I can see why this might ok for Villa and Mercy, but not for California/Castro. I hope that part of the decision can be reconsidered. I don't recall hearing about this particular plan of action during any of the related City meetings, by the way.

I actually meant Villa and Dana in my above comment.

This is a welcome change. It has been chaotic with the stop signs (flashing red) where pedestrians cross continuously with no time allocated for cars. The cars get frustrated and back up down the side streets.
@bkengland I'm curious what you'd prefer at California Street? That seemed the worst of the three with stop signs. I think having a 3-way operation with a dedicated pedestrian movement time would be better since the Castro traffic HAS TO cross the path of pedestrians on one side or the other. I'll suggest that and let's see what happens.

Typical car culture. Needing crossing guards to protect the precious cars from pedestrians. How dare we waste the time of drivers who shouldn’t even be going through downtown like this.

I hope that the light cycles will be adjusted to prioritize pedestrians crossing. Also, maybe change the orientation of the "beg" buttons so that drivers do the begging to cross for a change :)

I for one quite like the vibe set by the flashing stop sign lights on those Castro cross-streets; They communicate to drivers viscerally that they're entering a pedestrian-privileged zone. They're a better overall design choice, in my opinion.

But I can also see why at certain times of the day they could create traffic problems.

It was a terrible, catastrophic decision to close down central expressway traffic into Castro. Visits to downtown are way down. More businesses will close. Castro is now a ghost town street, whether it’s weekdays or even on weekends. It is extremely inconvenient to access downtown traversing tiny residential roads past Landels in, or conversely making multiple turns from the west/north side and having to take a ramp onto Shoreline. Can the town hold a referendum and reverse the idiotic mistake to permanently close down Central Expressway into Castro? Every other city (PA, LA, Sunnyvale) has opened up their streets without issue, while Mountain View is actively k-lling its own downtown businesses.

I feel like I must be visiting a different Castro Street! It's vibrant and bustling, and I love seeing people out walking around and not having to worry about cars near them.

What I think was a catastrophe was the change in this article. Now, instead of giving primacy to bikes and pedestrians, we're back to having cars run the show at these intersections. Even with cops directing traffic, it felt extremely unsafe crossing there and cars end up going way too fast through the green lights, when people are trying to walk or bike between the blocks. Really sad to see the progress already being whittled away.

"Castro is now a ghost town street, whether it’s weekdays or even on weekends."

Are you an anthropomorphic car lamenting how Castro is now devoid of your kind and instead overrun with diabolical humans?

Late to comment but I'm glad to see this. Too many pedestrians would suddenly lose all common sense and awareness of their surroundings when approaching those streets lol.