Project staff tabled at the recent Sunday Streets to talk about plans for Valencia Street.
Join us for an open house this month to learn about the next phase of the Valencia Bikeway Improvements Project.
We've been working on details for a side-running bikeway, and we look forward to sharing the design with you.
The new design would create a more familiar and comfortable street, similar to other separated bike lanes in the city. Picture the bikeways on Howard, Folsom and 17th streets. Valencia Street between 15th and Market streets is another great example.
To move the bike lane from the center of the street to the side of the street—the strong preference of Valencia Street merchants—we had to make some trade-offs. That's why this design includes less general parking and loading zones.
You can learn more and provide feedback at our two open houses:
- Valencia Open House #1
Date: Monday, Sept. 23 from 4 – 6 p.m.
Location: Mission Housing Community Room, 390 Valencia Street
- Valencia Open House #2
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 25 from 4 – 6 p.m.
Location: City College of San Francisco, Mission Center, 1125 Valencia Street, Room 109
Learn more about the key concerns that shaped our designs and how we gathered feedback from the community.
Parking tradeoffs
Safety and accessibility have always been a priority for Valencia. Our goal is to reduce conflict between people walking, biking, rolling and driving. It should be a comfortable and enjoyable place to walk, roll and shop.
During the pandemic, the street had more parklets and higher demand for food delivery than ever. This led to more cars parked in the bike lane. We implemented the Center-Running Bike Lane to provide safe bicycling and keep as much parking and as many parklets as possible.
The shift to the Side-Running Bike Lane will require changes to parking and loading availability. On Valencia between 15th to 23rd streets, car and motorcycle parking will be reduced from 255 spaces to 151 spaces.
However, we have worked closely with merchants on the corridor to ensure that our custom parking and loading plan matches the needs of each business and provides accessible parking (blue zones) along the entire corridor.
Floating versus curbside parklets
Over the last few months, we’ve spoken to merchants about whether their parklets will be removed, kept curbside or “float” between the bike lane and vehicle traffic.
Curbside parklets will require bike lane transitions to go around. These transitions, composed of paint and soft-hit posts to protect people on bikes, take up more road space. This means curbside parklets result in less space for parking and loading.
Floating parklets will be new to San Francisco. They have been successful in other places, like New York City and Oakland. They provide separation for bicyclists, and they retain the most parking and loading for drivers. Our agency will reimburse the relocation costs for parklets to shift from curbside to floating.
This design shows a sample block of Valencia Street with floating parklets and parking spots, and curbside parklets.
Construction Working Group—partnering with community members
If the SFMTA Board approves the new design this fall, we aim to begin construction in early 2025. Since construction can be challenging, we are partnering with community stakeholders and residents on a Construction Working Group. Together, we’ll work through questions around impact, duration and access.
This group will help communicate technical ideas, share concerns and advise on how to implement the next phase of Valencia in a way that supports the neighborhood as much as possible.
Getting feedback from community members
Beyond merchants, we’ve collected feedback from others who live, work or play in the neighborhood. Recently, at the Aug. 25 Sunday Streets event, project staff spoke with over 60 attendees. They all shared insight about current and future bikeway designs.
There are several opportunities coming up to provide feedback:
- Mayor’s Disability Council meeting, Sept. 20, 1 - 4 p.m. at City Hall, Room 400 or virtually. The project team will discuss accessibility aspects of the project and public comment is welcome.
- Open houses on Sept. 23 and 25. We’ll have the block-by-block designs for Valencia Street that will lay out the overall road design including the side-running bikeway and parklet locations.
Public feedback will help us finalize details like the mix of parking and loading. Spanish translation and interpretation will be available at the open houses. You can request additional languages by emailing Valencia@SFMTA.com or calling 415.646.2025.
After the open houses, the team will present the final design to the SFMTA Board of Directors for approval in November. Pending their support, construction will start in early 2025.
To learn more our work on Valencia, visit our Valencia Bikeway Improvements Project webpage.