SF readies roads, transit for Super Bowl takeover

Transit and traffic plans are underway as San Francisco gets ready to host the biggest football party leading up to Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7 in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

The City is hosting Super Bowl City and the NFL Experience, which will have impacts on Muni and vehicle traffic. Both events will open to the public and will run from Jan. 30 through Feb. 7.

Closures of streets though will start as early as Jan. 23 for setup of the events, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. It will also take at least five days to take down the structures once the events are over.

The transit agency released its initial Muni and traffic plan Tuesday at its Board of Directors meeting.

Market Street between Beale and Steuart streets, Justin Herman Plaza, Sue Bierman Park and Don Chae Way, will house the Super Bowl City fan village.

Peter Albert, the SFMTA’s urban planning initiatives manager, said Tuesday that buses will reroute in the area using Beale, Mission and Howard streets. Transit officials said it will also use those streets to place temporary terminals during the nine-day event. Emergency vehicles will also be able to access those streets.

Albert said the only service not running during nine-day event is the weekend E-Line service.

The F-Line historic streetcars will run from the Don Chee Way Loop to Fisherman’s Wharf. Albert said there will be a F-Line shuttle stop setup at Mission Street at the Embarcadero for Muni riders who need to continue on the F-Line.

Moscone Center will host the NFL Experience on Howard Street from Third to Fourth streets. Traffic closures will be similar to that of Salesforce and Oracle events held at the same location.

Drivers heading southbound on The Embarcadero will have to exit at Washington Street and continue on Battery and First streets.

Super Bowl City will open each day 11 a.m. and end at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. It will close at 3 p.m. on the day of the Super Bowl.

The NFL Experience will open at 10 am. on the weekend of Jan. 30, 3 p.m. on the weekdays and 10 a.m. on the weekend of Feb. 6. On most days, the event will close at 10 p.m. On Super Bowl Sunday, the event will close 2 p.m. It is a ticketed event.

SFMTA Director Cheryl Brinkman said she is confident that the transit agency will be able to get people to where they need to go as the City has shutdown streets for big and small events before.

Brinkman also said that she wanted to know if operating costs incurred by the transit agency would be revenue neutral.

SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin said there will most likely be costs to the transit agency for the extra man power that will needed to direct traffic such as parking control officers, managing Muni and providing extra service. He said it would be hard to know now what those costs will be and if those costs would be covered by the City.

Albert said more details about Muni, traffic reroutes, pedestrian and bike plans will get released closer to the Jan. 23 date.

He said the transit agency is working with regional transportation partners in finalizing a plan.

The transit agency suggested that Muni riders can sign up for transit and traffic email and text alerts related to the Super Bowl events in The City.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.