Inspiration for #ValenciaStreet from Broadway in NYC

Chicanes slow traffic, the bulbouts are always filled with greenery and seating, and #carFree blocks reduce traffic on shared blocks (the “traffic shadow” effect!)

Photos by Nik Kaestner

The center bikeway is actually working great on a #carFree #ValenciaStreet. It’s a bad idea to have center bike lanes on a highway, but an excellent idea on a promenade. #SundayStreets

Today is #SundayStreets in the Mission! Come see what a #carFree #ValenciaStreet could be like from 11 to 4. https://www.sundaystreetssf.com/mission/

There are now 24/7, car-free pedestrian promenades in such dense, walkable, urbanist utopias as *checks notes* San Jose, Santa Barbara, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. But we couldn't have one on #ValenciaStreet in San Francisco. That would never work. No one would come and it would be empty and unused.

Fire department needs to block the car lane, so drivers are either trapped or will take the bike lane. Yet another obvious failure for the center-running bike lanes on #ValenciaStreet

Here's a potential model for #ValenciaStreet: a car-free street in Portland, Oregon. (photo by @qag)

Parts of Valencia have been pedestrianized on Saturdays for three years now, but sometimes the promenade can feel kinda empty. That's because it's part time, so we can't have this kind of seating or greenery out (where would you put it when the street's full of cars?). A 24/7 promenade would be livelier and more successful!

Happy the #HayesValley weekend promenade lives to see another day. Thanks @hvna and @deanpreston for your roles in this.

Also great that #carFree #ValenciaStreet is back on Saturdays 2-9pm.

Now if only we can make these car-free (except local access for delivery) round the clock. That would enable permanent seating areas in the street and make the promenades better.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sf-hayes-valley-retail-slow-streets-breed-preston-18259918.php

@marcprecipice At least one #ValenciaStreet merchant cited its re-opening to cars on the weekends as a factor in killing his business.

"The street was shut down to vehicular traffic between 16th and 17th streets... It brought thrift clothes-sellers, artists, and musicians to the block. Just five months after opening the restaurant went dark. Anichini and his team called it quits as those buzzy summer fairs gave way to empty sidewalks during the fall and winter." https://sf.eater.com/2023/7/21/23802391/valencia-mission-restaurants-san-francisco

Santa Barbara's city council recently voted 5-2 to keep its 9-block-long State Street Promenade #carFree through 2026.

If it can work in Santa Barbara, it can certainly work in San Francisco. Car-free #ValenciaStreet now! https://www.noozhawk.com/santa-barbaras-state-street-promenade-to-remain-closed-to-vehicles-through-at-least-2026/

Full-time pedestrianization, on like 2 or 3 blocks, would be so good for business on #ValenciaStreet. People don't want to linger along a busy highway—they don't enjoy their time when there's constant traffic. (And the center bike lane makes it worse by moving the traffic closer to the sidewalk.)

QT @sanae https://carfree.city/@sanae/110755887673185406

I couldn't find that document on SFMTA's website. I had to search my Twitter archive for the URL.

If you go to the 24 Divisadero Transit Project, you get a later document where they changed their explanation to say, There's no bus lane because we'd have to move the median. This one doesn't even acknowledge removing parking as a possibility.

That's typical SFMTA, just like them now saying there's not enough space for a normal protected bike lane on #ValenciaStreet: https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/valencia-street-bike-safety-corridor-dangerous-18211959.php

Oh, are these unofficial? I thought the honesty was refreshing. #ValenciaStreet #BikeSF

"Lol, idk how you will merge"
"Uh, good luck turning right"
"We regret this bike lane"

https://missionlocal.org/2023/07/valencia-street-signage-changed-by-cyclist/

Let’s import those granite curbs on #ValenciaStreet
#Paris #infrastructure

Shouted at a woman who was making an illegal right-on-red across the green cycle light on Valencia this morning. I'm not one who shouts much, but realized a few years ago I could do it in this loud startling way my dad was capable of. The woman was slowly right-hooking me and ignoring my horn, so I shouted. Scared her. She stopped. I pointed at the red arrow she was running, and she made a flustered apologetic gesture. I get it, it was a mistake; I needed her not to hit me, but neither did I want a woman to feel threatened by an angry man on the street whose design wasn't her fault either. Tried to give her a smile and a thumbs-up sign after she acknowledged me, rode on, and I assume she went on with her day too.

Still, whatever the circumstances, I don't like being the reason someone feels scared or unsafe.

#BikeSF #ValenciaStreet

One problem on #ValenciaStreet is the meters still shut off at 6pm, right as the nightlife rush *begins*, and are off all day Sunday. That guarantees that at the busiest times, all legit parking will be used up, creating the maximum possible incentive to park in the center bike lanes for pick-up/drop-off.

While far from the only problem with the center bikeway, that's one reason it's *so* bad. Extend the meters now! #BikeSF

https://sfstandard.com/2023/07/07/no-salvaging-center-bike-lane-valencia-cyclists/

Hear me out: center bike lane on #ValenciaStreet might not be terrible? I had a perfectly fine ride through it today

@LukeBornheimer Yay! Looking forward to a #CarFree #ValenciaStreet on Saturday.

Thinking about that time a few months ago when a Chronicle columnist wrote that car-free #ValenciaStreet would be a bad idea and the owner of Valencia Cyclery wrote in to agree.

Another reason #ValenciaStreet center bikeway is bad: I’ve never smelled so much car exhaust sitting in the Señor Sisig #parklet, which used to be 6 feet farther away from motor traffic.

Adjusting my routes to take Shotwell or Capp to 15th St to Valencia instead of 17th St to Valencia. The new conditions with the center bikeway are so bad, I don’t even want to ride it for two blocks. #ValenciaStreet