Active Communities Plan: September Update
After a summer of more than 50 events and nearly 3,000 surveys collected, we’re moving to the next phase of the Active Communities Plan! This next phase will include events across the City from October through January to get direct input on our draft recommendations for the citywide network, for bike & scooter parking, and for programs and policies that support biking, scooting, and rolling.
Active Communities at the SFMTA Board
On September 19th, we will provide an update on the Active Communities Plan to the SFMTA Board of Directors. This presentation will include lessons learned from our public survey, draft goals and objectives for the plan, and proposed plan deliverables.
Our public survey ran from April through July of 2023. From it we learned:
- People from all neighborhoods have similar comfort levels with today’s bike network.
- People are mostly comfortable with standard bike lanes, but their comfort significantly drops when it’s on a busy street with other competing uses.
- People are very comfortable with separated bikeways, car-free streets like JFK Drive, and Slow Streets.
- There are a range of needs people have outside of the network to be able to bike or roll, like rebate programs for e-bikes, better bike parking, or more maintenance of bike lanes.
We are using lessons learned from the survey (as well as outreach and technical analyses) to directly inform our draft network recommendations. Survey results are also informing how we recalibrate the bicycle comfort index (BCI) so that it accurately depicts how people experience streets in San Francisco.
Keep an eye out for the agenda packet, which will include a summary of our survey results, our staff report, and our presentation materials for the September 19th meeting.
Upcoming Events
Join us at one of these upcoming events!
- 9/15 – SF Bike Bus, JFK Promenade at Conservatory of Flowers, Ride starts 7:45AM
- 9/19 – SFMTA Board of Directors Meeting – Information Item
- 9/24 – Western Addition Sunday Streets, Golden Gate Ave between Webster St. and Laguna St., 12PM – 5PM
- 9/26 – SFCTA Board of Directors Meeting – Information Item
- 9/27 – SFCTA Citizens Advisory Committee Meeting – Information Item
- 10/3 – D8 Walk & Roll to School Week Ride with Supervisor Mandelman, details TBD
- 10/15 – Excelsior Sunday Streets, 11AM – 4PM
- 10/15 – Phoenix Day (Citywide), 12PM – 5PM
- 10/21 – Bike Fair with Assemblymember Phil Ting, Grattan Elementary School (165 Grattan St.), 10AM – 1PM
- 10/28 – Outer Mission & Excelsior Workshop, details TBD
- 10/30 – Bayview-Hunters Point Workshop, details TBD
- 11/9 – Western Addition & Fillmore Workshop, Honey Art Studio, 6PM – 8PM
- 11/18 – SOMA Pilipinas Workshop, details TBD
Podcast Highlight
Tune in to this week’s episode of “Hot & Bothered: A Climate Podcast” to hear Chris Kidd, project manager for the Active Communities Plan, discuss how active transportation plays a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change. Chris reviews the recent history of bike planning in San Francisco, lessons learned from outreach in Equity Priority Communities, and key barriers to bike ownership, including having adequate bike storage and maintenance shops nearby.
You can listen to the podcast here: "Christopher Kidd on Bike Infrastructure in San Francisco"
What’s Next?
Based on feedback from surveys, community outreach, and technical analyses, we are working to develop a draft Active Transportation Network, which will be shared late October.
As always, if you’d like us to attend your community meeting or event, contact ActiveCommunities@sfmta.com and let us know!
To stay up to date and find opportunities to get involved, visit SFMTA.com/ActiveCommunities