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Last Chance - 2022 Muni Service Network Survey Closes October 1, 2021 By Mariana Maguire SFMTA staff talks with customer about 2022 Muni service options at farmer’s market pop-up event. The SFMTA recently introduced three options for increasing Muni service in early 2022. We launched efforts to get community input on them, including a brief survey that closes Friday, October 1. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, there are still a few days left! You can find the survey link at SFMTA.com/2022Network. We’ve received more than 4,000 survey responses so far and a few hundred calls to our hotline and feedback to our TellMuni@SFMTA.com email. You can also provide feedback on the shortened J Church route and changes to the 23 Monterey, 57 Parkmerced, 35 Eureka and 48 Quintara/24th Street by contacting TellMuni@SFMTA.com or 415.646.2005. All three alternatives to increase Muni bus service in early 2022 have the same amount of total bus service – they’re just arranged differently. Th

Residents Overwhelmingly Support Slow Streets By Eillie Anzilotti After over a year of Slow Streets providing safe, low-volume corridors for people to walk, bike, play and travel during the pandemic, we’re excited to share our first comprehensive evaluation of the program . The key takeaway? San Franciscans are overwhelmingly in support of Slow Streets. Slow Streets are designed to limit through traffic on certain residential streets and allow them to be used as a shared roadway for people traveling by foot and by bicycle. Since introducing Slow Streets in April 2020 in response to the Mayor’s Emergency Health Order, SFMTA has designated around 30 corridors covering 47 miles of roadway as Slow Streets. The program has evolved from a critical component of San Francisco’s pandemic response and recovery to a potential new avenue to further the city and SFMTA’s goals around climate action and sustainable transportation. As the Slow Streets program has grown, we wanted to make sure we

Muni’s R-Howard 80 Years On By Jeremy Menzies Eighty years ago on September 7, 1941, the San Francisco Municipal Railway launched its first all-electric bus route, the R Howard. Today the route no longer survives in its original form but the legacy of the R lives on in our electric trolley bus fleet and bus routes that serve the same area. Two Muni buses lay over at the “Bridge Terminal” at Beale and Howard Streets in this November 1941 photograph. At left is the 4 Embarcadero, which ran along the waterfront and the recently established R Howard trolley bus at right. The R traces its lineage back to the 35 Howard streetcar line, operated by the Market Street Railway Company. This line ran from the Ferry Building to 24th and Rhode Island Streets on Howard and South Van Ness. In 1939, when the company’s agreement to run the 35 expired, the city decided to establish the R Howard in its place. Electric trolley buses were chosen for the new service for their low cost of operation and to

Improving Safety and Access to Golden Gate Park By Chava Kronenberg Today, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD) and the SFMTA are jointly launching the Golden Gate Park Access and Safety Program , an effort to consider a post-pandemic set of closed or restricted access streets and mobility choices in San Francisco’s most iconic park. During the first weeks of the pandemic, RPD closed JFK Drive on the east side of the park to drivers , following up with additional segments on the west side including Middle Drive and MLK. Closing these streets in 2020 was a step in decades of reducing the number of streets for cars in the park, and furthered a long conversation about opening JFK Drive to people walking, biking, scooting, rolling, dancing, and skating. We’ve been monitoring and learning from the current car-free streets in the park. Since the closure, we’ve seen a lmost 7 million walking, biking, and rolling trips on JFK Drive, representing a 36% increase in peo

SFMTA Resumes Peak Hour Tow-Away Zone Enforcement By Jessie Liang The SFMTA’s towing programs were temporarily suspended in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the city has reopened and traffic has returned, the SFMTA will resume enforcement of peak hour commuter tow-away zones starting September 20 . Vehicles parked at tow-away zones during restricted peak hours will be subject to citation and towing.  We’re bringing back the enforcement of peak hour tow-away zones under the SFMTA Transportation Recovery Plan (TRP) as the economy reopens. Tows help the SFMTA facilitate the flow and safety of transit and traffic, support economic activity and maintain safe streets. The reinstated tow-away enforcement will accommodate changing conditions on city streets. For example, enforcement will not apply to Shared Spaces that allow merchants to use sidewalks, full or partial streets and other nearby outdoor spaces under San Francisco’s Public Health Orders. In addition to

