Goals
These goals shaped the ConnectSF vision and will form the basis of the city’s long-range transportation planning work moving forward.
Equity
San Francisco is an inclusive, diverse, and equitable city that offers high-quality, affordable access to desired goods, services, activities, and destinations.
Economic Vitality
To support a thriving economy, people and businesses easily access key destinations for jobs and commerce in established and growing neighborhoods both within San Francisco and the region.
Environmental Sustainability
The transportation and land use system support a healthy, resilient environment and sustainable choices for future generations.
Safety and Livability
People have attractive and safe travel options that improve public health, support livable neighborhoods, and address the needs of all users.
Accountability and Engagement
San Francisco agencies, the broader community, and elected officials work together to understand the City’s transportation needs and deliver projects, programs, and services in a clear, concise, and timely fashion.
ConnectSF
Vision
Shaped by community input, the vision for San Francisco’s transportation future will guide the rest of the ConnectSF program.
FAQs
What is ConnectSF?
ConnectSF is a city-led, multi-year process to envision, plan and build a more effective, equitable, and sustainable transportation system for our future. It is our City’s long-range transportation program that includes the three agencies involved in land use and transportation projects in San Francisco: Planning Department, SFMTA, and SFCTA.
Building and operating transportation can be challenging in San Francisco. Various stakeholders have identified the need for a unified long-range planning effort to identify medium- and long-term transportation priorities and a funding strategy to meet those priorities. The ConnectSF agencies are working together to create and pull these components together, so that people’s transportation needs are met locally and regionally.
Why do we need ConnectSF?
ConnectSF is planning ambitious, once-in-a-generation transportation projects – the kind that take many years to plan and construct. City agencies and residents must work together now to build a more effective, equitable, and sustainable transportation system for the future.
ConnectSF will create a framework to:
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Measure progress toward the future that will meet the needs and aspirations of our communities
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Make decisions and build needed transportation improvements more quickly
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Secure more funding from regional, state, and federal sources
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Identify possible solutions to the challenges we see today, including congestion, traffic safety, equity, accessibility, and connectivity
What are the trade-offs needed to make the vision a reality?
As San Franciscans, we must be willing to shift our thinking and behavior to be more expansive – to think about how our actions can have an impact beyond our front doors, our parking spaces, and our neighborhoods. Residents say that they San Francisco to be welcoming, safe, diverse, prosperous, environmentally minded city. To make this so, the status quo may need to change – which means that, as individuals, we may need to accept some level of change in our lives.
The City must also change the way we plan and deliver transportation improvements. Sustained, unified visionary leadership in San Francisco is also key to realizing our vision. We must be able to shift our decision-making structures to be more accessible and transparent, and more capable of leveraging public resources, facilitating efficient project development and implementation, and building partnerships with a diverse set of community groups and with private, non-profit, and civic institutions.
Agencies that serve San Francisco will have to break down barriers, put personal ambition and agendas aside, and act more nimbly. Many will ultimately need to re-organize to meet the new demands and high expectations of the public.
Making these changes is no small feat. But the payoff will be highly rewarding – and get us to be the city that we believe in and want to live in.
How does ConnectSF work?
ConnectSF consists of three phases.
PHASE 1 of ConnectSF focused on establishing a collective, community-driven vision. In 2017, the City embarked on a visioning process led by community input from more than 5,000 San Francisco residents to define a 50-year vision of San Francisco’s future that will represent our priorities, goals, and aspirations as a City within the larger Bay Area. Check out the ConnectSF Vision!
As part of the visioning process, the City also embarked on a subway visioning process. This effort established a framework for expanding the subway network in San Francisco. Over 2,600 ideas were submitted from the community, with two groups of corridors emerging from the feedback to be further studied. Check out the ConnectSF Subway Vision!
PHASE 2 of ConnectSF identified residents, workers, and visitors’ existing and future travel needs and options; develop major projects for our City’s transit system, streets, and freeways to meet these needs; and narrow in on a list of concepts based on technical evaluation and the public’s priorities.
Check out the Transit Strategy and the Streets and Freeways Strategy to learn more about concepts that are being advanced for further study.
PHASE 3 of ConnectSF will take the work done in Phases 1 and 2 to guide the completion of the folowing two documents:
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San Francisco Transportation Plan (SFTP) 2050
The SFTP establishes the City’s transportation priorities and positions San Francisco for regional, state, and federal funding. It will integrate findings from the ConnectSF studies to determine the best financial investment strategy to build projects that will make progress towards the Vision. -
Transportation Element Update
This effort represents the development of a new Transportation Element of the San Francisco General Plan. The General Plan serves as the City’s guiding planning policy document, and the Transportation Element is intended to guide all transportation-related planning decisions in San Francisco.
How can I get involved?
There will be many opportunities to give feedback as part of ConnectSF. Check the Events Calendar for details about events and presentations. Please sign up for email news and updates so that your voice is heard!
Questions? Contact us at connectsf@sfgov.org.
San Francisco has transportation problems that need to be addressed now. Why aren’t you working on that?
We are. ConnectSF builds upon transportation improvement initiatives that are already underway: new vehicles for Muni, BART, and Caltrain, Muni Forward, street safety improvements in support of Vision Zero, the Central Subway, new transit-friendly development… the list goes on.
The more we’re able to build upon existing initiatives and continue to learn about the priorities, concerns, and challenges of today’s San Franciscans, the better we can prepare for our future.
What are you doing to address equity?
Racial and social equity guides ConnectSF. Each deliverable undergoes a racial and social equity assessment to determine potential effects on underserved populations. The assessment explores potential effects of draft strategies and recommendations before they are finalized: Who benefits, and who does not? What are potential harmful effects on equity priority communities? How can the strategy or recommendation be adjusted to improve transportation access for equity priority groups?
Additionally, ConnectSF staff has received training and resources from the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and actively incorporates tools and practices that seek to ensure racial equity considerations are integral to the work.
Who is leading ConnectSF?
The City is leading this collaborative effort with four agencies working collectively as the “ConnectSF team”:
