Closing the gap on 13th Street

Good news for SoMa! More than two years since the 13th Street Safety project was introduced, the SF County Transportation Authority unanimously approved funding for the bike and pedestrian safety components of the project on Tuesday, November 19. 

13th Street borders two low-income neighborhoods undergoing transformational change and growth, the Mission and South of Market. It’s a key east-west corridor for people biking and walking to locations like the Caltrain Station, Oracle Park, and hospitals in Mission Bay. 

In 2015, we actively supported bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements along 13th Street through the Division/13th Street Safety Project. However, the 2015 project stops at Folsom Street, leaving a three block gap between Folsom and Valencia Street along 13th Street

The project corridor is part of San Francisco’s Vision Zero High Injury Network, which comprises 12% of streets that disproportionately account for 68% of the city’s severe and fatal traffic collisions. Between 2007 to 2012, there were 106 collisions along 13th Street, including two traffic deaths. In a more recent five-year period, 99 collisions occurred on this stretch with over a third of them involving pedestrians and people on bikes. Too many lives have been lost and too many collisions have occurred on this street. 

Currently, the bike lane on 13th Street disappears at Folsom Street, leaving people on bikes competing with fast-moving vehicles merging on and off the freeway. Filling this gap will create the first, continuous, east-west protected bike lane south of Eighth Street and the only east-west separated bike lane in the Mission. 

Most importantly, filling this gap will connect two of our most highly-used bicycle corridors, Valencia and Folsom Street, thus getting us closer to the important goal of a city-wide, interconnected network of car-free and people-prioritized streets. 

We’re grateful  to the SFCTA and the SFMTA for their hard work on the project. We look forward to 13th Street becoming safer for SoMa and Mission residents and those biking and walking along the corridor. 

To stay up to date on all the important work we’re doing to transform our streets in the first official update to the City’s bike plan, sign up for campaign updates below.

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