What is the Quick-Build phase of the project and why is it important to implement soon?
The Quick-Build phase is designed to deliver transit and safety benefits to the Geary corridor as quickly as possible. Changes such as new transit lanes, relocating bus stops from the near-side to the far-side of an intersection and “daylighting” curbs with red paint at intersection corners to improve pedestrian visibility can make a big impact with only paint and signs.
How long it will take?
- Striping and signage changes will take about one or two days per block
- The entire project area will take about three months
- This phase does not include any excavation
What's included?
- New angled parking on cross streets prior to converting angled parking on Geary to parallel parking
- New transit lanes installed between 28th and 15th avenues with white paint and signage
- Changes to the curb color for new and relocated loading zones (commercial, passenger, general)
- Safety improvements, including red curb at intersections, left-turn restrictions and retiming traffic signals for slower walk speeds
Implementing Quick-Build improvements soon is important to:
- Support the city’s economic recovery by improving transit travel time, reliability and maintaining current service levels for the 38 Geary’s 36,000 daily riders. Analysis of sales tax data in other corridors where similar improvements were made (such as on Mission Street and Taraval Street) found that sales tax receipts were similar or higher than citywide trends after these projects were implemented.
- Act with urgency to decrease traffic injuries and deaths in the project area. On average, one person walking is injured in a traffic collision within the project area each month.
- Protect buses from delays and allow more parking to be retained during water/sewer construction. Currently, there are only two travel lanes per direction on most blocks between 28th and 15th avenues. By converting angled parking to parallel, an additional lane can be added. This would allow greater flexibility to maintain more on-street parking during construction.
- Move forward with grant-funded signal retiming to provide more time for people walking to cross the street. Funding from a grant to retime traffic signals will expire after 2023, and this work must be done in sync with bus stop relocations included in the Quick-Build phase, because signal timing is dependent on whether stops are on the near-side or far-side of the intersection.
If the Geary Boulevard Improvement Project is approved by the SFMTA Board of Directors (see public hearing details below), Quick-Build treatments are expected to be installed later in 2023. Construction of other transit and safety improvements would happen after the detailed design is completed and would be coordinated with SFPUC’s water and sewer work.
SFMTA Board of Directors hearing: Tuesday, August 15, 1 p.m.*
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 400
A public hearing for the project will be held on August 15, 2023, at 1 p.m. as part of a special meeting of the SFMTA Board of Directors. The Board will consider legislation required to implement the Geary Boulevard Improvement Project.
Members of the public may make comments at the meeting in person or remotely (there is a 10-minute limit for remote comments). If you cannot attend, you may submit comments in advance of the meeting by 5 p.m. Monday, August 14 via:
Mail: SFMTA Board of Directors, One South Van Ness Ave, 7th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103
Email: MTABoard@SFMTA.com
Phone: 415.646.4470
*Date is subject to change, please check details online in advance of meeting.