Presidio Trust

The Presidio scores another first in safe-street design in the Bay Area

City officials held a press conference yesterday to tout the widening of Arguello Boulevard in the Presidio to add sidewalks and bike lanes. Previously, the short stretch of road had only shoulders for people to walk and bike on, squeezing between guard rails and motor traffic. It's one of the first projects to be funded by a local $10 vehicle registration fee increase which city voters passed under Prop AA in 2010.

It may look like a forgotten military landscape, decaying beneath an elevated freeway and overgrown with weeds, but hidden beneath the abandoned buildings and broken pavement, Presidio planners see the potential to regenerate a wetland.

The Presidio Trust has finished compiling the traffic data it collected during a three-week trial closure on Presidio Boulevard in October, a closure that brought much scorn for the Trust from drivers and some neighbors of the park. Despite the outcry, the trial provided important information for the Trust as the reconstruction of Doyle Drive approaches, according to Trust officials. Trust staff will present the study findings to its board tonight at its monthly meeting, but no action will be taken [PDF].