Photo Exhibit Event: Vintage Bus Display and Tour

Photo Exhibit Event: Vintage Bus Display and Tour
By Jeremy Menzies

Join us Saturday, Jan. 27 at a special event for our exhibit, "120 years: SFMTA Photo Archive 1903-2023."

Based at the Harvey Milk Photo Center, the exhibit showcases the last 120 years of San Francisco's transportation history. 

This Saturday, we hope you'll join us at a two-part event as the exhibit nears its final week. Hop inside a restored vintage Mack bus to experience a beautiful piece of our transit history. Then, take a tour of the photo exhibit with the curators. Learn the details below. 

• Vintage Bus Display  

• Photo Exhibit Tour 

One of the 52 images featured in the ”120 years: SFMTA Photo Archive 1903-2023” exhibit.

Vintage Bus Display  

Where: Duboce Park, by the outbound N Judah stop on Duboce Avenue and Noe Street 

When: Saturday, Jan. 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  

A striking Mack bus, featuring its original green and cream paint scheme, will be parked at Duboce Park. You’ll have a chance to learn about the bus’s history and restoration. Then, climb on board and get your camera ready, because this one is dazzling! 

Mack bus 2230 in service during Muni Heritage Weekend 2023. The coach features period-correct advertisements inside and out.

Photo Exhibit Tour 

When: Saturday, Jan. 27 at 11 a.m.  

Where: Tour meets where the vintage Mack bus will be parked – by the outbound N Judah stop on Duboce Avenue and Noe Street. If you're running late, join the tour inside the Harvey Milk Photo Center on 50 Scott Street. 

Exhibit curators will host a brief walkthrough of the photo exhibit. After the tour, feel free to ask questions during an open Q&A session that runs until 1 p.m.  

The first 50 visitors to the exhibit will receive a special commemorative poster featuring images from the 120-year-old SFMTA Photo Archive collection. Posters are one per person. 

If you can’t make it on Jan. 27, you can still stop by the exhibit through Feb. 3.  

See the Harvey Milk Photo Center web page for gallery hours and contact information. 

Published January 26, 2024 at 04:12AM
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The SFMTA’s Year in Numbers

The SFMTA’s Year in Numbers
By Madhu Unnikrishnan

The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way transit systems – and cities – across the country function, but with the worst of the pandemic now behind us, the SFMTA is focused on the future. In our latest annual report, we announced that Muni ridership had recovered to 63% of pre-pandemic levels, but our ridership has continued to recover, ending 2023 at 71% of its pre-pandemic level. 

The reason for the discrepancy? Our annual report, Moving San Francisco Forward, reflects the fiscal year, which ends on June 30. So, our most recent annual report covers the period from July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023. In the six months since the data for the SFMTA annual report was collected, ridership has continued to recover. 

Where we have made transit priority investments, the numbers are even better. Ridership on the new Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit corridor is exceeding pre-pandemic levels, at 131% of 2019 ridership. Similarly, the 22 Fillmore is at 138% of its 2019 ridership on weekends, and the 14R on Mission has seen ridership reach 117% of its 2019 weekend levels. That’s in addition to the 2,700 weekday boardings reported at the four new stations on the T Third line in the Central Subway, which opened last year. Look out for more details in an upcoming blog diving deeper into 2023 Muni ridership. 

Beyond ridership numbers, we saw significant improvements in street safety. In case you aren’t familiar with it, Vision Zero is San Francisco’s policy to eliminate traffic fatalities. Seniors and people walking and using scooters make up the highest percentage of traffic deaths on our streets. It is a moral goal that no one should die on the streets of San Francisco. In 2014, San Francisco and New York were the first U.S. cities to adopt Vision Zero principles and set a goal of zero. Since then, about 50 other cities in the United States, as well as the state of California and the federal government, have also set zero deaths as their transportation safety goals.  

While there were 39 traffic fatalities in 2022, that number fell to 26 in 2023, a 33% decrease. Bicycle-related fatalities have also decreased — they have gone down by 50% in the last four years. Even one fatality on our streets is too many, so we’re focused on bringing those numbers down further, and we are seeing signs of improvement.  

