Rescue Muni

Today’s Chronicle discusses the downside of increasing service on the proposed Rapid Network, as proposed by the Transit Effectiveness Project: service reductions on some of SF’s least used lines, as well as on lines that are redundant to other service.

The SFTEP will be presented in detail at today’s MTA Board meeting (2 pm, City Hall, room 400), but if you can’t make that there will be many opportunities to get a detailed presentation, ask questions, and provide feedback. Rescue Muni is planning to host a General Meeting on the subject in early April.

Today Mayor Newsom, MTA Director Nat Ford, SFTEP head Julie Kirschbaum, and others unveiled a highly detailed plan to revise Muni service citywide, to improve service quality and better match service to customer demand. This is easily the most extensive revision to Muni service proposed in a generation, since the crosstown routes were created in the 1970s. Highlights include:

The best way to review this is to look at the 8 page proposal summary (pdf) and service policy framework (pdf) and then go straight to the list of proposals by line.

Many of us at Rescue Muni have been participating in the SFTEP Citizen Advisory Committee, and the detailed proposal is quite consistent with the policy proposals discussed in these meetings. It’s very good news to see the MTA thinking about service as a whole and not just about specific point changes that can be made - after all, most riders use more than one line on a regular basis, so a faster, more reliable system is what is needed to increase ridership and get more San Franciscans out of their cars. And it’s also quite refreshing to see these proposals being made based on real world data on ridership and customer input, instead of just drawing lines on a map.

Of course we will have specific comments about many of the specific proposals, which we’ll post here soon, but we’re delighted to see Muni focusing here on what really matters - faster and more reliable service.
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The SFTEP has been working on proposed changes for the entire Muni system, but one corridor in particular that has gotten a lot of attention is Mission Street, where the 14-Mission local bus currently averages only 8.2 miles per hour end to end. Muni will soon propose major changes including a big expansion in limited stop service, some stop consolidation, transit only lanes, and signal pre-empts, in an attempt to speed up this service and make it more competitive to driving. (Several Rescue Muni board members are on the SFTEP citizens’ advisory committee - meetings are open to the public and well worth a visit.)

For the serious transit geek, very extensive data on all Muni lines (used to come up with these service proposals) are available at the SFMTA’s website.

Stuck in your bus waiting for a break in traffic? The SFMTA and various city officials have a proposed fix: a law requiring cars to yield to buses pulling out of a bus stop. This is the law in Ontario as well as Quebec, British Columbia, Oregon, Florida and New Jersey. According to SFTEP studies, 6 percent of running time is wasted by buses waiting to pull out into traffic.

Of course, for this to be effective, it would require far stricter enforcement of transit related moving violations than has ever been done in SF, as anyone who rides a bus in our transit only lanes knows. And it’s no substitute for expanding transit lanes and adding bus rapid transit citywide. But it certainly could help.

The SF Transit Effectiveness Project is holding community meetings in late October. Attend and provide your input! Details at www.sftep.com.

Inner Sunset: Monday, 10/22, 6:00-8:30 pm, County Fair Building (Hall of Flowers, 9th Ave. at Lincoln). Muni: N, 6, 43, 44, 66 and 71.
Civic Center: Tuesday, 10/23, 6:00 - 8:30 pm, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove at Polk. Muni: Metro, 9,19, 21 and 49, or BART to Civic Center.

Previously:
Excelsior District: Saturday, 10/20, 10:00 am to 12:30 pm, Monroe Elementary School (260 Madrid St. at Excelsior Ave.) Muni: 14, 29, 49 and 52.
Mission District: Saturday, October 20, 3:00 -5:30 pm, St. Peter’s Catholic Church (Alabama St. at 24th St.) Muni: 9 27 and 48.

Please attend one of these meetings to learn more about the SFTEP’s studies of how to make service more efficient and reliable.