13th Street Safety Project

Virtual Open House

April 18, 2022 - April 30, 2022

Welcome!

(seleccione a continuación su idioma preferido | 請在下面選擇您慣用的語言)

Thank you for joining the 13th Street Safety Project Virtual Open House! This is an opportunity to learn more and give the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) feedback on proposed traffic safety and streetscape improvements along 13th Street and Duboce Avenue between Folsom Street and Valencia Street.

We want to hear from you!

The SFMTA is seeking your input on potential street designs for this corridor so that we can better address safety needs.

This open house website will be available for feedback from April 18 to April 30, 2022. While the open house website is live, staff will be available via email, and you are also welcome to attend our online or in-person office hours for further questions.

Office Hours Schedule:

How to Navigate:

This open house website is best viewed on a laptop or desktop web browser, but it is also accessible by tablet or mobile devices.

There is a navigation bar at the top of the web page that can help you move to specific sections that you're interested in such as background information, proposed changes, and the project schedule. Otherwise, for full project context, we recommend scrolling from the beginning to the end.

To leave a question or comment, please visit the "Feedback" section, which can be found in the navigation bar above or at the bottom of this web page. You can also directly access our feedback survey  here .

If you encounter any issues with this web page, please send an email to  13thStreetSafety@SFMTA.com .

Language Assistance:

To access this open house website in Chinese and/or Spanish, please scroll back up to the top and click on the word, "Welcome" in the corresponding language.

Para acceder a este sitio web de puertas abiertas en español o en chino, regrese a la parte superior y haga clic en la palabra "Bienvenido" en el idioma correspondiente.

要使用中文和/或西班牙文存取開放日網站，請向上捲動至頂部，然後按一下相應語言的「歡迎」一詞。

Contact 311 - Free language assistance / 免費語言協助 / Ayuda gratis con el idioma / Бесплатная помощь переводчиков / Trợ giúp Thông dịch Miễn phí / Assistance linguistique gratuite / 無料の言語支援 / 무료 언어 지원 / Libreng tulong para sa wikang Filipino / การช่วยเหลือทางด้านภาษาโดยไม่เสียค่าใช้จ่าย /خط المساعدة المجاني على الرقم

Overview

The 13th Street Safety Project is an effort to improve traffic safety and comfort on 13th Street and Duboce Avenue from Folsom Street to Valencia Street.

Previous efforts on 13th Street and Division Street improved walking, biking, and driving between Townsend Street and Folsom Street. The 13th Street Safety Project will further expand the bike network by extending protected facilities on 13th Street westward to Valencia Street. The scope of the project will also be informed by preliminary analysis from the SF Planning Department’s Market-Octavia Plan Amendment (the Hub) and the SF County Transportation Authority’s SoMa Freeway Ramps Intersection Safety Study.

The 13th Street Safety Project aims to: 

  • Improve traffic safety and comfort for all who travel on the 13th Street corridor between Folsom Street and Valencia Street
  • Reduce the number of conflicts between those who walk, bike, and drive along this corridor
  • Increase the connectivity of San Francisco's bicycle network

Timeline:

October 2020 - September 2021

  • Collect and analyze traffic data
  • Sought state grant opportunities to fund future capital improvements

October 2021 - March 2022

  • Reviewed and integrated area plans into design concepts
  • Inform community of design concepts
  • Collect initial feedback through direct stakeholder outreach
  • Draft design proposals

April 2022

  • Launch open house website to showcase project information and design proposals
  • Collect feedback about design proposals
  • Adjust proposals as needed in response to feedback

Spring & Summer 2022

  • Finalize environmental review documents
  • Notify community of final designs
  • Pursue final project approval at SFMTA Board of Directors meeting

Fall & Winter 2022

  • Begin detailed design by San Francisco Public Works

Spring & Summer 2023

  • Bid and award construction work
  • Coordinate with various work crews to prepare for implementation
  • Inform community of construction schedule

Summer & Winter 2023

  • Begin construction

Existing Conditions

The 13th Street Safety Project is proposed along 13th Street between Folsom Street and Valencia Street, bordering the South of Market neighborhood and Mission District. The US 101 Central Freeway is directly overhead 13th Street for much of the project corridor. On the ground level, 13th Street serves motor vehicle traffic traveling on and off the Central Freeway. Locally, this corridor provides a direct connection for people who walk, bike, and drive to and from the Mission District, Design District, Mission Bay, and South of Market neighborhoods.

13th Street and Duboce Avenue today

Traffic Safety

13th Street is part of the city's High-Injury Network, the 13 percent of streets that disproportionately account for 75 percent of severe and fatal traffic collisions. Between 2015 and 2019, 99 collisions occurred in the project area and resulted in injury. Over one-third of reported collisions involved bicyclists or pedestrians, and the most common collision factors were red signal violations, high speeds, and unsafe left turns. This makes 13th Street one of the corridors with the highest numbers of serious and fatal collisions in San Francisco.

As the city continues to grow, the area surrounding the 13th Street corridor is expected to see an increase in residential and commercial land uses, according to the Hub Plan. This growth will result in the corridor becoming busier and even more heavily utilized as a key connection, leading to the potential for increased traffic conflicts. To improve the sense of safety and comfort along this corridor, this project proposes to install improvements such as protected bike lanes, curb and sidewalk extensions, and traffic signal upgrades. These tools will assist in accommodating the increase in use of 13th Street by people who bike, walk, or drive in a more responsible manner. These improvements support San Francisco’s Vision Zero policy of reducing and eliminating traffic deaths and severe injuries on our city streets.

