By James Sword, HANC President

I attended the first 30 minutes of the "Pre-construction Open House" for the July 2016 to November 2017 Masonic construction project. There were about 20 residents and 10 to 15 staff from MTA, Bike Coalition, and DPW. About half the residents appeared to have issues with the project, mostly due to increased traffic and reduced parking, Others felt they were not heard during the outreach process.

As I dug deeper into the plan I learned that there were no changes that could be made at his time and funding was through Federal Highways.

It seemed that while there were a couple of options proposed during the planning phases, some alternatives (such as merged bike/car lanes, or different plans for each of direction of Masonic) and attention to southbound Masonic during afternoon rush hour were not discussed.

I am late coming to this project, but I commute this route 3 to5 days per week and do not look forward to the added 10 minutes during the afternoon commute southbound on Masonic. MTA will soon turn Masonic into another car clogged north-south thoroughfare much like Stanyan and Divisadero.

Construction starts the first week of July.  I recommend finding a new route for the next 18 months.