Lake Merced is one of the city’s premier parks and yet one of the most inaccessible. Poor path conditions around the lake and major, fast-moving streets like Lake Merced Boulevard and Skyline Boulevard bordering the park make it difficult for those walking and biking to enjoy this beautiful space.
Your San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, alongside our City partners and safe streets advocates, have been hard at work this year to bring big changes to Lake Merced to create a safe, enjoyable park for all.
Here’s what we’re working on:
1. Fixing the Lake Merced path: Last month at the Recreation and Park Commission meeting, we won approvals for the Lake Merced project which will bring necessary improvements to the biking and walking path along the lake. This win will ensure more people can safely and comfortably enjoy the path. This is the second project approved this year that addresses critical safety concerns along and near the lake.
2. Securing more funding for bike lane improvements around Lake Merced: Recognizing the need for better bike infrastructure around Lake Merced, Supervisor Norman Yee advocated for and secured $150,000 last month to develop plans to improve bike lanes along Lake Merced Boulevard and John Muir Drive. This funding will allow the SFMTA to conduct a study to determine different options to improve bike infrastructure in this area, given segments are already on the city’s high-injury network.
3. Traffic calming on John Muir Drive: Earlier this year, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) approved important traffic calming improvements to John Muir Drive including raised crosswalks and daylighting (the removal of obstructions to make crosswalks more visible to people driving). These improvements were won by the direct advocacy of the Westside Waves, a girls soccer team that went to City Hall to demand urgent action after their teammate, Madlen Koteva, was tragically hit and killed by a driver while walking across the street. These improvements just broke ground and will be complete by the end of the summer.
While we are seeing so much progress on our downtown streets, we are making sure that our advocacy leads to changes in the outer neighborhoods of San Francisco too. Sign up for updates and make sure you receive the latest news as these projects advance.