Pop-Up Meetings for Better Market Street

Come and see the vision for a car-free Market Street

By Roger Rudick

3:14 PM PST on January 31, 2019

Pop-Up Meetings for Better Market Street

Rendering of the "Better Market Street," plan, cancelled by Mayor Breed's administration. Image: Public Works

Planners for San Francisco’s Better Market Street project are holding an ongoing set of pop-up/outreach meetings at the Strand Theater, near Civic Center station on Market.

From the project’s Q&A:

…the project proposes to restrict private vehicles on Market Street, from 10th to Spear streets. Buses, taxis, commercial vehicles and paratransit would be exempt from vehicle restrictions.

Banning private cars is probably the most stand-out element of the design for Streetsblog’s readers. But as previously reported, this will also be the first major overhaul of Market Street in nearly a half century. The $500 million project, which will re-arrange the street and repair and replace the infrastructure underneath and the surfaces on top, as well as change how Muni buses are run, is supposed to start construction next year. For now, engineering and outreach continue.

Streetsblog checked in on this first week of pop-up meetings this afternoon. Unfortunately, turnout was light, which city officials say they hope will change as more people get word of the meetings (such as through Streetsblog).

SFMTA’s Phillip Pierce, said so far people seem excited about the protected, sidewalk-level bike lanes, as seen in the lead rendering and in the diagram below.