Market Street, a tortured tangle of buses, bikes, streetcars, delivery trucks and a few private cars, is about to get an overdue makeover worthy of its status as the city’s grand civic boulevard.

The plan would ban cars, including Uber and Lyft, from Market Street’s eastern reaches while delivering continuous protected bike lanes and Muni-only lanes. It would make room for taxis and other commercial vehicles such as delivery trucks. But it would get rid of Market Street’s signature brick sidewalks.

Eight years in the making, the design is intended to modernize Market Street, much like most of the buildings and businesses that call it home. At the same time, it hopes to make the street safer for growing numbers of pedestrians, bicyclists and buses.

The overall plan covers 2.2 miles of the boulevard between the Embarcadero and Octavia Boulevard, but the ban on private cars — including Uber and Lyft — will extend from 10th Street east to the Embarcadero. Taxis and other commercial vehicles, such as delivery trucks, would be permitted to use the lane closest to the curbs.

It’ll be years before the makeover, known as Better Market Street, will be complete, but construction of the first stretch is expected to begin next year.

When the project is finished, center lanes will be reserved for Muni — the F-line historic streetcars and Muni’s limited-stop rapid buses. Perhaps the biggest addition will be a continuous bike lane at sidewalk level but separated from pedestrians by a variety of barriers, including rails, benches, bike racks and planter boxes.

Brian Wiedenmeier, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, said the lane will make it safer and more appealing to ride a bike on Market Street, where cyclists now dodge buses, delivery trucks and Uber cars illegally stopped against curbs.

“Bikes are central to Market Street, and bikes should have a prime and safe place on that street,” he said. “We’re very happy to see protected bike lanes the full length from Octavia to the Embarcadero. If we can get Market Street right, and make it a safe, welcoming, easy place to ride a bicycle, it impacts biking all across San Francisco.”

One casualty of the Market Street makeover will be the distinctive red-brick sidewalks, installed in the early 1970s, coinciding with BART’s arrival. Concrete pavers — size, shape and color to be determined — will replace the bricks, which don’t meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and tend to become slippery with wear, especially when wet.

Details of the overhaul scheme are still being worked out, but the basic vision for Market Street has been agreed upon.

“There’s still a road ahead, but we have consensus on a single plan,” said Jennifer Blot, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works, which is leading the project. “This is the first step.”

Funding plans and a variety of approvals are needed, but the five city agencies working on the plan have agreed on a direction for Market Street.

In addition to the bike lanes at sidewalk level, the entire 2.2-mile stretch will include dedicated Muni lanes in the center with taxis and commercial vehicles restricted to the curbside lanes. Delivery zones will be included, but hours will be limited.

Drivers of private cars are already discouraged from traveling on eastern Market Street through a series of forced and prohibited turns at various intersections. But the plan expands the prohibition on all private cars, including Uber and Lyft.

“Uber and Lyft are responsible for as much as 20 percent of the traffic on South of Market,” said Tom Maguire, director of sustainable streets. “We have to be very careful not to allow traffic onto Market that could slow Muni. Our approach to traffic is a Transit First approach.”

Simon Bertrang, the project manager, said the plan aims to reduce delays for Muni buses, especially its limited-stop rapid lines; improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists in line with the city’s Vision Zero strategy; ease access for people with disabilities; and enhance Market Street’s overall look.

“The strength of these designs is that we have been able to meet all of our mobility needs in 120 feet (the street width) and create a more beautiful street,” he said.

Rebuilding Market Street won’t be cheap. The project will cost an estimated $604 million, and the city isn’t sure where most of it will come from. So it will be built in segments with construction on the first of six to start by the end of 2018, said Mohammed Nuru, director of Public Works.

Bertrang said building the first segment soon will allow the city to give people a glimpse of what the completed street will look like.

“Market Street is our city’s major corridor, a major transit hub, a place people go shopping, get on the train, a place cyclists go down,” Nuru said. “It’s a place we celebrate and hold parades, where there are plazas along the way.

“It’s really the Champs-Elysées of San Francisco.”

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan