San Jose Avenue Street Safety Upgrades Approved

Much-needed improvements for pedestrians to cross safely on San Jose Avenue in the Mission Terrace neighborhood on the border of Ingleside are on the way.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors approved Tuesday the J Church Safety and Accessibility project.

“We're glad that the board is listening and taking action,” said Samuel Thomas, a Mission Terrace resident who has been part of the movement to create safer pedestrian crossings in the neighborhood. “Overall, we've heard from the majority of the community that we've spoken with that they're pleased with the proposal, even if it doesn't contain everything that we would like to see.”

• J Church Light Rail Route Gets $3.2M for Improvements

The project includes daylighting intersections and installing flashing yellow beacons on San Jose Avenue at San Juan Avenue and Paulding Street Pedestrian bulb-outs will be installed at Paulding Street and Baden Street.

In the staff report for the project, the transportation planners said they are also working on immediate improvements along San Jose Avenue near Balboa Park. Earlier this year, the transportation agency said they added a flashing yellow beacon at Havelock Street and plan to upgrade the crosswalk at San Ynez Street to continental striping.

There were requests from the community to install a marked crosswalk at Sgt. John V. Young Lane, but it was not included as part of the project.

Michael Rhodes, a transit priority manager, said due to low pedestrian volume and no recorded traffic crashes within the five years, staff did not consider adding a marked crosswalk. He added that there would also need to be a significant amount of investment to make the crosswalk be successful.

The project also includes making transit improvements on the J rail line. Rhodes said the project will extend boarding islands at Santa Ynez Avenue and Santa Rosa Avenue so passengers can safely get on and off the train and wheelchair ramps at the same transit stops.

A transit-only lane will be installed on San Jose Avenue between Ocean Avenue and Cotter Street to help reduce speeding and keep the J running reliably, Rhodes said.

Installation will require reducing a general traffic lane in each direction.

The transportation agency plans to do a quick-build implementation of the improvements on San Jose Avenue late this year or early next year with capital construction on the transit island extension, accessibility transit stops and bulb-outs starting in 2025.