Separated Bike-Ped Path Coming to Mansell Street in McLaren Park by 2016

Mansell Street, which runs through McLaren Park, is poised to get a two-way bikeway and a walking and jogging path separated from motor traffic under a plan approved by the Recreation and Parks Commission last week.

Mansell is a wide roadway with no dedicated space for walking and biking, and its four traffic lanes are split down the middle by a planted median. Under the new plan, which is combined with a road re-paving, one side of that median will be car-free. On the other side, motor traffic, including Muni’s 29-Sunset line, would run in one lane in each direction.

The project, set to begin construction in summer 2015 and be completed in 2016, should provide a much more inviting connection to walk and bike across McLaren Park, San Francisco’s second-largest city-owned park, which sits between the Visitacion Valley and Excelsior neighborhoods.

The chosen design was favored by the vast majority of attendees at two community meetings, beating out an alternative that would have retained one traffic lane on each side of the median, along with buffered bike lanes separated from cars with stripes only, according to a department presentation [PDF]. Rec and Parks is hoping to fund the project using up to $6.1 million from Prop AA vehicle registration fee revenue and the regional One Bay Area Grant.

See an overview of the route after the jump.