Effort to Rethink San Francisco's 'Premier Street' Grows

Planning for the $350 million Better Market Street project, which aims to transform downtown's main thoroughfare into a transit and people-oriented place, has expanded to encompass surrounding streets.

February 6, 2013, 2pm PST | Jonathan Nettler | @nettsj

"Remaking one of the city's busiest streets could involve banishing buses from downtown Mission Street and redesigning the thoroughfare to make travel safer and easier for the city's growing number of cyclists," reports John Wildermuth. "The plan being studied by city officials is the newest of three alternatives for a $350 million Better Market Street project, which would remake the city's main boulevard into a designated transit corridor and transform the adjoining downtown sidewalks and plazas into inviting places for the hordes of workers, tourists and other visitors who jam into the area every day."

"The Mission Street option is a recent addition to plans for the Market Street upgrade, which were released last September. It's designed to deal with some of the problems raised by the original study, including the need for a pricey rebuild of Market Street curbs and adjoining utilities to accommodate a bikeway and the likelihood of dangerous conflicts between cyclists, vehicles and pedestrians where transit stops narrow the street."

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink and improve San Francisco's premier street," said Mindy Linetzky, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Public Works, the lead agency for the project. "Market Street is San Francisco's main street. It should look and work like one."

Full Story:

Market Street overhaul rethinks Mission too

Published on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 in San Francisco Chronicle