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The Infrastructure Bill and the SFMTA By What the infrastructure bill means for the SFMTA On December 20, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi joined Mayor London Breed and US Representative Mark DeSaulnier to promote the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was signed into law in November. They held an event at the corner of Second and Howard Streets to explain how the bill will benefit California and show the type of street improvements it can pay for to improve pedestrian safety. These include things like wider sidewalks, protected bike lanes, transit boarding islands and ADA-compliant curb ramps. It’s through these types of improvements that San Francisco will be able to reach its goal of eliminating traffic fatalities. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which coordinates Bay Area transportation financing, estimates that the infrastructure bill will provide about $4.5 billion in funding to the region over the next five years via formula funds that the MTC a

Muni Highlights in 2021: More Service to More Destinations By Jonathan Streeter Our goal for Muni in 2021 was to match the service we offer with the changing travel patterns of an unpredictable era, as San Franciscans grappled with a second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.  To achieve this, we expanded on the core routes that formed the nucleus of our early 2020 pandemic network by adding and improving service in key areas throughout San Francisco. We focused on access in neighborhoods where essential workers live, as well as on adding service in busy corridors and even creating new lines. At the beginning of the year, even with our reduced schedule, 91% of San Franciscans were within two or three blocks of a Muni stop. This included 100% of residents in San Francisco’s neighborhoods identified by the Muni Service Equity Strategy . By summer 2021, we added enough additional service so that 98% of San Franciscans were within two or three blocks of a Muni stop. To the relief of many,

Free Muni for New Year’s Eve By Stephen Chun 2021 marks the 22nd consecutive year that we will offer free rides on New Year’s Eve. Starting at 8 p.m. on Friday, December 31 and going through 5 a.m. on Saturday, January 1, all trips on Muni will be free. This program supports San Francisco’s  Vision Zero  goals to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries as well as promotes safe and responsible transit during the New Year’s festivities.   Please note that  face masks are still required by federal law  while riding Muni, in Muni stations, on paratransit and in taxis. Violations can result in denial of boarding or removal from Muni and may carry federal penalties.  Ride Muni Free New Year’s Eve  includes all Muni lines and routes. Clipper Card customers should NOT tap their cards to make sure they don’t get charged a fare. Muni Mobile passes will not be necessary. Metro fare gates will be open that night.  New Year’s Eve Muni Service:   Complimentary Muni service from

Central Subway Revenue Service Update By Enrique Aguilar Central Subway Finishes Year on a High Note As we say goodbye to 2021 and bring in the new year, construction crews for the Central Subway remain laser-focused on the finish line and are working towards completing items in our substantial punch list. It includes testing and certifying elevators and escalators, installing all ticket vending machines and completing small tasks that need to be addressed before the start of service, anticipated for October 2022. Early next year, construction work will continue on the surface near 4th and King streets to install overhead wire and support systems connecting the Central Subway to the existing Metro system. Train and traffic signaling work and installation of new street lighting between Bryant and Townsend will also resume on 4th Street. Now that station elevators and escalators are fully functional and tested, equipment must be certified to meet local and federal safety requirement

Year-End Review of History Uncovered in 2021 By Jeremy Menzies As the year comes to an end, we are excited to present a selection of historic photos that were preserved in the SFMTA Photo Archive this year. Archive staff have been scanning and cataloguing archival Muni photos that date back 100+ years for over a decade now. Read more about our work in the  10 year milestone blog from 2018 .   The images below are a set of richly colored slides, some of which were originally used in presentations by Muni staff in the 1970s.  These photos have a wide range of subject matter from everyday street activity to scenic vistas, project documentation and important Muni milestones.  A typical day in the life of a Muni Operator.  This shot was taken near Market and 5th Streets in the early 1970s Here, customers board a 38 Geary bus painted for the 1976 Bicentennial in a striking red, white, and blue paint job. A rare snowfall is captured blanketing parts of Twin Peaks in this February 197

Happy Holidays from the SFMTA By Jeffrey Tumlin As the year comes to a close, we are grateful for our riders, customers, city partners and neighbors, whose support this past year has been invaluable. We want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a joyous holiday season and a happy new year.  As 2021 ends, we are taking a moment to reflect on the challenges of the last year and the ways our agency was able to respond to them with courage, commitment and compassion. Our dedicated employees are the heart and soul of our agency, and we hope you’ll join us in celebrating them and the ways they’ve supported San Francisco’s recovery.  The COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it’s provoked in the San Francisco Bay Area have required the SFMTA to rethink street design and transit operations, as well as expedite processes and practices that have traditionally taken much longer. At every step of the way, we’ve prioritized the health and safety of our customers and our workforce.  

Safe Driver Awards 2021 By Pamela Johnson Navigating any type of vehicle, no matter the size, through miles of hilly San Francisco terrain and sharing the roadway with others is no easy feat. Add Ubers, private and commercial vehicles, taxis, bicycles, scooters and pedestrians into the mix and the challenge escalates quickly.   But what is even more truly remarkable is that we have 282 Muni transit operators who've managed this safe driving record with no avoidable safety incidents year after year for more than 15 years. Some for several decades!   This year, the Muni operators named as honorees for the annual Safe Driver Award Program have met that challenge to be called a Safe Driver. Additionally, 20 new operators were welcomed to this elite club of which three have at least 35 years of safe driving:  Oliverio Valle, Cable Car Division, 47 Years Safe Driving  Lonnie Moore Jr, Green Division, 44 Years Safe Driving  Jason Lao, Green Division, 37 Years Safe Driving 

