The SFMTA and RPD have announced the staff recommendations of the Golden Gate Park Access and Safety Program. The robust proposal includes policy recommendations focused on traffic safety, equity, accessibility, and mobility to Golden Gate Park—especially for those with high barriers to access. The program proposes making permanent the 3-mile stretch of car-free streets in the park from Lincoln Way to Kezar Drive, including JFK Drive. These streets will continue to allow access for emergency vehicles, Paratransit vehicles, park maintenance vehicles, and vehicles permitted to use Golden Gate Park facilities by RPD. Additional project proposals include:
- A vastly improved free shuttle program, launched Feb. 26, adding service on weekdays and increasing the frequency of service on weekends. Based on extensive community feedback, the route was made more useful by connecting directly to Muni on Haight Street and extending to Stow Lake. Additional improvements include making shuttle information easier to find and use online, upgrading vehicles for comfort, and adding seating, shelters, and informational signage at stops.
- Improving the Golden Gate Bandshell Parking lot including the addition of 20 new ADA parking spaces, re-paving walking surfaces, a new ADA-accessible path to the Japanese Tea Garden, and more ADA improvements such as curb ramps throughout the area. The project broke ground Monday, Feb. 28.
- Ensuring Golden Gate Park is a welcoming place for all by expanding programs that connect Black and brown communities to the park as well as offering art installations, programming and performances that reflect the diversity of the city. Starting Wednesday, March 4 and running through November 2022, the Golden Gate Bandshell will host more than 100 free all-age concerts with culturally diverse music and performers.
- Building on the success of Rec and Park’s Junior Guides program, the Department is partnering with community-based organizations to provide residents of equity priority communities free transportation, guided tours, and free access to cultural institutions of Golden Gate Park.
- Working with the Music Concourse Garage to implement flexible pricing and expand the Museums for All program for low-income visitors to include free or reduced parking rates along with museum admission.
- Improving signage to clarify directions, drop off and access to loading zones.
- Removing restrictions on access to the Music Concourse for anyone to use drop-off and pick-up zones in front of both the de Young and the California Academy of Sciences.
- Allowing access at 8th Avenue and Fulton Street for Muni, paratransit, and other authorized vehicles and maintaining emergency vehicle access through the project area.
- Reliability improvements to Muni 29 Sunset, which directly connects communities of color to the park.
- Expanding and improving parking and ADA access with the addition of 28 blue zone spaces near the museums: three on Nancy Pelosi Drive at JFK Drive, five on Martin Luther King Drive near the Japanese Tea Garden and 20 in the Bandshell parking lot. This increases the number of spaces for people with disabilities near the museums from the time before the road closures by ten.
- Adding at least six bikeshare stations within Golden Gate Park in 2022. The proposal also includes exploring fun ways to get around such as pedicab service.
- Reducing traffic congestion by restoring southbound access from Chain of Lakes to Sunset Boulevard via MLK Drive and restoring access to the Polo Fields parking lot by creating a one-way circulation westbound from Metson Road to Middle Drive.
- Exploring options to better direct drivers to the more than 5,000 parking spaces that remain in the park and increasing awareness of the free 15-minute pick-up/drop off option in the Music Concourse Garage.
- Simplifying getting to Golden Gate Park from every neighborhood, whether traveling by foot, bike, transit, or car through travel information and advice, including parking availability.
- Continuing to monitor traffic and parking conditions in surrounding neighborhoods.
- Continuing to allow paratransit, deliveries, maintenance vehicles and other permitted vehicles.
The SFTMA and RPD project team would like to thank everyone who participated in the extensive public outreach process around this project, and whose feedback is shaping the future of Golden Gate Park.