Project Update - March 2020

Thank you for your interest in Safer Taylor Street. 

On March 1, Rui Xai Zhen was struck and killed while walking at the intersection of Taylor and Geary streets. One fatality is too many. The loss of life and the fact that one death is unacceptable is at the core of Vision Zero, the city's commitment to creating safer and more livable streets with the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities. The SFMTA Rapid Response team coordinated with SFPD and investigated the collision site within 24 hours and designed upgrades to the traffic signals at Taylor/Geary as well as Taylor/Post with larger signal heads for better visibility. These changes are temporarily on hold until the shelter-in-place order is lifted.

Additional safety improvements will be installed as part of the Safer Taylor Street streetscape project, including wider sidewalks and bulbouts between Turk to Ellis streets to improve visibility, slow turning vehicles, and decrease crossing distances; and a left turn arrow at the intersection of Taylor Street and Geary Street to separate pedestrians crossing the street from drivers turning left. People crossing Geary Street on the west leg of the intersection will have their own exclusive time to cross while drivers have a separate time to turn left from northbound Taylor Street onto westbound Geary Street.

More broadly, during this public health emergency related to COVID-19, the SFMTA is making important changes to key agency operations. Although there is a shelter-in-place order, we are continuing work on the construction design and mitigation phases for Safer Taylor This is an evolving and challenging situation, and it's reasonable to have questions about how the agency is responding to COVID-19. SFMTA has created an up-to-date resource to help you keep up with changes.

Additionally, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) has created a COVID-19 Small Business Resiliency Fund to assist impacted small business owners during this public health emergency. You can find more information here. 

• To get the most up to date information, please check our regularly updated webpage at SFMTA.com/COVID19. 

The Safer Taylor project team will continue to be available throughout this time. For project-related questions, please contact Jenn Chan at jennifer.chan@sfmta.com.  

Thank you for your support and your patience. 

Stay Updated 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to SFMTA with any questions, concerns, or recommendations on how the project team can move forward in a way that best supports the interests of the local community and the city of San Francisco generally. 

Thanks for reading and looking forward to getting in touch with you again.

SFMTA Updates: SFMTA.com/COVID19 

Citywide Updates: sf.gov/topics/coronavirus-covid-19