Meet the People who Keep You Safe on Muni

Meet the People who Keep You Safe on Muni
By Mariana Maguire

Next time you ride Muni or see a Muni vehicle, keep an eye out for the faces of some of the people of the SFMTA working to keep customers and fellow staff safe on Muni, day to day. They include members of our Muni Transit Assistance Program, Proof of Purchase team, our Muni operators, as well as our head of Safety, Security and Investigations.

Staff in our Muni Transit Assistance Program ride Muni \ to help address conflicts.Our Proof of Purchase team, Station Agents and Transit Inspectors support customer safety by providing an extra presence on Muni vehicles, at stops and in stations and assistance if issues arise. And our Muni operators provide the first line of safety for customers. While their primary responsibility is to operate their vehicles safely, they can also help address conflicts onboard when necessary and when it is safe for them to do so. In the case that it’s not possible or safe for an operator to stop the vehicle to address an issue onboard, they will call our Transit Management Center to report incidents and request assistance.

While you may not always notice these staff, they are on vehicles, at stops and in Muni Metro stations throughout the city every day of the week. With core training in conflict resolution, these SFMTA colleagues diffuse and deter conflicts, assist and educate customers, support operators and provide important visibility into what’s happening on Muni. Their route assignments change periodically so they can provide support across the Muni system. The feedback they report from what they observe on the job helps strengthen our approach to safety.

In addition to our dedicated workforce, the SFMTA works to keep customers and staff safe on Muni with multiple on-vehicle cameras that record all incidents that take place on our vehicles. Video footage from these cameras has allowed the police to identify and successfully apprehend suspects when a crime on Muni does occur. We have also expanded harassment reporting options and launched the Safety Equity Initiative.

We will keep working hard to make everyone safe on Muni, and, if you see or experience an incident, please call 311 or use the Muni Feedback form to let us know so we can investigate and respond. Safety on Muni is everyone’s business.

Hop on Muni to see each of the ads we’ve spotlighted with more to be featured in the future.

Published May 30, 2023 at 11:42PM
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June 10 Muni Service Changes Adds Service on Connector Routes

June 10 Muni Service Changes Adds Service on Connector Routes
By Clive Tsuma

The 38R Geary Rapid will run every 6 minutes starting June 10

Starting Saturday, June 10, the SFMTA will be adding Muni service on several lines to address crowding, wait times and to support increased summer tourism. We’re also making some stop changes to serve more customers and make the service more accessible and reliable. 

Increased Service 

To address crowding and reduce pass-ups, we’re adding service on the 1 California between Clay and Drumm streets and California Street and Presidio Avenue – where demand is highest – on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

We’re also going to be starting service earlier on the 1X California Express, at 7:30 a.m. instead of 8 a.m., in response to customer feedback, as well as adding stops at Cherry, Spruce and Laurel streets and Presidio Avenue.  

We’re also extending the evening service to the Presidio at 30 Stockton seven days a week. The last trip from the Sports Basement will depart at 8:30 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.  

On the 5 Fulton Owl we’re extending the terminal from McAllister and Jones streets to 4th and Market streets, which will provide a connection to Market Street for customers. 

Additionally, to better support summer tourism, we will add supplemental Muni bus service on weekend afternoons for the F Market & Wharves between the Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. 

Other upcoming changes include frequency increases on the following lines: 

• 28 19th Avenue – Weekdays and weekends from 10 minutes to 9 minutes during peak morning service and from 12 minutes to 10 minutes during midday  
• 38R Geary Rapid – Weekdays from 7 minutes to 6 minutes all day 
• 44 O’Shaughnessy – Weekdays from 12 minutes to 10 minutes 

Stop Changes 

On the 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express, we’re improving access to the shops, banks and supermarket at the Southeast Center by moving the bus stop at 3rd and Evans Street from the far side of the street to the near side of the street.  

On the 27 Bryant, we’re improving accessibility and reliability by upgrading flag stops to bus zones on Leavenworth and Turk, Post, Sutter, Bush and Pine streets, inbound, and on Bush and Leavenworth outbound. And we’re adding inbound and outbound stops at Valencia and 24th streets to restore the connection there for customers. 

Read more about the highest Muni rider satisfaction in 10 years! We continue to prioritize supporting the city’s economic recovery and providing Muni service that we can sustain with our available resources. To give us feedback on Muni service write to TellMuni@SFMTA.com.  

