Name: S.F. Market Street: Transit agency approves changes in part of potential controversial redesign
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S.F. Market Street: Transit agency approves changes in part of potential controversial redesign

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board approved a package of changes Tuesday that could be the first steps in a controversial scaled-back proposal of the Market Street redesign.In the approved changes, the SFMTA will drop the speed limit on Market Street between Franklin and Steuart streets from 25 to 20 mph, force some right turns for vehicles, add crosswalks and stop signs, and ban some left turns and right turns on red.The changes prompted a larger debate about the Better Market Street project after the agency realized that the street wasn’t wide enough for a designated bike lane and it couldn’t afford the original project during a pandemic recession.“We were ... trying to make everyone happy and to some degree we weren’t willing to come to the reality that we finally came to recently when the pandemic made us take our heads out of the sand a little bit,” SFMTA senior engineer Britt Tanner told the board. “We had to reassess.”SFMTA staff now recommend shrinking the project as the agency stares down a $140 million deficit next fiscal year and tries to stave off layoffs. The agency also faces an impending deadline to use $15 million in federal funds to fix critical infrastructure in the project’s first phase.More for you“We urgently want to move forward today on this portion of the project because the street is literally falling apart,” SFMTA Director of Transportation Jeffrey Tumlin said. Regarding the project redesign, he said “we have exhausted all potential solutions.”The board voted Tuesday on the package of street changes that allow the agency to test out a new design, but didn’t take action on full changes yet. The vote was 5-2, with Vice Chair Amanda Eaken and Director Manny Yekutiel dissenting.Transit advocates protested that Market Street, one of the most dangerous in the city, will remain so if and when the proposed changes are completed, unraveling nearly a decade of work on the redesign. During Tuesday’s four-hour discussion, staff, board members and a couple dozen public commenters debated the proposal, with taxi drivers, bicylists, transit riders and residents vying for divergent interests. What most shared was disappointment, with many urging the city to go ahead and fix infrastructure, but not spend more money on a project multiple groups didn’t like anymore.“Sometimes when you’ve made everybody mad it means you’ve found the sweet spot of compromise, sometimes it means you’ve got a mess on your hands, and I think our situation is more the latter,” Director Steve Heminger said.On Market Street — prior to the COVID-19 crisis — approximately 72,000 people rode Muni, 500,000 people walked and more than 800 people biked per hour during rush hour. In an effort to make the busy drag efficient, enjoyable and safer, the city approved a redesign in October 2019 after almost a decade of collaboration with invested groups. Private cars with fanfare in January 2020.The total project was supposed to take five years and cost more than $600 million, and eventually would span 2.2 miles from Embarcadero to Octavia. That plan after the pandemic plundered the agency’s budget.Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.S.F. Public Works’ Better Market Street Manager Cristina Olea said the changes will save the city $300 million for the total project. Cost for Phase 1 between Fifth and Eighth streets will drop by $67 million to $124 million and saved money will roll over to other not-yet-funded phases. Phase 1 uses $15 million in federal funds that require the agency to award a construction contract by May and build mid-year.Under the new proposed plan, bicyclists will share a lane with taxis, paratransit and commercial vehicles instead of a narrower protected lane on the sidewalk. Muni buses will use a designated center transit-only lane, with islands for boarding, and not make curbside stops. The city will delay replacing the brick sidewalks for at least a decade to avoid disrupting businesses.One of the biggest points of contention in the new plan is the bike lane change. The originally proposed 5-foot to 8-foot lane on the sidewalk was replaced by an 11-foot shared bike lane on the street. The agency said that the original bike lane wouldn’t have been big enough to accommodate the 25% spike in cycling that hit the streets from January to March last year.Bike advocates said the changes won’t make cycling safer.Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:@mallorymoenchUpdated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board approved a package of changes Tuesday that could be the first steps in a controversial scaled-back proposal of the Market Street redesign.In the approved changes, the SFMTA will drop the speed limit on Market Street between Franklin and Steuart streets from 25 to 20 mph, force some right turns for vehicles, add crosswalks and stop signs, and ban some left turns and right turns on red.The changes prompted a larger debate about the Better Market Street project after the agency...

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Mallory Moench

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S.F. Market Street: Transit agency approves changes in part of potential controversial redesign

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