Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association Transportation Committee

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.