We’re also prioritizing safety on Muni. If you experience or witness customer or operator harassment on Muni, report it directly to the SFMTA by calling 311 or using the 311 mobile app or the Muni Feedback form (SFMTA.com/MuniFeedback). 

Related Content:  

Muni Rider Satisfaction the Highest in 10 Years 

2023 Community Survey Results  

Muni Feedback 

Related Projects: 

Safety Equity Initiative 

2023 Community Survey Results 

2023 Community Survey Data Crosstabs

Published May 23, 2023 at 10:11PM
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Sunday Streets Starts This Weekend

Sunday Streets Starts This Weekend
By Enrique Aguilar

A full season of Sunday Streets starts this weekend! Check out the upcoming schedule below.  

Sunday Streets 2023 is here, featuring three community parties, two signature mile-plus routes and the Third Annual Phoenix Day block party program.

The 15th season will kick off on Galvez Avenue and Mendell Street in Bayview on May 21 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Residents and visitors alike will celebrate the neighborhood's vibrant diversity with cultural programming, health resources, local vendors and recreational activities for all ages. It is completely free and open to everyone!

Each neighborhood's character makes the experience a distinct adventure. As the streets come alive with music, dance, and community spirit, SFMTA project experts will be on hand with updates and information on various transportation options.

In partnership with Livable City and Into The Streets, the SFMTA proudly supports this series of events that empower communities to transform their streets into car-free community spaces. The Sunday Streets program creates temporary open spaces and recreational opportunities in neighborhoods that typically lack such resources. It encourages physical activity, fosters community-building and inspires people to reimagine their streets as vibrant public spaces that everybody can enjoy.

Sunday Streets encourages alternative modes of transportation such as public transit, biking, walking or rolling. Leave your car behind and join the movement toward greener and healthier ways of getting around.

Sunday Streets 2023 Season Schedule

Bayview – May 21

Tenderloin – June 4

Valencia – July 30

Western Addition – September 24

Excelsior – October 15

Phoenix Day – October 15

Check out SFMTA.com for trip planning information to or near Sunday Streets events and Muni service impacts. For real time updates, visit our Twitter (https://twitter.com/SFMTA_Muni). For more about the program, visit SundayStreetsSF.com.

Published May 19, 2023 at 10:37PM
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Bike to Wherever Day

Bike to Wherever Day
By

Join people across the city bicycling today for the annual Bike to Wherever Day. The SFMTA is proud to be the official citywide sponsor of Bike to Wherever Day 2023, San Francisco's favorite biking celebration!   

Hosted by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Bike to Wherever Day celebrates  bicycles as a fun and healthy way to get around. This annual event invites people to pedal to their destinations, and it promotes bicycling both as an alternative commute and as a healthy and safe alternative to driving to…wherever. 

We encourage everyone, including those who don't usually bike, to get out and cycle today. After grabbing some wheels  (your own or a bikeshare bike), consider joining one of the Neighborhood Rides. Need more reason to stop by? You also can pick up your free Bike to Wherever Day canvas tote bag, filled with goodies, courtesy of the SF Bicycle Coalition. 

Resources to Help You Plan Your Bicycle Trip 

The SFMTA has go-to resources to help you plan your bicycle trips.  The interactive bike network map highlights recommended routes and shows bikeshare station locations. Go to our Get Out, Get Going website  to find an interactive multi-mode map with information about other sustainable ways to get around that you could pair with your bicycle trip, including walking and using shared mobility devices, like a scooter or moped.   

The SFMTA supports low-carbon transportation options like bicycles, and we continue to expand our dedicated bike lanes around the city to make streets safer and more comfortable for bicycling.  

You can check out our Slow Streets Program with over 18 corridors  that have traffic limitations so they can be used as shared spaces with walkers and bicyclists. Biking, scooting and rolling  are integral to our new Active Communities Plan, a 2-year process to develop a plan for active mobility in San Francisco.  For more information, visit the project website (SFMTA.com/ActiveCommunities).  

Published May 19, 2023 at 02:50AM
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San Francisco To Extend Parking Meter Hours Citywide

San Francisco To Extend Parking Meter Hours Citywide
By Pamela Johnson

Much like real estate, parking is at a premium in San Francisco. For decades, most parking meters in the city have operated from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. While drivers generally love free parking, they may not realize that it’s hard to find a space in the evenings and on Sundays in many neighborhoods because the meters are not running. 

