Streetsblog San Francisco

An option for one-way protected bike lanes on Second Street. Images: SFDPW

Second Street could get protected bike lanes, sidewalk extensions, lane reductions, greening and more under options presented to residents last night by the SF Department of Public Works and the Municipal Transportation Agency.

Of the four options presented, one would include one-way protected bike lanes (or “cycle tracks”), and another would include a two-way protected bikeway on the street’s west side. Bikeways in both of those options would be separated by planted medians and could include bicycle traffic signals at each intersection, planners said. The other two options included painted, unprotected bike lanes, either with parking on both sides or with a center turning lane (removing parking on one side) like the one on Valencia Street.

The alternatives, which would redesign Second between Market and King Streets, were based on visions proposed by groups of residents at a workshop in May.

These improvements would be made under any option.

With any of the alternatives, the street would get a road diet, with four traffic lanes reduced to two. Planners said the street would get also pedestrian safety upgrades along the corridor, like corner bulb-outs, curb ramps and raised crosswalks at alleyways. The dangerous dual right turn lane at Second and Harrison Streets would be removed, converted into pedestrian space and possibly opened to development. (Architect David Baker, who writes the blog Great Second Street, would have rather turned it into a “BARKlet”.)

Both of the protected bike lane options would include bus boarding islands to the left of the bike lanes, meaning Muni buses would stop in the traffic lane. To help speed up the 10-Townsend and 12-Folsom Muni lines, which run on Second, the SFMTA is already proposing prohibited left turns along the street from 4 to 7 p.m., said DPW Project Manager Cristina Olea. That change, which would help get left-turning drivers out of the way of buses, is expected to go to a public engineering hearing on October 5.

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Streetscape enhancements are transforming McCoppin Street. Photos: Aaron Bialick

Last summer, we wrote about a package of overdue streetscape improvements planned for the neighborhood around McCoppin Street, which would include a public gathering space called the McCoppin Hub adjacent to the Central Freeway.

Work on those projects is finally starting to make some profound changes to the neighborhood. Recently installed planted medians have had a noticeable traffic calming effect. Compare the above photo with the old McCoppin:

McCoppin Street last year.

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17th and Harrison, where bike lanes are being extended east to Potrero. Photos: Aaron Bialick

The SFMTA has begun striping work on new bike lanes along 8th Street in SoMa and 17th Street in the Mission and Potrero Hill.

Eighth Street already had a skinny door-zone bike lane, but the SFMTA is expanding it as a buffered bike lane by re-purposing a roughly 10-foot wide motor vehicle lane for bicycles from Market to Townsend Street. That means 8th is being put on a road diet, and the preliminary striping alone already seems to have had a traffic calming effect.

On 17th Street, new bike lanes are being striped between Treat and Potrero Avenues, connecting the lanes striped last year between Treat and Church Street to the ones between Potrero and Kansas Street. Crews have traced out the curbside, buffered bike lanes and installed “No Parking” signs on the stretch.

Both projects come with fresh, smooth pavement, since they were coordinated with street re-pavings.

Check out more photos after the break. We’ll have more coverage once they’re completed.

See you back here Thursday. Enjoy the Fourth, everyone.

8th and Howard Streets, where the bike lane will be routed to the left of a right-turn lane. This design was seen at several intersections.

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"Protected cycle tracks green and calm Second Street while respecting human powered transport," writes architect David Baker. Image: David Baker + Partners Architects

Advocates for a safer Second Street have released a new rendering showing how the street could function better for pedestrians and cyclists if a protected bike lane is included in the coming redesign.

Baker's sketch shows how Second Street could fit bike lanes protected by parking lanes and pedestrian islands.

Architect and bike commuter David Baker, whose firm is located on Second, posted the rendering on the blog Great Second Street.

“Protected bicycle lanes are great to ride on, and give pedestrians, cyclists, and cars their own space,” Baker writes. “They also provide space for larger trees than are possible with narrow sidewalks alone.”

At a public workshop in May, protected bike lanes were a popular feature in conceptual proposals presented by local residents.

The new green bike channel at Duboce and Church, which runs between the sidewalk and N-Judah boarding island, is an example of a bike lane protected by a concrete island, similar to the one in Baker’s vision. This treatment is “an economical alternative to sidewalk widening since they require less infrastructure,” writes Baker. “Whenever curbs are moved, storm-water drains need to be relocated, which is very costly.”

The SFMTA and Department of Public Works could make Second a much more livable street by incorporating this kind of safer infrastructure, which more and more residents are clamoring for. The next workshop on the plan is expected to be held in August.

The new Transbay Transit Center is expected to transform San Francisco’s downtown core by focusing new development around a massive regional transit hub in eastern SoMa. Scheduled to open in 2017, it will link 11 transit systems and eventually CA High-Speed Rail. Some have called it the ”Grand Central of the West.”

Renderings via TransbayCenter.org

The SF Planning Commission last week approved an influx of high-density office and housing redevelopment, including the West Coast’s tallest skyscraper, in the neighborhood surrounding the new station at First and Mission Streets, known as the Transbay Center District. To ensure that new workers and residents come by transit, foot, and bike instead of clogging the streets with cars, the plan would make sweeping streetscape improvements and limit the amount of car parking in the area.

“This is going to be one of the best examples of transit-oriented development in the world,” said Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the SF Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR). “We’re going to be putting in $4 billion in transit infrastructure and then putting our tallest buildings right on top of it. It’s going to be studied and emulated all over the world if we get this right.”

The hub, which replaces the old Transbay Terminal, would connect to transit systems in all nine Bay Area counties, including Muni, BART, AC Transit, SamTrans, and Golden Gate Transit. Caltrain would operate on an electrified system connecting directly to the station, thanks to a recently-approved plan to extend tracks from the 4th and King station. Caltrain would share those tracks with high-speed rail trains.

Streets within the plan area — bounded by Market Street to the north, Steuart to the east, Folsom to the south, and just short of Third to the west — would be transformed with improvements for walking, bicycling, and surface transit.

Major streets — Mission, Howard, New Montgomery, Second, First, and Fremont Streets — would get wider sidewalks, road diets, transit lanes, and boarding islands. The planning department is also looking at creating a transit-only plaza on Mission between First and Fremont.

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