San Francisco’s board of supervisors are seriously considering making Market Street nearly a completely pedestrian and cyclist-focused street. This would be roughly equivalent to us making Congress between the river and the capitol building carfree, or Guadalupe between MLK and 30th or so.

Quoting today’s story in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Having been a great street, Market Street has the scale, the social and historical significance, the architectural profile and the infrastructure, and hence the potential, to be great once again,” Tilly Chang, deputy director of planning for the Country Transportation Authority, wrote in the agency’s formal request to proceed with the study.

Impressive, no? If this all happens hopefully it will serve as inspiration to many cities across the country, including us.

If you had your choice to make one street section carfree in Austin, where would it be? Somewhere downtown? Around the UT Campus? Somewhere completely different? My choice would probably be the drag, to restrict auto travel and limit the street to pedestrians, cyclists, and transit.