Beginning in July 2023 and continuing in phases through December 2024, the SFMTA will extend parking meter hours until 10:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and add Sunday meter hours from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. Parking meters already operate in the evenings or on Sundays in some areas, including Mission Bay, South Beach, the 18th Street business district in Potrero Hill and along the Embarcadero. This extension will make meter hours more consistent citywide, create more parking availability and generate revenue to help the agency sustain vital Muni service. San Francisco has changed considerably since the current parking meter hours were introduced in 1947. Cities locally and around the country run their parking meters in the evenings and on Sundays because these days, many businesses are open then. Since parking spaces tend to turn over more quickly when meters are in operation, extending meter hours can help businesses by making parking more available and therefore allowing drivers to spend less time looking for a space. Fewer drivers circling the block to look for parking means reduced traffic congestion, less air pollution and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. 

Extending meter hours also will help the SFMTA address a potentially catastrophic budget shortfall. The agency anticipates a projected $130 million deficit starting in Fiscal Year 2025 due to COVID-19's ongoing effects. Without additional funding, we could be forced to eliminate as many as 20 Muni lines, which would disproportionately affect those with low incomes, people of color, older adults and people with disabilities.  

Evening and Sunday parking meter hours will be implemented in six phases over a period of 18 months, beginning with Dogpatch and Fisherman’s Wharf. To take into account historic inequities in San Francisco, lower-income neighborhoods whose residents are predominantly people of color will come last in the rollout. We also are in the process of replacing every parking meter in the city. The extended meter hour implementation is designed to follow behind the installation of new meters, which will have bigger, brighter and easier to use screens; operate in English, Spanish and Chinese; and are more resistant to vandalism. 

In the meantime, SFMTA staff will be doing extensive outreach and meeting with merchant groups, religious leaders, neighborhood groups and elected officials to discuss the program.  

We do understand that extending parking meter hours will impact people who drive to religious services on Sundays. However, those drivers likely will only have to pay for parking for a few hours, if at all, because the meters won’t begin operating until noon on Sundays. There also will be no time limits at metered spaces after 6 p.m. or at any time on Sundays, giving drivers the freedom to decide how much time to spend at dinner, a religious service or wherever they might be, without having to feed the meter repeatedly. Plus, thanks to the SFMTA’s Demand Responsive Parking Pricing program, drivers will often find less expensive parking meters just a block or two away from busier corridors.  

To learn more, visit the project website (SFMTA.com/ModernMeterHours).  

Published May 17, 2023 at 03:15AM
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Unsung Heroes of the Central Subway

Unsung Heroes of the Central Subway
By Melissa Culross

When is a subway more than just a subway? More than its tracks, tunnels and platforms? More than simply a way to get from point A to point B?  

A subway is much more when people put their hearts and souls into building it, as so many who worked on the recently opened Central Subway did. The subway was decades in the making, and over the years, hundreds of SFMTA employees spent countless hours designing and constructing it. Every single contribution, no matter how large or small, was essential, and there are so many unsung heroes of the Central Subway whose collective legacy will be felt well into the future.  

We want to introduce you to a few of those heroes, but please know that they are not the only ones. 

 

 Wyman Lee

For Wyman Lee, building the Chinatown-Rose Pak Central Subway station was deeply personal. Lee, the SFMTA’s resident engineer for the construction, was born and raised just steps away from where the station now stands.

Lee first joined the SFMTA in 2000 and left a few years later to do construction management work for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. He returned to the agency in May 2013 to work on the Chinatown station. “This was a once in a lifetime experience for me,” Lee explained. “There aren’t many engineering careers that take you back to the neighborhood where you were born and [let you] provide a service for that community. It’s full circle.”

Lee believes the station and Central Subway will improve the lives of Chinatown residents now and for generations to come. That is particularly important to him because Lee’s family didn’t have much when he was growing up, and neighbors were always willing to lend a hand. “This has been my way of saying ‘thank you’ to a community that supported me when I was young,” he said.

Lee doesn’t need or want recognition; he just wanted to give back to Chinatown.

