Rescue Muni Members Hear TEP Proposal
Last night, Rescue Muni members heard a presentation on the San Francisco Transit Effectiveness Project. Members asked a lot of great questions about the project. We told the TEP staff our members would ask a lot of detailed questions about the plan, and the folks at our meeting didn’t disappoint.
Members were generally supportive of the concept of the TEP, and the wide array of transit improvements contained in the project, like the ambitious citywide rapid network, but attendees expressed a number of concerns about the proposed elimination of some of the community service routes, like the 66-Quintara.
We’re in the process of formulating a formal position on the TEP proposal, and we want as much feedback as possible from our members. Please contact us with your thoughts on the project. And a very big thank you to the members who attended last night and made the meeting a success, as well as the TEP staff, led by Julie Kirschbaum, who stayed for over two hours answering questions and taking comments from members.
Also, we encourage members to attend one or more of the seven remaining community meetings about the TEP. The next one is tonight, and they run through May 17:
- Wednesday, April 30, 6:00 pm, City College Mission Campus, 1125 Valencia St. (at 22nd St.)
- Saturday, May 3, 10:30 am, Jean Parker Elementary, 840 Broadway St. (at Powell St.)
- Monday, May 5, 6:30 pm, Visitacion Valley Elementary, 55 Schwerin St. (at Visitacion Ave.)
- Saturday, May 10, 10:30 am, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, 4235 19th St. (at Diamond St.)
- Monday, May 12, 6:00 pm, West Bay Conference Center, 1290 Fillmore St. (at Eddy St.)
- Wednesday, May 14, 6:30 pm, Bessie Carmichael Elementary, 375 Seventh St. (at Harrison St.)
- Saturday, May 17, 10:30 am, Mission YMCA, 4080 Mission St. (at Bosworth St.)
Also, while you’re at it, remember that you can join Rescue Muni or renew your membership online. And if you’re up to date, urge a friend to join up.
While some good ideas have come out of TEP, the underlying dysfunction is largely glossed over. Despite having “discovered” that reliability is the #1 issue w/tiders, NOTHING was said about cleaning up the LRY mess in evening rush. The continual out of sequence service combined w/short turns of cars signed for the full route was not mentioned. The fantasy that a Judah can run every 6 min in a tunnel w/five other routes simply won’t work. Even in a perfect world that would require a headway shorter than the actual dwell at a busy station–defies physics. Little was said about automobile sabotage of LRVs which is a major delay generator.
In finessing abandoning service to the GG Toll Plaza it was suggested some GG Bus substitution could be arranged to honor Muni fares. TWU will have to be on board–not likely IMHO.