Mid-Market Safety Improvements Earn Unanimous SFMTA Vote

We won! The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Board unanimously endorsed the “Safer Market Street” project yesterday.

The Safer Market Street includes traffic management and safety improvements between Third and Eighth Streets. This is a substantial victory for safer streets advocates and the thousands of people who bike, walk and take transit on Market St. every day.

The SFMTA identified this stretch of Market as home to four of the 20 deadliest intersection in San Francisco. Between 2012 and 2013, the SFMTA tabulated a total of 162 collisions resulting in injuries along this corridor. Of those collisions, a majority (58 percent) included injuries to a person walking or biking who was struck by a car. There were also two fatalities during this period — both to people walking. The Safer Market Project’s goal is to make these dangerous intersections safer by eliminating the turns that have been shown to be the most likely to result in someone being hit or killed, and it will now be implemented on Market Street in the next few months!

This victory is the result of years, if not decades, of advocacy from you, our members, who showed up to community meetings, testified at countless hearings, and sent in over 200 letters before yesterday’s deciding vote. And we needed you all, since we know one prominent company fought hard against these safety improvements. Your advocacy helped move this data-driven Vision Zero project through many hoops, and now we get to celebrate!

We want to thank the SFMTA staff for their leadership on this project, as well as all our Vision Zero partners – Walk SF, the SF Transit Riders Union, Senior Disability Action and others. So many advocates and organizations showed up to yesterday’s meeting to make their voices for a these vital safety improvements. A special note of gratitude is due to the Hotel Council for speaking up for street safety for their employees and guests, and for being great partners in getting this project to meet everyone’s needs.

But there’s always more. We still need your help to get safety improvements on Upper Market Street and fully-protected bike lanes on the entire length of Market, along with full auto-restrictions through the Better Market Street Plan.

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Lastly, if you’re not already a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and like what we’ve accomplished together, please consider joining today!

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