One of the primary areas of focus for Vision Zero is to reduce speeding, as speed can increase the severity of crashes, particularly for vulnerable road users like pedestrians. We’re taking many steps to reduce speed, including installing what we call “traffic-calming devices” such as speed humps, raised crosswalks, median islands and traffic circles, among other measures.  By the end of last year, we had installed about 250 traffic-calming devices. We have also installed Quick-Build pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements on 32 corridors since 2019, resulting in 50 miles of traffic safety improvements for San Franciscans who choose to walk or bike. We’re currently in the planning phase for several more corridors this year. 

Another way we’re making the streets of our city safer is by reducing the speed limit to 20 miles per hour on select streets. The data shows that slowing vehicle speeds is one of the most effective tools we have to prevent traffic deaths. By the end of last year, the SFMTA had reduced the speed limit to 20 miles per hour on 43 miles of city streets, up from 25.5 street miles at the end of June 2023. 

We’re also working to educate some of our most underserved communities on the services we provide. Last year, we opened a new Transportation Resource Center in the Bayview, historically one of San Francisco’s most under-resourced neighborhoods. Staff at the center help people sign up for Clipper cards and Muni Transit Passes, access paratransit services, learn how to use the MuniMobile app and find out how to access micromobility programs, like Scootershare and Bikeshare services. To better serve the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood, the SFMTA plans to launch a new Bayview Community Shuttle later this year.   

The SFMTA has been hard at work on improving the transit system, roads and bikeways we all depend on. Here are some of the statistics from the end of calendar year 2023: 

• Provided more than 500,000 paratransit trips. 

• Made more than 3,900 repairs to transit shelter glass and seats. 

• Increased transit stop cleaning by 50% compared with previous years. 

• Offered 467 miles of bikeways, with 45 miles of protected bikeways (compared with 43 miles at the end of the fiscal year).  

You can learn more about these accomplishments and others in our annual report (SFMTA.com/AnnualReport). 

We’d like to thank our employees for the tremendous amount of work and dedication it took to achieve these milestones and to help us continue on this upward trajectory. And, we’d like to hear from you!  Some of these projects – bikeways and increased service on heavily traveled bus lines, among others – stemmed from what we heard from our city. Please comment below or email us at InsideSFMTA@SFMTA.com. 

Published January 25, 2024 at 06:04AM
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Taken with Transportation Podcast: Breaking Glass Ceilings Halfway to the Stars

Taken with Transportation Podcast: Breaking Glass Ceilings Halfway to the Stars
By

Fannie Mae Barnes smiles at the crowd while being recognized at a cable car 150th anniversary event in August 2023.

Fannie Mae Barnes made history in January 1998 when she became San Francisco’s first female cable car grip. We hear her story in the latest episode of Taken with Transportation, “Breaking Glass Ceilings Halfway to the Stars.” 

“I started working at Muni as a bus operator in 1981,” Barnes tells Taken with Transportation host Melissa Culross. “[But] I was kind of getting tired of the bus situation because it’s pretty difficult operating a bus in San Francisco because you have to deal with a lot of hazardous situations, people as well as the traffic. And so, I was about to quit my job.” 

Instead of quitting, Barnes moved to the cable car division where she worked as a conductor for about six years before training to become a grip. The grip heaves the lever that grabs hold of the cable to propel the cars. The job takes strength, mental and physical coordination, confidence and determination. Many potential grips, including men, don’t finish the training. Barnes did. 

“When I made it, everybody was excited,” she says. 

Barnes may have been the first female cable car grip, but she wasn’t the last. The second, Willa Johnson, is also featured in the episode. 

“For me, it’s important that I’m doing it, and that I’m still doing it,” says Johnson, who became a grip in 2010. “It takes a while for, I guess, for some of the men that really felt like ‘This is not a woman’s job’ to warm up to you and say, ‘You know, I really doubted you, but you are really doing a good job.’” 

Two more women became cable car grips after Johnson, and she teases that a fifth is coming.  

