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An Ever-Changing Market Street By Jeremy Menzies As we look towards a new future for Market Street under the Better Market Street Project , here's a brief look back in history at Market Street from the 1850s to 1970s. From muddy cart tracks and plank walkways to wide brick sidewalks, transit lanes and bikeways, Market has been the ever-changing heart of our city since it was established in the mid 1800s. First surveyed in 1847 by Jasper O'Farrell, Market Street was laid out in part to provide a transition between the two opposing street grids north and south of Market. Planned as the city's widest street, Market was meant to be San Francisco's main boulevard and quickly became one of the busiest thoroughfares in town. The photo above was taken circa 1856 looking west from 3rd Street, a time when downtown looked more like a small town than a city. Long before hybrid diesel buses and e-scooters, Market Street was home to multiple cable car and horse car lines that

This Weekend: Magnolia Blooms and Lunar New Year at the Zoo By Schad Dalton Events:  It's Super Bowl Weekend and with the 49ers making their first appearance since 2013 it is a relatively quiet weekend in the city. However, there are still lots of fun activities for those who aren't football fans. On Saturday evening, SF State University will host performances of Beethoven during the annual Yehuni Menuhin Seminar and Festival at Knuth Music Hall. Head over to the SF Zoo on Saturday to enjoy some special Lunar New Year-themed activities. For those feeling a little wintertime cabin fever, spring is just around the corner and there are some opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors, including a field trip of Lobos Creek Valley in the Presidio and the annual Magnolia Bloom at the SF Botanical Garden. Lastly, the Asian Art Museum free admission day is this Sunday (and every first Sunday of the month) in the Civic Center. Read more about our featured events below. Check out th

SFMTA Travel Decision Survey 2019 By The SFMTA completed its biennial Travel Decision Survey which estimates mode share for travelers whose trips either began, ended, or were within San Francisco.  The mode share results from the 2019 Travel Decision Survey and other key data sources were shared at the SFMTA’s annual Board Workshop held on January 28. Sustainable trips are growing where investments are being made in our transportation network.  Our Muni Forward Program is a great example of this, which we will explain in more detail. However, based on the overall direction that our mode share is trending, we need to do more to support accessible, long-term sustainable growth. The Travel Decision Survey indicates that the proportion of people choosing cars has increased. Less driving is fundamental to every one of our goals, making performance metrics like mode shift critical. Mode share is a measure of the percentage of travelers using a particular type of transportation and is an

Director of Transportation Report: January 21, 2020 By In this week’s Director’s Report from the SFMTA Board of Directors meeting, Jeffrey Tumlin gave updates on the following topics: Vision Zero Two fatalities since the last board meeting, both of which are also still under investigation making it too early to determine whether they are Vision Zero fatalities according to our Fatality Reporting protocol, but regardless we send our condolences to friends and families of each victim. Rapid Response has been conducted for three severe injury crashes also under investigation by the San Francisco Police Department, but on 43rd and Fulton where a pedestrian was severely injured by a motorist, additional daylighting is being installed on top of the recent improvements such as larger, more visible signal heads. Shared Scooter Permit Program Update Permitted scooter companies were required to submit a plan describing their commitment to piloting adaptive scooters by Jan. 15. The pil

This Weekend: Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show and Walk for Life By Schad Dalton The Cow Palace will be for the dogs this weekend at the annual Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show at the Cow Palace. Photo: Flickr/aforonda Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cow Palace The  Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show  returns this weekend to the Cow Palace and will feature 1.000 dogs from over 100 different breeds competing in the largest benched dog show on the West Coast. Anyone attending this event can meet and get to know the dogs (and their owners!) at the show at special benches organized by breed where you can learn more about the breeds, get training tips and more. How to Get There on Muni:  Riders may take the 8 Bayshore or the 9 San Bruno routes to the Cow Palace for this event. Muni Service Notes:  There are no planned service changes for this event. Walk for Life Saturday, 12:30 p.m. Market Street East of Civic Center The annual  Walk for Li

Update: Car-Free Market Street and FAQ By Phillip Pierce As you may have already heard (or read in our  previous blog post ), starting on Wednesday, January 29 some of the busiest sections of Market Street are going “Car Free” to increase safety and improve Muni. That means no private vehicles will be allowed to travel along Market Street eastbound from 10th to Main or westbound from Steuart to Van Ness. Traffic will still be able to cross Market, but there will be no turns onto the street in the car-free area.   Our crews are hard at work getting the street prepared and have already installed signs that will be unveiled on January 29th. In addition, we’ve created new pedestrian safety zones, added new loading zones and are extending the Muni lanes down Market Street.  Crews installed signs alongside streets in preparation for the changes on January 29. Most signs were put up and will be covered up (or “bagged”) until next week when the car-free Market begins.  Red Muni lanes ge

HeadsUp: Nightly Subway Maintenance Starting January 26 By Benjamin Barnett The subway will be closing early each night at 9:30 p.m. starting January 26 and continuing for approximately one week for extended maintenance hours. Bus substitution service will connect to all stops. On most nights, our teams have about two hours to get work done between evening and morning service. In order to complete critical maintenance tasks that cannot be completed during normal windows, we are planning this week of early subway closures, so crews have more hours each night to do vital work. This is our ongoing effort to maintain the subway infrastructure to ensure safety and reliability. The last early subway closures for maintenance took place in August 2019.  What Are We Doing? Track Maintenance. Installing new track hardware in a pilot segment to evaluate new technology. Signal Maintenance. Perform cable tests and inspections to identify problems and future upgrades. Overhead Lines. Replace