Calming Effect: Apply to Calm Your Residential Street

Would you like to get involved and do something to create safer streets? Do you feel that speeding is a concern in your neighborhood? Consider applying to the city’s Traffic Calming Program. The SFMTA’s Residential Traffic Calming Program is a resident-directed, application-based program to address mid-block speeding on residential streets in San Francisco. Speed is the biggest factor in determining if someone survives getting hit by a car. A person walking hit by a car going 30 miles per hour (MPH) is six times more likely to die than a person hit by a car moving at 20 MPH. The program seeks to enhance neighborhood livability and create safer and more comfortable streets for people walking, bicycling, and driving alike by designing streets that encourage slower speeds. Don't wait, the deadline for applications is June 30th, 2018. 

These measures have been proven to reduce speeding and increase safety. Typically, speed humps, speed cushions, and speed tables are the most common traffic calming measures on our streets given their effectiveness in managing vehicular speeds, but other measures can be proposed if they are deemed more effective on a given street.

APPLICATION PROCESS

You will need to submit an application – available in English, Spanish, and Chinese – with a petition signed by at least 20 neighbors from separate households on your street to get the process started. (If there are fewer than 40 addresses on your block, please obtain signatures from half of them).

Complete applications that are received will generate an engineering review and data collection process of your street to evaluate which will result in traffic calming projects.  Each year the SFMTA receives approximately 100 applications that result in approximately 50 traffic calming projects.

The deadline for submitting completed applications and petitions for the 2018-2019 traffic calming program is June 30, 2018.

If you are interested in applying for traffic calming, you may download and hand out this brochure to your neighbors or point them towards the Residential Traffic Calming Program website, so they can gain a better understanding of what traffic calming is and isn’t along with information about eligibility, evaluation, and other frequently asked questions.