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The Municipal Railway Planning Division & The First 5-Year Plan By Kelley Trahan The San Francisco Municipal Railway 5-Year Plan, 1979-1984 was the first comprehensive service plan created by the first San Francisco Municipal Railway transportation planners. The plan introduced a grid system to provide more efficient crosstown service with better neighborhood connections that would improve access and increase ridership, moving away from Muni’s prior service design focused on trips to and from downtown. It also provided service standards, including coverage, capacity and stop spacing, many of which continue to inform Muni planning efforts today. The San Francisco Municipal Railway saw many changes at this time, including the opening of the Muni Metro, the conversion of some lines from diesel to electric trolley bus, a simplified fare structure and increased fares and historic streetcar service on Market Street.  Prior to the mid-1970s, the San Francisco Municipal Railway’s servi

A Decade of Rolling out the Red Carpet for Riders By Cassie Halls An animated map showing the expansion of red transit lanes in San Francisco. View as a PDF . Accessible version of the expansion of red transit lanes:  Red Transit Lanes Over Time in San Francisco from 2013 to 2023  There is nothing quite like looking out the window at gridlock traffic while your bus coasts down a red transit lane. This may feel like an “only in San Francisco” pleasure – after all, San Francisco was one of the first U.S. cities to “roll out the red carpet” by painting bus lanes red. But red transit lanes have now become a popular way to keep buses out of traffic in more than 25 cities across the country.  The SFMTA is celebrating a decade since the installation of San Francisco’s first red transit lane on Church Street on March 23, 2013 . You can help us celebrate by riding that first red transit lane between Duboce and 16th Streets on Muni’s 22 Fillmore and J Church along with thousands of other w

San Francisco’s Transit-First Policy Turns 50 By Michael Delia Transit on Market Street in downtown San Francisco, 2018 It’s been a half-century since the San Francisco Board of Supervisors put transit needs above all other traffic initiatives, and now, the city’s Transit-First policy is celebrating its golden anniversary. The policy guides the city’s work on major infrastructure projects and planning efforts. Its principles drive San Francisco officials to promote incentives that reduce traffic congestion and solo vehicle trips, support transit investments including the purchase of Muni buses and light rail vehicles, and regularly evaluate how well our transportation network functions.  Adopted on March 19, 1973, the original Transit-First policy was born out of an effort to reshape the Municipal Railway so it could serve San Franciscans' needs more effectively. The goals were very specific:  Create exclusive bus lanes and prohibit automobiles from streetcar and cable car

Reimagining Potrero Yard – A Community Open House, Saturday, March 18 By John Angelico This conceptual rendering shows one of the proposed spaces in the Potrero Yard project designated for small businesses and non-profits at the intersection of 17th and Hampshire streets. (Image: Arcadis IBI Group)  This Saturday we’re joining the Potrero Neighborhood Collective (PNC) developer team to host a community open house for the Potrero Yard Modernization Project , the nation’s first joint development of a bus facility with integrated housing and retail. Learn about how we’re improving transit by replacing a century-old bus yard with a modern facility, as well as addressing SF’s need for affordable housing. Please join us to view the latest designs and give your input on this groundbreaking project.   Join us! Reimaging Potrero Yard. Saturday, March 18,  2023, 1-3 p.m. KQED, 2601 Mariposa Street, SF. (Conceptual rendering from Arcadis IBI Group) What : Reimagining Potrero Yard Community

100 and Counting – More New Trains Join the SFMTA Fleet By Christopher Ward Muni continues to expand its fleet with its 100th light rail vehicle four-series (LRV4) on San Francisco streets, broadening the reach of transportation in the city!  The SFMTA received its 100th new LRV4 (light rail vehicle four-series) in December 2022, closing out a year of big accomplishments for the agency. This train represents a milestone in the continued progress of the LRV Fleet Replacement Program .   The SFMTA is steadily expanding its fleet with about three new LRV4 train cars arriving every month. We expect 219 total cars to be delivered by 2025. This allows us to retire the aging Breda vehicles, which have been in use by the SFMTA since 1955. Compared to the mostly grey Bredas, the new LRV4 trains are easy to spot on the street, with their distinctive “red ribbon” that wraps around the front of the vehicle and down the sides.   The new LRV4 trains are also far more reliable than the outdated

Tech Talk: Muni Predictions 101 By Christopher Ward New Customer Information Systems are being installed and causing customer curiosity!  Got a burning question about the SFMTA’s Muni predictions that are made by our Next Generation Customer Information System (CIS)? We’ve got answers! Below are some of the frequently asked questions from Muni customers. Send us yours!  Where do Muni predictions come from?   Muni predictions come from data provided by multiple SFMTA systems including equipment on our vehicles. Real-time predictions are based on the real-time locations of Muni vehicles. A computer algorithm compares the real-time data to past travel times based on time of day, day of week, season and other factors that affect travel to predict future arrival times. Travel patterns in this historic data are applied to real-time data to generate accurate Muni predictions.  When the system has no real-time information, it uses Muni schedules to make predictions. This often occurs at

Muni Safe Driver Awards 2023 By Sophia Scherr Keep an eye out for one of our Safe Driver Award PSA’s on your next Muni ride & don’t forget to thank your operator!  Driving through San Francisco’s winding and hilly terrain in any vehicle is tricky. Doing so in a 40-foot bus, cable car or streetcar is not as easy as our operators make it seem. Despite these challenges, every day our Muni operators connect San Franciscans to where they need to go safely.   This Saturday marks the 50th Safe Driver Awards, where we celebrate our transit operators who have put safety first in their efforts to deliver you to your home, work and communities. This year 249 operators earned the distinction of being a Muni Safe Driver. Receiving a Safe Driver award is a hard-earned career milestone — to achieve it, operators must have driven at least 1,952 hours during the past fiscal year (July – June) without a preventable incident or collision. Quite a few operators have maintained their Safe Driver s

Take Muni’s Safety Survey! By Greer Cowan Everyone should feel safe on Muni. Help make Muni safer by taking the SFMTA’s survey about personal safety and harassment in the Muni system.   As part of the MuniSafe Safety Equity Initiative launched in August 2022, the SFMTA has partnered with the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies to better understand Muni riders’ experiences and develop safety recommendations, tools and policies aimed at preventing harassment and assault on Muni.  Take the 5-minute survey   Survey information will also help the SFMTA understand Muni customers’ specific safety needs and challenges, and help us identify valuable trends and patterns so we know where, when and how harassment shows up in the Muni system.  Incidents often go unreported, but the SFMTA is working to change that with new reporting options. As of October 2022, Muni customers can report incidents of  harassment by calling 311, using the 311 mobile app or using the Muni Feedback form at