Albert Hoe 

Albert Hoe has been with the SFMTA for 29 years, and his work on the Central Subway began in 2004. Hoe initially was a project engineer for the subway before taking on numerous other roles. “I think of this project as my first child,” he said. “I have three daughters [now], but before my kids, this was my life.”

Hoe grew up in San Francisco’s Richmond district, and after riding Muni all over town as a kid, he felt he could make a significant contribution to the city and its transit system with his work on the Central Subway. However, bringing the subway to life wasn’t always easy, and there were many stops and starts that occasionally made it feel, in Hoe’s words, like the project was on life support. “We had some really trying times where we had to go convince people this was a legitimate project that was worth the cost.” 

Now that the Central Subway is open, Hoe feels relief more than any other emotion, including personal pride. This is, in part, because he doesn’t consider himself to be any more important than anyone else who contributed to the project – regardless of how long they were involved or what role they played. “I don’t ever feel like this was my job,” he said. “It’s our job.”

Paul Orsburn

Little did Paul Orsburn know, as he was studying civil engineering at the University of Kentucky in the 1990s, what the future had in store for him. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be working on building a new subway line through the heart of San Francisco,” Orsburn said.

Once he had earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UK, Orsburn moved to California and worked in San Diego, Oakland and for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. He joined the SFMTA specifically to work on the Central Subway project in 2013 and was the resident engineer for construction of the Yerba Buena-Moscone station until 2020 when he transferred to the Union Square-Market Street station. He became the SFMTA’s Deputy Director of Construction Management in early 2023.

Orsburn is tremendously proud to have built something that will serve millions of people, and he would like to go back to the place that gave him the foundation for his career, the University of Kentucky, to talk to engineering students about his experience. His personal life also changed a bit during the Central Subway construction. “My daughter was born right as I started the project,” Orsburn said. “And now to be able to take her to the subway and show her what I worked on is really a nice feeling.”

Sanford Pong

Sanford Pong has spent almost three-quarters of his SFMTA career so far working on the Central Subway. The electrical engineer came to the agency in 2000 after doing consulting work for five years, and he joined the Central Subway project in 2004.

Pong grew up in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco and, as a teenager, would take Muni to school and to Chinatown. His years spent riding the 15, 30 and 45 bus lines through Chinatown were a perfect illustration of how valuable an artery like the Central Subway would be. On top of that, now that the subway is open, Pong can encourage his family in the East Bay to use it to get to Chinatown and Warriors games. “I tell them, ‘This is why we built it!’” he said.

Pong played different roles throughout the project, and he is particularly proud of having led the buildout of the subway’s fiber optic backbone network. This facilitates communication between the Central Subway and pre-existing SFMTA systems, including train control, radio, the data network and emergency phone lines, to name a few.  What also stands out for Pong is how the Central Subway brought the staff together over the years. “A project like this takes a village to come together and get to the end,” he said. So many SFMTA staffers have been willing to help, and like Albert Ho, Pong believes that every contribution is important, no matter how large or small.

Terry Fahey 

Civil Engineer Terry Fahey has 45 years of construction experience and began working at the SFMTA in 1999. In 2011, he became Deputy Director of Maintenance of Way, an agency division responsible for maintaining the rail trackway, train signals, traction power system, overhead lines and automatic train control system. His involvement in the Central Subway project began while he was serving in that role.

Fahey accepted a special assignment as Rail Activation Manager of the project in 2019 and was involved in testing, preparing maintenance staff, training coordination and approving all aspects of the subway. “My objective was to ensure that the Transit Division and other stakeholders got the highest quality, [most] reliable system possible,” he said.

However, Fahey feels that his work is not done. Now that the subway is open, Fahey is focused on the finishing touches that he says will bring the project to true completion. “[The opening was] a great accomplishment,” he said. “We have a system that is functioning and running very well, but there is still work left to do.”

Whether that work means figuring out how to keep hard-to-reach areas of the new stations clean or acquiring equipment to replace lighting, Terry Fahey will make sure the project crosses the final finish line.

You can learn more about the Central Subway by visiting Central Subway Project (SFMTA.com/Central). 

Published May 16, 2023 at 01:03AM
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Meet the People of the Next Generation CIS: Leon Yu

Meet the People of the Next Generation CIS: Leon Yu
By Deanna Leo

Leon Yu, Graphic Artist, Creative Services  

What do you do on the project? 

