One of the projects I have been involved in over the last couple years is the effort to improve Cesar Chavez Street. While the street is broadly seen as a good way to blast through the Mission on the way to or from Highway 101, the reality is closer to what neighbors and some planners call a “traffic sewer.” Although it feels like a fast way to go, the experience is often something more akin to “hurry up and wait” than a smooth flow. And that’s only for cars. For everyone else, it’s worse. Biking along Cesar Chavez can be terrifying, and walking along the street only occasionally rises to unpleasant. Even crossing the street (which hundreds of elementary schoolkids do every day) is worrying.

Spurred on by CCPuede, a group of neighbors, commuters, cyclists, teachers, parents and environmentalists, the city has begun a major planning effort to try to make the street less dangerous, more efficient, and more livable. The Examiner published an article today discussing the beginnings of the plan. It’s not terrible, although I’d have hoped they’d talk to more than just the city planner heading the project. My main problem with the article is the flight of rhetorical fancy that opens it,

Motorists accustomed to putting the pedal to the metal on Cesar Chavez Street will be forced to start tapping their brakes under plans to rebuild the six-lane arterial to make room for pedestrians, cyclists, neighbors and trees.
One of the reasons Cesar Chavez is dysfunctional is the very fact that drivers need to not just tap their brakes, but slam them on, to avoid vehicles in the left lane trying to turn, to stop at untimed red lights (which meets with uncertain success, in my experience), and to maneuver around bikes, or even cars that have the temerity to be parked in the street, rather than half on the sidewalk.

Ironically, planners anticipate that traffic flow on Cesar Chavez will increase with proper traffic calming measures, not decrease. While this is only one of the goals, the sloppy pitting of motorists against everybody else can mean that those who depend on the street to get to the highway will anticipate monstrous traffic jams where none are expected.

Even though it’s a pretty major route for me when I drive (which, admittedly, is not often), I would be willing to sacrifice a few minutes for a safer, calmer, less brutal street. Despite what the article implies, though, it’s not at all clear that would have to happen.