Skip to main content

San Francisco launches congestion management strategy

San Francisco mayor Edwin M. Lee has launched the city’s congestion management strategy to improve traffic flow and safety, especially in the South of Market neighbourhood where construction and growth remain the highest in the City. The strategy outlines additional efforts the city could undertake, beyond traditional approaches such as the Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation (ISCOTT). These additional efforts include smarter traffic enforcement, better construction permitt
December 11, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
San Francisco mayor Edwin M. Lee has launched the city’s congestion management strategy to improve traffic flow and safety, especially in the South of Market neighbourhood where construction and growth remain the highest in the City. 

The strategy outlines additional efforts the city could undertake, beyond traditional approaches such as the Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation (ISCOTT). These additional efforts include smarter traffic enforcement, better construction permitting, and coordinated efforts through the City’s new traffic management centre (TMC).

4802 San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) will coordinate rush hour traffic enforcement and traffic management.

Parking control officers will also focus on preventing gridlock by enforcing ‘blocking the box’ violations, a strategy that proved successful in a summer 2014 pilot.

Over the next two years, additional efforts will focus on data and technology, planning and enforcement. SFMTA will assemble currently available real-time data from traffic cameras and public information cutting-edge public data feeds to establish a monitoring function in its new TMC. By the end of next year, SFMTA will connect the city’s traffic signals to the TMC to allow engineers to diagnose signal problems in real time, fix signals quickly, and manage traffic peaks during rush hours and special events. SFMTA will use its real-time Twitter feed to provide and receive traffic information.

“San Francisco is experiencing unprecedented growth, and as a result, we are seeing increased demand on our streets,” said Mayor Lee. “These new focused measures to combat congestion can help make Muni, taxis, shuttles, bikes, and cars move through the City more smoothly and predictably, and can make the streets safer for everyone, particularly pedestrians. This new strategy will get us to our Vision Zero goal of ending pedestrian fatalities.”

“Smart, data-driven, targeted efforts to reduce congestion in San Francisco can make it easier and smoother for people to get around the City,” said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin. “These efforts will also help us make Muni more reliable and help us reach our long-term goals – to achieve Vision Zero, and to make transit, bicycling, car share, taxi and walking great ways to get around San Francisco.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Enforcement comes in many guises
    June 22, 2016
    Colin Sowman looks at some enforcement case studies from around the world. It is a sad fact of life that unenforced laws are not adhered to by a sometimes sizable proportion of the public and once enforcement is seen to be lacking, some drivers can take this to extremes and authorities must decide how to regain control.
  • Xerox researchers take to the streets to take the pain out of congestion
    October 23, 2012
    In the US, Xerox researchers have taken to the streets in a bid to reduce traffic congestion. They’re using expertise in data analytics, control systems, sensing, imaging and video to create new transportation applications that help reduce congestion, increase safety on the road and take the pain out of finding a parking spot.
  • Verra Mobility seeks smarter solutions
    March 30, 2022
    Verra Mobility has long been known as a safety specialist but is increasingly pivoting its existing technology towards smart mobility as well. “Technology which you used to drive safety outcomes can also be used to drive mobility outcomes,” says Michael Tooker, senior vice president of product solutions.
  • Making transportation systems safer and more sustainable with connectivity
    August 6, 2021
    Connectivity will make transportation systems safer and more sustainable as Anne-Lise Thieblemont of Qualcomm outlines