Streets director reports Valencia completion, bike-share growth and daylighting progress in quarterly update

Victoria Wise, director of SFMTA’s Streets Division, presented the division’s quarterly update to the Board on Wednesday, covering completed construction, curb and loading changes, school‑safety audits, bike‑share metrics, and progress on daylighting at schools.

Project highlights and complete projects: Wise said Valencia (the El Taraval corridor project) is “substantially complete” and the agency held a ribbon cutting during the Valencia Live event. The division completed signal work and temporary traffic adjustments tied to the Great Highway closure and said it will install left‑turn treatments and finalize evaluations for other corridors in June.

Bike and bike-share: The agency reported that bike-share reached a record about 3 million trips in 2024 with over 330 stations; first‑quarter 2025 ridership is at a record Q1 level with roughly 760,000 trips. Wise told the board the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the operator (Lyft/Bay Wheels) are negotiating continuity and performance improvements as the regional contract approaches expiration.

Daylighting, school safety and grants: Wise said the division had completed about 57% of daylighting work at school corners and has been conducting school audits that bring community members, staff and school representatives together to identify near‑term safety fixes and longer‑term capital needs. The City received a Caltrans grant to fund traffic‑calming devices and sign replacements around schools — the grant will pay for 25–30 traffic calming devices, replacement of roughly 3,500 feet of school crossing signs and about 380 other pedestrian signs.

Curb and special events: Wise described neighborhood‑level curb adjustments and the reallocation of roughly 450 spaces back to general metered parking where business and usage patterns changed after the pandemic. Special events continue to increase and Streets staff said they are handling a growing permit workload.

Quick‑build and Vision Zero work: Staff reported that quick‑build safety projects on targeted corridors reduce collisions in the treated corridors — the presentation cited a 35% average reduction for pedestrian collisions and a 25% average reduction for bicyclist collisions in corridors with quick‑build interventions. Wise previewed a Vision Zero refresh that will focus on the pillars of enforcing safe speeds, protecting vulnerable users and ensuring multimodal safety. Automated speed camera results and timing were discussed in a separate item on the agenda.

Ending: Wise said the quarterly updates will continue, with dashboards planned to show project activity and outcomes, and staff will return with more detail on bike‑share contract discussions, daylighting progress and Vision Zero policy recommendations.