What Happened After Market Street Went Car-Free

Author Laura Bliss March 10, 2020

Less than two months after San Francisco’s Market Street went mostly car-free, the central downtown artery is palpably calmer. While freight deliveries, fire trucks, buses and streetcars are still trundling along the vehicle lanes, navigating by bike, scooter or foot feels far less death-defying now that clots of private autos and ride-hailing vehicles are no longer allowed to vie for space among them.

And commuters are responding accordingly. For example, the average number of dockless scooter trips provided by one company, Spin, shot up by 30 percent after the car ban went into effect, according to an analysis by Populous, a mobility data startup that works with the company.

“Street design changes, big and small, can have a huge impact on what mode of transportation a person chooses and even what routes they decide to take,” Kay Cheng, director of infrastructure initiatives at Spin, said in a statement.

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