As reported last summer, a change is coming to Twin Peaks. The popular tourist destination and vantage point draws throngs of tourists and locals whose cars can crowd its roads and create a safety hazard for pedestrians and cyclists. In an effort to increase access and safety, the Municipal Transportation Agency is advocating a pilot program to restrict vehicles to the west side of the hill. If approved, the Chronicle reports that the program would turn the east side — the side facing downtown — into a pedestrian and cyclist only street while keeping the west side as a two lane road.

“Twin Peaks is not only an important tourist destination, but an important recreation destination and an important natural resource," Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg told the Chron. The pilot, he furthered, “increases the recreational accessibility of the area and makes it safer for bicyclists and pedestrians.”

The selected plan was one of five different configurations put forward by Rec and Park this past summer, and if approved, the department notes the "project would be implemented sometime this summer, using paint and temporary railings to prevent motor vehicle access to the eastern half of the roadway."

The Chron hastens to assure its readers that the proposed plan will in no way impact the parking spaces at the Christmas Tree Point lookout parking lot. Parking on the shoulder, though, could also be banned.

The program is scheduled to go before SFMTA board for a vote at their April 19 meeting. We reached out to an SFMTA spokesperson to find out when the pilot program might go into effect, but have not received a response as of publication time. Until then, you can keep driving circles around those peaks to your heart's content.

Previously: Half of Twin Peaks Blvd. To Go Carless; You Can Decide Which Half

Image via Rec & Park.