Major Service Changes Proposed By SFTEP
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.
The next step is building the political will to make these changes, and also funding the project. Many of these proposals – bus bulbs, overhead wire extensions, bus only lanes, and more – require capital investment, and not all of the service changes will be paid for via efficiencies. We’ll be very interested in what MTA proposes as a revenue source to pay for all this. (But keep in mind – paint is very cheap.)
Please post your comments here, or on our Yahoo Group, and also please submit your comments to the SFTEP online. Also, we’ll be scheduling a General Meeting soon to give our members a chance to grill the SFTEP staff on all the proposals, the rationale behind them, and more – stay tuned for an announcement in the very near future.
Wow. I’m simply astounded. I live in the Central Sunset, and all the changes I see are for increased service. No decreases. I never thought I’d see the day when my property tax dollars would be used to improve my neighborhood. I’m stunned.
These changes will adversely impact the seriously ill, handicapped, and elderly who will have to walk that extra block to catch a crowded bus. Eliminating bus stops will concentrate more passengers per stop and increase loading time. Eliminating bus runs in areas as Golden Gate Heights and Clement Street will greatly inconvenience residents who will have to walk long distances to catch a bus or Metro coach. Instead of instituting the Transportation Elimination Project, it would have been wiser to have hired more drivers and purchased more coaches. It should be noted that Michael Burns, The Wrecker and former General Manager of MTA, has implemented a similar proposal as executive of the Valley Transit Authority in Santa Clara County. By eliminating bus runs, many individuals have to take longer routes which are time consuming. If Rescue MUNI had any hand in these changes, they should take a second look. You have inconvenienced many people in the name of greater efficiency.
Instead of eliminating bus runs, they should have eliminated the administrators who recommended these changes, and not replace them–a cost effective measure.
while I have only briefly scanned the line by line, I am underwhelmed and unimpressed. Putting more diesels on Mission is dumb, and where are the signal preempts and transit only lanes? Pretending more service will be deployed when we have not had the supposed current service in over a decade–ten per cent average not outs every day is a rude joke.
While it’s probably true that the proposal is more far-reaching than anything in a generation, I find it still too tentative. I do not see the wholesale elmination of stops from many crosstown bus routes and Muni Streetcar lines that would put a serious dent in crosstown travel efficiency. In an effort not to cause too much of a disruption and being accused of inconveniencing little old women, the TEP seems to have forgotten what the E in the acronym means.