Wiki “Thursday”: San Francisco’s Better Streets Plan

ThePlan describes a set of policies for the City and County of SanFrancisco to follow to achieve a more livable streetscape environment.It creates a street typology system for making streetscapeimprovements, and describes appropriate standard and optional elementsfor each street type. For each element, there is a set of guidelinesfor appropriate location and design. Finally, the Plan will describeways that the City can fund, maintain and enforce Better Streetsimprovements.

Importanttasks, like identifying which streets are of what type, and creatingstandards for essential elements of successful streets (street lightingand pedestrian-friendly building fronts, for example) are missing sofar. The Better Streets project also shied away from addressing thespeed and volume of traffic, two critical elements for creating safeand livable streets. Governance (how city agencies plan and coordinatestreet projects) and a strategy for funding and implementation alsoneed to be addressed.