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Remember that whole idea about shutting part of Market Street to vehicle traffic, kind of like what they've done with sections of Broadway in New York City? Well, it's coming to pass in a pilot program, at least for a six-week test run, starting on September 29th. Vehicles traveling eastbound (downtown) on Market will be encouraged to turn right on 10th Street, and then forced to turn right on 8th. Any cars that get onto Market Street via 7th will be forced to turn right on 6th. (See map here.) While comparisons have been made to Las Ramblas in Barcelona or NYC's new traffic-free plazas along Broadway, the difference here is the compromise which will still allow bus, taxi and delivery vehicle traffic down Market -- forcing only unwitting East-Bayers and tourists who don't already know to avoid Market Street to drive in endless, crazy-making circles.
Granted in New York, cars and taxis can still move down Seventh Avenue through Times Square, but as anyone who's been there recently can attest, it's a total traffic nightmare and jacks up cab fares anywhere in the vicinity (but yes, there are now nice places to sit and sun yourself while watching the jumbo-trons). San Francisco plans to incrementally shut Market Street completely to vehicular traffic, beginning first with the creation of mini-plazas with outdoor seating and landscaping, and ultimately with the addition of new medians and cobblestones pending a 5+ year planning process. Owners of businesses in the mid-Market area (between 5th and 8th Streets) believe that these changes will help their blocks feel more friendly to pedestrians. We would like to point out that many of those pedestrians themselves -- particularly the mentally ill and severely alcoholic -- will simply use this as an excuse to stand in the middle of the street more often.
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Man that is a bad idea on so many levels. Private cars are maybe half the traffic anyway so Market will still be crowded. Oh the street is also freakin disgusting with...you know the homeless and the pigeons (and those homeless pigeons)
Wow, how cool is this. I can't wait to go for a leisurely stroll down Market from 10th to 5th. Maybe I'll take the kids and sit in one of the new mini plazas. How fucking ridiculous.
And we all know how wonderful traffic flows in Barcelona and NYC. Why not compare it to Lagos and Taipei, those other traffic paradises, as well?
time to open that quadracycle rental shop i've been dreaming out all these years.
They've been trying to do this for years... and it's a wretched idea.
p.s. why are they only doing this half-assed (err, half way...). They're not banning car traffic going west (away from downtown).
p.p.s. this is going to make that part of town even more devoid of life.
p.p.p.s. insert obligatory "I hate MUNI" comment
They aren't allowing turns from cross-streets inside of 6th so there shouldn't be any (non-bus, -taxi, or -delivery) westbound traffic.
It will be interesting to see what (if anything) they do to keep the mini-plazas from becoming campsites that no one but the homeless want to be anywhere near.
How about no further mini plazas that would block the buses and bikes? The whole point of this project is faster commutes, but it seems to have been hijacked by expensive "great streets" consultants, as witnessed by the Planning Department's awful website.
all of the above comments sound strikingly similar to the reaction to the Castro plaza thing they built.
who knows what will happen? maybe the chess players will expand, and then skaters, and then... who knows? let's just see.
In this town the alternative lifestyle, progressive and free-thinkers flip and represent the establishment so fast it can make your head spin.
"At least they look really cool doing it", is pretty much the only difference between the two camps.
This isn't so much "closing Market Street for cars" as it is "opening Market Street for faster buses."
Yes, and on a related note, I'll be opening my unicorn farm in one of the plazas.
f-ck yeah, two please, I want a breeding pair to start my own farm.
I wonder how quickly Rob "Fat Slob" Anderson will be all over this like he was against the bike plan...insisting on an EIR.
This is one of the stupidist ideas on the books ... humm lets see lets shut down a major street cause what there's no other place to walk around in SAN FRANCISCO? What the f88k is Golden Gate Park? Ocean Beach.... more great ideas from the ass of San Francisco.
Maybe I'm just being an optimist here, but I don't think it's so much for the pedestrians as the fact that traffic here is ALWAYS, ALWAYS slow. If they were closing the Embarcadero, well, that's another story. Walking along Market isn't usually one's way of exercise.
Maybe for the commuting cyclists and to encourage people to take public transport, as it runs through all of the streets they're closing.
Cry moar, neocon.
What is your source for "it's a total traffic nightmare and jacks up cab fares anywhere in the vicinity" re. NYC's closure of Broadway? I assume it's your own anecdotal evidence? Traffic has always been nightmarish in that part of town - I didn't find it to be any worse with the closure. And it was much easier to travel on foot. That's my anecdotal evidence and just as convincing as yours.
As for taxi fares, one just has to hail a cab on the side of Broadway that your final destination is located on - then you don't have to navigate around the pedestrian portion.
Personally, I found the Broadway closure to be a vast improvement and wish they'd do the same thing on all of Market east of Van Ness - buses and bikes only please.
They did this to Chicago's State Street in the late 70s and it made a moribund area even more moribund. Daley (for all his faults) reopened it to vehicular traffic in the mid 90s:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/09/chicagos_pedestrian_mall_solution_traffic/
I think it's a great idea, but I don't get the half-assed execution. Just close Market St. from 10th to the Ferry Bldg. to all vehicles other than buses and streetcars, and make the buses and streetcars stay in a middle, reserved and blocked lane. Cars and cabs will figure out how to live without Market St., I promise.
don't forget unwitting south-bayers. but even we know to stay the hell away from market!