Golden Gate Park

Equitable Accessibility

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Healthy Saturdays Proposal
Healthy Saturdays currently runs April through September, and is a closure of JFK shown in purple
below. The current proposal is to expand to year round. JFK is already closed every Sunday, shown in
green and purple below. This would mean through traffic on JFK would be closed every
weekend, year-round.

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 SiP CLOSURE
In April 2020, RecPark, per SF Health Department Order, closed JFK to all car traffic Crossover Drive to
Stanyan St. This also eliminated over 300 street parking spots, including 30 Handicap Accessible parking
spots. This closure is allowed to remain in effect for up to 120 days after the official end of the City’s
Shelter-In-Place Order. This closed JFK Drive to cars 7 days a week - now, they want to make it
permanent

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Car transportation prohibited
Where this Effort is Headed

● Car Free Saturdays on JFK Drive began in 2007/2008 with a 6 month trial - this
was supposed to be the great compromise and keep the Bicycle Coalition at bay
● Today, the Bicycle Coalition and WalkSF are demanding that the shelter-in-place
closure of JFK Drive
● The eventual goal for many of these activists is banning all cars from Golden Gate
Park - i.e., banning people dependent on cars from Golden Gate Park

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Limiting Modes of Transportation = Limiting Accessibility
● Who wouldn’t be able to come?
● African Americans (84% come by personal car)
● Asian American (76% come by personal car)
● 69% of people with mobility challenges
● 40% of seniors
● 41% of those with children in strollers (would walk only up to 5 mins from bus stop
or parking location)
○ OR 33% of people with mobility challenges, 11% of seniors, 8% of those with children in
strollers (can’t/don’t want to walk at all)

Source: California Academy of Sciences consumer survey

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“Recreational Redlining”

Further restrictions to accessibility to Golden Gate

Park impacts underrepresented populations

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Absence of Accurate Data and Exclusion of Communities

What we asked for: West side transportation study led by SFCTA

● Comprehensive data gathering of current commuting and local travel needs - how people
are getting to and through Golden Gate Park and the surrounding neighborhoods
● Data must be collected post-Pandemic
○ Pre-Pandemic and SiP data are inaccurate and incomplete

What we got: West Side Stakeholder Meetings led by SFCTA

● RecPark and SFMTA declined offer of transportation study and is developing their own
plan with pre-SiP transportation data - no one has seen this data
● 4 group meetings to gather community input on needs and desires as part of their plan
development
○ No representatives from the AAPI or African American community were present

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Post-Pandemic Travel Trends Don’t Support Further Restrictions

1. Tourism is local, with people traveling in cars

● In California, more than 70% of travel spending came from in-state residents in 2019.
According to Visit California, the state’s tourism bureau, that proportion has risen
substantially for the duration of the pandemic and will continue

2. Though a safe means of travel, transit ridership has plummeted and car sales are at an
all-time high in the Bay Area

3. Traffic jams are already building on the west side - with the current closure of JFK Drive
and Great Highway, traffic in and around Golden Gate Park has become significantly
worse

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 Key Factors in Park Visitation
In November, 2017 the Academy and the de Young Museum issued an online survey to over 100,000 subscribers and received
10,893 responses.

99% have visited a museum or 91% said visiting museums

Key or
survey findings:
gardens was their 73% of museum 8% of museum and garden
garden in the past year most frequent reason for visiting GGP, visiting and garden visitors guests surveyed are either
40% use the park to exercise these places an average of six times per year traveled by personal unable to walk any distance
15% said they most frequently use the park for car or unwilling to do so to reach
or commute
their destination.
exercise

Top three considerations when Many visitors who come to Golden Gate Park have mobility or accessibility challenges that might make
planning a visit or activity in Golden walking long distances difficult. Among those who visit the park most often to attend museums and
Gate Park: gardens, 40% said their parties include a guest with limited mobility such as seniors, people with
road closures, location of
mobility challenges, or children in strollers.
parking, and neighborhood
safety.

Summary: A road closure would likely have a negative impact on the overall use of Golden Gate Park. Within GGP, museums
and gardens would see the biggest impact with likely decreased visitation reported among 41% of GGP visitors. A majority of
respondents felt road closures would result in their decreased use of the park.

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Next Steps

1. Alert Mayor Breed that SFMTA and RecPark are rushing to make Slow
Streets (including “car-free” JFK) permanent before the end of
Shelter-in-Place
2. Demand a complete traffic study, conducted post-pandemic
○ No one has complete data for GGP and surrounding
neighborhoods
3. Demand inclusion of AAPI, African American, and POC communities
4. Mobilize supporters to speak out at public comment at SFMTA,
RecPark Commission, and BoS
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Appendix

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History

● Car Free Saturdays began in 2007/2008 with a 6 month trial - this was supposed to be the great
compromise and keep the Bicycle Coalition at bay

● SFGate reported in April 2008 that the same area would be closed on Saturdays from 6am - 6pm:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Golden-Gate-Park-closed-to-cars-on-Saturdays-3289019.php

● Healthy Saturdays Article about the proposed road closure, to mirror the Sunday closure. Approved
by Sups in 2007, but vetoed by Mayor Newsom.
● ARC were against it because of accessibility, as was Mayor Newsom.
● After veto, Mayor brokered a compromise to close on Saturday from April - September from
Transverse to 8th ave on JFK.
● deYoung and Botanical Garden were very vocal about being against the road closures

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SF Travel Association 2017 San Francisco Visitor Profile

The following data was collected in order to capture the profile (mode of transportation,
attractions visited and motivations) of tourists visiting San Francisco.

Important Factors Motivating Trip to SF Activities Participated in During San

● Area Attractions: 41.8% Francisco Trip
● Scenic Beauty: 39.9 % ● Visit a park: 45.1 %
● City’s Ambience & Atmosphere: 30.8 ● Visit Museums: 35.2 %

Transportation Used In-Market Attractions Visited While in San Francisco

● Muni: 30.9 % ● Golden Gate Park: 41.7 %
● Ride Sharing Services: 27.8 %
● Personal Automobile: 21.5 % Least Liked Aspects of San Francisco
● Rental Car: 16.4 % ● Traffic
● Sightseeing Bus: 7.1 % ● Parking - Difficult to find/ Expensive
● Transportation/ Getting around
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Visitor Feedback

Q8. How far would you and your

party be willing to walk (i.e. from
parking place, bus stop) to get to
museums and gardens in Golden Can’t/don’t want to
Gate Park? walk 5 minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes More than 20 minutes

Q6: Adults 7% 26% 45% 15% 7%

Q6: Children in strollers 8% 33% 40% 11% 9%

Q6: Children on foot 8% 30% 43% 14% 5%

Q6: Seniors 11% 29% 43% 12% 5%

Q6: People with mobility

challenges 33% 36% 24% 5% 3%

Q6: None of the above 5% 23% 41% 15% 16%

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 Mass or group
Personal Rideshare car (i.e. transit (i.e. bus, Bicycle or other human
car taxi, Lyft) shuttle, carpool) powered vehicle Walk Total n=

Q27: White/Euro-American 56% 13% 31% 0% 0% 16% 32

Q27: Black/African-American 84% 0% 16% 0% 0% 9% 19

Q27: Asian, Asian-American, or

Pacific Islander 76% 3% 20% 0% 1% 39% 80

Q27: Latino/Hispanic or
Latino-American 71% 4% 25% 0% 0% 23% 48

Q27: Mixed race 50% 6% 38% 6% 0% 8% 16

Q27: Other 67% 0% 11% 11% 11% 4% 9

Total 70% 4% 23% 1% 1% 100% 206

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