I help design the user experience: What users see on the new displays, how they see it and how often they see it, down to the actual graphics.  

How do you feel your work impacts our customers? Who will benefit? 

My work communicates transit information to customers as cleanly and clearly as possible, so the information is easy for any member of the public to understand. We only have a small space to work with on the displays, so we must make it count. People  of all backgrounds, languages and abilities, so need to get this information quickly at a glance.  

What was your favorite part of the project? 

My favorite part is working with the team and all the different CIS systems. This is such a multidisciplinary project involving many staff and people I’ve never worked with before. Being able to collaborate with so many dedicated colleagues is rewarding.  

What do you like most about working at the SFMTA? 

As a graphic designer, my work is always on display. Being able to see my work in public and see Muni riders engage with my work to get information that helps them with their trip is exciting and satisfying.  

To learn more about this challenging and important project visit the project home page (SFMTA.com/NextGenCIS).   

Published May 11, 2023 at 01:04AM
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Muni Rider Satisfaction the Highest in 10-years!

Muni Rider Satisfaction the Highest in 10-years!
By Bonnie Jean von Krogh

Here at the SFMTA, we are focused on creating the fastest, safest and most reliable public transportation network for all San Franciscans. This is why we consider it a top priority to hear from our riders and non-riders alike about how we’re doing, what your public transportation priorities are, and ways we can improve. These findings help to inform budget, long-range planning and policy decisions. They also help build a better Muni for everyone traveling in San Francisco. 

In recent months we conducted our Rider Survey as well as a broader Community Survey. Real-time data from our partners at Transit App in their North America Transit Rider Happiness Benchmarking Survey provides additional details about community feedback.  

The good news? Rider satisfaction with Muni services is up across the board: 

• Per SFMTA’s Rider survey, 66% of Muni riders rate services as good or excellent — a 9% increase from 2021. 
• The City Survey shows Muni’s rating at its highest level since 2013 
• Transit App’s survey shows Muni in the Top 5 North American cities when it comes to ranking riders most likely to recommend their public transit system to a friend 
• Transit App also shows that Muni riders give our drivers the highest overall approval rating across North America. Go, operators! 
• Finally, the Community Survey showcases that our riders have a much higher approval rating for the SFMTA than non-riders.  

So if you haven’t ridden Muni in a while, maybe it’s time to give it a try.   

 Highlights from the Community Survey

• 71% of riders approve of the SFMTA compared to  48% of non-riders. 
• 66% of riders rate Muni service as excellent/good compared to 48% of non-riders.   
• By 9 points, regular riders also consider Muni safer than non-riders 

Our Rider Survey shows us that customers have noticed the work Muni has been doing to address service delivery since the onset of the pandemic. Our ongoing investments in reliability improvements such as transit lanes, bus bulbs and smart traffic signals have also paid off. Over the last three years, we implemented over 21 miles of new transit lanes, bringing our transit lane network to more than 70 miles! With this expansion, Muni is quicker and more reliable than it has been in decades. 

That said, there’s more to be done, and respondents continue to emphasize “Improving the speed, frequency and reliability of Muni buses and trains,” with two-thirds of respondents prioritizing, “having the most frequent and reliable buses and trains, even if stops are more than 2 or 3 blocks away, rather than having closer stops.”  

Next Steps 

We asked what our community would most like to see changed, and while answers varied, the top priorities according to the Community Survey are:  

• Crime/safety (including fare evasion and passenger safety) 
• More reliable/efficient/on time service/less bunching of busses 
• Better communication and public outreach 
• Improved cleanliness of transit stops 
• Additional funding to create faster, safer and more reliable public transportation  

Safety is a Key Priority 

• Over 50% of respondents cited “Increasing safety from crime on Muni buses” as an extremely urgent priority. 
• Respondents answering the Community survey in Chinese had the strongest concern about safety. 58% of Chinese speakers consider Muni unsafe from crime, almost a full 20% higher than respondents to the survey in English. 
• The safety of our customers and staff is a top priority for the SFMTA. We have increased the number of staff riding Muni as a visual deterrent to crime. 
• We will continue our efforts to make sure all Muni riders are safe and can be confident riding our buses and trains and will update you with our progress.   

