What the SFMTA’s next five-year funding plan means for safe streets

How the SFMTA spends its various sources of funding is determined in its five-year Capital Improvement Program: the CIP. Updated every two years, the CIP details all of the transportation agency’s infrastructure project commitments, including street safety projects. 

Walk SF always closely tracks the CIP process and advocates whenever we can on behalf of pedestrians. 

On Tuesday, I went to the SFMTA Board meeting where the proposed FY 27-31 CIP was discussed (note that the Board will vote to adopt it at the April 21 meeting). Before the meeting, I dug into the CIP’s line-by-line tables, which show exactly what the SFMTA proposes doing in the coming years. 

So is what’s in the CIP what’s needed most to accelerate progress for pedestrians? 

Here’s Walk SF’s take, which I shared in public comment on Tuesday.

Big picture, street safety investments in the CIP are largely focused on what works: keeping drivers at safe speeds; increasing visibility and protection at intersections; and redesigning streets to protect the most vulnerable. 

Included in the CIP are several Walk SF funding priorities that we strongly advocated for:

• $3 million for ‘hardened daylighting.’ Daylighting prevents parking at certain parts of the intersection to ensure clear sightlines for drivers and pedestrians. ‘Hardened daylighting’ puts protective infrastructure in the daylightings space like posts, bike racks, and planters to prevent drivers from illegally parking there. Hoboken, New Jersey, which has had zero traffic deaths for nine years now, has shown how powerful hardened daylighting is in helping to prevent crashes. Note that there’s also $300,000 designated to finish painting daylighting at all intersections citywide, which the SFMTA previously committed to complete in 2026.
• $22.5 million for a reformed Residential Traffic Calming Program. We need many more speed humps, tables, and cushions on neighborhood streets to address dangerous speeding – and know San Franciscans want these, too. Walk SF has been pushing for a Residential Traffic Calming Program that’s more efficient, equitable, and proactive, so this is a great step in the right direction.  
• A 50% increase in funding for Quick Build projects from $4 million annually to $6 million. Vision Zero Quick Build projects are proven effective in reducing speeds, close-calls, and crashes – and are cost-effective, too. The new high-injury network map includes many streets that have yet to get any meaningful safety improvements, so it’s good to see more funding designated for Quick Build projects and especially in communities that haven’t yet seen real investments in traffic safety. 

While we acknowledge that there are constraints, there are three areas in particular that Walk SF believes need more funding as is possible:

• Safety projects in school zones. $9.9 million is currently designated in the CIP for traffic calming projects at schools. That translates to less than $2 million each year for improvements at 10 schools. The SFMTA has completed 26 schools, but over 100 schools still await safety projects. This means it would take more than a decade to complete all at these funding levels – too long.
• Turn calming. One of the biggest threats to pedestrians is turning vehicles, especially left-turning vehicles. ‘Turn calming’ places rubber bumpers or posts strategically in an intersection so drivers have to take slower, tighter turns. At intersections in New York City with left turn calming, pedestrian injuries have decreased by 20%. We need this solution brought to scale here in San Francisco, where it’s currently installed at only 42 intersections. The CIP includes $1.5 million for turn calming, so an average of $300,000 a year. 

• The Red Light Camera program. There are red light cameras at only 18 locations in San Francisco, and we have waited more than five years for red light cameras at six additional locations. The CIP includes funding to add up to eight more in the next five years. Meanwhile, New York City is installing five per week until the end of the year to be at 600 intersections total and Washington, DC now has 55 red light camera locations. San Francisco should be doubling the size of its red light camera program in the next five years.
  

For our city to achieve truly safe streets, we need solutions at scale, in layers, and the level of investment must meet that need. And these investments pay off in human lives saved and in many other ways, too.

I’m happy to share that the proposed diversion of $40 million in safe streets capital funding to fill an SFMTA funding gap is officially off the table. That funding is back in the CIP street safety budget where it belongs. Thank you to everyone who sent emails to the SFMTA Board about this.