Coming up with the final design required in-depth community outreach and conversations, like this feedback exercise conducted at a Valencia Street open house.
On Nov. 19, we will present a final design for a side-running Valencia Street bikeway to the SFMTA Board of Directors. This follows ten months of sustained community outreach and design work. If approved, construction will begin in January 2025.
This project aims to create a safer and more enjoyable experience for everyone traveling along the vibrant Valencia Street corridor between 15th and 23rd streets.
You can share feedback either before the Nov. 19 board meeting or during public comment at the board meeting. Visit the SFMTA Board of Directors webpage for more information.
Community input
Staff have engaged with the public in several ways to reach a final design.
When we began hearing that the center-running bikeway was not working for many folks, we engaged in an outreach process to understand what the challenges were. We moved to quickly address them. Our teams made several changes to signage, parking and loading and traffic signal timing.
Once the SFMTA Board instructed us to explore a side-running bikeway as an alternative, we pivoted to gathering feedback from merchants, residents and visitors. We did this to understand what would be important in a new design.
Project staff have conducted hundreds of hours of outreach, which included:
- Two public open houses with 150+ attendees
- A mailer to 12,000+ residents and businesses
- Signage, monthly emails and SMS updates
- Walking tours and block-by-block meetings with merchants
- Door-to-door canvassing and meetings with 100+ merchants
- Multiple conversations with all 26 parklet owners
- Forming a Construction Working Group to bring together merchants, residents and advocates with SFMTA construction shop staff to discuss implementation strategy
We guided conversations about Valencia around three core principles: safety, access and economic vitality.
Striking the right balance
Many of these conversations were not easy. There were a wide variety of opinions about what Valencia Street should look like. During these conversations, we used the guiding principles of safety, access and economic vitality. This way, we were able to help different stakeholders compromise.
We also made changes to the design to reflect different concerns. As a result, we feel confident that what we will present to the SFMTA Board strikes the balance between everyone’s needs. You can read more about some of the trade-offs we considered during the design process in our last blog.
Where we landed
We’re excited to share the final design. It features a number of changes shaped by community feedback:
- Flexibility for parklet owners: In some cases, the bike lane will go around curbside parklets. In others, it will run between the sidewalk and “floating” parklets.
- San Francisco’s first “floating” parklets are based on successes in Oakland and New York City but fine-tuned for the San Francisco environment.
- A custom curb management plan that considers individual businesses' needs for parking and loading. At the same time, it maximizes the number of spots available to delivery trucks, cars and motorcycles.
- Landscaping improvements intended to make Valencia an even more inviting place to shop, dine and visit.
What’s next
Pending approval on Nov. 19, the project team will move forward with finalizing construction details. These will include the schedule and phases. We’ll continue to keep you updated as the project progresses. We encourage you to sign up for updates on the Valencia Bikeway Improvements Project webpage (SFMTA.com/Valencia).
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