Cars Will Remain on the Crooked Block of Lombard Street Until at Least 2016

Cars will continue to fill the crooked block of Lombard Street until at least 2016. Although the trial car closures last summer were seen as a success, the gears of city bureaucracy appear to have slowed the momentum for going permanently car-free. It will take until December for the city to issue a report on the restrictions. No timeline has been laid out for implementation.

Funding for the study was recently approved by the the SF County Transportation Authority board, comprised of the Board of Supervisors. Proposition K sales tax revenue will account for $100,000 in funding, and another $25,000 will come from D2 Supervisor Mark Farrell’s office.

The study will look at three scenarios, ranging from “limited access” to “car-free,” according to an SFCTA report [PDF].

Last summer, the SFMTA collected data on how the famous crooked block of Lombard and surrounding streets worked during the car restrictions. During the trial, all cars were banned except taxis and drivers who were accessing homes on the block.

The idea is to reduce the car queues that back up for blocks and make the street safer and more welcoming for people on foot. While it doesn’t take data to see that Lombard serves no transportation purpose for through-traffic and is a far better street when it’s open to families and dancing flash mobs — “chaos,” in the eyes of one reporter — challenging the primacy of cars apparently has to be a major undertaking, no exceptions.