Sanchez Slow Street Permanence

9/13/2021 Update: The public commenting period for this open house has concluded. The virtual open house webpage will remain active so that the public can continue to learn about the Sanchez Slow Street effort.

The Slow Street was authorized to remain in place post-pandemic and disassociated with the Mayor's State of Emergency at the August 3, 2021, SFMTA Board of Directors meeting. The post-pandemic Slow Street design was approved on September 10, 2021, by the City Traffic Engineer.

Implementation is scheduled to begin as early as mid-September 2021. Immediate work includes upgrading the existing barricades used for soft diversion to the latest barricade design, and the installation of continental crosswalks at intersections noted on the Sanchez Slow Street design map. Slow Streets signs and pavement markings will be installed as materials become available.

View this Virtual Open House in another language:

 Español  |  中文 

Thank you for joining the second Sanchez Slow Street Virtual Open House! This is an opportunity for the public to learn more about the Slow Street on Sanchez Street and see the post-pandemic design.

Goals of this open house:

• Inform the public and gather feedback on the design of the Sanchez Slow Street

Complete our Sanchez Slow Street design comment card. More information about how to leave feedback ins the "Tell Us What You Think!" section of this open house.

The Open House webpage is best viewed on a laptop or desktop web browser, but it is also accessible by tablet or mobile devices.

To leave a question or comment, please visit the community feedback section titled "We Want to Hear From You", which can be found in the navigation bar above or at the bottom of this web page.

If you encounter any issues with this webpage, please send an email to  SlowStreets@SFMTA.com  with the subject line: "Sanchez Slow Street Permanence Virtual Open House".

Language assistance:

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

Slow Streets were conceived and implemented as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their purpose is to provide more space for physically distanced essential trips through modes like walking or bicycling and enable residents to exercise or recreate outside during the shelter-in-place order. Slow Streets were part of the Mayor’s Emergency Public Health Order, and most of them will sunset once the order has been lifted and the city is no longer in the state of emergency.

While the COVID-19 emergency purpose of Slow Streets will diminish and disappear in time, the treatment serves important purposes for recovery and beyond. Slow Streets are an important aspect of the SFMTA’s Transportation Recovery Plan in creating low-stress walking and bicycle routes that augment limited Muni service, and establishing public spaces for neighbors to build connections. By prioritizing the use of these streets for walking, biking, and as outdoor space, Slow Streets represent a repurposing of public space towards a broader set of needs. 

Resident and user surveys conducted in 2021 have shown support for the Slow Street on Sanchez Street to become a permanent neighborhood feature. This project proposes to convert the current temporary Slow Street on Sanchez Street between 23rd and 30th streets into a permanent feature in the neighborhood. Furthermore, this project seeks to learn more about the traffic safety issues experienced by users and how to resolve them through additional traffic safety design treatments. 

• Support the SFMTA’s Transportation Recovery Plan - Slow Streets corridors provide a low-stress network of walking and biking routes, which offer an alternative mode of travel that can augment Muni service
• Establish the Slow Street to exist beyond the COVID-19 pandemic
• Determine and implement other traffic safety features to address community needs
• Repurpose the space on the residential street for use beyond just motor vehicle access and travel

Below is a map showing the extents of the current temporary Slow Street that is being proposed to become permanent.

The Sanchez Slow Street Permanence Project is currently in Step 3 on the path to permanence. Below is a graphic showing the process for converting a temporary Slow Street into a permanent one:

Resident and user surveys were conducted in early 2021 to evaluate how the Sanchez Slow Street was working and assess the community's thoughts on it. The surveying effort also helped inform the possibility of converting the temporary Slow Street into a permanent one, which is Step 1 in the Slow Streets Path to Permanence Process.

Here are some findings and community feedback from the surveying effort:

Comment from a respondent to the Sanchez Slow Street Resident Survey deployed in early 2021.

The SFMTA initiated a community outreach process earlier this March. During this period, a virtual open house platform was launched to inform the community about the Slow Streets program and the initiative to convert the temporary Sanchez Slow Street into a permanent one. During this initial outreach period, the team held four virtual meetings, attended several meetings with community members and groups, and gathered community feedback to inform the permanent design.

The outreach was focused on determining traffic safety issues users experienced on the Sanchez Slow Street and whether there was support for the various treatments in the Slow Streets toolbox that could be incorporated into a permanent design. Here is a summary of the findings from the Spring 2021 initial outreach period:

Slow Streets are shared roadways between people on foot, bike, or scooter and cars on residential streets. They are not full street closures. They mainly work by discouraging through traffic from accessing the street with traffic diverters. Street access and usage from local traffic, emergency vehicles, and mail/delivery services are still allowed. Signage is also installed to emphasize pedestrian and bicycle priority on the street, warn motorists of the possible presence of people walking, running, or biking in the roadway, and discourage unsafe vehicle speeds. 

Check out the images below which show the old Type III Barricade configuration used as traffic diverters and the new more durable traffic diverter and sign combination. The new durable traffic diverters and signs will be coming to all Slow Streets corridors (temporary and permanent) in 2021:

Slow Streets, shared streets, neighborhood greenways, and bicycle boulevards are all relatively synonymous terms with minor functional differences. These street types are not a new concept and have existed or are becoming more prevalent and popular in the past decade. The concept for all is similar, reprioritize the space from primarily serving cars to being a space that can be used by all. This is accomplished by minimizing traffic volumes through discouraging non-local access, alerting drivers to travel slower, and emphasizing the street as a shared roadway between cars, and people.

Here are some examples of shared street concepts from not just the United States but also around the world: 

Dutch Woonerf:

Manhattan Shared Space

Berkeley Bicycle Boulevard

Barcelona Superblock

The Sanchez Slow Street effort proposes to maintain the Slow Street designation on Sanchez Street between 23rd and 30th streets, beyond the Mayor's Emergency Public Health Order. 

Along with the post-pandemic Slow Street designation, the following traffic safety treatments from the Slow Streets toolbox are also proposed as part of this effort to create a safer Sanchez Slow Street:

The public commenting period associated with the virtual open house has now concluded. The Slow Street's team attended the following events for final approvals of the post-pandemic Sanchez Slow Street:

SFMTA Engineering Public Hearing - September 3, 2021. See the results of the hearing and the directive approving the Slow Street:

SFMTA Board of Directors meeting - August 3, 2021. See the SFMTA Board Resolution that extends the Slow Street beyond the COVID-19 State of Emergency:

Click the button below and subscribe to email or text message updates on the Sanchez Slow Street permanence effort.

Learn more about Permanent Slow Streets via the link below: