City leaders in San Francisco marked the completion of a three-year project to improve pedestrian safety on Sixth Street in SoMa.
The Sixth Street Pedestrian Safety Project focused on the segment between Market and Howard streets and included widening sidewalks, installing traffic signals at high-risk alleyways, high-visibility crosswalks, and re-designs of curbs and configurations.
The area had some of the highest rates of collisions with severe injury or death involving pedestrians or bicyclists in the city, with a person being struck roughly twice a month. The corridor was identified as one of the 12% of roads in the city accounting for 68% of severe or fatal collisions, according to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Office.
The project widened the sidewalk on both sides of Sixth Street between Market and Howard streets to 15 feet, and installed high visibility crosswalks at Stevenson, Minna and Natoma streets.
New traffic signals were added to the alleys at Stevenson and Natoma streets and pedestrian signals were added to signals at Minna and Jessie streets.
Pedestrian lighting was installed from Market Street to Folsom Street and on Stevenson Alley west of Sixth Street.
Paving and landscaping was done in the area and trash cans were added, according to the mayor’s office.
And sidewalk bulges known as bulb-outs were installed, which shrink the distance between crossing points.
“Pedestrians in SoMa, especially families and seniors, often face dangerous conditions on our roads, and this project delivers long-overdue improvements,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “The combination of safety and accessibility improvements and placemaking is a huge boost to this area.”