S.F. Street Readies for Carless Pilot Project

Beneficiaries: pedestrians and the iconic cable cars.

San Francisco parking meter

(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

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A portion of San Francisco’s Powell Street, long known as a hectic assemblage of hazards for pedestrians and drivers alike, will undergo an 18-month pilot program aimed at improving pedestrian safety, starting next month.

The San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority approved the effort, which will remove non-commercial vehicle traffic from the portion of the street between Geary and Ellis. Depending on how the trial period goes, the changes could be permanent. A reported 4,000 people walk those two blocks every hour.

According to SF Bay 25 collisions occurred in the corridor over the last five years, 18 with injuries. The news outlet reports that “the transit agency will collect data during the pilot on … pedestrian collisions and traffic counts and speeds.”

Traffic congestion on Powell also hurts the city’s iconic cable cars.

“They were not designed to operate in stop-and-go traffic,” said Dan Howard, project manager of the pilot program, of the cable cars, according to SF Bay. “Just like a manual transmission car, the cable grip must slip the cable while it is moving forward from a stop or traveling slower than the eight miles per hour that the cable travels. This slipping every time it occurs causes damage to the cable.”

SFMTA says it currently has to replace the cables about once a month.

Well into the second year of a citywide Vision Zero campaign, efforts at educating drivers have been tied to a safer environment for pedestrians.

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Marielle Mondon is an editor and freelance journalist in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in Philadelphia City Paper, Wild Magazine, and PolicyMic. She previously reported on communities in Northern Manhattan while earning an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.

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Tags: san franciscocarsstreetcarspedestrian safety

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