Celebrating the completion of safety upgrades on 6th Street.
Working closely with city and community partners, we recently completed critical safety improvements on 6th Street. This busy downtown corridor had among the highest concentrations of severe and fatal pedestrian collisions in San Francisco.
On Friday, Sept. 26, we joined Mayor Daniel Lurie, Supervisor Matt Dorsey and our partners at Public Works and local organizations to mark the start of a new chapter for the neighborhood.
Together, we celebrated the completion of the 6th Street Pedestrian Safety Project. This project helps to create safer and more accessible spaces for everyone who lives, works and visits 6th Street.
Learn the details of these safety upgrades – and how we partnered with community groups to reduce risks for vulnerable SoMa residents. And see why these changes are part of our wider effort to create safer conditions downtown.
Creating safer, more accessible streets for SoMa residents
Together with our partners at Public Works, we introduced a series of changes on 6th Street starting in 2022:
- Wider sidewalks to increase accessibility. Sidewalks on 6th Street are now 15 feet wide from Market to Howard streets. This makes it easier for people to access sidewalks, including those using mobility devices.
- New alley traffic signals to slow speeds where people walk. We added signals at Stevenson and Natoma streets to provide a safe place for people to cross alleyways. The signals are timed with other lights to create a calm flow of traffic.
- New high-visibility crosswalks to support safer crossings. We added these crosswalks at Stevenson, Minna and Natoma streets. This will make it easier for people driving to see people crossing.
- Corner bulb-outs to improve safety and access: We added corner pedestrian bulb-outs to reduce crossing distances for people walking. These sidewalk extensions also help to slow down vehicles as they turn. A third benefit: they increase sidewalk space.
- New pedestrian lighting to improve safety at night. Crews added new sidewalk lighting on 6th Street from Market to Folsom streets and on Stevenson. This change will help people be more visible.
The work was generously supported by the SFCTA, which funded one-quarter of the project through sales tax revenue.
The need for change: Partnering to protect vulnerable communities
These safety upgrades were critical for residents and visitors in SoMa.
In 2018 when we presented this safety project to our Board of Directors, a person was hit by a car every 16 days in the project area. Half of all collisions on 6th between Market and Howard streets involved a pedestrian.
These safety risks affected an especially vulnerable community:
- 40% of people living in poverty
- 1/3 of community members are seniors or people with disabilities
- 50% of residents are people of color
As we planned a series of improvements to support their needs, we partnered closely with community organizations to gather feedback. These groups included:
- SoMa Pilipinas
- South of Market Community Action Network
- Compton’s Transgender Cultural District
- Central City SRO Collaborative
- United Playaz
To make sure safety and streetscape improvements directly served local communities, our teams:
- Held five community meetings
- Provided outreach materials in Spanish and Tagalog
- Participated in dozens of community outreach events
- Conducted door-to-door outreach at over 50 businesses
- Distributed monthly update emails between legislation and construction
- Organized a Community Identity working group to design decorative crosswalks and plaques for the corridor celebrating 6th Street’s rich cultural history
Community feedback helped to shape many elements of the final project. This included decorative crosswalk and plaque designs that celebrate the neighborhood’s diverse communities and their histories.
Local communities helped shape this design for a new decorative crosswalk on 6th Street.
Part of a wider strategy to improve safety downtown
Our work on 6th Street is part of a multi-part strategy to create safer conditions downtown. This project is the last of three safety initiatives we finished in SoMa, including the Better Market Street and Safer Taylor projects.
Following the Safer Taylor Quick-Build Project:
- Severe speeding decreased after installation
- Vehicles traveling over 30 mph decreased by 31%
- Vehicles traveling over 40 mph decreased by 94%
Now that work is finished on 6th Street, we will continue to monitor pedestrian safety and traffic flow in the area.
Our teams are working every day to create safer conditions on city streets, and we are looking forward to this new chapter for SoMa communities.
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