Listen to “Breaking Glass Ceilings Halfway to the Stars” for more about what Barnes and Johnson experienced when they became grips. You can find it and all the episodes of Taken with Transportation on our podcast page (SFMTA.com/Podcast).

Published January 25, 2024 at 12:36AM
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New State Laws Are Coming to the Streets of San Francisco

New State Laws Are Coming to the Streets of San Francisco
By Melissa Culross

As of Jan. 1, 2024, bicyclists in California legally can cross a street on a pedestrian walk signal, instead of waiting for a traffic light.

Several new state laws that took effect on Jan. 1, 2024, will have an impact on transportation in San Francisco. Some of these impacts will be more widespread and immediately felt than others, but all are expected to make San Francisco streets safer.  

Street Safety and Vision Zero

AB 251 (Ward) - This law requires the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to study the relationship between vehicle weight and injuries to vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists. Vehicles have been increasing in size and weight in recent years, while pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. reached a four-decade high in 2021. The CTC will also study the possible costs and benefits of a passenger vehicle weight fee and how the funds created by such a fee might be used to improve road safety.  

AB 361 (Ward) - This law authorizes local agencies to install forward-facing cameras on city-owned or district-owned vehicles to enforce bicycle lane violations. AB 361 gives the agency another tool to support the safety of bicyclists by expanding our capacity to enforce regulations against cars blocking bike lanes. The legislation allows our enforcement officers to take still photos of bike lane parking violations until Jan. 1, 2030. The SFMTA plans to take the opportunity this legislation affords us, but a technology review will be necessary before cameras can be installed. 

AB 413 (Lee) - This new law prohibits the stopping, standing or parking of a vehicle within 20 feet of any crosswalk, whether it’s marked or not, and within 15 feet of a crosswalk with a curb extension. This change, known as “daylighting,” will only apply to the approach side of an intersection, and cities will have the ability to allow parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk that has clear signage or a painted curb. The legislation requires warnings to be issued until the beginning of next year, unless a violation occurs in an area marked with paint or a sign. The SFMTA has been a strong proponent of daylighting to increase pedestrian safety. Keeping the area next to crosswalks clear of parked vehicles allows pedestrians, drivers, bicyclists and anyone else rolling down the street to see each other more clearly. We are reviewing AB 413 and how it will be implemented in San Francisco, including how we can work with safety advocates, other cities and the DMV to increase awareness about the law.  

AB 645 (Friedman) - This law gives San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Jose, Long Beach and Glendale the authority to implement a five-year speed safety camera pilot program. The speed cameras will be used on San Francisco’s High Injury Network, the 12% of streets where more than 68% of severe and fatal traffic crashes occur, and possibly at other locations where speeding is a known issue. Unsafe speed is the number one factor in fatal traffic crashes in San Francisco. We are working to identify potential locations for the speed cameras and developing a plan for outreach and engagement with local stakeholder organizations, including racial equity, privacy protection and economic justice groups.  

AB 1909 (Friedman) – Most of this law, an omnibus bicycle bill, went into effect last year, but an important provision took effect on Jan. 1, 2024. AB 1909 amends the vehicle code to make it legal for people riding bikes to cross the street on a pedestrian walk signal, unless otherwise directed by a bicycle control signal. Previously it was only legal for bikes to cross the street on a green traffic light with automobile traffic. 

Transit Safety 

SB 434 (Min) - This law is intended to reduce the harassment of women and other vulnerable groups on public transit by collecting better data on these incidents. It requires the state’s ten largest transit agencies by ridership, including the SFMTA, to conduct public outreach and survey riders about their experiences with safety while waiting for or riding on transit. This legislation builds upon the SFMTA’s Safety Equity Initiative that is currently underway. Last year we launched MuniSafe, a campaign to enhance security and increase the reporting, investigation and prevention of harassment and assaults on Muni.  

Published January 09, 2024 at 11:48PM
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It’s Time to Modernize the Technology that Keeps Muni Metro Moving

It’s Time to Modernize the Technology that Keeps Muni Metro Moving
By Mariana Maguire

Upgrades will replace the current train control system in the subway and extend the modern system to street-level Metro operation for faster, more reliable service. 