Increasing Reliability through Repairing and Upgrading our System 

•  A top priority of respondents is “Repairing and maintaining Muni equipment and facilities to ensure vehicles’ safety, frequency and reliability,” and our commitment to timely repair and maintenance work is in line with that.  
• Improving Real-Time Communications  
• Riders would like more reliable real-time communications to help with trip planning.  
• Improvements to the customer experience can be seen through the ongoing implementation of our new Next Generation Customer Information System.  

Respondents Understand the Need for Additional Public Transportation Funding  

• Finally, a key takeaway from the Community Survey is that respondents want a better and more reliable public transportation system and recognize the need for additional funding to accomplish our shared vision and goals.  
• Respondents support investing in Muni service as well as expanding safe bike and pedestrian pathways to ensure everyone in the city can access jobs and get where they need to go easily, regardless of their income or neighborhood.  

We agree that an affordable, reliable and safe public transit system is a critical part of a thriving and equitable community. We are committed to working toward this goal and thank our frontline staff for working so hard to improve service. 

Published May 05, 2023 at 12:41AM
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Just in Time for Bike Month: The Active Communities Plan Interactive Map!

Just in Time for Bike Month: The Active Communities Plan Interactive Map!
By Christopher Kidd

Image of the new Active Communities Plan (ACP ) interactive map 

As part of our ongoing public outreach about the Active Communities Plan, the SFMTA has created a new ACP interactive map.  The release of the map comes just a couple of weeks after we began collecting feedback through our new survey.  

The map shows conditions for biking, scooting and rolling across San Francisco, as well as multiple layers of analysis conducted by the Active Communities Plan team. It is meant to help users understand how different factors like comfort, safety and network quality influence whether people decide to use active transportation or not.  

We want users to have the opportunity to explore and compare data, reflect on how it compares to their experiences with active transportation and provide input about what kinds of solutions work best. 

The interactive map has six main layers to explore: 

• Baseline Data – shows today’s active transportation network, our pipeline of approved projects and the location of every public bike rack in the city. 
• Collision Analysis – shows the locations of bike and scooter collisions on the High Injury Network before the pandemic (2017-2019) and since the start of the pandemic (2020-2021), as well as the neighborhoods with the most unreported (unlinked) bike & scooter collisions. 
• Comfort Analysis – shows the Bike Network Comfort Index (BCI), which categorizes perceived comfort or risk by people biking, scooting or rolling. This is only our first draft of the BCI – by taking our survey, you can help shape how the BCI is scored! 
• Micromobility Analysis – shows what streets people ride most when using BayWheels e-bikes or scooters, which BayWheels stations get the most ridership and the service areas for our micromobility providers. 
• Modeshare Analysis – shows data from the American Communities Survey: commute mode share by bicycle and the distribution of zero-car households. 
• Bike and Micromobility Activity Analysis – combines our BayWheels e-bike trip data, scooter trip data and modeled bike and scooter trip data from Replica to estimate the volume of trip activity. You can view activity across the city, on the active transportation network or by network facility type. 

Once you’ve had a chance to explore our interactive maps, take our survey. The results will help us understand your needs and barriers to active transportation, as well as how safe or comfortable people feel using different types of streets. From there we can develop network, program and policy recommendations that directly reflect the needs and priorities of people across the city. Our survey runs through July 31st.  

The Active Communities Plan public engagement effort has reached more than 1,000 residents since January, and we have events scheduled through mid-June with more to come throughout the summer. Visit Active Communities Plan (SFMTA.com/ActiveCommunities) for our schedule, which is updated regularly. If you want us to attend your community meeting or event, contact ActiveCommunities@sfmta.com and let us know! 

Published May 03, 2023 at 07:49PM
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Traffic Collisions have Decreased on San Francisco’s Slow Streets

Traffic Collisions have Decreased on San Francisco’s Slow Streets
By Julia Malmo

 

As a whole, Slow Streets are safer than they were before being designated Slow Streets 

Streets that are part of the SFMTA’s Slow Streets Program have become measurably safer since the program began in 2020, with the number of traffic crashes falling by almost half. On average, these corridors have seen a 48% drop in collisions following their designation as Slow Streets, compared with a 14% drop in collisions citywide over the same period. Slow Streets also are more welcoming for people who walk, bike and roll. Fewer than 1,000 vehicles per day use all but four of the current Slow Streets (20th Street, Minnesota Street, Noe Street, and Page Street). 

