Jones Street Quick-Build

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Welcome! |  歡迎!  |  ¡Bienvenido! |  Chào mừng!  |  أهلا بك  | Mabuhay! 

Thank you for joining the Jones Street Quick-Build Project Open House! This is an opportunity for you to learn more and give us feedback on our proposed traffic safety improvements along Jones Street between O’Farrell Street and Golden Gate Avenue.  We want to hear from you! 

This Open House website (also known as a story map) will be available for feedback from March 28, 2022 to April 15, 2022. While the Open House website is live, staff will be responding to your emails, phone calls, survey responses, and in-person questions during the three-week period.

The Open House story map 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 safety information, proposed roadway designs, the survey link, and more. 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  Jones Street Quick Build feedback survey  by clicking on the button below.

If you encounter any issues with this web page, please send an email to TLStreets@sfmta.com

Language assistance:

We have translated this Open House Storymap to the five most common languages in the Tenderloin! To access the Open House in Arabic, Chinese, Filipino, Spanish, and/or Vietnamese, please scroll back up to the top and click on the word, "Welcome" in the corresponding language.

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

In-person outreach has been limited for quick-build projects over the past couple years due to COVID-19. Project staff are excited to be tabling at Tenderloin Sunday Streets on April 10, 2022. Come by our outdoor outreach table on Golden Gate Avenue between Leavenworth and Jones streets to review proposals and chat with staff!

Every street in the Tenderloin is on the city’s Vision Zero High Injury Network, the 13% of city streets where 75% of severe and fatal collision occur.

Some of the people most vulnerable to traffic collisions live in the Tenderloin. The Tenderloin is home to many of San Francisco’s historically marginalized – people of color, people with disabilities, seniors, children, people with very low incomes, individuals struggling with mental illness and/or addiction, and people experiencing homelessness.

The Tenderloin continues to have the highest rate of severe and fatal pedestrian injuries in the City, disproportionally impacting our most marginalized communities.

Please give the application a few minutes to load as you scroll through the maps below.

The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the challenges of addressing the safety needs of the neighborhood. The  Tenderloin Emergency Street s response was implemented in 2020 to expand walking space to enable physical distancing and respond to emerging needs, such as temporary street closures to support small businesses & neighborhood services.

This response work included the Jones Street Physical Distancing Lanes. This change occurred in August 2020 and included converting Jones Street from three lanes to two lanes (known as a road diet). The concrete barriers on the eastside of the street were later removed in October 2021.

The SFMTA partnered with the  Tenderloin People’s Congress  to reach over 300 community members to help determine priorities and needs for Jones. These outreach efforts included:

• Project staff attending monthly standing community meetings
• Six virtual workshops, including one monolingual session (Spanish)
• 30 outdoor tabling events on or near Jones, reaching over 250 people
• Virtual and in-person surveying (352 total responses)
• Jones Street block to block in-person outreach

While the community appreciated the SFMTA’s COVID-19 response work and neighborhood-wide traffic safety initiatives, it was clear through outreach that there are still existing traffic safety issues impacting those traveling along Jones Street.

The four top mobility themes shared during this outreach period included:

• Pedestrian Safety
  • The majority of our survey respondents typically walk, take transit, or bike/scooter along Jones.
  • Respondents had concerns about unsafe conditions at intersections between cars and pedestrians and along sidewalks that resulted in near misses or collisions with scooters.

• Parking & Loading
  • 59% of survey respondents felt that loading/parking was not working
  • While open comments varied, many of the complaints spoke to inconsistent parking enforcement (e.g., double parking) and the need for more passenger loading for paratransit and taxi.
  • There were also comments suggesting the need for a neighborhood parking program for residents and essential workers.

• More Space for People!
  • Over 87% of our total survey responses were open to street activation & programming on Jones.
  • This included interest in youth and family programming such as  Play Streets  as well as parklets similar to  Safe Passage Park on Turk Street. 

• Community Openness to a Mobility Lane
  • 72% of survey respondents were interested in seeing a mobility lane option.
  • Tenderloin residents made up over half of these responses, with 64% of residents interested in mobility lane, 16% against, and 20% undecided.
  • Based on survey comments and community conversations, there was also a strong interest in seeing educational opportunities, including driver safety education, introductory classes for scooter users and bicyclists, and youth helmet giveaways.

The Jones Street Quick-Build will build off COVID-19 response work completed in 2020 and 2021 with four main goals :

1. Build trust and connection with the Tenderloin community
2. Improve traffic safety for the most vulnerable users, specifically pedestrians
3. Reduce speeding
4. Reduce double parking and improve use of curb space for organizations and businesses

Quick-build projects are adjustable and reversible traffic safety improvements that can be installed relatively quickly. Unlike major capital projects that may take years to plan, design, bid, and construct, quick-build projects are buildable within months and are intended to be evaluated and reviewed within 24 months of construction.

Typical quick-build improvements can include:

• Road diet (e.g., removal of travel lanes)
• Paint, traffic delineators, and street signs
• Parking and loading adjustments
• Traffic signal timing
• Upgrading bicycle lanes to protected bicycle lanes

Our proposed designs are guided by our ongoing public outreach, environmental review, coordination with our emergency response partners, and COVID-19 work. Using the Quick-Build program toolkit, the designs that are being proposed were developed by the knowledge we have gained over the past several months.

Input received from this open house period along with engineering constraints will help determine the preferred design option for Jones Street. This design will be brought to a formal public hearing in spring 2022.

To view the design options, use the sliders and sidecar function to compare the existing design with the proposed alternatives. When you have viewed the designs, let us know the option you prefer in the "Feedback" section below. You can also view a PDF version of the design options by clicking the PDF box below.

Considerations and tradeoffs

• Speed reduction benefits by removing one lane of traffic
• Reduces points of conflict between people driving and walking
• Reduces overtaking
• Narrow buffers allow vehicles to pull aside for emergency vehicles
•  Painted Safety Zones  for increased pedestrian visibility at intersections
• Curb changes to support block needs

Considerations and tradeoffs

• Speed reduction benefits by removing one lane of traffic
• Reduces points of conflict between people driving, biking, and walking
• Reduces overtaking
• Presents mobility lane option that is unprotected
• The closest existing north or south bike lane in neighborhood is on Polk
• Bike lane would provide easier connectivity to Turk and Golden Gate
• Signal refinement needed for the bike connection at Jones and Golden Gate
• Minimal parking impacts
•  Painted Safety Zones  for increased pedestrian visibility at intersections
• Curb changes to support block needs

The project team considered other possible designs for Jones Quick-Build, but were not included in proposed alternatives due to various engineering and operational constraints.

• A parking protected bike lane was considered, but this design did not provide the minimum width needed for our emergency responders.

• A protected bike lane was also considered, but it was not recommended by staff at this time due to current curb access needs for passenger loading and services.

Thanks for visiting our open house! After reviewing the two street design options above, please let us know which one you prefer by clicking the button below.

While the Open House website is live, staff will be available via email and phone.

• Email us at   TLStreets@sfmta.com  
• Call us at 415.646.2227