Blogging Tips for Beginners

Safe and Secure Restroom Access Helps Muni Run On Time By Adrienne Heim For those working in the field and delivering transit service, restroom access is not as easy as you may think. Bathroom breaks are a human necessity and require advanced planning for our thousands of transit operators. This is particularly true during the pandemic, as the shelter in place guidelines closed many restaurants and offices that were previously available to our transit staff. Muni operators provide essential transit service in San Francisco As the city looks forward to reopening, the SFMTA wants to ensure that all San Franciscans will be able get around the city safely and quickly. This means continuing to invest in maintaining the infrastructure that makes it possible for transit operations to be carried out. And that includes ensuring our Muni bus operators have safe and secure restroom access at the beginning and end of their routes. Seven years ago, SFMTA’s Operator Restroom Taskforce was form

Gene Henderson: Honoring Muni’s First Black Division Manager By Jeremy Menzies In recognition of Black History Month, we bring you the story of Gene Henderson, the first Black man to become the head of a Muni bus division, Muni’s Kirkland Division. Henderson’s Background Gene Henderson was born in Houston, Texas, in 1916. He married his wife Naomi in 1939 and then served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Following the war, Gene and his family moved to San Francisco where he began his career at the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Early Career On February 1, 1946, Henderson was hired as a streetcar motorman out of Sutro Division, which was located on the corner of 32nd Ave. and Clement St. He was hired just five years after Muni’s first Black transit operator, Audley Cole, had successfully fought to integrate the carmen’s union in 1941. In his early days at Muni, Gene worked one of the three lines running out of Sutro Division from the Ferry Building to the Richmond District o

Youth Voices for Vision Zero SF By Christine Osorio Starting in the month of February, Muni buses and transit shelters will feature youth artwork illustrating Vision Zero traffic safety messages. The students are part of Youth Art Exchange (YAX), an arts-education non-profit based whose mission is to support San Francisco’s public high school students in becoming leaders, thinkers, and artists by sharing creative practices with professional artists. As part of Supervisor Norman Yee’s District 7 participatory budget process, YAX students consulted with SFMTA staff to develop traffic safety messages and artwork that reflect their experiences around traffic safety. Themes highlighted through Youth Voices for Vision Zero SF include general traffic safety such as: Yielding to pedestrians in the crosswalk. Slowing down. Understanding that traffic deaths are preventable. Watching for people biking. Not blocking the sidewalk with a scooter. The student artwork also included Covid-

Free Muni and Paratransit to COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments By Phillip Pierce Free Muni and Paratransit to COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments Starting on Tuesday, February 23, Muni and Paratransit will be free for those traveling to get vaccinated for COVID-19. This includes trips in both directions. The SFMTA is also providing additional access to taxi service for those who use the  Essential Trip Card . These rides are good for trips to the city-sponsored high-volume vaccine sites, hospitals or anywhere else that is offering vaccines. More information on the city-sponsored sites as well as directions on how to get there can be found on  the city vaccination website. We know that getting San Franciscans vaccinated is the city’s highest priority. This program is designed to eliminate transportation and cost barriers to receiving this life-changing vaccine. How to Ride on Muni Use our  trip planner  or  service map  to find the best way to get to your vaccination destination. Simply c

Virtual Parade and New Central Subway Art Ring in Lunar New Year By Sophia Scherr We are entering the year of the Ox, typically symbolizing hard work, positivity, and honesty. This year the SFMTA will continue the tradition of celebration with the virtual San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade   on February 20th at 6 pm on KTVU. Celebrating Lunar New Year and the San Francisco Chinese community has been a long-standing tradition for many of us. In 1849, San Francisco’s population swelled to 50,000 and many of the new residents were Chinese immigrants, coming to work in gold mines or on railroad lines. By the 1860’s, the Chinese were eager to share their culture with others and the annual tradition of parade and pageantry was born. A variety of other cultural groups throughout the city were invited to participate, and they marched down what today are Grant Avenue and Kearny Street with colorful flags, banners, lanterns, and drums and firecrackers to drive away evil spirits. The city’

