Large parts of Valencia, Fillmore, and Haight Streets get speeds reduced to 20 MPH

Large parts of Valencia, Fillmore, and Haight Streets get speeds reduced to 20 MPHImage: Google Street View
Joe Kukura
Published on January 17, 2022

You’ve heard of Slow Streets, now get ready for even “slower streets.” The Chronicle reports that seven SF streets are getting their speed limits lowered to 20 miles per hour, in a change that has already started. The city was able to lower these speed limits when a new law called AB 43 took effect on January 1, allowing cities “to consider the safety of vulnerable pedestrian groups” and lower speed limits accordingly.

And who was one of the co-authors of this bill? Former state Assemblymember David Chiu, who is now San Francisco's city attorney.  

“I have heard from too many families who have lost a loved one as a result of a speed-related traffic crash,” Chiu said in Mayor Breed’s announcement. “We have the tools to prevent these crashes, and with AB 43, we are finally able to use one of those tools. I was proud to help author this bill as an Assemblymember to give cities the ability to make significant, meaningful changes on our streets.”

Here in SF, some of these speed reductions are on very long stretches of some of the city’s highest-profile streets, like Fillmore, Haight, and Valencia Streets, in popular retail areas. Others are only reduced speeds on a block or two. According to Mayor Breed’s press release, these are the street areas where the speed limit has been or will be reduced to 20 miles per hour:

  • 24th Street, from Diamond to Chattanooga Streets and from Valencia Street to San Bruno Avenue
  • Fillmore Street, from Chestnut to Union Streets and from Jackson to McAllister Streets
  • Haight Street, from Stanyan Street to Central Avenue and from Webster to Steiner Streets
  • Polk Street, from Filbert to Sutter Streets
  • Ocean Avenue, from Geneva Avenue to Victoria Street and from Junipero Serra Boulevard to 19th Avenue
  • San Bruno Avenue, from Silver to Paul Avenues
  • Valencia Street, from Cesar Chavez to Market Streets

According to the Chronicle, some of these speech reductions are already complete, while the rest of the 20 MPH speed limit reduction implementations “should largely be in place by spring.”