We won! The Geary Rapid Project will include important safety fixes for walking

Today, when you cross Geary Boulevard, as compared to an average city street, you are eight times as likely to be hit by a car.

Now, thanks to Walk SF advocacy, this critical corridor will become much safer for everyone who walks there.

Last month, we asked you to tell the SFMTA (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency) to please stand strong for pedestrian safety on Geary Street. Together, we spoke up, and the SFMTA did it!

Now the Geary Rapid Project will not only improve bus service on this key transit corridor, it will also make important improvements for walking on Geary, from Market to Stanyan Street.

Here are the improvements we wanted to see:

• Eight new pedestrian median refuges, providing a safe place for people walking to rest or wait, if needed, while crossing the street.
• New corner bulb-outs at 18 intersections, which will shorten crossing distances, make people on foot more visible to drivers, and get turning vehicles to slow down.
• Traffic calming throughout the corridor, via the removal of vehicle lanes or the creation of bus-only lanes.
• New marked crossings at Peace Plaza, Webster Street, Steiner Street, and Buchanan.

On Tuesday, August 21, 2018, the SFMTA voted to approve the plans — and all these fixes remained in the project!

We should start seeing change soon. The SFMTA says that on October 1, it will start “daylighting” corners (creating a no-parking red curb zone near corners, so that people on foot and drivers can see each other better). This will be an interim step until the corner bulb-outs are installed. The shiny new red transit lanes will also start going in then. Read more about what’s coming to Geary in October.

These improvements will be transformative. Thank you for your help in making them happen.