SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin at our next Board meeting

November 2nd, 2011

Our next Board of Directors meeting will be on Monday, November 14, at 6 pm. Joining us at this meeting will be SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin – please join us to ask your tough questions about the future of public transit in San Francisco!

The meeting will be at the SF County Fair Building (aka Hall of Flowers), at 9th and Lincoln. Transit: N, 6, 43, 44, 71.

“Fix Masonic” proposal at MTA 5/13/11

May 3rd, 2011

After years of community involvement, the SFMTA is about to review proposed changes to the street design for Masonic Avenue. This would create a boulevard-style street with zero parking, raised cycle tracks, and bus bulb-outs at major intersections, and also would reduce the current six and seven lanes of traffic to four from Geary all the way to Fell. (See pdf, beginning at page 41.)

This design looks beautiful in the slides, but as with the equally “beautiful” Octavia Boulevard, there are some major concerns. In particular, the reduction in street capacity is almost certain to cause congestion during peak hours, as is the case now with Octavia and Divisadero. Will this mean big delays for the 43-Masonic, which uses this corridor? The proposal does not include any discussion of the likely impact to traffic or transit speed, particularly at peak hours when ridership is highest and during the hours that left turns are allowed.

If you have thoughts about the proposal, please attend the hearing at City Hall, Room 416, on Friday, May 13, at 10 am. Unfortunately the SFMTA has again chosen to hold the meeting during regular business hours, when many commuters cannot attend – so you can also submit your comments to the project manager or the Board secretary.

“Save Caltrain” summit this Saturday

January 27th, 2011

If you’re a mass transit rider in San Francisco, you probably also use Caltrain to get to the Peninsula. Unfortunately, Caltrain is facing a severe deficit ($30 million per year) that may lead to painful service cuts, and more traffic as a result, unless permanent funding sources are found.

If you’d like to help save Caltrain, please attend the Save Our Caltrain Summit. This is organized by the Friends of Caltrain (thank you BayRail Alliance for the announcement).

Details from Friends of Caltrain:
You are invited to participate in a Summit to Save Caltrain
Location: SamTrans Auditorium,
1250 San Carlos Avenue, San Carlos (near Caltrain)
Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011 Time: 8:30 am to 2:30 pm.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier and Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune will be kicking off the morning at 9:15am, so come early: registration, hot coffee and bagels will be waiting for you at 8:30 am at the Caltrain/Samtrans headquarters, 1250 San Carlos Avenue in San Carlos. Check out our website for the latest press and agenda.

It’s very close to the San Carlos train station or you can park in the Samtrans lot behind the building or any of the public parking structures in the area.

Come with your questions, ideas, and enthusiasm on how to Save Our Caltrain! And spread the word — we need many voices, many hands, so register and attend!

SFMTA: Partial Muni Restoration Hearing

July 1st, 2010

Save the date: July 6th at Noon.

The SFMTA Board of Directors will seek input from riders for the restoration of some bus route and rail lines that were cut during the May 8th service changes. Stop by city hall, Room 400, and get your comment cards in so the SFMTA knows which routes need restoration the most (weekend N service to Caltrain?). Call 311 or visit SFMTA.com for more information.

Vote on budget (including service cuts) TODAY

April 20th, 2010

The SFMTA Board is expected to adopt next year’s budget, including deep service cuts, today.  Please show up and let them know how you feel.

Many budget solutions to prevent service cuts involve long-term cost controls and revenue measures; we’ve written about a number of those here.  In the short run, we think the most immediate solution to prevent budget cuts is to raise money through extended parking meter hours and higher parking meter rates.  Many cities with less of a transit orientation than San Francisco run their meters on weeknights and Sundays.

Right now, today, the choice the SFMTA Board faces is one between raising more money at parking meters and cutting Muni service.  Please show up at City Hall, Room 400, at 2:00 p.m., to let the board know which you prefer.  Even with the unexpected injection of funds from the state, Muni is looking at a deep service cut which will do grievous damage to the notion of San Francisco as a Transit First city.

Extending parking meter hours and bringing meter rates into line with garage rates isn’t the solution to all of Muni’s problems, but it’s the best solution to the dilemma we face today.  Please let the SFMTA Board know that.

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