The San Francisco Department of Public Health conducted an HIA to analyze pedestrian safety conditions around the proposed Jewish Home of San Francisco, a senior housing and retail project along the Mission Street corridor in the Outer Mission/Excelsior neighborhoods. The report analyzed the site’s characteristics for transit, transportation, neighborhood demographics, and pedestrian injury factors, and it incorporated data from an audit of streets adjacent and close to the site using the Pedestrian Environmental Quality Index, a tool for assessing how the physical environment—including traffic, intersections, and street design—affects walking behaviors. It also reviewed data from recent analyses generated by other city processes that looked at conditions at or near the site.
The HIA found a number of areas adjacent to the Jewish Home with potential for improvement of pedestrian infrastructure. Based on these findings, the HIA team provided site-specific and area-wide recommendations to protect pedestrian safety and promote safe walking, particularly among seniors.
Outcome
Recommendations from the HIA helped inform improvements to the walking environment for seniors living at the Jewish Home of San Francisco. The city’s Department of Public Health now routinely works with the Planning Department to proactively address pedestrian safety issues in new developments.
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This Health Impact Assessment Report first appeared in The Cross-Sector Toolkit for Health. The Cross-Sector Toolkit for Health was originally developed by the Health Impact Project, formerly a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The creation of this resource was supported by a grant from the Health Impact Project. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew Charitable Trusts, or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
