Two days ago, about 40 San Franciscans took to the streets to make a point — on two wheels.
The bicyclists pedaled across the Mission, Excelsior, Glen Park, and other neighborhoods to highlight some of the city’s lesser known slow streets and draw attention to a hearing, later today, that could decide the fate of the program.
UPDATE, Dec. 6, 11 pm: After a marathon hearing and six hours of public comment, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency board voted unanimously to make 16 streets, including Lake Street, permanent. What’s more, the board agreed that these streets should be designed to limit half the vehicle traffic to 15 mph and an average volume of 1,000 cars a day. It also required SFMTA staff to return next quarter with a plan for a citywide network of slow streets that allows for travel without any gaps or breaks. (The Frisc live-tweeted the entire meeting here.)
The city’s Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) board will debate a proposal to cut in half the number of pandemic-inspired slow streets, which aim to limit car traffic to local drivers only at lower speeds that encourage safer walking, biking and other uses. If approved, SF will emerge with 15 slow streets.
Few COVID-era programs have induced so much passion. Those opposed to slow streets say they are unfair to seniors and others with mobility issues, although the streets do not block car access. Critics have also contended that the streets create traffic bottlenecks elsewhere, even though SFMTA data have shown otherwise.
Neighborhood slow streets are not the same as Golden Gate Park’s JFK Drive — now JFK Promenade, thanks to a decisive vote in the November election — which no longer allows cars at all.
Slow street supporters have urged the city to expand slow streets into a 100-mile network that includes underserved neighborhoods and makes longer bike travel safer.
For a city with ambitious climate and street-safety goals, encouraging more alternatives to cars is crucial, which means giving people space to feel safe on bikes. But many current bike lanes offer little protection — and little encouragement for would-be riders.
Slow streets have been a boon for seniors and those who are less mobile, allowing people needing walkers and wheelchairs more space to get outside and move about safely.
With slow streets, the city set new standards for sharing roads, with pedestrians, bikers, and other non-car users getting priority. The program began soon after COVID struck, and The Frisc has encountered many people who say slow streets have given them the space to leave their cars behind, pedaling between neighborhoods, skateboarding to school, and overall feeling confident enough to shift transit modes.
Safe and connected
To be considered for the new proposal, a slow street had to meet two main criteria, according to SFMTA planners: Maximum average traffic of fewer than 3,000 cars per day and a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour.
In the city’s 2021 study, 88 percent of slow streets were well below those criteria, while collisions were reduced by more than 33 percent. However, SFMTA planners have recommended only 15 of “the most successful” among the original 31.
These slower conditions allowed people living on and near slow streets to create community spaces. In Glen Park, slow Chenery Street allowed Kevin and Maggie Berkemeyer — and several of their neighbors — space enough for their children to learn to ride bikes. (Chenery is not part of the new proposal.)
The neighborhood held “Sunday socials” on Chenery twice a month to ride bikes in circles and give little ones a chance to hone their skills on balance bikes and pedal-powered two-wheelers. The flat surface provided an ideal learning space.
During Sunday’s Slow Ride for Slow Streets, the Berkemeyer’s 4-year-old John sped along Chenery on his pint-sized two wheeler. “He’s a riding maniac now,” Kevin said.
The Berkemeyers had been bikers in SF prior to Slow Streets, but the availability of Chenery and other nearby streets opened a network between people-centered spaces. The couple bought an e-bike with a trailer large enough for John and Gus, age 2, and their small bikes. Now they let the boys bike along Chenery through Glen Park until they reach the long uphill climb of O’Shaughnessy Avenue. At that point they pack the boys into the trailer, head over Twin Peaks to Golden Gate Park, where the boys can scoot and pedal along JFK Promenade.
In a recent informal survey, The Frisc recently asked its readers about SF street safety. A little more than half of the 102 participants said they worried for their safety as pedestrians or cyclists. When asked how often they saw drivers fail to stop at a stop sign, nearly 40 percent said several times a day.
A born-again exerciser
Before the pandemic, Denise O’Sullivan and her husband used to drive cars to their downtown jobs, with occasional use of the bus. Ditto for carting their son, Harry, to school and practices.
“Everything was by car then,” said O’Sullivan, a 16-year resident of SF who lives along Lake Street in the Richmond District.
She describes her former self as “on the fence” about riding around San Francisco, and her son didn’t have a bike. “We were worried about the safety,” O’Sullivan said.
The COVID shutdown had them working from home. Once Lake became a slow street, O’Sullivan began venturing out on her bike for exercise. The ride grew longer as she discovered slow streets in the Presidio. Soon, O’Sullivan was biking to run errands.
“I became a born-again exerciser,” O’Sullivan said.
Then she bought a bike for Harry, who had never cycled before the pandemic — and they figured out how to get from the Outer Richmond to piano lessons in the Sunset by pedal power. But, as happens to many bike owners in the city, Harry’s got stolen. Now 14, Harry gets around by skateboard and bus.
“I like to visit and hang with my friends, and I skateboard to get to them and to school,” he said.
The change has been profound enough that it’s shaping Harry’s upcoming high school decision. “Proximity is a factor,” said O’Sullivan. “We don’t want to have to drive much.”
The fate of Lake Street, one of the city’s longest slow streets, is uncertain. While SF transit planners recommended making 15 current slow streets permanent, Lake Street was a notable “no recommendation.” It’s expected to be part of today’s long-delayed discussion, however, and the transit seven-member SFMTA board has been favorable to it previously.
(The board approved four permanent slow streets in 2021: Golden Gate, Shotwell, Lake, and Sanchez. When the mayor intervened to overturn the Lake Street decision in early 2022, at least one board member was taken by surprise. “‘I believe we approved four of those slow streets, making them permanent, right?” asked commissioner Steve Heminger.)
The city just removed Lake Street’s temporary plywood-and-sandbag slow street signs, which forced local traffic to slow down. In recent weeks, workers have added speed “cushions” — a low rise version of speed bumps. Today’s SFMTA board debate could change the layout of Lake Street once again.
Meanwhile, the map of the new proposal shows large patches of the city, including the sprawling Sunset district, the Excelsior, North Beach and Chinatown, with no slow streets at all and few if any protected bike lanes. Planners have said that the 15 streets they’ve recommended aren’t necessarily the final tally, and that more could join the network in the future, but there’s no indication how, if, or when that might happen.
