The city is kicking off the Geary at Park Presidio Improvements Project and next Wednesday, they want input from the public to decide how to improve the busiest intersection in the Richmond District.
According to the announcement in Supervisor Sandra Fewer’s recent newsletter, the project “aims to provide a safer and more inviting environment for Muni passengers, pedestrians, runners, and vehicular traffic at the intersection of Geary Boulevard at Park Presidio Boulevard.”
The goal of the project is to design and construct improvements and features that reflect the needs of the community and reinforce neighborhood identity. The city is in the process of reaching out to Richmond District residents, businesses, transit passengers, neighborhood groups, and others for input.
Concepts being considered include seat walls, decorative sidewalks, plazas, and gateway planting.
Wednesday’s public meeting will take place at the SFPD Richmond Station, Community Meeting Room, located at 461 6th Avenue from 6:30pm until 7:30pm.
Can’t make the meeting? Take this online survey to provide your feedback on Park Presidio and Geary. To learn more about the project, visit http://www.sfpublicworks.org/project/geary-park-presidio-improvements-project.
Sarah B.
Sarah – I WORK at Turk and Masonic. The Masonic Streetscape project will eliminate over 200 street parking spaces. It will be a tremendous hardship for us. I LIVE on 14th between Geary and Clement. We didn’t own a car for over 10 years relying on the 38 Geary, cabs and CityCar Share. Now i’m handicapped so we bought a car in 2014. WE don’t have a garage. Sometimes I have to park two blocks away from our apartment (Taking a Vicoden before I start the trek back) The elimination of even one parking space on or around our block will seriously have a negative impact on my quality of life. Transit First has descended into the willy-nilly elimination of parking spaces for it’s own sake. When the City started Transit First there wern’t 45,000 Uber Drivers coming into SF to look for fares, Nor were there as many people forced to move from SF but now drive into there jobs which are still here. The policy and philosophy needs to change.
Greg, I’m sorry about your disability.
Parking spaces are rarely removed willy-nilly. They are removed for safety. Each year roughly 30 DIE and over 200 people are SERIOUSLY INJURED on city streets. I don’t know your situation, but I hope the new improvements to Geary and Park Presidio make you feel safer, even when travelling by car.
http://sfgov.org/scorecards/traffic-fatalities
If SF is serious about Vision Zero they would do a PR campaign for people to LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE STEPPING OFF OFF THE CURB. I drive all around the city most days of the week and the high percentage of people not looking before stepping into and across a street is astonishing! I see it everyday, sometimes several times a day. One of the first things I recall my parents teaching me is”look both ways before crossing the street”. Also, ” make sure you see the driver of the car’s eyes see yours before you cross”.
How is it possible that people (especially younger folks, and older Asians ), don’t look before stepping into traffic?!
The SFMTA has no program to communicate common sense to people in this city. Why not? Is it because they don’t want to make them look as stupid as they are for not looking or is it because they want to justify their jobs by removing parking, creating pedestrian bulb outs and creating bike Lanes (Masonic Geary to Fell, WTFunk!)
The SFMTA has NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING. The previous poster is correct…PEOPLE WALK ACROSS THE STREE WITHOUT LOOKING ALL THE TIME. BICYCLE RIDERS RUN RED LIGHTS ALL THE TIME. THIS ATITUDE OF TRYING TO IMPROVE INTERSECTIONS DOES NOTHING TO STOP THE IDIOTS THAT JOG AND CONTINUE JOGGING ACROSS AN INTERSECTION, EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE MAKING RIGHT HAND TURNS ARE LOOKING FOR A PEDESTRAIN ..A RUNNER..IT IS ASININE TO REMOVE ANY MORE PARKING IN THE CITY.
Brenda, Mark is 100% correct, everyone is in a hurry and no one is paying attention, pedestrians think they can do and walk anytime and anywhere, and most of them stare at their phones. Stop lights should be prolong by at least 5-10 seconds, elderly folks and disable need more time and so do cars and parking spaces are disappearing faster then you can blink around the city. City is building more bicycle lanes but not everyone bikes and this city full of hill is not really built for it, like European cities that are flat and Europeans are in a hurry as we seem to be lately.