Community Destinations

While many pass through 13th Street to access other parts of the city and region, it is a destination in itself. People come to experience the recreational, entertainment, dining, and retail opportunities found along this corridor. Despite challenging conditions, many also travel on 13th Street to access essential businesses and services like Rainbow Grocery and the Division Circle Navigation Center. 13th Street is also a location of cultural significance as it shares a boundary with both the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District and American Indian Cultural District.

Bikeway Network

There are currently no bike facilities on the 13th Street and Duboce Avenue corridor between Folsom Street and Valencia Street. Bike facilities are located along Folsom Street, Valencia Street, and on 13th Street east of the project extents. People traveling by bike along 13th Street currently do so in mixed traffic.

San Francisco Bikeway Network Map

Proposed Changes

Proposed changes to 13th Street include upgrades to bike, pedestrian, and vehicle facilities to improve the sense of safety and comfort while addressing challenges discussed in the Existing Conditions section.

These upgrades include:

  • Bicycle Improvements: protected bikeways, bike signals, bike-only signal phases, bike boxes
  • Pedestrian Improvements: curb extensions, bulbouts, longer walk time
  • Accessibility Upgrades: sidewalk widening, curb ramp upgrades, accessible pedestrian signals
  • Driving Improvements: traffic signal hardware and timing upgrades, travel lane reduction, intersection visibility improvements, parking and loading changes

To view the proposed design, swipe through the images below. Alternatively, you can view a PDF version of the images  here .

Proposed Bicycle Safety Improvements

Current bicycle travel on 13th Street

  • Establishing a new protected bikeway connection. People traveling by bike along 13th Street currently do so in mixed traffic. This project proposes to install protected bikeways in both directions of 13th Street and Duboce Avenue between Valencia Street and Folsom Street. The new protected bikeway would close a gap in the city's bicycle network between Folsom Street and Valencia Street. A protected bikeway offers people biking a dedicated space physically separated from motorized traffic. The physical separation is reinforced using concrete medians, plastic delineators, or a row of on-street parking.
  • Installing dedicated bike signals. This project proposes to pair protected bikeways with bike signals at intersections. Bike signals installed with bike-only signal phases clarify when bicyclists may enter an intersection and is usually paired with restricting conflicting vehicle movements.
  • Providing bike boxes at intersections. Bike boxes are dedicated spaces where bicyclists may wait before proceeding. Bike boxes with arrows are to facilitate turns onto a perpendicular route. Bike boxes are typically painted green as a visual cue for all road users to indicate where bicyclists can be expected.

Proposed Pedestrian Safety Improvements

Current pedestrian travel along 13th Street

  • Extending the curb for more space and protection. Long intersection crossings can be shortened with curb extensions. Curb extensions from median islands can add extra protection for people waiting to cross the street. Curb extensions can also form bikeway channels that provide protected space for bicyclists to approach intersections.
  • Constructing bulbouts at street corners. Bulbouts are one type of curb extention that is an expansion of the sidewalk at the corner of intersections. Bulbouts provide more sidewalk space for people waiting to cross the street, encourage drivers to turn more slowly at intersections, and make pedestrians more visible to all. This project proposes bulbouts at the 13th Street intersections with Mission Street and Folsom Street.
  • Increasing the amount of walk time. Signal timing improvements will be made to provide people with more time to walk across intersections.

Proposed Accessibility Upgrades

Current accessibility conditions along 13th Street

  • Widening narrow sidewalks. Due to the placement of freeway support columns and historic street widening, the sidewalk on the north side of 13th Street west of South Van Ness Avenue is inadequately wide. This project proposes to restore the sidewalk to a more sufficient width, in alignment with the rest of the block.
  • Upgrading curb ramps with better detection. Older curb ramps could be upgraded with yellow truncated domes to provide a tactile surface that is more visible and detectable. This serves people walking with a better warning about where there is a roadway crossing.
  • Installing accessible pedestrian signals at intersections. Accessible pedestrian signals (APS) are pedestrian push buttons that communicate when to cross the street in a non-visual manner, such as audible tones, speech messages, and vibrating surfaces. SFMTA's policy is to install APS at signalized intersections undergoing a major signal upgrade.

Proposed Driving Improvements

Current driving conditions along 13th Street

  • Upgrading traffic signal hardware and timing. Existing traffic signals mounted near freeway columns may be replaced with larger sizes in order to improve its visibility to drivers. Traffic signal timing may be customized to accommodate traffic flow at different times of the day, week, and direction.
  • Reducing the number of travel lanes. To accommodate the new protected bikeway, the number of travel lanes on 13th Street and Duboce Avenue will be reduced at certain locations. Lane reductions will allow a reallocation of roadway space to better serve the complex needs of 13th Street while also providing a better sense of safety for all users.
  • Improving intersection visibility. Paint installations like red curbs and advanced limit lines will be installed at intersections to provide more visibility for all road users.
  • Reconfiguring on-street parking and loading. This project proposes parking and loading changes to accommodate existing land uses and business needs. Color curbs can be used to designate space for commercial and passenger loading activities.

Feedback

Let us know what you think about the proposed changes in the following survey.

Next Steps

Following this virtual open house, project staff will review survey results and make additional changes to based on the feedback received. This project will finalize designs prior to pursuing project approvals from the SFMTA Board of Directors.

Upon project approvals, this project will enter detailed design by San Francisco Public Works with anticipated construction in 2023.

Contact Info

Thanks for visiting the virtual open house!

While the open house website is live, staff will be available via email, and you can also talk with the project team directly by attending office hours at one of the times listed below:

Other questions, comments, or concerns not answered here? Email the project team directly at  13thStreetSafety@SFMTA.com  with your feedback or submit a voice comment at (415) 646-2242.

To stay in touch, visit the project website or sign up for updates using the buttons below.

 4/20/22 Update - Image of proposed design was edited at the southwest corner of 13th Street and South Van Ness Avenue.