Could cars be returning to San Francisco's Market Street?

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The possibility of reintroducing cars on Market street is once again a talker.

"Cars, of course! It makes it real inconvenient to go into stores when you can't go on Market," said San Francisco resident Darren Williams.

"Not cars, Waymo OK," expressed another San Francisco resident.

At the insistence of Mayor Daniel Lurie, Waymo robotaxis, owned by Google, will soon be operating on Market Street downtown where, until now, only buses, taxis and most commercial vehicles have been allowed.

Taxi drivers are the first to tell us, allowing Waymo on their turf will further cripple their business.

"We've already have had to fight through Uber and Lyft and now Waymo is just going to... they have no limit on how many they can have in the city," said Matthew Sutter who has been a cab driver for 33 years. Like many, he's still paying for the $250,000 medallion he purchased when the city began selling hundreds of them in 2010.

It generated millions of dollars for the city and helped SFMTA with its, then, large budget deficit.

But once the ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft came online, the taxi medallions were basically worthless.

"One of my biggest concerns with the new mayor too is feeding tech again. We're going through the same process of feeding tech, they build up and then they just abandon us and not bring anything back into the city," added Sutter.

MORE: Waymo robotaxis will soon be allowed to drive on 'car-free' section of SF's Market St., mayor says

Now Uber and Lyft are demanding that they too be allowed to pick up and drop off passengers on Market Street, and some are asking should it be opened once again to any vehicle?

To understand this dispute, we have to go back to this 2019 hearing when the SFMTA board unanimously voted to approve a 2.2 mile-long Better Market Street Plan from Steuart Street to Octavia Boulevard.

The plan included among many other things, banning cars. At the time, the estimated cost of the project was $604 million.

This is how SFMTA described it.

"Once in a generation transformation of Market Street," insisted Viktoriya Wise of the SFMTA in 2019.

"Let's just have many car-free streets. We will all be probably astonished how fantastic this will be when it gets done and we will be chomping at the bit to do more of them," added Cheryl Brinkman, former SFMTA commissioner.

Again, that was 2019, and today no one is "chomping at the bit" because that so-called "Transformation of Market Street" may never be completed.

As of February of this year, only phase one of the three phases of the plan have been finished and the SFMTA has no funds or grants and certainly no federal dollars to complete it.

They told us "The SFMTA is facing a significant budget deficit of more than $320 million and economic uncertainties are ongoing."

MORE: SF approves parking meter rate hike to help SFMTA's projected $320 million budget deficit

What back in 2019 would have cost $604 million, they say--is close to one billion in today's economy.

This has left many supporters disappointed.

"I think what we're left with is to work with what we have and try to make the best of it," said Robin Pam of the nonprofit KidSafe SF.

Phase one included traffic signal upgrades, sidewalk bulb-outs, ADA-compliant curb ramps, and wider sidewalks and those have all been done by Public Works.

But not every protected curb-side bicycle lane been been added.

And parts of Market street are still in need of repaving.

Here's what Public Works said of street conditions in that 2019 SFMTA hearing.

"As you can see in this photo, the asphalt pavement is worn and needs to be replaced," explained Christina Olea of SF Public Works

But as of Friday, parts of Market street still have not been repaved because SFMTA now says the megaproject would have required ripping up Market Street with construction for years, even though in 2019 it was part of the plan.

MORE: SF leaders considering congestion pricing even though downtown recovery continues

"The energy has been electric," In the meantime, Mayor Lurie is staying clear of those broken promises while allowing Waymo on Market Street to, in his words, help revitalize the downtown and mid-Market areas.

Fernando Pujals with the Mid-Market Business Association is not opposed to having Waymo on Market Street.

"I think that it behooves us to kind of take tests of different things incrementally, see what works, what's not and be nibble. Businesses have to look at what is right in front of them here and now and what we have right here and now is a lot of great activities coming to mid-market," said Pujals.

But some merchants believe reintroducing all vehicles will help to revitalize the area.

"Because just taxi and buses passing and no car traffic just, you know, we need more people more car traffic," insisted Ferit Uyar of Market Street Gyros. His business continues to struggle.

Others oppose going back to how it was because, they say, you can't ignore the positives of the plan like a sharp reduction of collisions once cars were banned.

"There's 40% fewer crashes, injury collisions that have been happening on Market since cars were removed in 2020," revealed Pam.

Without cars, Muni Buses have been transporting people at a much faster pace, much to the satisfaction of passengers.

"If we bring back cars to Market, we're going to see a decrease in transit efficiency, Muni is going to get slower and we're going to see more dangerous conditions for people walking and biking," added Pam.