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Get Active with Your New Year’s Resolution By Benjamin Barnett Do you want to make a change in 2021 that reaps rewards? An easy way to do that is to pick an active travel option for your trips around town. Sticking to a New Year’s resolution can be hard to do, but choosing an active way to get around is one small thing that can make a big difference. “Active mobility” is the industry term that describes how people move around the city using any non-motorized means of physical activity. The best-known examples of active mobility are walking and bicycling, though other modes include running, skateboarding, scooters and roller skates. Whatever way you choose to be active when you are going to the grocery store, the doctor or to other essential places, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts. Staying Healthy One benefit of choosing active mobility is stress reduction. Making your trips by foot, bicycle or skateboard gets your heart rate up and brings your stress levels down. The COVID-19

New Equity Toolkit Helps SFMTA Improve Access By Mariana Maguire The SFMTA’s Equity Toolkit helps us improve Muni service for San Francisco’s most transit-dependent residents and essential workers. Using data layered with mapping we are able to improve access to jobs and key destinations by identifying and fixing gaps in service. Our Equity Toolkit helps us serve San Franciscans better. The toolkit focuses on San Francisco’s nine neighborhoods identified by the Muni Service Equity Strategy , including the Inner Mission, Outer Mission/Excelsior,  Visitacion  Valley, Bayview/Hunters Point, Oceanview-Ingleside, Chinatown, Tenderloin, Western Addition and Treasure Island . It’s part of SFMTA’s Transportation Recovery Plan for rebuilding our transportation system for a strong, lasting recovery that is more just and equitable for historically marginalized communities . For many of our essential workers, COVID-19 is not only a health crisis, it is an economic crisis too. Economic and

New Muni Route to Serve Bayview and Hunters Point Neighborhoods By Enrique Aguilar Starting in early 2021, Muni’s new  15 Bayview Hunters Point Express  line will improve Downtown access, reduce commute times and add transit capacity for residents of the Bayview and Hunters Point neighborhoods. This community-designed route connects the hilly communities east of Third Street to Downtown and was chosen by residents who voted in a fall 2020 survey. The process and the route demonstrates our commitment to working with communities to provide equitable Muni service.  Launching the new route coincides with the gradual  return of Muni Metro rail service . Returning to rail frees up enough buses to run new service, like the 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express and  new 27 Bryant route , and improve frequency on other key routes. Service on the 15 will run every 10 minutes from approximately 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. weekdays and 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekends.  Map of new 15 Bayview Hunter

By the numbers: Protecting Operator and Customer Health and Safety By Emily Stefiuk The SFMTA has responded to COVID-19 by working to minimize the risk of transmission and protect the health and safety of our employees and the public. Health and safety is  SFMTA’s Transportation Recovery Plan’s  number one priority.   To assess how we are doing, the SFMTA has been monitoring data through our  Transportation Recovery Plan Dashboards . The  Objective 1 dashboard  compiles metrics associated with health and safety, including sanitizing vehicles and facilities, promoting physical distancing, and encouraging mask compliance. Here’s what we’re seeing:   As of December 6, operator reported mask-related incidents are down 92% from the peak in April.   Mask compliance on Muni is at an all-time high at 96% of observed passengers wearing masks.   We’ve upped our mask distribution – our  Transit Information Program (TIP)  staff distributed over 14,000 masks to customers the week of Nov

Tenderloin Streets Transform During COVID-19 By Kimberly Leung COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted people who live and work in the Tenderloin. As a result, the SFMTA has been working closely with District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney’s office, other city departments, the Tenderloin Traffic Safety Task Force and community members to address the public health issues and unique challenges in the neighborhood through innovative interventions.    The Tenderloin is home to many of our most vulnerable communities including historically marginalized groups such as people with disabilities, residents of SROs and supportive housing and limited-English proficient communities. With every single street in the Tenderloin on the city’s High Injury Network -- the 13 percent of San Francisco streets that account for 75 percent of severe traffic injury collision and fatalities -- this critical neighborhood is the focus of our latest efforts to make the city safer for everyone.  As part of the city’s

27 Bryant Returns to Serve Communities in Mission, SOMA and Tenderloin By Enrique Aguilar Beginning on Saturday, January 23, the 27 Bryant will return to service  with a route realignment  that will improve service reliability by using  temporary emergency transit lanes .   The 27 Bryant makes critical connections for three of San Francisco’s  Muni Service Equity Strategy  neighborhoods that have been hit especially hard by the pandemic. The Tenderloin is one of most diverse and dense neighborhoods in San Francisco with many seniors, families, lower income households and persons with disabilities relying on transit. The 27 Bryant will soon travel directly to FoodsCo and Costco in SoMa to provide a connection to other food options. It will also stop just a couple of blocks away from the  Mission Food Hub  on Alabama Street in the Mission, an organization that provides free groceries to Latinx families.     27 Bryant on Bryant Street at 20th St in the Mission   With the anticipated

