At Tuesday's regular meeting of the SFMTA board, Director Julie Kirschbaum affirmed that Waymo robot-car service is coming to Market Street. "This is part of an evolving Market Street," she told the board members. "It's important as an agency that we continue to try new things and innovate."
"Our opposition isn’t about Waymo or autonomous vehicles per se—this opens a Pandora’s box that will unleash irreversible harm," said the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's Christopher White, one of 30 members of the public who came to speak about the issue. "The rules of supply and demand would dictate that we’ll see a flood of robo-taxis on Market Street. The announcement is already leading to demands from Uber, Lyft, and the driving public to also be permitted to drive on Market."
The hope, as articulated by the mayor's office, is that Waymos on Market will help revitalize downtown's economy.
"Adding cars back to Market won’t solve those problems. But it will create new ones, like delayed buses, dangerous conditions for people walking and biking, and more congestion on a corridor that was designed to prioritize transit and pedestrians," said Kid Safe SF's Robin Pam.
While nearly all speakers opposed allowing Waymo on Market, a representative for LightHouse for the Blind, which is headquartered on the street, supported the move. "We are thrilled to have Waymos as an accessible and safe option," said LightHouse's Caitlin O'Malior.
After public comment, board member Janet Tarlov asked Viktoriya Wise, SFMTA Streets Division Director, to clarify the agency's jurisdiction over Waymo. Since the original legislation in 2019 that created "car-free" Market Street only actually banned privately owned cars, she explained, Waymos, which are commercially owned, are in effect outside SFMTA's jurisdiction. As Mission Local pointed out in its reporting, Waymo was staying off Market Street as something of a courtesy. Uber and Lyft, on the other hand, employ drivers who use privately owned cars, so their pathway back onto Market Street is more complicated.
Streetsblog underscored the significance of the commercial vs. private-car loophole nearly six years ago. As previously reported, "car-free" Market, when it was originally approved, was supposed to be step one of the larger "Better Market Street" plan to reconfigure the street to prioritize transit and protect cyclists with physical infrastructure. But the "Better Market Street" project was cancelled by former director Jeffrey Tumlin.
"Removing private vehicles from Market Street was a decade-long campaign that Walk SF was part of because, one, the safety issues were so significant for pedestrians–and, two, it is the most walked street in our city," said Walk San Francisco's Malena Mackey Cabada, who also spoke at the meeting. "Before the removal of private vehicles, five out of ten of the entire city’s most dangerous intersections were on Market Street. Someone was seriously hurt in a traffic crash an average of more than two times each week. Since private vehicles have been removed, traffic collisions have been reduced by 40 percent."
Several other speakers pointed out the irony that in a supposedly "transit first" city, Muni cutbacks were truncating some bus lines on Market Street, while opening it up to Waymos for the benefit of those who can afford it. Several speakers pointed out that when Waymos freeze up on Market Street, as they inevitably will, they will cause substantial delays to buses and streetcars.
Advocates urged the board to press SFMTA staff to study the implications of having Waymos on Market Street to transit costs and reliability. Meanwhile, Waymo passenger service, according to the mayor's office, should start this summer.
