On June 1st, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) began public outreach for the 17th Street quick build, a project that will improve safety for people who walk, bike, and roll along 17th Street. This virtual open house aims to gather feedback from local stakeholders and users of this important bicycle corridor. 17th Street is a vital connector for people on bikes and other active modes of transportation between the Mission, Dogpatch, and Bayview neighborhoods, providing a relatively flat, safer alternative to 16th Street.
Since 2020, local advocates and community groups such as Safer17th have been pushing for changes on 17th Street to take this essential roadway off the city’s high-injury network, the 13% of our city’s roads that make up 75% of severe and fatal traffic collisions. In the past three years, Safer17th has gathered over 700 signatures in favor of building protective infrastructure for this corridor and continues to be a major driving force in making this project a priority for the SFMTA.
With bicycles making up between 30- 40% of total traffic on 17th Street, redesigning the street with an emphasis on active transportation is a top priority. With this knowledge, the SFMTA has been working over the last year to develop a design for the street that not only creates a much safer route for people biking, but also protects pedestrians and considers the needs of local businesses. The proposed design achieves this through different road and intersection treatments between Potrero Ave. and Mississippi Street. These include protected corners to shield bike lane users from turning cars, painted lanes through intersections, and two kinds of protected bike lanes throughout the project area.
Your San Francisco Bicycle Coalition fully supports improvements along 17th Street and are committed to working alongside local stakeholders to advocate for stronger protections at specific intersections like Potrero Ave to improve connectivity for people on bikes. The proposed design currently lacks a strong connection to existing infrastructure across Potrero Ave and we know creating strong bike connections to the rest of the city’s bicycle network is an essential part of the success of any bike project.
17th Street needs your help! Members of the public have an opportunity to weigh in on the SFMTA’s proposed design for 17th Street between now and June 15th.
