Valencia Street is a major thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. It begins at Market Street near the foot of Hayes Valley, and passes through the Mission District before ending at an intersection with Mission Street in Bernal Heights. Valencia Street is the historical boundary of several neighborhoods. The street is named after the Valencia family, who were early Mexican settlers in California.[1]
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The original Market Street Railroad was run down Valencia Street to the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad depot with service beginning in 1860.[2] Cables were installed in the roadway for haulage in 1883.[3] The line's operations were so closely tied to those on Market Street that installing streetcar electrification along Valencia was deemed as unnecessary unless Market Street could be similarly electrified (overhead wires had been banned along Market some years before electrification had been undertaken citywide).[4] The roadway was heavily damaged during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Electric trolley service began on October 1,[5] over five months after the disaster. Streetcar service ended on January 15, 1949 and was not replaced with buses, leaving the street devoid of public transit along its length.[6][7]
In the 1990s, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition had successfully campaigned to have the median divider on Valencia Street removed to make way for cyclist facilities.[8] Subsequently, the city has sought to further improve bicycle access along the thoroughfare. Lane widths were reduced, bike lanes installed, and sidewalks widened in 1999 as part of a road diet.[9] The median between 15th and 19th was further removed in the early 2000s and the roadway reconfigured with bike lanes.[10] Attempts have been ongoing to facilitate bicycle travel while also appeasing the desires of merchants. A pilot program with center-running bike lanes debuted on August 1, 2023.[11] This setup was met with largely negative response.[12]
References
edit- ^ Kamiya, Gary (June 11, 2021). "Unusual romance in early S.F. defied cultural taboos". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
- ^ Vielbaum et al. 2005, p. 7.
- ^ Callwell & Rice 2005.
- ^ "To Hold Up The Wires". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. March 3, 1894. p. 16. Retrieved September 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Castro Street Car Service To Be Improved". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. November 2, 1906. p. 7. Retrieved September 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Vielbaum et al. 2005, p. 4.
- ^ Laflin, Addison H. Jr. (June 1953). "A CHRONOLOGY OF CHANGES IN SAN FRANCISCO STREET ROUTES SINCE 1944". Timepoints (Special Reference Supplement No. 7). Vol. 6, no. 6 – via Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California.
- ^ Goldberg, Leslie (March 23, 1997). "Bikers press for their right of way". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. pp. C-1, C-4. Retrieved September 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Reisman, Will (August 26, 2012). "'Road diets' thinning traffic". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. 5. Retrieved September 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Barak Aparton, Tamara (August 27, 2008). "A new look for Valencia Street". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. 5. Retrieved September 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Dahlstrom-Eckman, Azul (October 2, 2023). "Cyclists and Businesses Reflect on 2 Months With the Valencia Street Bikeway". KQED. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Kukura, Joe (June 11, 2024). "SFMTA Will Consider Ditching the Valencia Street Center-Running Bike Lane Next Week". SFist. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
Bibliography
edit- Callwell, Robert; Rice, Walter (March 2005). Of Cables and Grips: The Cable Cars of San Francisco (2nd ed.). Friends of the Cable Car Museum. ISBN 978-0-9726162-2-5.
- Vielbaum, Walt; Hoffman, Philip; Ute, Grant; Townley, Robert (2005). San Francisco's Market Street Railway. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738529677.
External links
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Media related to Valencia Street (San Francisco) at Wikimedia Commons