Project Update, February 2020

California Street Safety Project

Thanks to all the community members who attended the California Street Safety Project Public Hearing/Open House in November 2019.

On California Street from Arguello Boulevard to Park Presidio Boulevard, there have been 57 injury collisions in the past five years. This part of California Street also has a high rate of Muni-involved collisions, with 35 transit collisions in five years. At 8 to 9 feet wide, the travel lanes are not wide enough in this area for Muni vehicles, that are 10.5 feet wide, including mirrors. As a result, Muni vehicles must straddle multiple lanes, leading to sideswipe collisions. Additionally, multiple lanes in each direction encourages higher traffic soeeds and makes crossing the street challenging for people walking.

We have heard from many neighbors who are concerned about traffic safety in the neighborhood, with some sharing personal stories of how they’ve been impacted by the current conditions on California Street. As a response, we moved forward immediately following the public hearing/open house to quickly improve safety for people who walk in the neighborhood, with some of the project's upgrades including crosswalk upgrades, advance limit lines at intersections and other roadway striping improvements.

Additional data collection on California Street

In addition to traffic safety concerns, we also heard concerns about potential impacts to traffic on California Street or nearby streets due to the “road diet,” or conversion of the roadway from 4 lanes to 3 (including a center turn lane).

To ensure the project is designed as well as possible to improve road safety in the neighborhood while minimizing traffic diversion to side streets, staff collected additional rush-hour traffic counts to inform further project analysis, including:

e Total number of vehicles traveling on California Street in the project area e How many vehicles make a turn at specific intersections

Initial results show that traffic volumes are within the threshold for a successful road diet without major traffic diversion, and data continues to be analyzed. This data will be used to help optimize signal timing to minimize traffic impacts on California Street as a result of the road diet.

Evaluation

All Quick-build projects are built with elements that can be removed or adjusted if needed. The SFMTA will be evaluating the impacts of the project over a 24-month period to ensure that safety goals are being met and that vehicle traffic changes do not slow down Muni service or cause excessive traffic diversion to side streets. Adjustments can be made to address any issues that are identified during the two-year evaluation phase of the project after it is implemented.

Project Update, February 2020

California Street Safety Project

Next steps

To provide neighbors with an update on the additional data collection and address questions about the details of the project scope, there will be an additional meeting in March.

Community meeting scheduled:

Thursday, March 12

6:00- 8:00 p.m.

St. James Preschool, 4620 California Street

The project is anticipated to be implemented in late spring 2020, including: e “Daylighting” or the removal of parking 10 to 20 feet in advance of an intersection crossing to improve visibility e Road diet on California Street between Park Presidio and Arguello Boulevard e Traffic signals on California Street between Arguello and Presidio will be retimed to give people walking additional time to cross while giving California Street more green time to ensure that transit and traffic flows efficiently Check out the project webpage for a detailed visual of the street design.

Thank you for your time,

The California Street Safety Project Team