Open House, California Street Safety Project

Open House, California Street Safety Project
By Erin McMillan

Come talk to SFMTA staff about the California Street Safety Project that will improve safety on California Street between 18th Avenue and Arguello Boulevard this Thursday 11/7 at Peabody Elementary School. 

The California Street Safety Project will improve safety for those traveling on the corridor by reconfiguring the roadway from four lanes to three, upgrading crosswalks, daylighting and other safety improvements. California Street is part of the city’s Vision Zero High-Injury Network that consists of 13 percent of all San Francisco streets that account for 75 percent of the severe and fatal collisions. 

On California Street from Arguello Boulevard to Park Presidio Boulevard, a roadway reconfiguration from four lanes to three will be implemented to improve safety for all road users. On this stretch of the corridor, there have been 57 injury collisions in the past five years, including 4 pedestrian-involved collisions. This segment of California Street also has a high rate of Muni-involved collisions, with 35 transit collisions in five years. At 8 to 9 feet wide, the travel lanes are not wide enough in this area for Muni vehicles, which are 10.5 feet wide. As a result, Muni vehicles must straddle multiple lanes, leading to sideswipe collisions. In addition, having multiple lanes in each direction can encourage higher traffic speeds and can make crossing the street more challenging for pedestrians. It is currently anticipated that these improvements will be constructed in spring 2020. 

In tandem with this effort, on California Street from Arguello Boulevard to 18th Avenue, improvements will be installed, which will include daylighting, high-visibility crosswalks and pavement markings to improve safety for people of all ages on a street with historically high rates of injury-related collisions. This project is part of the Vision Zero Quick-Build Program. As part of our commitment to the program, these improvements will be installed by the end of 2019. 

Following the construction of the full project in spring 2020, the project team will gather post-data on collisions, travel time for Muni and private cars, vehicle speeds, yielding behavior of drivers to pedestrians, and traffic volumes. After evaluating the impacts of the project, SFMTA will review whether any adjustments are needed to ensure the project meets its safety goals. 

Published November 06, 2019 at 09:33PM
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