The Brotherhood/Alemany Safety Improvements Project ("Brotherhood/Alemany") will explore alternatives to improve safety and circulation for all users at the Brotherhood Way/Alemany Boulevard / Sagamore Street / Orizaba Avenue intersection. The project will improve pedestrian crossing opportunities, enhance safety for people biking, and clarify right-of-way for all users while keeping traffic moving through this busy intersection.
Separately, with close coordination with the SMTA and community partners, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) is developing the Brotherhood Way Safety and Circulation Plan, which will study the circulation of Brotherhood Way and the Merced Heights neighborhood more generally.
Brotherhood/Alemany may support the development of the City's proposed future Ocean View Branch Library on the corner of Brotherhood Way and Orizaba Avenue. The project team will evaluate focused improvements to improve access to the library and Brotherhood Way Open Space for people in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Project Background
Brotherhood Way, Alemany Boulevard, and Sagamore Street are key east-west streets through the Oceanview and Merced Heights neighborhoods, providing access to Interstate 280, Junipero Serra Boulevard, Lake Merced, Park Merced, and the Outer Mission. These arterial streets, along with Orizaba Avenue, a neighborhood street providing access to the Ocean View neighborhood, come together at the Brotherhood/Alemany intersection. This intersection carries high-speed vehicle traffic and provides designated bikeway access via Brotherhood Way and Sagamore Street. Pedestrians can only cross at one point, at the eastern side of the intersection via four consecutive uncontrolled crosswalks.
Brotherhood Way is flanked by the Brotherhood Way Open Space, but access to this space is limited for neighborhood members by high-speed traffic and the lack of designated crossings on Brotherhood Way and Alemany Boulevard. These corridors are paralleled by the M-Muni light-rail line, but access is hampered for residents to its south by the difficulty of crossing these corridors, as is access to the 58 Lake Merced bus stops just east and west of Brotherhood/Alemany. The Merced Extension Triangle neighborhood as a whole has long been cut off from surrounding areas by Brotherhood/Alemany, Interstate 280, and Junipero Serra Boulevard.
Since 2018, the San Francisco Public Library has been planning the construction of a new Ocean View Branch within the eastern section of the Brotherhood Way Open Space. The addition of this trip generator adjacent to Brotherhood/Alemany further emphasizes the need for improvements to the intersection by the SFMTA.
Project Scope
This project is intended to meet the following design objectives:
- Provide fully-signalized pedestrian crossings of Alemany Blvd and Brotherhood Way, and possibly also of Sagamore St and Orizaba Ave pending further analysis.
- Support safety, open space access, and good urban design by reclaiming and repurposing excess public right-of-way.
- Generally maintain existing traffic patterns and capacity while reducing egregious speeding and improving overall traffic compliance.
The SFMTA will work with the community to identify priorities for people who live in and travel through the area and ensure that the project design address the needs of users of Brotherhood/Alemany. The project team will collaborate with the SFCTA during the development of the Brotherhood Way Safety and Circulation Plan to hear the feedback of neighbors, community partners, and other City agencies. To learn how to get involved in these projects, sign up for updates here.
