Showdown at the Cow Palace

Showdown at the Cow Palace
By Lori Phelan

Some of the agency’s most skilled transit operators, mechanics and parking control officers recently polished up their silver stars and rode into Daly City for an epic showdown at the Cow Palace. It was a chance to show they were the best of the best. And boy did they deliver!

The SFMTA Roadeo had dozens of transit operators navigate through a course containing various obstacle while under a strict time limit. 

The event was the 32nd Annual Bus Roadeo (and yes, you read that correctly). The name "roadeo" is derived from the better-known horse rodeo competition. The original roadeos, which began in 1937, featured trucks in various categories going through the same obstacles that drivers go through today. The agency took on the moniker in 1974 and held the inaugural event in the parking lot at the former Candlestick Park. It was there a dozen transit operators competed to determine who would lasso the award as best driver. There have been numerous Roadeos over time – 31 to be exact – but the event has been dormant since 2016. Bringing it back now is about so much more than bragging rights. “The Roadeo is about celebrating safety and customer excellence,” said Transit Director Julie Kirschbaum. "And that’s something we can all strive for at any time."

Muni operators lineup to compete in the Bus Safety Rodeo at Candlestick Park (SFMTA Photo Archive, Oct. 29, 1974)

As part of the contest, dozens of transit operators had to navigate 40’ buses through a course containing various obstacles while under a strict time limit. A few of the boxes they needed to check included driving through a narrowing lane that is only 3-inches wider than the bus and stopping within inches of a simulated curb. As drivers negotiated the obstacle course, the buses were also equipped with a device that generated a smoothness of operation score.

Muni mechanics also competed in their own competition. Teams faced off in multi-test challenges that featured simulated vehicle problems and breakdowns. Participants were tasked with diagnosing and repairing issues in a timed contest. They were joined by many of the agency’s parking control officers who competed in their own three-wheeled interceptors, navigating a very tight, timed course.

Mechanics competed in teams, working to resolve complex issues they face on a regular basis. 

Parking Control Officers competed against each other navigating a maze that had them perform complex maneuvers at various points. 

According to event frontrunner and Transit Senior Operations Manager Leda Rozier, "This event is about so much more than a skills contest (although that’s important), it’s about building on teamwork, morale and communication. The rest of us at the agency have certainly been impressed and consider ourselves lucky to call all the competitors our colleagues."

Several vintage buses (No. 42 the 1938 White; No. 2230 the 1956 Mack; and No. 3287 the 1969 GMC) along three of our newest battery electric buses from each manufacturer from the pilot fleet were on display, as well as a private car collection. Shown with transit operator competitors.

Winners and organizers will be honored at the SFMTA Board of Directors meeting at 1 p.m., Nov. 1 at City Hall, Room 400. Meetings are open to the public and are streamed live through SFGovTV.

Published October 31, 2022 at 01:38PM
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What’s new on the west side?

What’s new on the west side?
By Andrea Buffa

The west side of San Francisco is home to some of San Francisco’s most beloved recreational destinations — Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, Lake Merced, Fort Funston and Ocean Beach, among others. But many of these natural attractions — and others like Mt. Sutro and Twin Peaks — are also geographic barriers that can make travel to and from the west side of the city more difficult.

This may be one reason why three out of four people traveling within, to or from the west side do so by personal car. It’s also why we need to make sure there are more safe, reliable and affordable transportation options between west side neighborhoods and other citywide destinations.

This month we released an interactive website, San Francisco’s West Side on the Move, describing local experiences, transportation challenges and solutions in neighborhoods from the Richmond and the Sunset to Lake Merced, Parkside and West Portal. The website pulls together our latest efforts to make it safer and more convenient for people on the west side to get where they need to go. Our goal is for people who want to take Muni to have reliable and frequent service; for those who want to walk or bike to have safe streets; and for people who drive to face less congestion.

Beyond the geographic barriers that impede west side travel, other transportation challenges on the west side include street closures caused by construction projects and frequent closure of the Great Highway for sand removal. Street transformations that began during the pandemic, like Slow Streets and the closure of some roads in Golden Gate Park to cars, also altered some residents' trip patterns. We've been listening to and collaborating with community members on the west side about how to better address these challenges and meet their needs as well.

San Francisco’s West Side on the Move describes the solutions we’ve implemented or plan to implement soon on the west side. Our Transit team has already made major strides in improving west side Muni lines like the 38 Geary and 5R Fulton Rapid using tools like red transit lanes, bus bulbs and smart traffic signals. Travel times on the 38 Geary are up to 20% faster than they were previously, and travel times on the 5R Fulton Rapid are up to 12% faster. We’ve also improved travel times on the 1 California and the N Judah.

While the L Taraval Improvement Project is still in construction, it has already delivered important safety benefits. On the completed section of the L Taraval, which finished on time and on budget, pedestrian injuries decreased by 60%. Improvements like this are vitally important in all San Francisco communities, and especially so in this part of the city which is home to so many older adults and families with small children.

When it comes to reducing congestion, we are adjusting signal timing to keep up with changing traffic patterns, adding turn lanes and restrictions in key locations and providing more loading zones in commercial areas to reduce double-parking. We also monitor the network for opportunities to improve bottlenecks, such as the recently re-opened MLK Drive between Chain of Lakes Drive and Sunset Boulevard.

To slow down traffic on residential streets and make walking and bicycling safer and more enjoyable, we’re using traffic calming tools like speed bumps to slow vehicle speeds. In 2021, the SFTMTA invested in a comprehensive package of traffic calming measures in the Outer Sunset to address local concerns. Monitoring indicates that traffic speed and volume was reduced, which ideally creates safer conditions for all road users.

While the Slow Streets program has provided valuable, safe routes for people who walk, bike and roll, we've heard from residents that they're not working well for every community, particularly the Sunset. There, the Sunset Neighborways program is replacing Slow Streets to create a network of safe streets for active transportation. The emphasis of Sunset Neighborways will be on slowing down traffic to improve safety, rather than restricting it. In the Richmond, Anza Street is a key corridor for biking and active transportation, and in response to community requests for a better east-west bike route through the neighborhood, we added bike lanes and safety improvements like speed cushions to slow traffic and create a street that can be easily and safely shared by cyclists and drivers. 

By releasing San Francisco’s West Side on the Move, the SFMTA hopes to deepen its dialogue with west side community members about what’s working well and what can be improved when it comes to keeping the west side moving. Please share your ideas by emailing WestsideProjects@SFMTA.com

Should we say how important the decrease in pedestrian injuries is so significant given how many seniors and families with small kids live in the area?

Published October 28, 2022 at 02:19PM
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75 Years After the Battle to Save the Cable Cars

75 Years After the Battle to Save the Cable Cars
By Jeremy Menzies

Seventy-five years ago, San Francisco’s cable cars were viewed as more of a costly nuisance.  A few city leaders wanted to tear out the 1870s-era transit system of wooden vehicles towed by an underground cable system. Pioneer of civic activism, Friedel Klussmann led the charge to preserve this moving landmark that draws of visitors from around the world looking to fulfill their dream of riding the cable car over our hills.  

Friedel Klussmann founded the Citizens' Committee to Save the Cable Cars. The committee began a public campaign demonstrating that the cable cars’ value to San Francisco was far greater than their operational cost. As a result, the lines were saved and the cable cars became enshrined as a cultural icon of San Francisco. 

We will celebrate this anniversary with Market Street Railway and Mayor London Breed on October 26th at Market and Powell streets at 11am. Here’s a brief look at the events of 75 years ago and what Klussmann and her allies did to save the system. 

Transit Troubles 

In the mid 1940s, San Francisco’s transit system was undergoing major changes. The entire system was in poor condition following World War II. City officials and then Mayor Roger Lapham looked to reduce costs by replacing old worn rail lines with new buses. Included in this plan was the Powell Street cable car lines, which were scheduled to be replaced with buses in 1947. 

Mayor Roger Lapham (left) poses with a new Fageol Twin bus to promote his choice of vehicles to replace the cable cars. Touted as “hill climbers”, these buses had two engines in a unique and complex system to provide more power. 

Eyesore or Asset? 

Arguing against the cable cars, Mayor Lapham and transit officials said that they were too costly to repair and operate and could not provide adequate service. The officials were backed by business leaders in Union Square and downtown, who had major influence on city policy. While there were real financial considerations at play to repair the system, the cars were also seen only as ramshackle old junk heaps bleeding money. 

Taken in 1953, this photo demonstrates how much work was needed to rehab the cable car system following decades of deferred maintenance. 

In an era when Americans across the country abandoned transit for shiny new cars and freeways, it’s somewhat surprising that people in San Francisco wanted to keep the cable cars alive. To these people, the Victorian Era style and unique technology gave them value. San Francisco was the birthplace of the cable car and they were a living piece of the city’s history worthy of saving. 

Klussmann Rallies Women to Fight 

Spearheading the fight to save the cable cars was Friedel Klussmann and the Citizens’ Committee to Save the Cable Cars. Going head to head against the most powerful men in the city, Klussmann and her women-led group rallied to keep the cars on the road.  

Friedel Klussmann (center) inspects the turntable underneath Powell and Market Streets. In her fight to save the system, she dug deep into the details to understand the problems involved in keeping them on the road. 

