Last Tuesday, April 1, the SFMTA Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve the Oak Street Quick-Build! We’re excited to see this project finally be approved and moving forward to implementation.
Despite opposition turning out to the hearing, we were able to have double the amount of public comments in support of the project. Thank you to our amazing members who spent their Tuesday afternoon sitting in City Hall with us. It truly makes a huge difference for our city leaders and departments to see the community support these projects.
We heard from SFMTA staff that it was extremely helpful to have those meetings early in the design process with our members at Flywheel Coffee. Your feedback and participation helped shape this project and got us here today.
This project is a huge win for San Francisco – as our population grows in the next decade and we continue to battle a warming planet, we need to expand capacity for sustainable modes of transportation.
The Panhandle area represents an extremely important east-west connector for people biking and rolling and we need to create more, safe bike ways for people to utilize.
This stretch of Oak Street and where it intersects with Masonic Ave are both on the High Injury Network – the small percentage of San Francisco streets that see the most severe and fatal traffic collisions. We hear frequently from our members about how dangerous the intersection at Masonic is and we know this quick-build will be a big step toward improving the safety here for everyone.
We learned in the SFMTA Board meeting that due to a Department of Public Works repaving project, construction of the bike lane won’t take place until the beginning of 2026. Since the road is about to be repaved, it doesn’t make sense to repaint the road and build the bike lane, just for it to be torn up in a few months.
In the meantime, the SFMTA will be creating the double turn lane and signal separation with pedestrians at Masonic Ave, implementing daylighting that is happening in tandem with the quick-build, and building the short off-road portion of the bike lane. In early 2026, they will reduce the traffic lanes from four to three and build the parking-protected bike lane.
We want to give a special thank you to former Supervisor Dean Preston and his staff for pushing this project forward for years and also thank current Supervisor Bilal Mahmood for jumping in to champion this project so we could continue without a hitch.
We are able to do this kind of long-term advocacy because of the support of our members and donors. Your contributions allow our staff to advocate on your behalf and ensure your voice is heard by city leaders.
We look forward to celebrating the completion of the Oak Street Quick-Build with you!
