San Francisco transportation planners have released final recommendations as part of a study to improve traffic circulation, Muni service, and bike safety in the bustling Inner Sunset neighborhood.
The Inner Sunset is a neighborhood surrounded by restaurants, coffee shops, cafes, and other small businesses across its 14-block area, which planners from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) studied as part of the Inner Sunset Transportation Study. The SFCTA board adopted the final report last week.
Transportation planners studied the area that included Judah Street on the south, Lincoln Way on the north, Fifth Avenue on the east, and 12th Avenue on the west.
Several Muni buses and the N-Judah rail also stop in the Inner Sunset, as do delivery drivers picking up take-out orders. Ninth Avenue and Lincoln is also a popular entrance into Golden Gate Park.
Andrew Heidel, a transportation planner with the SFCTA, presented the recommendations from the study last week to the county transportation authority board. The recommendations fell into three categories: near-, mid-, and long-term.
Heidel said as the SFCTA was finalizing the report, a crash occurred at Irving and Seventh Avenue when a large truck struck a bicyclist. Due to the crash, planners reviewed some of the draft concepts and “either refined or advanced the timeline of recommendations pertaining to parking and curb management opportunities to create more public space and bicycle safety in the study area.”
In the near-term, recommendations that could take one to two years to complete include painting safety zones that wrap around the corners of the sidewalk, which help make pedestrians more visible at crosswalks. Painting continental crosswalks and advanced limit lines to tell drivers where they should stop are other near-term recommendations.
The study recommends asking mapping apps to update driving directions to Golden Gate Park to reduce congestion in the neighborhood.
For transit, the study suggests consolidating transit stops on Judah Street between Fifth and Seventh avenues to reduce travel time for riders on the 6-Haight/Parnassus and 43-Masonic.
A painted bike on Seventh Avenue between Judah and Lincoln Way is also recommended as a near-term solution.
Improving service on the N-Judah, 7-Haight/Noriega, and initiating a study to find the best “low-stress, low-conflict bicycle route” are part of mid-term recommendations that could take two to five years to complete.
The study recommends updating existing signals, adding a signal at Judah Street and 10th Avenue and expanding sidewalk space to prevent vehicles from blocking trains at Ninth Avenue and Judah Street to improve service on the N-line. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is already leading a project for the N-line called the “N Judah Transit & Safety Project.” Some of the recommendations from the study would advance as part of the project.
The study also looked at implementing a part-time bus-only lane for the 7 route in the current part-time towaway lane in the westbound direction on Lincoln Way.
In the long-term, recommendations that could take five-plus years for completion, the study suggests follow-up studies on improving parking access in the neighborhood and finding more public spaces on Irving Street between Fifth and Ninth avenues.
Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who chairs the SFCTA board and represents the Inner Sunset neighborhood, said she had “ hoped for something a little more courageous from us.”
One of the areas not addressed in the study is the parked vehicles that illegally double park against outdoor dining spaces on Irving Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues. While there is enough space for vehicles to park there, some vehicles have parked on the rail tracks, blocking the N-Judah trains heading in the eastbound direction, Melgar said.
About three weeks ago, Melgar said there was about a 45-minute slowdown of the N-line because of a “schmuck” in a large vehicle double-parked on the tracks. She added there was no reason why a physical barrier could not be installed to prevent double parking and Muni delays.
“We put in these flimsy, plastic barriers just right at the corner, and that deters people from parking at the corner, but it’s the entire block that’s a problem,” Melgar said. “So, I will continue to work with the MTA and try to find funding.”
