Year 2010-2014
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DesignSpace
The re-design for a Better Market Street represents a cultural shift in radically repositioning biking in San Francisco. Through effective transit options and relevant programming, Gehl’s efforts have repositioned Market Street as a civic, cultural and economic center.
Market Street Redesign & Prototyping Festival
Vision for a 21st-century main street
San Francisco’s Market Street is a transit workhorse and it’s arguably San Francisco’s largest and most important public space. Yet, it is perceived as deserted, with few alternative activities to transit and minimal invitations to engage with the street. In order to both improve transit speed and reliability, as well as prioritize high quality conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, Market Street is in need of a paradigm shift.
Gehl, in collaboration with the City of San Francisco and a large team of Bay Area-based consultants, led two major innovations to redesign a Better Market Street: 1) generous, elevated, cycle tracks that are part of
the sidewalk and 2) “street life zones” – areas of the sidewalk devoted to spending time, not just movement.
From Market Street to Better Market Street
The team started by gathering hard facts. To understand how people move through, use and perceive the character and invitations of Market Street, Gehl conducted a Public Space Public Life survey (PSPL). Everyday, the street hosts more than 75,000 transit users above ground and half a million pedestrians. Yet 75% of the stationary time spent on the street is waiting for public transport. All these people could be invited to stay a while, talk, enjoy themselves and support local businesses, but the sidewalks and plazas traditionally haven’t been
Facts
Location San Francisco, CA
Client San Francisco Department of Planning
Gehl
Market Street - Evolution over time After Before
places for people to gather or participate in city life.
The team gathered input from local communities through public hearings, workshops and lectures, and used the results to re-frame the conversation, focused on the creation of a 21st-Century main street, not just a transportation solution.
Prototyping public life
In 2015, Gehl called designers, artists and makers to come together to develop and test ideas that would enliven the sidewalk along Market Street and attract public life. Over three days, 50 prototypes were installed along Market Street. The prototypes included a climbing wall, creative twirling seating, an exercise loop, a habitat for wildlife, a mobile selfie booth, a disaster preparedness unit, a pingpong tournament, interactive fountains, and much more.
Gehl led an evaluation of the festival’s impact on public life in order to understand the festival as a one-time event and to inform ideas around the larger re-build of Market Street.
With the help of 50 volunteers, the team used a range of methods to collect data about how people used Market Street during the Festival. The results revealed how drastically Market Street’s character changed during the event and made it clear that invitations for public life could invigorate Market Street, specifically targeting times when it otherwise begins to feel empty.
Based on Gehl’s strategy and design recommendations, the city has begun implementing a number of ‘quick fixes,’ including the 2020 ban of private vehicles from a large section of Market Street which set the conditions to establish the street’s new design and kicked off a new era in this iconic street’s history.
1. Street Life Zones are dedicated spaces for social activities and lingering. By activating the sidewalk, they demonstrate how the street is a place for people, not just mobility.2
2. The Prototyping Festival in 2015 imagined interventions to encourage people to meet and enjoy Market Street in new ways.
