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The latest news and announcements from Mayor London N. Breed

Mayor Lee Announces New Rush Hour Congestion Strategy

Targeted Intervention & Enforcement During Rush Hour Commutes to Decrease Congestion & Maximize Reliability for Drivers & Transit Riders

Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced the Rush Hour Congestion Strategy to minimize congestion and maximize reliability for drivers and transit riders. The multimodal strategy focuses on four areas of targeted intervention – construction projects, double parking, delivery trucks, and Don’t Block the Box –during the rush hour commutes on major transit and traffic arteries. The new congestion initiatives will focus on better enforcement and smarter deployment to ensure that all modes of transportation can move safely, smoothly and predictably throughout the City.

“San Francisco’s economy and population are growing, and the demand on our City streets is growing along with them,” said Mayor Lee. “Targeted interventions and increased enforcement will allow all users of our roads whether they are walking, biking, riding Muni, or driving, to get from Point A to Point B faster and easier.”

Mayor Lee’s Rush Hour Congestion Strategy outlines immediate mitigation measures that will be initiated Monday through Friday during the morning rush hour (7 a.m. to 9 a.m.) and the afternoon rush hour (4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.). Initially, parking control officers will be deployed to a targeted corridor each weekday based on data from Muni vehicles and enforcement teams.  

Key locations include: South of Market, 3rd Street, 4th Street, 19th Avenue, Divisadero, Columbus, Fell Street/Oak Street, Geary Boulevard, Geneva Avenue, Harrison Street, Mission Street, Pine Street/Bush Street, and Van Ness Avenue.

The four areas of focused intervention include:
•    Construction projects: the City will evaluate construction lane closures along major traffic routes and enforcement teams will ensure compliance with regulations. City work crews will be instructed to not impede the right-of-way during rush hours, except in the case of public safety.
•    Double parking: the city will increase enforcement for double parking during peak commute hours to ease congestion caused by double parked cars. Parking control officers (PCOs) will initially target key transit corridors to ensure reliability for drivers and Muni riders. Since the Mayor’s Congestion Strategy was announced in December, there has been a 53 percent increase in citations for double parking.
•    Delivery trucks: the City will target delivery trucks that block traffic for cars and bikes. This behavior reduces lanes of traffic and impedes transportation flow, which causes unsafe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, and additional congestion.
•    Don’t Block the Box: enforcement crews will expand the partnership between the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the San Francisco Police Department for “Don’t Block the Box” enforcement violations. This practice has traditionally obstructed intersections on traffic arteries leading up to the freeways. The strategy calls for more parking control officers during the afternoon rush hours. Since the Mayor’s Congestion Management Plan last year, parking control officers have issued 3,514 gridlock citations. This represents a 25 percent increase compared to the preceding five months, and 102 percent since 2014.

“While more and more people are traveling throughout the City, our streets remain the same size,” said SFMTA Board Chairman Tom Nolan. “When one mode of transportation suffers, it has a domino effect on other modes. For instance, every time a Muni vehicle gets stuck behind a double parked car, 40 or 50 people lose a few minutes of their day. This is not acceptable. In turn, the more we improve Muni, taxis, walking and bicycling, the more people will choose these modes of transportation and effectively reduce the amount of traffic congestion on our streets.”

The City remains committed to its long-term strategy to reduce both daily and “non-recurring” traffic congestion by improving the attractiveness of transit, bicycling, and walking so that more people choose those modes for more trips; managing demand for private auto trips through policies, planning, design, incentives and information; and achieving Vision Zero – the City’s goal to reduce traffic fatalities by 2024 – to make the streets safer for all users and reduce delays caused by accidents.  

Long-term strategies will also be implemented, including convening a Rush Hour Multimodal Congestion Working Group to develop both short-term and long-term strategies. Participants will include local government, regional government, business stakeholders, the development community and other community stakeholders. Increasing information for commuters regarding lane closures including signage, variable messaging boards and news alerts and working with companies to pilot off-hour deliveries to reduce the number of large vehicles during the peak commute are other strategies to reduce congestion.

Legislation including Assembly Bill 1287, sponsored by Assemblymember David Chiu, has been moving forward in Sacramento to reauthorize San Francisco’s Transit-Only Lane Enforcement (TOLE) program to allow for blocking the box and illegal use of the TOLE lanes, in an effort to keep Muni moving efficiently during peak hours.