Muni Metro, San Francisco’s light rail system, serves hundreds of thousands of people daily throughout the city. Since 2019, we have greatly reduced the delays and subway congestion that had plagued the Metro in the past. This success is due to a combination of advances in how we manage service and conduct ongoing maintenance.  

But we need to fundamentally modernize to overcome Metro’s structural and technological limitations. With San Francisco projected to grow significantly in the next decade, there’s no better time to invest in the future of Muni Metro. 

Current Automatic Train Control System (ATCS) Limitations 

Despite being third busiest light rail system in the U.S., Muni Metro is the last to funnel five lines onto one path --- under Market Street. This structural challenge requires a combination of careful service planning and a highly effective train control system to keep trains moving efficiently and prevent delays.  

But our current Automatic Train Control System (ATCS) has many challenges. The ATCS provides much greater Metro safety and reliability than manual operation, but it runs on 1980s technology and can experience equipment failures that cause Metro delays impacting riders’ commutes to work, school, appointments and other destinations. 

As some customers experienced in October 2023, the computers that run the system crashed, automatically halting all service in the Muni Metro subway. Our staff immediately responded by rebooting the system and safely guiding train operators through the subway in manual mode. Within about an hour, the computers were back online, vehicles returned to automatic train control and subway service returned to normal. Meanwhile, bus shuttles were sent to provide service between West Portal and Embarcadero stations, Church Street and Duboce Avenue during the closure. 

Our staff are experienced at working with this decades-old technology to prevent or quickly respond to incidents like this. But their best efforts can’t solve the underlying problem of decades of deferred Muni Metro capital improvements. The impacts are frustrating for both riders and staff, and unacceptable for a modern Metro system.  

We must invest in modern train control and bring the Market Street subway tunnel into a state of good repair to make Muni Metro fast, frequent, and reliable for people throughout the Bay Area who count on this service. 

Modernizing Muni Metro: Train Control Upgrade Project (TCUP) 

The need is critical to modernize our train control system to a state-of-the-art Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) system. CBTC uses the latest technology to:

• Maintain constant communication with all trains in the rail network from the moment they go into service, both in the subway and on the street. 

• Communicate with and help prioritize signals - the CBTC system will tell signals a train is coming well in advance. 

• Automatically push software updates to keep the system current – no more floppy disks! 

• Keep trains evenly spaced to prevent bunching and gaps for more consistent wait times and travel times that match the advertised frequency and make trip planning more reliable, among many other benefits. 

CBTC is expected to reduce Metro delays by 20-25% on top of the reductions we’ve already achieved. In turn, this will allow us to run more trains through the whole Metro network, making travel faster and more efficient. Customers will no longer be “stuck” on trains between stations due to subway congestion or slow-moving trains with a communication failure. 

We are already on track to start building out the pilot phase of the new system by 2025. Learn more about this exciting Muni Metro modernization project on the Train Control Upgrade Project page.  

Fix It! Weeks help maximize the Muni Metro of Today 

As we pursue long-term innovations like the Train Control Upgrade Project, we are also taking important steps to maximize the Muni Metro improvements we can make today to help the system function better. And we’ve seen great success. 

Fix It Week is one example of our success reducing long Muni Metro delays by about 70% compared to 2019. Prior to launching Fix It Week, maintenance windows were short, and it was difficult for crews to complete work efficiently, leading to ongoing maintenance challenges. This is because Metro maintenance can only take place when service is not running.  

By closing the Muni Metro early for a few days every few months during the quarterly Fix It Week, our Maintenance of Way (MOW) teams can optimize work time for critical maintenance, preventing potential breakdowns. During Fix It Week, maintenance crews have an extended window to perform underground infrastructure improvement work that cannot be completed during the usual overnight windows.  

The goal of Fix It Week is to make Muni Metro subway operations more reliable, ensure safety and improve the customer experience. Nine MOW teams (Track, Cable Car, Motive Power, Maintenance Engineering, Mechanical Systems, Overhead Lines, Underground, Paint Shop and Signal) are involved in the maintenance work, including custodial staff cleaning metro stations. 

