22-Fillmore to benefit from 16th Street improvements

Transit riders on the 22-Fillmore will soon be able to get to their destinations a little bit more faster.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Board of Directors approved several transit improvements on 16th Street between Church and Third streets, which include adding red transit and taxi-only lanes, eliminating bus stops, and moving some bus stops from the near side to the far side of intersections.

A single transit-only lane will run from 16th Street between Church and Bryant streets, while two red lanes will run from Bryant to Third streets, said Cathal Hennessy, the project manager for the 22-Fillmore Transit Priority Project.

A staff report said the transit agency will also remove six stops, including the inbound and outbound stops at Guerrero Street and Harrison Street. The outbound stop at San Bruno Avenue and inbound stop at Vermont Street will also be removed.

Hennessy said the transit agency held open houses, passed out 3,400 fliers and completed 290 surveys on what riders would like to see improved in the corridor. Sixty-percent said they strongly supported stop consolidation and 51 percent supported a center running transit-only lane.

Riders altogether will save about five minutes of travel time in each direction just for the nearly 10,000 riders that board on the 16th Street corridor, the SFMTA said.

Other improvements will include restricting left turns at Seventh and Mississippi streets to Dolores Street, and adding 12 pedestrian bulbs.

The SFMTA will also move westbound and eastbound bike lanes on 16th Street to 17th Street to avoid conflicts with Muni buses.

Overhead wire work is also slated for the 22-Fillmore so that it can continue on the 16th Street corridor and make new connections to Mission Bay, the transit agency said.

SFMTA spokesman Paul Rose said stripping of the bike lane on 17th Street, installing transit-only lanes and bus stop consolidation would start sometime this summer. The larger portion of the project, which includes utiltiy and repavement work that would start in 2017 and completed by the end of 2019.

By the time the utility work and repaving is complete, Rose said the transit agency can paint the transit-only lanes red.

The total cost of the project is $67 million.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.