Long-awaited crosswalk on Geary helps rebuild community connections By Amy Fowler The Geary Rapid Project just met another major milestone with the completion of a long-awaited crosswalk connecting the Japantown Peace Plaza to the southside of Geary Boulevard. The new crossing at Geary and Buchanan Street serves as a physical reconnection to help bridge the gap between divided communities. But it’s also a symbolic one , exemplified by the decorative panels installed in the center median that were inspired and designed by the communities it now serves—the Fillmore, Japantown and St. Francis Square Cooperative. A new crosswalk was installed at Geary and Buchanan, with decorative panels representing the surrounding communities. The significance of the crosswalk is tied to the history of the neighborhood. In the 1960s, the two neighborhoods were specifically targeted by urban planners, the vibrant Fillmore neighborhood --known as “the Harlem of the West” for its phenomenal jazz sce

Bikeshare Station Expansion and e-Bike Price Changes By Adrian Leung As San Francisco's Bikeshare program administrator , the SFMTA recently approved a price increase for Bay Wheels stationless e-bike trips that will take effect September 22, 2021. Bikesharing systems have been an important contribution to the rise in popularity of bicycling in San Francisco over the past decade. Bikeshare programs lower barriers to bicycling by overcoming the challenges of owning, storing and securing one’s own vehicle. Shared bicycles also offer a solution for the "last mile" connections that allow for more effective travel by transit so that one can complete their so-called “last mile” to their destination by bicycle. The SFMTA regulates bikeshare service in order to provide equit able access to shared bicycles for all San Franciscans, as well as ensuring proper placement of stations or unstationed vehicles.  Before and throughout the pandemic, bicycling has increased, and our bik

Cable Car Shutdown Update By Last Thursday at approximately 1:30 p.m., the fire suppression system in the electrical room at the Cable Car Barn at Mason and Washington streets discharged. This caused the electrical room to fill with fire retardant material resembling smoke, which prompted a response from SFFD as a safety precaution. Upon the discharge of the fire suppression system, other automated safety systems were activated resulting in a loss of electrical power to the entire facility, including the propulsion system for the cable cars. As the cable cars only recently came back to full service on Sept. 4, we share the public’s disappointment to now be without these essentially San Francisco features on our streets. Our electrical, operations, safety and facilities teams are working hard to ensure that we do thorough inspections across related systems, rigorous testing and careful resumption of service to avoid further disruption. We are grateful for the quick response and suppo

How Youth Can Shape Muni Moving Forward By Kharima Mohamed MTA’s 2022 Muni Service Network survey is currently underway and we want to be sure that young people’s voices are heard. Youth now have an opportunity to vote on what type of Muni service they want to see in 2022.  As part of our 2022 Muni Service Network virtual open house and office hours series , we will be holding youth-centered virtual office hours on Thursday, September 23 at 6 p.m. Youth are encouraged to join to find out how the three proposed scenarios for winter 2022 Muni service would change how they get to school and to activities around San Francisco. Youth will be able to ask questions and get answers from SFMTA staff about what matters to them most about Muni service in 2022. Three alternatives have been developed to help us determine what Muni service should look like in 2022: the Familiar alternative, the Frequent alternative and the Hybrid alternative. The Familiar alternative  brings back the all-da

How Youth Can Shape Muni Moving Forward By Shalon Rogers MTA’s 2022 Muni Service Network survey is currently underway and we want to be sure that young people’s voices are heard. Youth now have an opportunity to vote on what type of Muni service they want to see in 2022.  As part of our 2022 Muni Service Network virtual open house and office hours series , we will be holding youth-centered virtual office hours on Thursday, September 23 at 6 p.m. Youth are encouraged to join to find out how the three proposed scenarios for winter 2022 Muni service would change how they get to school and to activities around San Francisco. Youth will be able to ask questions and get answers from SFMTA staff about what matters to them most about Muni service in 2022. Three alternatives have been developed to help us determine what Muni service should look like in 2022: the Familiar alternative, the Frequent alternative and the Hybrid alternative. The Familiar alternative  brings back the all-day

How Small Improvements Can Make a Big Difference By Julie Kirschbaum [excerpted from APTA Passenger Transport Magazine, where the  full article is available online ] San Francisco Transit Riders, a non-profit ridership advocacy group, has declared September “transit month” in the city where I live, work and raise my family. As the Director of Muni at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), and for others across the country in my role, every month is transit month. Still, I must admit that even after working in public transit for more than 20 years, I’m still unabashedly enthusiastic about transit month and about the potential of our industry. When we do things right, we connect communities, improve people’s daily lives, combat climate change and open opportunities for the people who need them most. Because the SFMTA is an integrated transit and transportation agency, we are able to have our planners and engineers work together to design changes that reduce d

