In his early days at Muni, Gene worked one of the three lines running out of Sutro Division from the Ferry Building to the Richmond District o...

New top story from Time: Who’s Ariarne Titmus? The Australian Swimmer’s Rivalry With Katie Ledecky Has Captivated Olympics Fans

https://ift.tt/3fdGe1v Before this week, many people knew Katie Ledecky as one of the most dominant names in swimming for the last decade. So they might have been surprised by the success of Australia’s 20-year-old Ariarne Titmus during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, who has now bested Ledecky twice to snatch gold medals. In Tokyo, Titmus’ rivalry with Ledecky has been one of the most captivating parts of the Tokyo swimming program. The rivalry between the two star swimmers dates back to the 2019 world championship, when Titmus became the first woman to beat Ledecky at the international level. They’ll have one more chance to race in Tokyo, this time in the 800-m freestyle on July 31. She isn’t the favorite this time, however. Ledecky is undefeated in the 800 m, holding the fastest 24 times in the event’s history as well as the world and Olympic records, which she set during her winning race at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics . [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Titmus, who gre...

New top story from Time: Yes, We Can Grow 1 Trillion Trees to Help Fight Climate Change

https://ift.tt/3gDfJTS We are in a planetary emergency. Horrific heat waves and fires blaze across North America, Turkey and Russia. Extreme floods wreak destruction and cause death from Europe to Africa to Asia. Ocean temperatures and the amount of carbon in our atmosphere have reached unprecedented highs. July was the hottest month in recorded history. Our planet, as the United Nations recently warned , is flashing a “code red for humanity.” There is no single solution to a crisis this large. Nations must fulfill the commitments they made under the Paris Agreement. Industries need to decarbonize, and businesses—especially the Fortune 1000—need to achieve net zero emissions. We need to empower a new generation of ecopreneurs —entrepreneurs focused on protecting our planet—to unleash innovative climate solutions. In our own lives, we need to adapt our lifestyles and consumption patterns. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] None of these climate solutions are mutually exclusive...

New top story from Time: Matt Damon Shines in Stillwater, an Uneven Thriller Inspired by a Real-Life Murder Case

https://ift.tt/3iYwyJq In Tom McCarthy’s somber thriller Stillwater, Matt Damon plays the ultimate ham-fisted American in France, doing such a good job of it that he helps disguise the flaws of this sometimes compelling but often frustrating movie. Damon plays Bill Baxter, an out-of-work Oklahoma oil-rig worker who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison ( Abigail Breslin ), who’s serving a prison sentence there for a murder she claims she didn’t commit. Though he speaks no French and is generally known to make a mess of things, Bill attempts to investigate new evidence in Allison’s case, drawing a local single mom, Virginie (Camille Cottin), and her young daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) into an increasingly tangled net. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Stillwater was loosely inspired by the case of Amanda Knox —who spent nearly four years in an Italian prison after being convicted of the 2007 murder of a fellow exchange student—though the movie foll...

New top story from Time: Watch TIME’s Exclusive Footage of NASA’s Most Powerful Rocket Ever Under Construction

https://ift.tt/3xqnVOf Rockets are built slowly—slowly and exceedingly carefully—which is in keeping with giant machines on which humans stake their lives and nations stake their prestige. In NASA’s cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, America’s next great moon rocket—the Space Launch System (SLS)—is being constructed with all that in mind. It is here too that TIME set up half a dozen cameras over the course of two months, capturing 3 million images for a time-lapse video that makes it possible to compress those months of work into just a few kinetic minutes. Under the eyes of the cameras, the rocket’s twin solid-fuel boosters came together—each of them 177 feet tall, weighing 1.6 million pounds and generating 3.6 million pounds (1.6 million kg) of thrust. Twenty-five percent taller than the solid boosters on the space shuttle, the twin engines are made of five separate segments, compared to the shuttle’s four. When they are completed, they will be attached ...

New top story from Time: 11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know

https://ift.tt/330kaRq More than 30 years after President George H.W. Bush signed a law that designated May 1990 as the first Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month , much of Asian American history remains unknown to many Americans—including many Asian Americans themselves. Often the Asian-American history taught in classrooms is limited to a few milestones like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the incarceration of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and that abridged version rarely includes the nearly 50 other ethnic groups that make up the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group in the U.S. in the first two decades of the 21st century . To many, the resulting lack of awareness was highlighted after the March 16 Atlanta spa shootings that left six women of Asian descent dead. The killings fit into a larger trend of violence against Asians failing to be seen or charged as a hate crime , even as leaders lamented that “racist attacks [are]… no...

New top story from Time: Militarized Feds Will Stay in Portland Until Attacks on the Federal Courthouse End, U.S. Attorney Says

https://ift.tt/305Lo8I (PORTLAND, Ore.) — U.S. militarized officers will remain in Portland until attacks on a federal courthouse cease, a top official said Monday after another night of violence. And more officers may soon be on the way. “It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel,” U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said. ”We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so.” Local and state officials said the federal officers are unwelcome. Meanwhile, the mayors of Portland and five other major U.S. cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don’t want them. “This administration’s egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Washington ...

My precise view

Search This Blog