Stephen Braitsch and team developed an analysis over the few years of the SFMTA Slow Streets program, and have found the initiative to be a success on many fronts! San Francisco has 18 residential streets where vehicle through traffic is discouraged using soft-hit posts. The goal of the program is to limit traffic to 1,000 vehicles per day at 15 mph, and also promote active modes of transportation, such as walking and biking.
The pilot program of 14 streets saw a 61% reduction in vehicle crashes, compared to a 20% drop citywide. Since the Slow Streets program was officially approved in December 2022, Slow Streets have seen a 60.71% decrease in vehicle crashes, while the city overall has seen a 5.25% increase. Emergency response times to Slow Streets have increased by 12.43%, while citywide they’ve increased by 1.11%.
For our Slow Noe Street in Duboce Triangle, soft-hit posts were installed on Noe Street in August 2020, and Noe officially became a Slow Street in December 2022. Since the initial installation, Noe Street has experienced a 60% decrease in vehicle crashes. However, emergency response times have increased by 26.07%, which warrants further investigation and improvement. It must be noted that some streets have a few emergencies with very long response times, which skew the average, and that many factors influence response times.
All in all, the Slow Streets program has shown considerable safety improvements and should be celebrated!