Rescue Muni

The MTA has at last announced details of service changes to take effect December 5. Some of these are cuts due to the recent budget problems, but there are also many changes that are the result of the multi-year Transit Effectiveness Project, including added limited service on Potrero/San Bruno (new 9L), Mission (14L and 14X), Geary (38L), Haight/Noriega (71L), and the long awaited extension of the 5 downtown at all hours. However, several lines will be cut entirely: 4-Sutter, 7-Haight, 20-Columbus, 26-Valencia, 53-Southern Heights, and Muni’s shortest line, 89-Laguna Honda.

Take a look at the new service plan and give us your thoughts.

The SFTEP project plans to upgrade the 41-Union line to 60′ articulated buses during the 5am to 9am rush hour, saving the SFMTA $300,000 a year and boosting the number of riders a single driver can transport. The downside is that Union St. businesses will lose parking spots and fear that the loss of parking will impact their business during this deep recession.

Local businesses have collected 500 signatures to petition the bus upgrades. The SFMTA will vote on the issue September 1st. (story also via sfcitizen and sf.curbed)

Tired of your bus stopping twice on one block? At long last the MTA is about to announce proposed stop consolidations citywide, which will allow Muni to offer faster and more reliable service. This is something that was discussed in the SFTEP but as not yet been implemented. The proposal includes a new spacing policy, ut more importantly, actual implementation of that policy (only 18% of lines conform to policy today). Of course stops would still be closer together on steep hills.

For a simple example of how service can be faster with fewer stops, compare lines 21 and 5 through the Western Addition. The 21 stops on every block and sometimes twice in one block, while the 5 stops on every other block – and due to reduced dwell time the 5 is much faster from Stanyan to City Hall. Implementing 5 line style stop spacing citywide could speed up service at no additional cost, giving more potential riders a reason to switch to transit. (Rescue Muni has favored stop consolidation for over a decade.)

Update: Curbed also has an item on this.

Today’s Chronicle reports that the SF Transit Effectiveness Project plan was approved by the MTA board. This means that the plan can proceed over the next two years.

For details on how the plan affects the line you ride, please look at the summary on the SFTEP website. Rescue Muni supported the plan as amended, but of course we will watching the MTA closely as they implement the plan over the next couple of years, particularly as decisions are made on how to prioritize transit on major corridors citywide.

After months of public input, the SF Transit Effectiveness Project is presenting its updated proposal for route changes to the MTA Board tomorrow. This proposal would make the most dramatic changes to Muni lines in a generation, adding buses and streetcars and speeding up service on the most important lines while keeping essential community service lines running. Staff estimates that this proposal will allow Muni to add 70,000 new riders every day – a 10% increase in ridership at a time when gasoline prices are rising and demand for transit is growing rapidly.

Rescue Muni supports this proposal as revised. We were very pleased that the TEP staff and CAC took our suggestions into account when the updated proposal was written, but we also want to reiterate our support for the concept of the TEP, which is to use modern measurement techniques to learn where passengers actually want to ride the system and align routes to this demand, and also to design routes to make service much faster and more reliable. If you have been stuck on a slow, unreliable line thinking that there has to be a better way, the SFTEP is designed specifically to solve this problem!

(If you haven’t already reviewed the detailed proposal for the lines you ride and the system as a whole (pdf), please take a look now.)

These will be considered at the MTA Board on Tuesday, September 16. If you agree with us that this proposal will make service much faster and more reliable both on YOUR line and citywide, please come to the meeting and speak in favor! Details:

SFMTA Board Meeting and Public Hearing on SFTEP
City Hall Room 400 (1 Carlton B. Goodlett Street)
Public Comment at 3:30 pm and again at 5:30 pm

Thanks!