Street scene

One of the major findings of our study of Duboce, Steiner and Sanchez is that people and animals below about four feet tall are almost completely invisible to drivers as pedestrians unless they’re far into the intersection. This includes kids, dogs, people in wheelchairs and anyone stooping down to pick something up. Increased visibility for all street users is a high priority for any improvements to this intersection.

More street scenes

The place audits and pedestrian counts revealed that, not surprisingly, people on Noe Street like the roominess of the sidewalks. Many of them traveled in groups and were accompanied by dogs, kids, luggage, shopping bags, dates and whatnots. The wide sidewalks give them all room to walk comfortably.

Have they already started construction?!

No! We got a lot of questions as to whether the construction on the east side of Church Street near Duboce right by the bike way was signs of these projects moving forward. The answer is no.

The construction was a quick fix of a deteriorating track. The tracks at this intersection are extremely old and worn out. The MTA does frequent checks to see if they’re in working condition. This section of the track was too worn out, and needed a patch. So the MTA did some touch up work to keep it working until the full track replacement work begins. You should expect to see more of this at this intersection as the MTA endeavors to keep the N-Judah and J-Church lines usable until the major track overhaul.

Detailed Findings

Here are the findings of the place audits and pedestrians counts. They have draft conceptual recommendations for the locations. Please note that we will be doing extensive community outreach to refine these conceptual recommendations and to develop detailed recommendations.

Placemaking findings p1 – Findings for Duboce Park N-Judah stop and Church & Duboce. Recommendations for all sites.
Placemaking findings p2 – Findings for the intersection of Steiner/Sanchez and Duboce (Duboce Park Cafe area)
Placemaking findings p3 – Findings for Noe between 14th Street and Duboce
Recommendations

Place audit results

The Transportation Committee has been working away at our place audits and pedestrian counts. We’ve been using them to develop conceptual plans for Duboce, Church and Noe.

Here’s what we found:

• Duboce Park N-Judah stop scored a 43 out of a total possible of 64 (68%). The area score low on “Comfort & Image” and highest on “Access & Linkages”
• The intersection of Steiner, Sanchez and Duboce – at the Duboce Park Cafe corner – scored a 40 out of 64. The area scored quite low on “Comfort & Image” and highest on “Uses & Activities.”
• The mega-intersection of Church and Duboce scored a 40 out of 64 (63%). The intersection scored lowest on both “Comfort & Image and Sociability” and fairly high on both “Access & Linkages” and “Uses & Activities.”
• Noe Street between Duboce and 14th Street scored 38.5 out of 48 (80%). The street scored highest on “Sociability.” Apparently people on Noe Street really like their neighbors!

In addition to the place audits, a group of volunteers has collected pedestrian counts and use data. This data helps us understand two things: how many people is the place currently attracting and how are they using the place?

• We were amazed to find that 778 pedestrians passed through the Duboce Park N-Judah stop in just an hour on a recent beautiful Saturday, staying for an average of 1.16 minutes.
• At Church and Duboce, 979 pedestrians passed through one section of the intersection (we couldn’t count the entire busy intersection), staying for an average of 3 minutes each. There were likely twice as many people at the intersection.
• On Noe Street, only about 80 people and six dogs passed through from 9 to 10 am on a weekday, staying for an average of 2.6 minutes. But 234 people plus 17 dogs came through on a cold and windy Sunday afternoon, staying for an average of 1.5 minutes. This street was notable for the number of large groups (and their dogs and strollers and packages) that pass through.

Obviously, there’s a lot of variation in how long people stay in the spaces, but we were especially impressed to discover how many pedestrians pass through the Duboce Park N-Judah stop area in particular, often coming from Noe Street; it’s truly a neighborhood gateway.

By using the place audit score and the pedestrian activity counts, we’ll be able to have a “before” with which to judge the success of the track replacement and station upgrade projects.

Check out our full findings and recommendations here.