Build overpasses for pedestrians like the rest of the world do!
I didn’t realize this intersection was so problematic, and I cross it multiple times a week. I think the best solution would be to time the lights better, giving pedestrians more time to cross.
Also, when traffic is heavy, cars try to beat the lights and they block the crosswalks. I’d like to see some traffic cameras or something to dissuade people from doing this, or to catch them and ticket them.
Decorative sidewalks, more plants and seat walls don’t seem necessary. I’d take good lighting near the bus stops and all along the Park Presidio greenway, though.
No need to make changes to streetscapes on Geary. Just give more time between Red and Green Light changes perhaps. Maybe NOT have Google buses pick up on Park Presidio.
what about a publication education campaign on not using your cellphone when crossing the street. people dont pay attention at all. what about giving tickets to people walking and using cellphone in crosswalks?
This project “aims to provide a safer and more inviting environment for Muni passengers, pedestrians, runners, and vehicular traffic at the intersection of Geary Boulevard at Park Presidio Boulevard.ā Some information is needed please: Is this a particularly unsafe intersection? Where can one find the statistics on this? As far as the word “inviting,” what does that mean? Have a picnic there? Hang out with friends? Enjoy nature without the sight of vehicles ruining my view? “Inviting” sounds like a code word said by someone who has pet projects they want to get implemented. Seems to me this intersection works pretty darn well as it is, in my unwashed opinion.
San Francisco Pedestrian-Vehicle Injuries and High Injury Corridors
http://sfgov.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=7382117f2b5f440e8e183f30cf2c6d57
Longer yellow lights and longer lights in general. Consistent directions for everyone. Giving pedestrians one light, bikes another and motor vehicle another is extremely confusing and creates havoc that we did not have when everyone follows the same rules of the road. Think about people who do not live in this city. How do they approach an intersection? Try to avoid confusing them.
Instead of this useless vanity project, replace Geary!
Er, repave Geary!
no right turn on red lights would be a minimum start.
I was approached this morning to sign a petition in favor of residential parking permits in the Inner Richmond. While Iām a longtime resident of the area, I politely declined. Iām sure parking is already tough for those who work in the neighborhood, shop at local businesses & visit local schools/churches. The last thing this city needs is more parking restrictions, and I do not think residents should be entitled to spots. Before you know it, this whole city will have assigned parking š
Keith – I have residential parking permits in my part of the Richmond, and they prevent people coming in from Marin (for example) and leaving their cars parked all day while they take the bus downtown.
I think there could be signs/maps to help tourists going to the GG bridge, GG Park, Cliff House. The plantings along the green way should be renewed, making sure they’re large enough so residents don’t dig ’em up. Wouldn’t hurt to put some multilingual DON’T LITTER signs too.
Anything we can do to keep Greg from snacking on a Vicodin before getting behind the wheel will be an improve safety on our streets.
So, according to the above link, this actually does not look like that bad of an intersection. At Geary and Park Presidio, it shows
Total Pedestrian Injuries (2005 – 2011): 4
To be honest, for a high-speed major thoroughfare which sees tons of traffic, that’s actually not that bad at all. It would appear that many many other intersections on Geary have much worse statistics of injuries and even fatalities. So why are we focusing on this intersection again?
It looks like there’s been two instances of folks being severely injured at Clement and PP, and Anza and PP, but the last instance was 5 years ago.
At least we aren’t the Tenderloin…now THEY have problems.
It looked like most at the meeting felt this is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, given the poor condition of the green belt and the sidewalks on 14th Avenue. Sorry to say, I’m convinced that once DPW gets funding, they don’t give a damn what the neighborhood thinks.
Small request: please in future place a specific DATE along with “next Wednesday” (in the body of text at least). Sorry, don’t mean to be fussy, it would just help out my family. Thanks as always for bringing neighborhood news to our attention.
Unrelated: Do you know if anyone is buying the old 101 Super Mart (?) space, where the organic grocery used to be? It’s such an eye sore now.
the best way to solve the intersection is to clean up the homeless and the trash. problem solved. otherwise the intersection is fine