FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
CONTACT: Luke Bornheimer, Executive Director, Luke@StreetsForward.org, 617-899-4487 (cell)

Mayor Lurie Risks Market Street and Downtown’s Recovery on Dangerous Private Car Policy

Mayor Daniel Lurie is taking a high-stakes gamble with Market Street and Downtown’s recovery by unilaterally allowing private cars on Car-Free Market Street—the section of Market Street between The Embarcadero and 10th Street—baselessly claiming it will boost economic recovery. With this dangerous private car policy, Mayor Lurie will decrease the number of people who can safely and efficiently get to Market Street, induce car traffic, make Muni slower and less reliable, and increase roadway crashes, fatalities, and injuries.

The proven benefits of exclusively prioritizing people walking, biking, using mobility devices, and taking Muni on Market Street will be destroyed, including the 14% increase in Muni speed and reliability and 40% decrease in roadway crashes and injuries. In their place, Market Street will become unwelcoming, inefficient, and dangerous for all people—including people in cars. Streets Forward is disappointed that Mayor Lurie has decided to allow private cars on Car-Free Market Street, concerned about the negative impact this policy will have on the economic recovery of Market Street and Downtown, and fearful of how the policy will decrease the number of people who can safely and efficiently get to Market Street and Downtown, safety for all people, and Muni’s speed and reliability.

“Mayor Lurie’s choice to allow private cars on Car-Free Market Street is a significant—and potentially catastrophic—step backwards for Market Street, Downtown, and San Francisco,” said Luke Bornheimer, Executive Director of Streets Forward. “Streets Forward shares Mayor Lurie’s desire to revitalize Market Street and increase economic recovery Downtown, but allowing private cars on Car-Free Market Street will have the opposite effect—decreasing the number of people who can safely and efficiently get to Market Street and Downtown while increasing car traffic, noise, air pollution, and chaos on Market Street as well as getting people killed or injured.”

Given the well-documented improvements to Muni’s speed and reliability and safety for all people as well as the negative impacts of cars and car traffic, this change will undo improvements, jeopardize the economic recovery of Market Street and Downtown, and goes against well-established best practices. Streets Forward shares Mayor Lurie’s desire to revitalize Market Street and Downtown—and there are effective ways to accomplish that—but allowing cars on Market Street is a step backwards that fails to meet the moment we face as a city. Furthermore, Mayor Lurie and the SFMTA Board’s choice to cut Muni service on Market Street will only increase the negative impacts of allowing private cars on Car-Free Market Street.

“Streets Forward is ready to work collaboratively with Mayor Lurie to revitalize Market Street and Downtown using data-driven best practices that will deliver positive and measurable results for Market Street, Downtown, and San Francisco," Bornheimer said. “Mayor Lurie has an opportunity to transform Market Street and Downtown and move our city forward in a positive direction using proven solutions that encourage people to go to Market Street and spend more time and money there. Allowing cars on Market Street will have a negative—and potentially catastrophic—impact. The people of San Francisco deserve visionary leadership that moves us forward, not tried-and-failed policies that will move us backward.”

Streets Forward is calling on Mayor Lurie to immediately reinstate the prohibition of private cars on Car-Free Market Street and work with Streets Forward and other stakeholders to implement proven solutions to revitalize Market Street and Downtown. Together, we can help Market Street and Downtown recover and move San Francisco forward to a safe, economically vibrant, and sustainable future.

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Streets Forward is a nonprofit organization making it safer and faster for people to walk, bike, and take public transit in San Francisco. It fulfills its mission through grassroots organizing, public policy research and education, and advocacy for infrastructure improvements and policies that are proven to help people shift trips to walking, biking, and transit, which increases roadway safety, among other benefits. Streets Forward was founded by its Executive Director, Luke Bornheimer, who successfully organized and advocated to make Car-Free JFK Promenade permanent, convert Upper Great Highway into a full-time, oceanfront park (Sunset Dunes), get curbside protected bike lanes installed on Valencia Street, the e-bike incentive fund approved, and a citywide No Turn on Red policy unanimously supported by the Board of Supervisors, among other successes. You can learn more about Streets Forward at StreetsForward.org.