This weekend's massive convergence of events saw possibly one of SF's largest influxes of travelers ever. And by many accounts, the city's efforts to get visitors to come by transit, foot, and bike were largely a success.
Meanwhile, a Mercury News headline read, "traffic woes [went] mostly unrealized" throughout the Bay Area.
Around the Embarcadero, the SFMTA tested out some of the strategies in the People Plan, which is aimed at facilitating car-free travel to the America's Cup yacht races. The agency set aside a widened, physically separated area for pedestrians and bicyclists on the Embarcadero in the northbound direction. That allowed planners to test out the impacts of removing a traffic lane to inform plans for improvements during the main races next year, as well as any possible permanent changes further down the road.
Muni also ran limited-stop bus service on the 47 line throughout the weekend, sectioning off a transit-only block for northbound traffic on Polk Street. That helped ensure buses didn't get caught up behind car traffic during its turnaround on the north end.
How was your experience moving around the city this weekend? Was it a breeze, or did being packed on a Muni bus stuck in traffic put a damper on your plans? Let us know in the comments.
Aaron was the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco from January 2012 until October 2015. He joined Streetsblog in 2010 after studying rhetoric and political communication at SF State University and spending a semester in Denmark.
"There were blocks that felt very safe and very secure," he said. "But then you're immediately – voom! – disgorged into three lanes of moving traffic with no protection."
What happened in West Portal was entirely predictable and preventable. The city must now close Ulloa to through traffic and make sure it can never happen again