Community Health Promotion & Prevention

Pedestrian Safety Planning Project

UPDATE REGARDING TENDERLOIN and SOUTHEAST MISSION PEDESTRIAN SAFETY PROJECT

The files regarding the Mission/Tenderloin Pedestrian Safety Planning Project were removed from this website to conserve disk space on our server. If you would like copies of the files, please contact Ana Validzic.

Please send any other comments to:

Frank Markowitz

Pedestrian Program Manager

San Francisco Dept. of Parking & Traffic

One S. Van Ness Ave, 3rd Floor

San Francisco, CA 94103

415-701-4442

frank.markowitz@sfmta.com

The San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) Livable Streets Program and the Department of Public Health (DPH) received a grant from the California Department of Transportation to develop a community pedestrian safety plan for the Tenderloin and Southeast Mission neighborhoods. The goals of the project included:

1. reducing speeding (and reducing average speeds where appropriate);
2. improving the comfort and safety of pedestrians and bicyclists;
3. increasing driver awareness and respect for other users;
4. educating all roadway users about safety; and
5. increasing compliance with traffic safety laws.

The main project objectives were to:

• create a Pedestrian Safety Plan for the Tenderloin and Southeast Mission that can be followed up by specific work with DPT, DPH, and SFPD; and
• review and prioritize possible improvements to selected arterial streets in the Tenderloin and Southeast Mission neighborhood.

As a first step, we convened introductory meetings and developed two working groups (one for each neighborhood). These working groups met monthly to determine the neighborhood safety concerns. The groups addressed education and enforcement measures for pedestrian safety. They also considered traffic engineering improvement options and prioritize their selections. The working groups welcomed a diverse set of representatives from these neighborhoods. Church, school, community organization leaders, business owners, and residents were all invited.

By the end of the project, the working groups had a neighborhood plan for pedestrian safety. In addition, members of the general public who were not on the working groups had an opportunity to provide input into the neighborhood plan. With the support and assistance of DPH and DPT, this plan was submitted to community review and to the Board of Supervisors.

LIVABLE STREETS CORRIDOR STUDY

A major element in the neighborhood plans was to determine the best traffic engineering improvements to implement on some of the arterial streets in the neighborhood with many pedestrian injury collisions. The group worked with the Department of Parking and Traffic to learn what can be done to improve pedestrian and traffic safety as well as prioritize proposed traffic engineering solutions.