Lightrail Art Installation, New Escalators Headed to Mid-Market

Lightrail Art Installation, New Escalators Headed to Mid-MarketPhoto via Illuminate the Arts/Lightrail
Rose Garrett
Published on December 19, 2014
It's been a busy year for the Mid-Market area, and  there's more on the way, as a new art installation, escalator fixes, and better bikeways are in the process of being rolled out. 

If you've had contact with the escalators leading into and out of Market Street's BART and Muni stations, you know that they're—ahem—not exactly in top-notch condition. Thankfully, BART has received $12 million in funding from State Proposition 1B, which will go towards making "extensive improvements" to escalators and entrances at some of downtown San Francisco's stations.

In news to no one, BART has already identified escalators at Powell Street and Civic Center stations as "among our worst-performing escalators in our system." Though still in the planning phase, work should begin in mid-2016 to replace the escalators at these locations, a process which will include adding a protective canopy over the new escalator entrances. 

In the meantime, BART is seeking public feedback on "signs, escalator performance, lighting, safety, sustainability, usability, appearance and overall customer experience." To add your two cents, here are BART's surveys for the Powell and Civic Center stations. 



Good news for cyclists who commute using Market Street bike lanes: the block on Market Street between 9th and 10th streets now has soft hit posts installed to separate bikers and car traffic more clearly. The new addition will also discourage double-parking, a problem which has increased because of Uber, Lyft and Sidecar drop-offs and pickups, according to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. 

Finally, remember back in June, when we told you about Lightrail, the "world's first subway-responsive light sculpture"? The Board of Supervisors have unanimously approved the proposal to move forward with the installation, which would see strings of 20,000 LED lights suspended from the overhead Muni lines along 2.1 miles of Market Street. By hooking into realtime BART and Muni data, pulses of colored light would travel down Market Street in sync with the movement of the trains below. 

"After BART and MUNI have closed, randomly distributed small pulses of light will move along Market Street, simulating the passage of pedestrians," explains Lightrail's project website. "The piece will thus be a celebration of the many sustainable modes of transit that make up city life."



The project is slated to roll out in March, so keep you eyes open for the light-filled new installation to arrive relatively soon.