Take a tour of Van Ness Avenue and Polk Street, parallel streets one block apart that comprise a multimodal system in an area of the city anticipating significant residential and employment growth in the near future. Van Ness Avenue is San Francisco’s most significant north-south surface transit street and will be home to the city’s first Bus Rapid Transit project, currently in final design. It is also part of US 101 and a significant private vehicle and freight route. Polk Street is a major north-south bicycle route and recently had implementation of a new contra-flow lane near its southern terminus. Further innovative bicycle treatments are proposed for Polk Street, and both streets will receive significant pedestrian safety and placemaking upgrades in the next few years. See how the City has taken the attributes of these two streets to optimize mobility for all modes in this exciting corridor. We will discuss the challenges, tradeoffs, and successes in the development of these projects.
Led by:
Michael Schwartz, Transportation Planner, SFCTA
Luis Montoya, Transportation Planner, SFMTA