More Muni Metro Rail to Return in May By Mariana Maguire By May, the SFMTA plans to restart more Muni Metro rail service, extending the T Third Metro rail route between Sunnydale and West Portal, and bringing the full N Judah Metro rail route back into service between 4th and King (CalTrain) and La Playa (Ocean Beach). Adding Metro rail service means we can connect more customers to essential jobs and locations along these routes and make it easier for customers to travel through downtown along Market Street. Since August 2020, Muni has been undertaking intensive subway repairs after discovering some potentially faulty overhead splices and issues with ballast in the Eureka Curve/Twin Peaks Tunnel. We are now moving closer to completing the essential repairs and upgrades which will allow us to reopen subway service. Our work crews have removed all of the splices that had been potentially defective and replaced them with splices from a new manufacturer. We’ve also finished construct

Mask Up - It's the Law! By Kristen Holland You may hear a new announcement on our vehicles or see new messages about masks being required by federal law. The spread of COVID-19 has led the federal government to enact a mask requirement for all public transportation conveyances .  Here in San Francisco, that law means wearing a mask in Muni stations, when purchasing a ticket and while waiting for, boarding, riding or exiting transit. Failure to wear a mask can result in denial of boarding, removal from Muni and may carry federal penalties. Muni customers are doing great when it comes to mask compliance, which consistently exceeds 95% (see chart). You get it. Wearing masks, physically distancing and riding Muni for only essential trips remain crucial to reducing the spread of COVID-19. The SFMTA mask survey for the final week of January 2021 reported 97% compliance And every week, our operators, fare inspectors and ambassadors hand out thousands of masks to those who don’t ha

Geary Rapid Project Provides Safer Crossings By Amy Fowler A new traffic signal, crosswalk striping, pedestrian bulbs and streetlights help improve safety for people walking at Geary and Cook The Geary Rapid Project may be best known for helping to make 38 Geary trips—well, more rapid. But, along with improving transit performance and reliability along a three-mile stretch of Geary, an equally important feature of the project is to make the streets safer.   Geary is part of the high-injury network , and people walking there are eight times more likely to be involved in a serious or deadly collision than the average San Francisco street. Highway-like conditions on Geary Boulevard in the Western Addition make for challenging crossings. And the Tenderloin to the east, with its high concentration of children, seniors and people with disabilities, is uniquely vulnerable to traffic violence. Fortunately, many of the safety improvements included in the Geary Rapid Project have alread

Speed and Turn Limits to Boost Safety on Tenderloin Streets By Benjamin Barnett The SFMTA is undertaking two new traffic safety improvements as a part of our Tenderloin Traffic Safety project : (1) prohibiting vehicle turns on red at approximately 54 intersections and (2) reducing vehicle speed limits to 20 miles per hour on 17 corridors. ( Accessible Engineering details ) Map identifying all Tenderloin corridors and intersections where 20 mph speed limits and No Turn on Red will be implemented. The Tenderloin is home to many of our most vulnerable communities including historically marginalized groups such as people with disabilities, communities with limited-English proficiency and those living in single-room occupancy hotels (SROs) and supportive housing. At the same time, every single street in the Tenderloin is a part of 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. The

Time to Park? Know Your Meter By Jonathan Streeter Meters help businesses and others in high demand areas of San Francisco by ensuring that people driving cars will use just the amount of time they need when temporarily parking.  As such, the SFMTA recently made a simple but important update to how parking meters operate when paying for parking with a credit card. Now, when pay ing by credit card, the meters will default to two hours of parking time. The previous default credit card charge was $0.25. In many areas of the city, that provides a few minutes of parking!  While the new default is 120 minutes, customers may still choose the precise amount of time they want to park by using the up and down buttons on the meter.  For example, if a customer wants to park for only 15 minutes, they may use the down button until the correct amount of time it is selected. Previously, a customer would have to use the up button to increase the amount of desired time. The change to the credit ca