Buses provide substitute service for Muni Metro during Fix It! Week and connect all stops on Market Street. Muni ambassadors help riders navigate to their destination at the busy transfer stops. 

Learn more about our subway maintenance work. 

We’re proud of the strides we’ve made to improve Muni Metro service. Today, a trip on the N Judah from the Outer Sunset to Embarcadero is faster and more reliable than it was in 2019. We are committed to making Muni Metro a hallmark of our transit system. 

Published January 04, 2024 at 10:33PM
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Jan. 20 Muni Service Changes Add New Caltrain Connection, Service on School Routes

Jan. 20 Muni Service Changes Add New Caltrain Connection, Service on School Routes
By Brian Haagsman

The 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express route will add new stops in Hunters Point and SoMa. 

Beginning Saturday, Jan. 20, the SFMTA will be adjusting Muni service on some routes to address crowding, including for school travel times. We’re also making several stop changes based on rider feedback and our own observations to add new connections and make Muni more reliable. 

New Connections on the 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express 

Since it launched in early 2021, the 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express route has been a key connector between neighborhoods. Connecting Bayview-Hunters Point, Dogpatch, Mission Bay, SoMa and the Financial District, the route was initially designed based on community input. Now we’re adding stops at two locations based on feedback from riders and operators: 

• Hudson Avenue and Cashmere Street will have new stops for both inbound and outbound trips. We’ve heard from residents in Hunters Point that the 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express fills a unique need, but existing stops are spaced far apart. 

• Near the 4th and King Caltrain Station, new stops are being added at 3rd and Brannan streets (inbound) and 4th and Berry streets (outbound) to create a new connection for riders looking to transfer between Muni and Caltrain. As part of this change, the stop nearby at 4th & King streets served by the T Third bus and 91 Third Street bus will be relocated a half-block south to help with congestion at the 4th and King streets intersection. 

To reflect the travel time of the route more accurately, we are updating the weekday frequency from every 10 minutes to every 12 minutes. We will still be dedicating the same resources to this route, but this frequency reflects the actual travel time along the route and is expected to improve reliability for 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express riders. 

Balancing Service to Address Crowding 

Since the 2023-2024 school year started in August, we’ve heard from families and observed crowding on some lines that serve schools, especially during morning commute times. At times the bus is so full that it must pass up waiting riders. We’ve also noticed that some popular routes are crowded throughout the day. As a result, we are making small frequency increases.  

Increased frequency at select weekday times: 

• 24 Divisadero  

• 29 Sunset  

• 38R Geary Rapid  

• 44 O’Shaughnessy  

• 48 Quintara-24th Street  

• 49 Van Ness/Mission  

Increased frequency on weekends: 

• 28 19th Avenue  

The SFMTA continues to face financial constraints that limit our ability to expand service. That means that adding service on any route requires taking it from another route. As a result, we are monitoring ridership across routes to address changing travel patterns and only adding service where crowding is an issue. To increase frequency on the above routes, we must decrease weekday frequency on others.

Decreased weekday frequency: 

• 5 Fulton and 5 Fulton Rapid with combined local and rapid frequency will change from every 4.5 minutes to every six minutes. Additionally, the 5 Fulton will change from every nine minutes to every 10 minutes on weekends. 

• 9 San Bruno with combined local and rapid frequency will change from every 5.5 minutes to every six minutes. 

• 33 Ashbury/18th Street frequency will change from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes. 

Other Stop Changes 

• As part of the 16th Street Improvement Project, the 22 Fillmore stop at 16th and Dolores streets will move from the nearside of the intersection to the far side. This move will be made in both directions to improve reliability and travel times. Existing shelters will be relocated to the new stop locations. 

• The 58 Lake Merced stop at Sunset Boulevard and Lake Merced Boulevard will be removed in both directions to improve reliability and travel time. This low-ridership stop has poor connectivity to nearby streets and is just a two-minute walk or roll (less than 500 feet) from stops at Sunset Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, which are wheelchair accessible and include seating.

Safety is always a priority 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).

Published January 04, 2024 at 01:52AM
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