Rolling Out the Red Carpet on Haight Street

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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

We’re at it again—painting the streets red, dedicating lanes for transit, and building new bulb outs and curb ramps, all to make Muni more reliable and enhance safety both on and off the bus. And this time, it’s Haight Street that’s received the red carpet treatment.  

Last week we finished painting Haight Street red between Laguna and Market streets to establish a new eastbound Muni-only lane. This new lane configuration opens today, and it’s great news for customers of the 6 Parnassus and 71/71L Haight/Noriega. Now inbound buses can travel straight on Haight Street instead of taking inconvenient and time-consuming detours to arrive at Market. With this new route configuration, customers can expect a more seamless trip to their final destination, while saving up to four minutes in travel time.

This project is part of Muni Forward, the ongoing effort to create a reliable, safe, and comfortable experience both on and off transit.

new transit-only lane on Haight Street

This Muni-only lane will reduce travel times on the 6 Parnassus and 71/71L Haight/Noriega by up to four minutes.

 

To accommodate the new Muni-only lane, we have converted Haight Street between Octavia Boulevard and Market Street into a two-way street, with the eastbound lane reserved for Muni only. Traffic heading east from Laguna to Octavia must now turn right onto Octavia.

Map of new traffic configuration on Haight Street

Existing and new traffic configuration on Haight Street for traffic and the 6, 71 and 71L.

 

In addition to the transit improvements, the SFMTA collaborated with other City agencies and integrated other infrastructure and streetscape enhancement projects. The improvements include:

·         Widening of sidewalks and construction of bulb-outs at the Haight/Market/Gough intersection

·         Construction of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)  accessible curb ramps

·         Modification of traffic signals to provide a more seamless route for people walking to and from Haight Street and at the Market/Haight/Gough intersection

·         Replacement of the sewer and water lines along Haight between Laguna and Market streets

·         Repaving of Haight Street between Laguna and Gough streets

As a result of the new Muni-only lane, we have added a new inbound bus stop at Haight and Gough, and four stops will be permanently discontinued:

·         Inbound stop on Laguna at Haight (towards downtown)

·         Inbound stop on Page at Octavia (towards downtown)

·         Inbound stop on Page at Market (towards downtown)

·         Outbound stop on Haight at Octavia (towards Haight-Ashbury/Sunset)

To accommodate the new street configuration, 20 parking spaces will be established at discontinued bus stops while 16 spaces will go away, mostly on the south side of Haight between Octavia and Market streets. This adds four street parking spaces in the area. To provide more parking options for residents, we have made the 0-99 block of Haight Street a Residential Parking Permit (RPP) area. Residents living on the block are eligible to apply for an Area “S” parking permit.