Young People Lean In to San Francisco’s Transportation Future By On Saturday, September 18th at 1 PM , SFMTA’s Youth Transportation Advisory Board (YTAB) will host a Youth Town Hall both in-person at 49 South Van Ness, Conference Room B (masks required) and virtually. Since February 2021, YTAB members, youth between the ages of 14 and 18, have been sharing their transportation perspectives with SFMTA staff. Now, board members want to hear their peers’ transportation experiences and needs. The goal of the town hall is to learn from youth across the city so the SFMTA can better serve them in the future. The Youth Town Hall will cover a range of transportation-related topics that impact youth and their communities. YTAB hopes this event will support relationship-building with youth and with organizations that serve youth and their families. These relationships will help the SFMTA better meet community needs through youth-informed service improvements. Feedback about youth experiences

September is Transit Month!  By Guest Author Cat Carter San Francisco Transit Riders, an independent nonprofit advocating for the needs of public transportation customers, started Transit Month six years ago as a way to highlight the importance of public transit in San Francisco - for the city's livability, accessibility and sustainability. This event honors all the riders using Muni to travel in and around San Francisco, as well as all the Muni operators who get us there safely every day. We'll be celebrating the role of transit in the Bay Area's recovery with events, rides and prizes.  Daily Muni ridership never dipped below 100,000 during shelter-in-place-- that's a lot of people who depended on Muni to access essential jobs and services. Muni staff showed up every day, even in the face of the uncertainty of COVID-19, to make sure people could continue reaching their destinations. San Francisco wouldn't be able to exist or recover without all of the Muni sta

Late Night Subway Service Returns in October By Mariana Maguire The SFMTA plans to extend Muni Metro service in the subway to midnight as part of our ongoing rail recovery and COVD-19 Muni service expansion starting Saturday, October 2. Monday through Saturday, last trains will depart their terminals before midnight and will reach the end of the subway tunnel, in either direction, by midnight. The last eastbound Muni Metro train will depart daily at 11:50 p.m. and last westbound train at 12:00 a.m. Sunday night service will run until approximately 10 p.m. Since May 2021 rail service has run until 9 p.m. daily, allowing maintenance crews more time to conduct vital, ongoing maintenance work. Extending Metro service through the subway until midnight allows Muni to provide late-night service connections to BART, while preserving a large part of our late-night subway maintenance window. To do this necessary and critical maintenance work, crews need several hours without trains in the

Tell us What You Want Muni Service to Be Like in 2022 By Shalon Rogers The 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express is one of Muni’s newest routes. What should Muni service be like in 2022? Now’s your chance to weigh in. The SFMTA is planning to increase Muni service in early 2022. As we add more Muni service, what is the best way to do so? Should we simply restore the seven all-day bus routes that are not currently running just the way they were before the pandemic? Should we improve the frequency and capacity of buses on high-ridership lines? How can we make Muni service better than it was? That’s what we need your help to figure out. SFMTA is pursuing a number of ways to gather feedback from the public on the best path for Muni service moving forward including a series of public meetings, specific stakeholder outreach, and surveys in English, Chinese, Spanish, Filipino, Russian and Vietnamese. Three alternatives for Muni service in 2022 To begin the discussion on what the 2022 Muni

Adaptive Scooters Coming to a Street Near You By Rachel Vierstra Shared Powered Scooters have grown in popularity over the past few years, giving residents and visitors to San Francisco one more alternative to traveling by car. Scooters can provide increased access to nearby necessities and a fun option for shorter trips. However, standard scooter models are not accessible to many people with disabilities. Motivated by our dedication to providing equitable access to transportation, the SFMTA required all powered scooter permittees to pilot an adaptive scooter program from January 2020 to June 2021. From that pilot, a first of its kind among U.S. transit agencies, we learned important lessons that inform how we can best require scooter operators to expand access for disabled riders moving forward. 2019-2021 Adaptive Scooter Pilot The 2019-2021 scooter permittees, Scoot, Lime, and Spin launched their adaptive scooter pilots with devices that provided additional stability, such as a

Celebrating 148 Years of Cable Cars in San Francisco By Pamela Johnson On September 4, 2021, San Francisco’s historic cable cars will return to revenue service after an unprecedented shut down of more than a year as part of the city's emergency response to protect operators and the public during the Covid19 pandemic. Coincidentally, this reopening marks the 148th year of cable car operations in San Francisco. Rebooting the cable car system required significant work. As the cars had been out of service since March 17, 2020 we had to recertify and hire new line inspectors and prepare the cable cars’ historic infrastructure to accommodate service. Cable car testing began with the Powell-Hyde line in July. In August, the SFMTA announced that free test rides would be offered to the public on all three lines as we worked out possible kinks in the system, leading to this month's return of the landmark cable cars. All aboard? Ding! Ding! A familiar sound is in the air again. It&#