By Noah Baustin : sfstandard – excerpt
San Francisco city leaders broke ground Monday on a nearly decade-in-the-making street redesign that will transform one of the city’s main arteries that carries vehicles to downtown.
The Folsom Street streetscape project will remake the bustling thoroughfare across the entire SoMa neighborhood, from 11th Street to Second Street. While drivers are currently able to travel in three, and sometimes four, lanes on Folsom Street, the project will permanently funnel vehicle traffic into two lanes. Meanwhile, builders will add a transit-only lane on the 1.3-mile strip and install a two-way bikeway protected from vehicles by concrete islands.
“This project is about making the South of Market neighborhood a safer, more inviting place to walk, bike, shop and take transit,” Supervisor Matt Dorsey said. “Obviously, there’s going to be cars, too, but this is what 21st century urbanism is.”
The Folsom Street rebuild is part of a long series of projects aimed at San Francisco’s goal of pushing people away from driving cars and trucks and toward taking transit, biking and walking. By the year 2030, the city hopes to ensure that at least 80% of trips taken in San Francisco use methods that produce low amounts of carbon emissions, including riding transit, walking, biking, driving electric vehicles and carpooling…(more)
SFMTA must finish what they started before digging any more holes and closing any more businesses! Candidates for Mayor might want to consider how to stop this plan if they are serous about reviving downtown San Francisco. After turning Market Street into a disaster, this one is guaranteed to put the lid on the coffin. The voters deserve a chance to reconsider the policies and priorities the SFMTA has been running on, while digging its own financial grave. The gravy train has running out and the voters are running out of patience.
Before they dig any more holes, the SFMTA needs to finish Taraval and the rest of the projects that have dragged on for years. They must prove they can finish something before they start a new project. So far they have failed to do anything well, on time, and without major flaws. Let’s get the downtown moving again before we destroy another street!
Meter Madness 
There goes the ‘Hood. 3 long years of Chaos, and a Permanent Corset cutting traffic to Two Lanes. … Tumlin’s ‘Kill the Cars’ program in full swing.
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all of this has long been planned way before Tumlin or anyone else. These projects have already been planned out years in advanced with “potential funding” in their reports. Meaning once they get a particular housing or homeless measure passed labeled with a cute letter and heading to sell to the public. This is not a Tumlin issue even though I don’t like the guy. It is a city planning and Bay Area planning issue. Whatever is left on Folsom street will spon die out creating another ghost town. All being sold under the fake disguise of safety. Their main 2 arguments first because 300 people died 20 years ago we have to change the streets and ban cars to save them. Argument number 2. Because people will drown from sea level rise we have to force them to walk and ride bikes shutting down local businesses while we develop on treasure island and building along the California coastline while there is no evidence of any sea rising.
This city is trashed
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Look at Market ST- Look at Valencia- This Folsom Street plan should finish the city off entirely. This is NOT Amsterdam-The biking Netherlands is not a good role model, being flat and the size of Connecticut, for San Francisco or California. The city has become a bike park already and with HITech mostly gone, few are in the bike lanes anyway. Fifth St is a disaster, esp just after Folsom. bt Folsom n Harrison where drivers are now forced to make a right turn into moviing traffic,(which will not stop for them) then an immediate Right right into the middle of a bike lane to make a right turn onto busy Harrison. Because of this idiotic idea the white pole ridden bike lane AND traffic lane are usually clogged w a long line of cars, esp at rush hour, so bikes can’t safely use this “bike lane” n have to weave in and out and between cars, where they can’t be safely or clearly be seen.
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