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Geary Boulevard

Geary Boulevard

Geary Is Designed Like a Highway

If you’ve walked almost any section of Geary, it’s easy to see why it’s one of the city’s most dangerous streets for pedestrians. Cars speed by – in some sections with six lanes of vehicle traffic – as people try to make it across the street on faded, poorly lit crosswalks at many intersections. Today when you cross Geary, you are eight times more likely be hit by a car than your average San Francisco street.

Changes to Geary Are Afoot

Thankfully, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has two major projects in the works that should help address this street’s major safety challenges: the Geary Rapid Project (Market to Stanyan) and the Geary Boulevard Improvement Project (Stanyan to 34th Avenue).

Let’s Make Geary Great for Pedestrians

Walk SF is advocating for Geary to achieve the highest standards for pedestrian safety. This includes:

  • Significant traffic calming, including via the removal of vehicle lanes and the creation of bus-only lanes in key sections.
  • Numerous pedestrian median refuges where people can safely rest or wait, if needed, while crossing this wide street. This is especially important for seniors and people with disabilities. Sidewalk extensions (called bulb-outs) are also needed to shorten crossing distances.
  • Dramatically improved crosswalks all along Geary so pedestrians are easy to see and cars must slow down.

Thanks to many of you speaking out, the SFMTA approved strong pedestrian safety features in the Geary Rapid Project in August 2018.

Much more work remains to win a Geary that’s great for pedestrians, especially as the planning process ramps up for the Geary Boulevard Improvement Project.

Join our Geary campaign and be alerted of upcoming decisions we need you to speak out on.

Join Campaign

Banner image: William McLeod