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All throughout San Francisco, we’ve seen how quick-build projects bring urgent change on streets that are unsafe and unwelcome for people who bike and walk. And for the first time, quick-build projects are coming to the Tenderloin, a neighborhood where we’ve been pushing for urgency for years.
The SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has just launched the virtual open house for two street safety projects on Leavenworth Street (from McAllister to Post) and on Golden Gate Avenue (from Van Ness to Market), and you’re invited to participate.
Leavenworth is a one-way street running northbound from McAllister (just north of Market), with three lanes of fast-moving traffic cutting through the neighborhood, including the bike lanes on Golden Gate Avenue and Turk Street. After implementing a successful redesign on Taylor Street a few blocks over, the Tenderloin Traffic Safety Task Force wants to implement similar safety measures on this street to slow drivers down and make Leavenworth safer for people walking and biking.
Three years ago, City planners striped a bike lane on Golden Gate Avenue, making it the first bike lane cutting through the heart of the Tenderloin. Unfortunately, the buffered bike lane design on Golden Gate Avenue was insufficient — people on bikes often have to deal with people driving or parking in the bike lane.
Throughout the pandemic, one block of Golden Gate, between Leavenworth and Jones, has been closed to drivers for most of the day to help accommodate St. Anthony Foundation’s operations as they provide resources to unhoused neighbors and some of our city’s most vulnerable residents. A couple blocks over, the Tenderloin Community Benefits District opened up one block between Hyde and Larkin for Shared Spaces, repurposing roadway to support local business. These changes to the street show us what’s possible for Golden Gate Avenue when we really prioritize people over cars.
That’s why we’re excited to go back and do it right on Golden Gate Avenue, and this time, City planners are turning this street into a quick-build project, which we know has helped immediately upgrade so many other bike lanes, including Howard Street, 7th Street, and the Embarcadero.
City planners have just unveiled their plans, and now it’s time for you to weigh in to make sure what they implement next year truly prioritizes biking and walking through the Tenderloin.
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