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This Day in History: McAllister Street 1909 By Jeremy Menzies Here’s a look back to April 29,1909 with two photos showing an important change to McAllister Street in the Western Addition. McAllister has been served by a transit line since at least the 1880s. Beginning with a cable car run by the Market Street Cable Railway, McAllister served as an important part of the city’s east-west transit system.  These two photos show construction work to remove the old cable car tracks and replace them with electric streetcar rails: Laborers dig cable car “yokes” out of the street on McAllister between Scott and Pierce streets. Yokes are heavy steel frames that support both the rails and the cable channel on a cable car trackway. Prior to the 1906 Earthquake and Fires, San Francisco’s transit system was largely made up of cable car lines, which made navigating the steep hills easy. However, the cable cars were slow and costly to operate compared to newer electric streetcars.  Following the

SFMTA Recently Approved Budget Serves San Francisco By Stephen Chun Delivering on Your Service Priorities  The Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 & 2024 SFMTA Budget was passed by the SFMTA Board of Directors last week. It will be submitted to the Mayor’s Office by May 1, and the mayor will then send the budget to the Board of Supervisors on June 1.   This budget cycle, we approached outreach as a city-wide listening session. Rather than presenting a pre-set budget to our stakeholders, customers and the wider community for feedback, we focused on soliciting feedback and then crafted our budget to address the top community priorities.  Community Survey Highlights  Surveys were offered in English, Chinese, Spanish and Filipino both online and in print. They included an open-ended question to ensure San Franciscans had a real opportunity to provide specific feedback about service priorities.  1,295 responses from online and paper surveys in four languages   917 additional comments from

Bikeshare Pricing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) By Adrian Leung With Spring in the air and a recent expansion of up to 275 stations in SF, more people are riding bikeshare. Our major goal is to make bicycling easy by making bikes available while simultaneously reducing the burden of ownership (e.g. theft, storage, maintenance).  We’ll see discount codes for new members in Bike Month May. And Lyft is providing ride credit for anyone riding a regular pedal bike in the last 30-days, who’ve never tried the e-Bikes.  We get a lot of questions about pricing—How does pricing work? Who sets it? Is this Private or Public? We figured a dedicated FAQ could help to cover the basics.  How much does bikeshare cost? Bikeshare is the most affordable mobility option in San Francisco and the Bay Area. An annual bikeshare membership costs about $14/month, which includes unlimited 45-minute trips on regular pedal bikes with no additional fees anywhere in the five-city service area.   Why do e-b

SFMTA Announces New Initiative to Address Safety By Kimberly Burrus SFMTA staff celebrating women’s history Safety is an absolute priority for the SFMTA. We’ve heard loud and clear that personal safety is a growing concern for the public and staff and we’ve taken a lot of steps to increase safety across our system. We also know there is much work to do to address some of the most pervasive ways harassment and violence show up in public transportation.   This April as we observe Sexual Harassment Awareness Month, the SFMTA is proud to announce that we are developing a new Safety Equity Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to reduce and eventually eliminate gender-based harassment and violence on Muni.  Gender-based harassment is one of the most widespread and persistent forms of violence. It impacts women, girls and gender-expansive people — people who don’t conform to traditional gender roles — of all ages, abilities, races, ethnicities, and cultural and language groups. Wom

Muni Earth Day By Andrea Buffa Every day, we are confronted with the impacts of climate change: Fires, flooding, heat waves, poor air quality; threats to the health of human beings and the planet. It all can feel so overwhelming when considering what actions you can take that will actually make a big difference for Earth Day. But one of the easiest and most convenient ways that you can make Earth Day every day is to make more of your trips by Muni, walking or bicycling.   Making these efforts now truly will make a difference: Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in San Francisco—almost half of all GHG emissions. A whopping three-quarters of those emissions come from driving personal vehicles. While climate emissions from other sectors have declined significantly over the last 30 years (commercial building emissions declined 67% and residential building emissions by 57%), transportation emissions have been stubbornly hard to bring down. They’ve drop

How People Traveled Through San Francisco in 2021 By Maia Moran Earth Day is April 22 and a great time to think about changes we can make in our own lives to support the health of our planet. When it comes to climate change, one of the most meaningful actions we can take is to drive less and get around more by biking, walking and taking forms of public transportation like Muni. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in San Francisco, with personal driving accounting for 72% of the sector’s emissions. By comparison, Muni accounts for about 1% of GHG emissions in and out of the city.  But when it comes to driving less, the San Francisco Bay Area is going in the wrong direction. Public transit use fell by 11% between 2019 and 2021 and private automobile use increased by 13%, according to the results of the 2021 Travel Decision Survey. That’s why we’ve been working so hard to make transit, walking and biking more appealing and convenient with new transit

Celebrate Earth Day on San Francisco Streets! By If you want a glimpse into how our city can become more resilient, sustainable, and connected, head out to San Francisco streets on Earth Day 2022! Across the city, San Francisco city leaders and residents are taking to the streets to chart a new future for the city—one that’s lighter on cars, and more invested in transit, active transportation, and community connections. All are welcome to join—here are a few ways to get involved:  Plan to bike, walk, or roll to school : The week leading up to Earth Day—April 18-21st—is Bike & Roll to School week ! SF Bicycle Coalition has created a range of opportunities for schools that serve anyone from Kindergarten through 12th grade to get involved. Visit their website to learn more about becoming a Bike & Roll Champion and to pledge to participate in any of the events happening this week across San Francisco. It’s a great way to highlight safe, low-carbon, and fun ways to get to school