Project Changes
Thank you to those who provided feedback in advance of and at the July 20th Public Hearing. Your feedback has been carefully considered, and based on what we heard, we are making changes to the project proposal and timeline:
• A concern from some residents was the number of parking spaces affected by the proposal. Responding to these concerns, we are narrowing the focus of the proposal to provide pedestrian visibility zones (also known as daylighting, or red curbs) only at marked and unmarked crosswalks across Lower Great Highway. We are no longer proposing visibility zones for crossings of intersecting side streets, or crossings without curb ramps. This reduces the number of proposed visibility zones from 28 to 20. The number of Painted Safety Zones (PSZs) remains as proposed. With these changes, 32 parking spaces will be repurposed for pedestrian safety measures. Back-in angled parking will add back between 16 and 32 parking spaces, meaning total parking reduction through the entire corridor will at most 16 spaces, and potentially less (see below).
• We also heard from residents that back-in angled parking implementation, which had been proposed as a medium-term measure, should occur at the same time as the other near-term measures. As a result, we are proposing that angled parking be implemented at the same time as the visibility zones and PSZs. We are still determining exactly which blocks would receive back-in angled parking, however it will only be proposed where roadway width allows, and only on the west side of the street. Back-in angled parking will net at least 16 parking spaces and up to 32; we will know the exact number after completing detailed design in the coming weeks.
• Finally, some residents expressed a desire for more time to consider the proposals and provide feedback. We are delaying taking the near-term proposals to our SFMTA Board of Directors for consideration until later this fall.
Updated project documents reflecting these changes will be posted to the project website next week; we will send out an email update when that happens.
Next Steps
A second project Open House will take place in September, and will be announced when the exact date and location have been determined. This Open House will be an opportunity to review the changes we've made to the near-term proposal, based on the feedback and input we've received so far. We will also be presenting our medium-term proposals at this Open House, and collecting your thoughts and input.
The revised near-term proposals will go a second Public Hearing and finally to the SFMTA Board of Directors in the fall. The dates of those feedback opportunities will be announced via email. And after considering the input received at the upcoming Open House, the medium-term proposals will go to a separate Public Hearing and SFMTA Board of Directors meeting later in the year.
Any questions can be sent to Nick Smith at nick.smith@sfmta.com.