Blogging Tips for Beginners

What a Year It Has Been! Let the Celebration of Transit Month Continue By Erin McMillan 49 Van Ness/Mission using the brand new bus rapid transit lanes on opening day in April. During Transit Month this September, we’re continuing the celebration by looking back to more of the work we’ve done over the last year— some that has been less obvious to Muni customers, but critical to a well-functioning system and other work that is more front and center. Fix It! Week and Continuing State of good Repair Work Muni is an impressive transit system. Moving thousands of people on rail and buses every day takes a lot of coordination and a lot of work. Dealing with unique challenges like San Francisco’s geography and shifting travel patterns, we also have to deal with issues related to the Muni system’s age. Proper care and maintenance of a transit system many decades old takes strategic planning as regular maintenance needs to happen while continuing to provide service. Typically, regular Mun...

Celebrating BART at 50: A Critical Link for San Francisco By Jeremy Menzies This month, our sister agency BART, celebrates its 50th anniversary . BART service changed transportation in the Bay Area forever, connecting communities in a way that hadn’t been done before. For San Francisco, the construction of BART not only provided new travel options within the city and to the East Bay but also built the Muni Metro system. Here’s a look at some of BART’s history through the SFMTA’s historic photos. This conceptual drawing from around 1960 shows the combined BART and Muni Metro subway underneath Market Street at Powell. The story of BART goes back decades before the opening in September 1972. It wasn’t until the early 1960s that a plan and funding were in place for BART to come to fruition. Originally, five counties formed the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. In a 1960 engineering report , proposed route maps showed lines extending both north across the Golden Gate into Marin and s...

Let’s Celebrate During Transit Month this September By Erin McMillan The 38R Geary Rapid reaping the benefits of the Temporary Emergency Transit Lane on Geary Boulevard. Today marks the start of Transit Month! Every year we look forward to celebrating Transit Month by looking back at all the successes of the previous year—and also by thinking of our upcoming opportunities to continue to improve Muni. Over the past year, we have made a series of improvements through our Muni Forward program that reduced travel times, wait times and crowding:   Reduced travel time by up to 31% on key bus routes as part of  the Temporary Emergency Transit Lanes program , giving more riders the benefit of the transit lanes faster.   10 miles of transit lanes were made permanent benefitting the T Third, 1 California, 14 Mission, 19 Polk, 27 Bryant, 38 Geary, 43 Masonic and the 44 O’Shaughnessy. This cool animation shows how transit priority is improving Muni travel times citywide! ...

Help Make Muni Safe for Everyone By Mariana Maguire New Muni “no harassment” symbol The safety of our customers and staff is a top priority for the SFMTA. That is why we are launching MuniSafe – a campaign to increase reporting of gender-based harassment through recently expanded incident reporting options. If you experience or witness an incident, help us make MuniSafe by reporting it using the Muni Feedback form at SFMTA.com/MuniFeedback, the 311 mobile app or by calling 311. Non-English speakers should call 311 for language-assisted reporting. Gender-based harassment takes many forms, affects many people and is absolutely not tolerated on Muni. Survivors should report incidents to the San Francisco Police Department if they feel comfortable doing so. By also reporting incidents directly to the SFMTA, you will help us track events that occur in our system so we can build better safety responses and direct resources to reduce gender-based harassment. New car cards that will be...

Muni Color Schemes Through the Years By Jeremy Menzies Over the 110-year history of the SF Municipal Railway, our transit vehicles have been painted in six main color schemes (known as “liveries”). Here’s a short look at those paint jobs, from the oldest streetcars to our newest buses.  The timelines of these liveries overlapped and old colors were not always phased out even after a new color was introduced.  Not included here are the many colors of cable cars , historic vehicles , variations on the main colors, or any special paint jobs used. The Original Grey and Red: 1912-1939 When Muni started in 1912, vehicle paint colors were used to distinguish one transit service from another. Muni’s very first streetcars were painted grey with red windows and roof. Gold was used for lettering, vehicle numbers, and decorative lines. This combination gave the cars a simple yet elegant look. Seen here at Green Division rail yard around 1980, Streetcar 1 was built in San Franci...

How Improving Muni Also Makes Life Better for Drivers By Andrea Buffa Photo credit: We Ride Australia If you mostly drive to get around San Francisco, you may be wondering, “what has the SFMTA done for me lately?” San Francisco is a “ transit first ” city, so at the SFMTA we focus our resources on making it easier for San Franciscans to get around by public transit as well as by biking, walking and personal mobility device. While it may seem like adding transit lanes and protected bike lanes doesn’t have anything to do with driving, in fact, it does.  Since San Francisco doesn’t have room to give more space to roads, we have to change the way we use the limited space on our existing streets. (Not that adding more roads reduces traffic anyway – check out this article .) City Traffic Engineer Ricardo Oleo puts it this way: “When you have a city like San Francisco that was built with density in mind, having everyone drive is not a viable option. There’s not enough room to have th...

Bayshore Boulevard Quick-Build Project Update By Adrienne Heim Bayshore Boulevard is a mixture of industrial and commercial ruggedness mixed with historic and family run small business charm. Bayshore Boulevard is also a busy street that runs parallel to Highway 101 and is nestled between Bayview, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill and Mission neighborhoods. Interestingly enough, one of the oldest restaurants in San Francisco, The Old Clam House , built in 1861 and recently re-opened after two years of closure due to the pandemic and management changes. As you begin to walk Bayshore and Oakdale heading south towards Silver Avenue, you’ll see workers grabbing food and saying hi to owner Tarik at Bayshore Taqueria, you’ll notice parents dropping off their children at the family run business American Gymnastics Club and folks walking to catch the 9 or 9R Bayshore or 23 Monterey Muni bus. For over 30 years, people have been visiting legacy business Flowercraft Garden Center , near Bayshore an...