Mayor London Breed, District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, SFMTA Director of Transportation Jeffrey Tumlin, and the "West Portal community" held a ceremony Friday to mark the installation of a "quick-build," paint-and-plastic safety installation in front of West Portal Station.
“It took less than six months from launching this project to getting safety improvements built, and we have West Portal community members to thank for that,” said Melgar, who is up for re-election, about the event. “I convened the Welcoming West Portal Committee with community members who had very different viewpoints, but they talked to each other, pooled their local knowledge and came up with ideas that are already making it safer to get around. I’m grateful for this community spirit from our merchants and neighbors, which makes West Portal the special village that it is.”
Streetsblog readers will recall that last March a family of four was killed by an errant motorist in West Portal while waiting to transfer from a train to a bus. SFMTA responded to the tragedy by proposing to divert all motor traffic away from the mouth of the station, where pedestrians, transit vehicles, and motorists currently mix. They presented a bold plan that used concrete planters, as depicted below, to prevent a future tragedy.
However, after blowback from merchants and other drivers, the SFMTA board paused the safety plan. Melgar convened the "Welcoming West Portal Committee" to get additional feedback. The original plans were subsequently watered down to some limited turning restrictions enforced only with plastic and paint. The result, as depicted in the lead image, is another safety sop that doesn't actually eliminate potentially lethal conflicts.
"I would say that ten to twenty percent of cars were just blowing through the prohibited turns," wrote safe-streets advocate Shanan Delp in an email to Streetsblog. Streetsblog also visited the area and confirmed Delp's observation, as seen in the lead image of a motorist ignoring restrictions and driving directly across the front of the station using the transit-only lanes.
Delp also shot video of the new installation in action:
The mayor's office, meanwhile, promises more changes, including some planters as part of a "beautified" entrance, a bikeshare station, and a street art mural. However, the full restrictions on driving through the station area, as originally proposed by SFMTA after last March's tragedy, will not happen.
"The installation in West Portal fails to deliver the benefits for business, people, public transportation, and safety that the original proposal would have," wrote Luke Bornheimer, Executive Director of Streets Forward. "Under Mayor Breed’s leadership, SFMTA continues to implement half-measures that fail to deliver on the transformation needed to make our streets safe, equitable, and sustainable public spaces for all."
