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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...

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...

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...