More Inspired Virtual Backgrounds from Muni Art By Sophia Scherr Whether you're working, teaching, learning or socializing on-line, you can now do it in style by showing up to your next virtual meeting with the new Muni Art 2021 backgrounds. Download, save and use the Muni Art backgrounds for any of your preferred video chatting platforms and brighten someone’s day.  Click on any of the images below and when it opens in a new tab, save to your device. For the latest COVID-19 related transit updates please visit  SFMTA.com/COVID-19 . We hope that you and your family continue to stay safe. Kundan Baidwan   Agustina Caprioglio   John Keating   Wes Wellner   Bonus Easter Egg: Senator Bernie Sanders on the F line Published February 09, 2021 at 12:53AM https://ift.tt/3q0FJes

What’s New in the Richmond? Transit Lanes to Support the 38 Geary By Jade Moy Notice something new in the Richmond? We recently installed new transit lanes on segments of Geary Boulevard between Stanyan Street and 33rd Avenue as part of the Temporary Emergency Transit Lanes program . This project extends the existing transit lanes that we installed as part of the Geary Rapid Project between Stanyan and Market streets. Now , more than 75% of Geary Boulevard benefits from transit lanes, increasing overall transit-lane miles by 50%. The Geary Boulevard corridor provides neighborhoods with vital services such as medical centers, grocery stores and other essential businesses. During the pandemic, the 38 Geary bus route has continued to serve about 18,000 daily riders making essential trips. Our new t ransit lanes help keep buses moving to reduce crowding and travel times for people who still depend on transit to get around the city. When buses aren’t competing with traffic, they

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Rosa Parks By Sophia Scherr “Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” Today, we celebrate the legacy of civil rights icon, Rosa Parks. 66 years ago, Rosa kept her seat on a Montgomery bus, was jailed and fined $10, thus sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa’s groundbreaking act proves how change can be made through the protest and civil action of everyday people. This day also reminds us of the progress and work that is still needed to ensure equity for all. In commemoration of the start of Black History Month and to honor Rosa Parks and her courage a  plaque in her honor has been installed  on a bus to mark this historical civil rights event. Our Black Women in Transit history campaigno celebrates those extraordinary individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to civil rights in transportation. You can find Rosa Parks and other

Vision Zero Look Ahead By Erica Kato With  Vision Zero , our goal is straight-forward: traffic deaths are not just preventable, they’re unacceptable and we must work to eliminate them. One death on our streets due to traffic violence is one death too many.  People using pedestrian safety zone on 8th Street that creates a shorter and safer crosswalk The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 had a significant and unprecedented impact on travel in San Francisco throughout the year.  Unfortunately, as traffic volumes dropped, we witnessed an increase in both traffic speeds and dangerous driving behavior. While the number of traffic injuries in San Francisco decreased in 2020 compared to 2019, the number of traffic deaths remained tragically unchanged. Nationally, traffic fatalities have increased in major cities, including many of our Vision Zero peers like Portland, New York City and Philadelphia.  In San Francisco we experienced an increase in solo-driver fatalities and mot

Nearly 300 Muni Drivers Celebrated for Extraordinary Safety Record By Very few drivers can make the claim they have successfully navigated the congested streets of San Francisco for years on end without having any preventable safety incidents. But 299 of the SFMTA's 2,500 Muni operators can proudly say they have done so for at least 15 years, and some for decades. This month these operators get a token and patch to wear, honoring the Safe Driver record. Recognizing these employees, Director of Transportation Jeff Tumlin stated that, "Safety is SFMTA's number one priority. It is my privilege to honor this year's Safe Driver Award recipients. These professionals deliver for the people of San Francisco and lift up the entire agency. Safe Drivers, thank you for your dedication and your service.” Safe Driver honorees with a remarkable record of 35 or more years. From left to right: Oliverio Valle, Cable Car Division, 46 Years; Lonnie Moore, Jr., Green Division, 43 year