22 Fillmore-16th Street Project Hits the Street in 2016

We’ve all been there, rushing to an appointment when Muni gets stuck in traffic. You’re just a few blocks from your stop, but the bus is just inching along while time is ticking away. If you’ve taken the 22 Fillmore along 16th Street, you know exactly what we’re talking about, and how frustrating that can be. Thankfully, last week the SFMTA Board of Directors approved a project designed specifically to address this issue, along with a whole plethora of other transportation benefits.

The 22 Fillmore Transit Priority Project, part of Muni Forward, was designed through years of technical analysis paired with input from local residents, riders and merchants to solve the numerous transportation challenges along 16th Street, like delays due to traffic congestion and closely spaced stops, as well as safety concerns for people walking and biking.

A new street design will address these challenges. Let's take a look.

Sample intersection drawing between San Bruno and De Haro.

The project focuses on 16th Street between Church and 3rd, and its feature component is a 2-mile long westbound transit-only lane. Heading east, as the street widens, the transit-only lane will span from Bryant to 3rd. The new transit-only lanes mean 22 Fillmore riders will have the benefit of more reliable service, with less time sitting in traffic.

Other key elements of the project include:

• Stop consolidation — helps your Muni trip take less time
• Transit bulbs and islands — make it easier and safer to board the bus
• Traffic signals — give Muni the green light and reduce delay

Plus several pedestrian safety upgrades in the form of left turn restrictions, pedestrian bulbs, upgraded crosswalks and pedestrian countdown signals.

We’ll also be improving conditions for people biking in the area, including moving the bike lane on 16th between Kansas and Mississippi over to 17th. View our detail graphics for a full sense of which improvements will be installed at each intersection.

Safety and transit reliability improvements aren’t the only component of this project— this overhaul will also include repaving, utility work, and the extension of the overhead wire along 16th Street to allow the 22 Fillmore to serve the growing Mission Bay neighborhood.

Like our Muni Forward 14 Mission project, we’ll also be implementing this project in phases to really get the 22 Fillmore moving.

Phase 1: In mid-2016 we’ll start striping the new bike lane on 17th, consolidating stops, and striping the transit-only lanes (red paint will not be installed during this phase).

Phase 2: More permanent street features like transit and pedestrian bulbs, traffic signals and the extension of the 22 Fillmore overhead wire will be complete by the end of 2019, at which time we can paint the transit-only lanes red.

The addition of the 22 Fillmore project puts Muni Forward at 17 miles of transit priority streets approved and hitting the streets soon.