A WalkStop Is Coming To Haight And Fillmore

A WalkStop Is Coming To Haight And FillmoreMike Gaworecki / Hoodline
Mike Gaworecki
Published on January 07, 2015
The Lower Haight will soon benefit from a city grant intended to “green & beautify" various San Francisco neighborhoods.

The $33,000 Community Challenge grant will be used, along with money from District Supervisor London Breed’s office and drugstore CVS, to create a “WalkStop” at the southeast corner of the intersection of Fillmore and Haight streets.

Here’s a good introduction to what a WalkStop is, including artist renderings of a WalkStop envisioned for the corner of Duboce Park at Steiner and Duboce (see below). 

But here are the basics: A WalkStop includes a wayfinder sign pointing pedestrians and bicyclists to nearby places of interest and other neighborhoods, a compass at the base of the wayfinder to help orient yourself, some sort of historical element so you can get to know the neighborhood you're in, and other pedestrian-friendly features.


Duboce Park WalkStop rendering via WalkStop.org

If you haven’t noticed yet, the term “WalkStop” is a play on words, like a bus stop for pedestrians. In Duboce Park, that means more seating and greenery to create an inviting communal space in the park, in addition to the wayfinder and historical elements. 

Thea Selby, who served as Project Community Leader for the Duboce Park WalkStop and is involved with the Haight and Fillmore project as well, told Hoodline in an email that at Fillmore and Haight there will be a bulbout at the bus stop to calm traffic, a compass designed by a local artist, and a historical timeline of the neighborhood.

How will the historical timeline work, exactly? There will be a “collar” around the wayfarer pole—the plan is to use the big red pole on the corner of the CVS building at 499 Haight St.—and Selby and crew plan to collect oral histories from neighborhood residents that can be presented in the collar, with more information available via mobile phone or online.

Selby was part of the team that created the local WalkStop concept, which won a 2010 “City R+D” award from GOOD Magazine. Here is what the WalkStop proposal entailed:

1. To promote the health of San Franciscan residents and tourists and the environment by encouraging walking.

2. To build social capital within neighborhoods by developing a network of Walk Stops with benches, greenery, community posts (for posting notices) and wayfinders with walking and biking times to adjacent communities and points-of-interest.

3. To connect communities by creating a network of Walk Stops throughout the city.

4. To calm traffic at important intersections by building safe and inviting spaces.
No word yet on exactly when construction will begin for either the Duboce Park or Haight and Fillmore WalkStops, but we’ll update when we have more information.