April 2024
Note: These responses reference the project’s original proposal from April 2024. Following additional community outreach, and further engineering, we shared a revised proposal in June, which was approved by the SFMTA Board in July 2024. We have since published an updated FAQ for questions regarding the revised proposal and the project generally.
Would this proposal remove all traffic from West Portal Avenue?
No. The proposal restricts certain traffic movements on West Portal Avenue and Ulloa Street while continuing to provide access on each block. The proposal would change West Portal Avenue from two lanes of private vehicles in each direction to one lane in each direction between Ulloa and Vicente streets.
What are the proposal’s parking impacts?
The project proposal would retain the vast majority of parking in the area. All parking on West Portal Avenue would remain. The only changes to parking currently proposed are:
- The removal of up to six part-time loading/part-time parking spaces on Ulloa Street east of West Portal Avenue to accommodate bus stop and terminal space. We have heard feedback from businesses on this block of Ulloa Street about the challenges this would create for their loading and access needs and will be investigating other potential locations for bus stop and terminal needs.
- Converting two general parking spaces on Lenox Way to parking for SFMTA operations vehicles.
How will this proposal affect deliveries to West Portal businesses?
Proposed transit lanes in this area are proposed to be designated for transit and commercial vehicles. While general traffic would not be allowed to travel on westbound Ulloa Street past Claremont Boulevard, commercial vehicles would still be able to. This would allow commercial loading in front of the businesses on the northside of Ulloa Street between Claremont Boulevard and West Portal Avenue. This block could also be used for commercial vehicles to make westbound left turns to access the west side of the 100 block of West Portal Avenue.
Could DoorDash, Uber Eats and GrubHub drivers use lanes proposed for “transit and commercial vehicles only.”
In the current proposal, the “transit and commercial vehicles only” designation would mean that transit vehicles (e.g. Muni buses and trains) and vehicles with commercial license plates could use that lane. This would include typical delivery vehicles serving West Portal businesses (e.g. a beer truck delivering to a bar or a food supply truck delivering to a restaurant) as well as taxis.
Drivers for DoorDash or similar companies typically do not have commercial license plates and would not be able to use street space reserved for “transit and commercial vehicles only.” However, drivers like these could continue to use parking spaces and could still reach every single block of the area through lanes open to all vehicles.
How would these changes affect traffic on nearby streets?
We are working on a traffic study that will provide some additional information about the order of magnitude of traffic change we could expect on nearby streets, which will help us understand whether refinements to the circulation changes and/or additional traffic calming measures would be appropriate.
Why don’t you create a car-free street on West Portal?
If there is interest from the community in a bolder transformation to West Portal Avenue such as prohibiting private vehicles on West Portal Avenue between Ulloa Street and Vicente Street, this would require a longer-term process to consider areawide traffic circulation impacts and identify solutions for necessary vehicle traffic. This near-term project is moving forward quickly to rapidly respond to the tragic collision at the request of Mayor Breed and Supervisor Melgar. However, a more major change to the street merits a longer public process.
What will happen when the L Taraval Improvement Project is completed?
L Taraval rail service is planned to resume this fall. At that time, the L Taraval will operate between the SF Zoo and Embarcadero Station – the same route as pre-COVID. While the SFMTA briefly experimented with a surface only service that interlined the L Taraval and K Ingleside during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, we will not be implementing that service pattern this fall.
Subway performance has drastically improved since 2019 and delays have consistently been 70% less than pre-COVID operations. We attribute this remarkable success to innovative preventative maintenance practices (like Fix-It Week) to get ahead of infrastructure issues, better headway management and fewer trains. We anticipate that as downtown continues to recover, and we increase service levels to meet ridership demand, we may observe an increase in subway delays. Consequently, we will be monitoring subway performance and evaluating a range of approaches to mitigate the impacts and address the causes of subway delays, including reducing the number of lines utilizing the subway alignment. As noted above, we don’t anticipate making any changes to the L Taraval alignment this fall.