San Francisco active transportation supporters are pushing for a trial of pedestrianized Valencia Street between 16th and 17th streets and 23rd and 24th streets in the Mission District.
Catherine Orland and other bike advocates hope to see Valencia Street free from cars. Their proposal would include banning cars from a couple blocks of the street for a short period to see how pedestrians and bikers respond. "[i]f the trial is successful–and the two blocks prove safer for cyclists but still lucrative for merchants–the idea would be to turn all or nearly all of Valencia into a pedestrianized street, similar to Las Ramblas in Barcelona, as seen in the image below," Roger Rudick reports for Streetsblog SF.
SFMTA had proposed bike lanes on the street, but Orland hopes to push further by blocking cars from entering the already popular walking and biking blocks between 17th and 18th and between 23rd and 24th.
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