The goal of the program is to create safe, shared streets that are comfortable and enjoyable for people of all ages and abilities, using any mode of transportation. We now can see how it’s doing in a new evaluation report.

When the SFMTA Board approved the permanent Slow Streets Program in December 2022, the Directors required that every Slow Street meet certain safety and comfort targets: average vehicle speeds of less than 15 miles per hour (MPH) and average daily vehicle volumes lower than 1,000. The Slow Streets team has been collecting between January 2023 and April 2023 to understand how the streets are performing. We placed pneumatic tubes every four blocks along Slow Street corridors in January of this year to collect vehicle volume and speed from 16 of the 18 streets currently in the program (Cayuga Avenue and 22nd Street were not included in the analysis because they are not yet implemented).  

Not only is traffic volume down, but all the Slow Streets have median speeds of 20 MPH or slower. However, most have not met the 15 MPH target set by the Board. This means that traffic still is not moving slowly enough for our most vulnerable road users to feel safe. 

 The Slow Streets team will begin working on these changes now with updated designs expected by this summer. 

Here is the 2023 Slow Streets Design Toolkit  (SFMTA.com/SlowStreetsToolkit) including details on the methodology used in the evaluation, along with individual corridor findings. To learn more about next steps, Signup for Email and SMS Alerts from the Slow Streets Program (SFMTA.com/SlowStreets) and individual corridors. We look forward to sharing more about how this data will inform next steps for Slow Streets designs across San Francisco! 

Published May 03, 2023 at 12:03AM
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Three Golden Rules to Improve Scooter Safety

Three Golden Rules to Improve Scooter Safety
By Mona Chiu

The SFMTA has some exciting news for all who use the sidewalk in the city! Starting May 1, 2023, we'll be launching a new safety campaign to promote safe and responsible electric scooter use for both permitted scooter share devices and privately operated scooters. The campaign will focus on three key safety rules that every rider should keep in mind while riding: no sidewalk riding, no speeding and no double riding (two people riding one device). By educating riders about the dangers of sidewalk riding, unsafe speeding and riding, and improper parking, we hope to make the city safer for everyone.    

Sidewalk riding has been a major concern for pedestrians in San Francisco, and it's illegal to ride an electric scooter on the sidewalk.   

 Electric scooters can travel at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour, which can be dangerous if riders aren't paying attention to their surroundings. The SFMTA's safety campaign will encourage riders to be mindful of their speed (riding over 15 miles per hour is illegal) and to obey traffic laws. 

The campaign will also focus on emphasizing double riding is illegal. By law, only one rider should ride a scooter at a time.  

To spread the word about this safety campaign, we will be placing posters on Muni buses, displaying ads in Muni bus stops and running ads on social media. This should help us reach as many scooter riders as possible and encourage them to prioritize safety while riding. 

The SFMTA already has been actively working to improve scooter safety in San Francisco. We have implemented several policies and regulations, including: 

• Requiring permitted scooter companies to provide a lock-to system to keep parked scooters out of the accessible path of travel  
• Requiring permitted scooter companies to develop and implement a plan for safe riding. These plans include rider training, in-app messages with safety messages and sidewalk detection technology on their devices.  
• Encouraging scooter permittees to adopt an escalating penalty structure for improper riding and parking 
• Working with the Port of San Francisco to reduce sidewalk riding on the Embarcadero.  

The agency has also worked to improve infrastructure for scooter riders. We have installed: 

• 3,000+ racks installed since the beginning of scooter permit program in 2018 
• 11,000+ bike racks available citywide for scooter parking  
• 465 miles of bikeways in San Francisco 
• 78 miles off-street paths 
• 139 miles of bike lanes (Class II) 
• 43 miles of separated bikeways (Class IV)  
• 45 miles of bike lanes and separated bikeways added since 2018 
• 33 miles of Slow Streets 

The agency is also working to expand the active transportation network in the city through our new Active Communities Plan. 

If you want to report any complaints related to scooter riding, you can call 311 or visit the 311 website.  

To learn more about what the SFMTA is doing to promote a safe and useful scooter share system, visit our scooter share permit project page and view our data dashboards. 

Published May 01, 2023 at 10:02PM
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