A City Responds: 2020 Annual Report By Bradley Dunn While there are many changes to our end of the year rituals and much uncertainty about the future, one tradition that continues is the San Francisco City Charter dictating that we release the Fiscal Year 2019-2020  Annual Report .    Like much of our work, the SFMTA’s Annual Report has made the transition online during this pandemic.  By utilizing these online tools, we share interactive maps and dashboards to help show our Agency’s work like Slow Streets, Shared Spaces or our Key Performance Metrics.   You can find the Annual Report and the hard work of our dedicated staff below. Published December 15, 2020 at 05:33AM https://ift.tt/34eCx65

Milestones on the Waterfront By Benjamin Barnett Over the summer, the SFMTA and Port of San Francisco broke ground on the Embarcadero Quick-Build Projects , bringing protected bikeways to the Embarcadero between Bay and North Point streets and Harrison and Mission streets, freeing space for pedestrians along its iconic Promenade. Just last month, Public Works and SFMTA crews substantially completed the centerpiece of this effort, The Embarcadero’s first segment of two-way protected bikeway - by installing 47 concrete islands, striping and signage changes, and a new bike signal at Howard Street. Now open in front of the Ferry Terminal between Mission and Folsom streets, this bikeway directly connects with the Folsom/Howard corridor and will be fully completed in early 2021 with the installation of metal railings. Our staff will also conduct a user survey and project evaluation in spring 2021 in connection with the Embarcadero Enhancement Project.  Check out the progress that has been

Understanding Upcoming Muni Service Changes By Mariana Maguire In December and January 2021 the SFMTA will phase back in surface rail on the J Church and T Third . This will free up buses so we can bring back more routes like the 27 Bryant, extend bus service on other routes and continue to manage crowding on routes like the 38 Geary and 14 Mission. We also have more buses available for lines like the 5 Fulton and 33 Ashbury. You may be wondering, “how is Muni able to add service?” Or, “why some routes but not others?” Three key factors guide our service decisions: Service priorities Available vehicles Ongoing constraints to Muni service Service Priorities Our service planners look at the Muni system as a whole. Our goal is to provide as much consistent, reliable service as possible even though our resources are limited due to an ongoing budget deficit. These service changes in response to the evolving public health emergency will add new connections to different parts of th

Upcoming Muni Service Expansions Phase-in Rail Service, Add Bus Service By Mariana Maguire Graphic: Updated  core service map, effective December 19, showing the temporary J Church surface rail route. On Saturday, December 19, the SFMTA will gradually start to bring back Muni Metro service by rail and increase bus service, including resuming several routes based on community feedback. Muni Metro begins resuming rail service on December 19 with the J Church between Balboa Park Station and Church and Duboce streets. On January 23, the T Third resumes rail service between Sunnydale and Embarcadero Station once safety and operational improvements are finished at Embarcadero Station. These two rail changes will put more operators back on Muni and free up to 20 buses, allowing us to extend routes, increase frequencies, resume service like the 27 Bryant, and bring two new lines into service: the 55 Dogpatch and the 15 Bayview-Hunters Point Express. The full 33 Ashbury-18th Street will a

Community Meetings About Rebuilding Potrero Yard By Adrienne Heim Potrero Yard Modernization Project - Upcoming Community Conversations Conceptual design sketch of Potrero Yard at Mariposa and Hampshire streets. This has been an unprecedented year for so many families, small businesses and the SFMTA. We are working to move San Franciscans around the city safely and quickly during the pandemic. At the same time, the SFMTA faces tough choices with immense revenue losses caused by the pandemic. The Potrero Yard Modernization Project is essential to providing Muni service for some of our busiest bus routes like the 14 Mission, 22 Fillmore, and 30 Stockton, among others. This 105-year-old trolley bus facility does not meet modern seismic safety and maintenance standards and urgently needs to be rebuilt to continue to be able to support Muni service. The Potrero Yard Modernization Project will make  the yard seismically stable and better able to support Muni operations, maintenance

Chances of Service Cuts and Layoffs Rise Due to Budget Impacts By Bradley Dunn At today’s SFMTA Board meeting, the Director of Transportation discussed how the pandemic has caused catastrophic revenue losses, and the SFMTA does not expect revenues to return fully for years to come.  While the SFMTA is in a stronger financial position than our peer transit agencies, and we’ve worked to realize more than $100 million in savings during the pandemic, we are projecting the need for substantial service cuts and layoffs to make up for projected revenue losses of $607 million. These cuts will be painful and difficult both for the people of San Francisco and our employees. We continue to work with our elected leaders and have reached out to President-elect Biden’s transition team as well to repeat the calls from across the industry for the urgent need to secure federal support for our nation’s transit systems. Federal CARES Act funding helped to replace hundreds of millions of dollars of l