Improving Safety and Access to Golden Gate Park By Chava Kronenberg Today, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD) and the SFMTA are jointly launching the Golden Gate Park Access and Safety Program , an effort to consider a post-pandemic set of closed or restricted access streets and mobility choices in San Francisco’s most iconic park. During the first weeks of the pandemic, RPD closed JFK Drive on the east side of the park to drivers , following up with additional segments on the west side including Middle Drive and MLK. Closing these streets in 2020 was a step in decades of reducing the number of streets for cars in the park, and furthered a long conversation about opening JFK Drive to people walking, biking, scooting, rolling, dancing, and skating. We’ve been monitoring and learning from the current car-free streets in the park. Since the closure, we’ve seen a lmost 7 million walking, biking, and rolling trips on JFK Drive, representing a 36% increase in peo...