Transit Center’s Car-Free Street in Danger

The San Francisco Planning Commission approved a development yesterday afternoon for Parcel F of the Transbay Transit Center Area, between Howard and Natoma. The 800-foot tower will include hotel rooms, housing, office space, and bike parking.

Bringing more high-density development to the area around the Salesforce Transbay Terminal, home to AC Transit and other bus services and the future home of Caltrain and High-speed Rail is great--density should be maximized around a huge transit hub. But Livable City's Tom Radulovich is leading the charge to correct a major defect: the new building will also include lots of car parking. And providing access to that parking, at least according to current plans, means destroying one of the few car-free spaces in the city.

From an email Radulovich sent to Streetsblog:

The plan still has to go before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Radulovich is asking people to contact the office of Supervisor Matt Haney, who is normally a champion of protected bike lanes and car-free space.

"Supervisor Haney is the legislative sponsor; his staff seemed genuinely surprised that the project proposes eliminating one of the longest stretches of car-free street in SoMa," added Radulovich. He had this to say to Haney: "It would be a sad and bitter irony if the longest car-free street in District 6 was destroyed by legislation you sponsor."

For more on this, see Radulovich's post on the Livable City page. To contact Haney's staff, email them matt.haney@sfgov.org or call 415 554-7970.