Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Central Freeway

Doctor in Shuttle Van Killed in Big Rig Crash at Octavia and Oak

By Aaron Bialick | Jul 14, 2011 | 41 Comments

52-year-old Dr. Kevin Mack was killed while riding a UCSF shuttle van at about 6:20 am this morning when it crashed with a big rig truck at the intersection of Octavia Boulevard and Oak Street, said San Francisco Police Lt. Troy Dangerfield. Mack was apparently ejected from the van and killed instantly. His body was removed from […]

Building a Farm Where a Freeway Used to Be

By Matthew Roth | Feb 8, 2010 | 16 Comments

Moving mulch on the old Central Freeway on-ramp that is becoming Hayes Valley Farm. Photo: Matthew Roth A few weeks ago in San Francisco, a number of urban farmers opened a gate in a chain-link fence at Laguna Street, between Oak and Fell Streets, and entered an overgrown lot that has been unused for nearly […]

NoPa Neighborhood Fights to Calm its Residential Freeway

By Michael Rhodes | Sep 17, 2009 | 18 Comments

Cars regularly block the bike lane on Fell Street near the Arco Station. Photo: Bryan Goebel In a city where people and cars regularly jostle for space, it’s not uncommon to have speeding traffic just inches or feet from pedestrians, homes, and parks. This spatial conflict is especially pronounced on Fell and Oak Streets, which […]

Revisiting the San Francisco Freeway Revolt

By Chris Carlsson | Jun 11, 2009 | 27 Comments

Editor’s note: This piece was written for Shaping San Francisco and is now incorporated into the new wiki version, your best place to research San Francisco history, FoundSF.org. Protesters march along Embarcadero in early 1960s, stump of Embarcadero Freeway ends behind them at Broadway. Photo courtesy San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library In the […]

Mayor Newsom, Caltrans Announce Plans to Remove Portions of I-280

By Matthew Roth | Apr 1, 2009 | 9 Comments

A controlled explosion from the filming of the TV series "Trauma," on a closed portion of I-280 Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday announced one of his most ambitious plans for re-shaping San Francisco, telling reporters at a press conference with Caltrans Director Will Kemption and Caltrain Director Michael Scanlan that the city would move forward with […]

San Francisco’s Unbuilt Freeway Network Revisited

By Matthew Roth | Mar 23, 2009 | 10 Comments

Some of San Francisco’s unbuilt freeways Hunter College student and photographer Andrew Lynch recently posted Google Map mashups of the unbuilt freeways that made up many of the master plans in cities around the country in the 1950s and 1960s. San Francisco, New York City, and Boston avoided the worst of automobility, while the map […]

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