San Francisco Sunday Streets 2012 schedule SAN FRANCISCO

Ella and Wyatt Drennan enjoy some ice cream as they walk with their mom Kate Bickert down Valencia Street, Sunday June 7, 2009, in San Francisco, Calif. Ella and Wyatt Drennan enjoy some ice cream as they walk with their mom Kate Bickert down Valencia Street, Sunday June 7, 2009, in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close San Francisco Sunday Streets 2012 schedule 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Residents of San Francisco's Mission District will get a quadruple dose of Sunday Streets this year.

Under a pilot program that Mayor Ed Lee announced Friday, the popular program of closing streets to vehicle traffic to encourage exercise and community interaction will run for four consecutive months along the Mission route on the first Sunday of the month.

Previously, various neighborhoods usually only had one Sunday Streets event each from spring to fall.

The program, borrowed from Bogota, Colombia, and brought here under former Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2008, has proved popular, and Lee is exploring the feasibility of holding more frequent Sunday Streets.

Some Fisherman's Wharf merchants were initially concerned that the first Sunday Streets along the Embarcadero would damage business.

The opposite has proved true, officials say, as residents from around the Bay Area have flocked to the events to bike, skate, hula hoop and stroll along the city's thoroughfares.

"Residents, merchants and visitors have enthusiastically embraced Sunday Streets and are consistently asking us for more of these kinds of programs," Municipal Transportation Agency head Ed Reiskin said in a statement. "We are proud to introduce a new element to Sunday Streets by testing a regular car-free route through one of San Francisco's most populated and diverse neighborhoods."

The 2.2-mile route in the Mission will run along Valencia Street from Duboce Avenue to 24th Street and along 24th Street between Valencia and Hampshire streets.

Activities will include live music, dancing, a miniature circus show and free bike rentals at Valencia and 15th streets.