Skip to Content
Streetsblog San Francisco home
Streetsblog San Francisco home
Log In
West Portal

Call to Action: Demand a Safe West Portal

The San Francisco Transit Riders wants YOU to urge the SFMTA Board of Directors to approve stronger West Portal safety and transit improvements

By San Francisco Transit Riders

3:17 PM PDT on July 15, 2024

Cars continue to speed through the crosswalks and transfer areas of West Portal. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick

Note: GJEL Accident Attorneys regularly sponsors coverage on Streetsblog San Francisco and Streetsblog California. Unless noted in the story, GJEL Accident Attorneys is not consulted for the content or editorial direction of the sponsored content.

On March 16, an errant driver killed Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, Matilde Ramos Pinto, and their two small children at Ulloa Street and Lenox Way. They were transferring on their way via Muni to the zoo. Tuesday/tomorrow, July 16, at 1 p.m. in room 400 of City Hall, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors will vote on a whether to implement a heavily watered-down, "compromise" safety plan in West Portal. Or they can vote to approve the comprehensive redo of West Portal that was originally proposed to truly make it safe. The San Francisco Transit Riders is sending out the post below, urging people to attend the meeting and/or write to the board to vote to put safety first, instead of making it always secondary to parking and motoring interests.

On Thursday, June 27, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Myrna Melgar announced a watered-down plan for the West Portal safety improvements. This new plan removed five of the eight proposed turn restrictions and about 70 percent of proposed transit-only lanes in front of the West Portal transit station. 

These adjustments to the design create more areas of vehicle-pedestrian conflicts and provide the least improvements to transit performance. 

The San Francisco Transit Riders is urging members, riders, pedestrians, and other street safety advocates to email and tweet the SFMTA Board of Directors to approve stronger West Portal safety and transit improvements.

  • Send an email or tweet to the Board using SFTR's helpful tool: You can read SFTR's letter to the SFMTA Board of Directors and easily customize your message to them using this link
  • Make a public comment at tomorrow's SFMTA Board of Directors Meeting. Tuesday, July 16 at 1 pm, City Hall, Room 400, Floor 4. One Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA

Tips on making a public comment can be found on SFTR's previous blog post. For questions, email the SFTR at info@sftransitriders.org

For background, check out Streetsblog's past coverage here, here, here, and here.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter