Turk Street Safety Project

Project Introduction

The Turk Street Safety Project began in Spring 2016. SFMTA identified Turk Street for improvement, between Market Street and Gough Street, based on its inclusion on the Vision Zero High Injury Network. The city's High-Injury Network consists of the 13 percent of San Francisco streets that account for 75 percent of traffic related injuries and fatalities.

Turk Street is a vibrant corridor with a diverse range of people: families, seniors, children, students, workers, shoppers, and tourists. For surrounding land use, the street supports extremely high density of both historic buildings and newer developments. It's home to playgrounds schools, light industry, retail, entertainment, and a number of service providers and care facilities. Turk is a street teeming with San Francisco life and energy.

The wide variety of people on Turk is reflected in the wide variety of transportation use, including private automobiles, transit, paratransit, pedestrians, bicyclist, and both passenger and commercial loading. As a high-injury corridor, this project seeks to design a safer, more predictable, and more comfortable for all users.

Project Timeline

Planning Phase - Spring 2016 to Winter 2017

Planning and Design

Pending

Implementation - Spring 2018

Construction

Pending

Project Status

Completed

Neighborhoods

South of Market (SoMa)

Downtown / Civic Center

PROJECT GOALS

Design a safer and more comfortable walking and biking environment on Turk Street
Create a more predictable and safer driving environment
Fill a gap in the existing bicycle network on Turk Street
Incorporate community needs and desires into planning process and final design
Address emergency access needs
Provide space for normal everyday operation on the street related to passenger and commercial loading

COLLISION ANALYSIS - VISION ZERO - SAFETY IN ACTION

Over a five-year period, there were a total of 174 traffic collisions along Turk Street between Mason and Polk. 92 of these involved pedestrians and bicyclists, which were often related to midblock crossings and vehicle turning movements.

Further field observation and feedback from stakeholders, including a walkthrough exercise led by WalkSF, revealed high traffic speeds and frequent unpredictable behavior, like vehicle double parking in travel lanes and bicyclists riding on the sidewalk.

PROPOSED DESIGN

In keeping with the diverse needs on Turk Street, the project team proposes a design with the following characteristics to address observed issues.

Standard pedestrian safety improvements like high visibility crosswalks, painted safety zones, and signal improvements,
A lane reduction to reduce vehicle speeding, make drivers more predictable, create more visibility, and allow for separation between travel modes,
A protected bicycle lane to reduce bicycle-vehicle conflicts, provide a dedicated space for bicycles thereby reducing sidewalk-riding
A No Parking Any Time buffer that meets the passenger and commercial vehicle active loading needs for normal everyday operation, and to accommodate emergency vehicle access needs.

TIMELINE