A planned "climate strike" protest by students drew thousands of others and shut down bus, streetcar, and vehicle traffic on Market Street Friday morning.
The protest appears to have drawn tens of thousands of people, however exact numbers are not yet available. Muni announced as of 11 a.m. that it was rerouting all Market Street bus lines onto Mission Street for the time being.
The march went down Market toward the Embarcadero, and then snaked onto streets in the Financial District, creating widespread gridlock.
Some protesters were chanting Sen. Dianne Feinstein's name, and a couple others were painting a line down Market Street to show the march's path for those behind them. Students and many others are demanding swift action on climate-change policy, as they have been in increasing numbers over the last year.
As Bay City News reports, 400 students walked out of classes at Berkeley High School and took BART to attend the march. Many other students at Oakland schools attended as part of planned field trips.
From the climate protest in San Francisco. Hundreds of tech employees literally and figuratively following the kids. pic.twitter.com/itGvJ8HlnM
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) September 20, 2019
It’s a beautiful sunny ☀️ day for a climate change protest in San Francisco! #ThereIsNoPlanetB pic.twitter.com/qNuVm64KF9
— Jonah Leggett (@jonahleggett33) September 20, 2019
San Francisco climate change protest right now. Maybe 30k people, maybe more. #UniteBehindTheScience
— Gary Hallford (@GaryHallford) September 20, 2019
Found the front of the march, passing Grant and O’Farrell now... pic.twitter.com/kLya5exRxY
— Kevin Stark (@StarkKev) September 20, 2019
Students chanting “Dianne Feinstein listen to us. We are the people, you work for us” pic.twitter.com/N7r4kB3AmA
— Kevin Stark (@StarkKev) September 20, 2019
I’ve been here for at least 10 minutes and the march just keeps on going. Lots of people passionate about saving the world #climatestrike pic.twitter.com/bwBaTTJ0c5
— Richard Procter (@rhprocter) September 20, 2019
The drums and chants haven’t stopped, either. #climatestrike pic.twitter.com/JZSK7eaodn
— Richard Procter (@rhprocter) September 20, 2019
Thousands of young people in San Francisco for the youth-led #ClimateStrike!
— Alyssa Kang (@1alyssakang) September 20, 2019
There is hope for our future and our planet! ✊️😍🌍❤️😭🌈#ClimateJustice #ClimateJusticeNow pic.twitter.com/zHrjUXr4bO
As ABC 7 reported earlier Friday, the protest in San Francisco is one of may happening simultaneously in cities across the U.S. and it's tied to the United Nation's Climate Action Summit happening in a few days in New York City.
Images coming out of New York on Twitter show a massive crowd there as well.