Livable Streets Look Back 2021 By Eillie Anzilotti How We Made San Francisco Streets Safer In 2021 As 2021 comes to an end, we're reflecting on everything SFMTA has done to make San Francisco streets safer for all. But first, let’s wind back 50 years ago to 1971: the year the first bike lanes went in in San Francisco! The city’s first bike lanes on Lake Street came out of a community effort to calm traffic and make the neighborhood safer. There’s an often-quoted expression that “change happens slowly, then all at once.” For San Francisco safe streets, 2021 is certainly in the “all at once” phase. Fifty years after the first bike lanes were installed in the city, we’re continuing to push the boundaries of what safe streets can look like in San Francisco. Here’s a look at some key progress from this past year: Transforming the Tenderloin: In a neighborhood where every street is on the city’s Vision Zero High-Injury Network, we implemented a suite of projects to make the whole

Proposed Bond Introduced to the City’s Capital Planning Committee and the Board of Supervisors By Benjamin Barnett The demands on San Francisco’s transportation system have grown and revenues from transit fares and parking fees have not kept up. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened this problem. New revenue sources to fund our system are needed. The first step is a proposed $400 million  Muni Reliability and Street Safety Bond  that would support priority transportation capital investments across San Francisco. On Tuesday, December 7, the SFMTA Board of Directors voted to urge the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to place the Bond on the June 2022 ballot. Additionally, the Bond earlier this week was reviewed by City’s  Capital Planning Committee  and yesterday introduced to the Board of Supervisors.   The recommended Bond would provide financial resources to improve the transportation system, increase street safety, and meet the long-term needs of the City. Based on both the agency’s i

Connect SF - A Shared Vision for Transportation in San Francisco   By Emmanuel Stamatogiannakis As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, what does an effective, equitable, and resilient transportation system for San Francisco’s future look like?  ConnectSF , comprised of staff from the SFMTA, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the San Francisco Planning Department, has been envisioning just that. Now, after engaging with residents, community groups, businesses, youth organizations, and other stakeholders to gather feedback, the collaborative has released the  ConnectSF Transit Strategy . The strategy details how we can reinvest in the city’s transit system to achieve our shared vision of a growing, diverse and equitable city with transportation options that are accessible and affordable to all.    The Vision   The ConnectSF Transit Strategy calls for four key investments to build our bold vision of San Francisco’s transportation system:   We will make the curr

Approved: 2022 Muni Service Plan By Mariana Maguire The Muni Service Network proposal for early 2022, and the next steps for the J Church and 48 Quintara, were unanimously approved by the SFMTA Board of Directors on Tuesday December 7, 2021. On Tuesday December 21, SFMTA staff will return to the Board of Directors to outline a phased service change implementation schedule currently slated to begin in February 2022. SFMTA will restore five routes in full – 6 Haight/Parnassus, 8AX Bayshore A Express, 8BX Bayshore B Express, 28R 19th Avenue and the 43 Masonic – and four routes with some changes – the 2 Clement, 10 Townsend, 21 Hayes and 31 Balboa. Two routes will remain temporarily suspended – the 47 Van Ness and the 3 Jackson. These routes largely overlap other routes that are or will be in service. Instead, improvements that were approved December 7 will help to reduce crowding and wait times on high ridership Muni lines in the same neighborhoods. The 2022 Muni Service Plan was deve

L Taraval Improvement Project “Segment B” Geared Up for Early 2022 By Stephen Chun Over the summer, we shared the good news that the  first segment  of the  L Taraval Improvement Project  was  completed on schedule and within budget.  A notice to proceed for the next phase of work, Segment B was issued last week to NTK Construction. Project staff is now gearing up for work slated to begin in January 2022.   What is the L Taraval Improvement Project?  The L Taraval Improvement Project is a multi-agency collaboration partnered with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Public Works to improve and upgrade the aging infrastructure. The project will make pedestrian crossing safer, increase accessibility, improve transit reliability, rehabilitate water and sewer infrastructure, enhance landscaping and replace road pavement along the L Taraval line. To lessen the impact to the community, the project was split into two segments: Segment A and Segment B.   Seg

Fulton Street Sees Transit and Safety Improvements By Shalon Rogers A temporary transit bulb was recently installed at 8th Avenue and Fulton, reducing travel time for the 5 Fulton and 5R Fulton Rapid and making boarding safer. For those who ride the 5 Fulton or 5R Fulton Rapid in the Richmond District, you may have recently noticed something new about the bus stops on Fulton Street at 6th and 8th avenues. And perhaps you noticed that your bus ride seemed to go slightly faster or with less disruption. Two new temporary transit bulbs installed at 6th Avenue eastbound and 8th Avenue westbound bring safety and transit benefits to Fulton Street in advance of the planned construction of permanent bulbs and are part of the Fulton Street Safety and Transit Project . Six permanent transit bulbs between Arguello and 10th Avenue are ultimately planned, which will save time and improve reliability for riders on the 5 Fulton and 5R Fulton Rapid by reducing the time it takes for buses to pull

A Green Light for Muni Customers By Stephen Chun Have you ever been on a Muni vehicle and realized that if the light had only stayed green for just a few more seconds you wouldn’t have been trapped at a red light?  SFMTA’s Connected Corridor Pilot  approached this problem with a new state of the art solution.   Most signals in San Francisco do not have sensors to detect vehicles at an intersection. However, through a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, our project team was able to test an advanced technology for signal timing based on who is present at an intersection. In this way, transit platform and traffic signal sensor data can be used to activate signal timing adjustments, responding to traffic conditions in real time. These adjustments provide more opportunities for transit vehicles to make it through intersections on a green light.    The project team turned on the adaptive signal timing program during several days in July and August 2021, with traffic enginee