The group investigated the situation to get the facts and led campaign after campaign to spread the word and build support for the cars. Their work brought the issue before the voters in 1947 and the city was forced to retain the Powell lines. Two years later, another vote decided that the city would acquire the California Street Cable Railroad company, which ran lines on California, Jones, Hyde, and O’Farrell streets. By 1956, Klussmann and other activists had saved the cable cars but not without heavy losses. The system of five lines that existed at the beginning of the fight was cut and reconfigured into the three we see today. 

Fabric of the City 

Today, cable cars are as synonymous with San Francisco as summer fog and the Golden Gate Bridge. Not only do they provide transit service along busy corridors for locals, but they are one of the biggest visitor attractions. Each year, thousands of people from across the globe come to see and ride the cars. In 1966, the system was added to the National Register of Historic Places, enshrining them in American history.  

After the system was rescued by activists and bolstered by rehabs, the cable cars became a major attraction and led to increased development of Fishermen’s Wharf as a tourism hub. 

Muni’s historic preservation partner, Market Street Railway, covers this topic in much greater detail in their September blog. 

Published October 25, 2022 at 02:52PM
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Paratransit Services 2022 Update

Paratransit Services 2022 Update
By Erin McAuliff

This past year, the SFMTA’s paratransit programs safely provided close to half a million trips to older adults and people with disabilities around San Francisco. These services provide door-to-door transportation to people unable to independently use the Muni system. They include SF Access Paratransit, Group Van service, Shop-a-Round shuttles, the Essential Trip Card Program (ETC) and the Van Gogh Recreational program.  

In addition to traditional van services, the SFMTA partners with the local taxi industry to provide cost-efficient and customer-friendly taxi options. Payment is accepted in every San Francisco taxi, including accessible ramp-equipped taxis, with the swipe of an SF Paratransit Taxi debit card.   

Here are a few accomplishments staff at the SFMTA and Transdev (the contractor responsible for managing SF Paratransit services) have been working on behind the scenes to improve our service offerings and continue to fill transportation gaps experienced by older adults and people with disabilities:

• We bought 26 new paratransit vans with added safety features like audible right turn notifications to warn pedestrians and cyclists; automated safety technology that provides alerts to operators to avoid collisions; and DriveCam technology that records safety-related events.  When we retired our older vehicles, we took the opportunity to transfer three retired vehicles to the San Francisco Fire Department to support the Community Paramedicine Street Crisis Response Team and one retired vehicle to the SFMTA Customer Service Center to serve as its first Mobile Sales Van, bringing SFMTA services to the local community.
• The Essential Trip Card program launched in April 2020 as a response to the pandemic. Since then, we have enrolled over 5,000 older adults and people with disabilities, providing over 160,000 taxi trips. In July, the program, and the SFMTA’s partnership with local non-profit Community Living Campaign, was featured as a case study for reducing isolation and improving health outcomes among older adults by the National Center for Mobility Management. Community Living Campaign provides full fare assistance to San Francisco paratransit riders in need.
• Last year, we officially launched SF Access Online to allow riders to schedule their SF Access van trips online. We also launched SF Paratransit Taxi Online, which allows riders, including ETC customers, to pay for their monthly taxi fare allotment and track trip activity online.
• San Francisco Paratransit Operations was part of the community emergency response team that organized and provided special services when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Paratransit operators trained by Emergency Management Services (EMS), teamed up with EMS staff to transport vulnerable people to COVID-19 testing, treatment and shelter locations. The work was only assigned to drivers who volunteered, even at the beginning of the pandemic, when no one fully understood the risks of the virus. At its height of demand, 27 full-time drivers were dedicated to this service.
• This past May, the SFMTA Board of Directors recognized the employees of SF Paratransit for all the work they have been doing, especially the work to innovate new programs that helped our passengers stay connected with essential services during the pandemic. The partnership with EMS also received the 2022 Innovative Practice Bronze Award from the National Association of City and County Health Officials.
• SFMTA staff have been hard at work preparing for the integration and pilot of Clipper 2.0. SF Paratransit will be the pilot agency to test out using the next generation of Clipper Cards, allowing riders to pay for a paratransit van trip with Clipper for the first time ever. 

The SF Paratransit program also houses the Mobility Management Center, a one-stop-shop for older adults and people with disabilities to access transportation information, resources and referrals tailored to an individual’s needs. Mobility Management staff are available to answer individual questions by phone, email or in-person, or you can schedule an in-person or virtual group presentation for your organization.

San Francisco paratransit operations are funded by San Francisco’s half-cent transportation sales tax. As mentioned in our informational blog, in November voters will have an opportunity to decide whether to extend the sales tax for another 30 years and allocate 11% of the funds to paratransit. More information can be found in the Department of Elections’ Voter Guide under Proposition L or on the SFCTA Half-cent Sales Tax page.

San Francisco has proudly provided paratransit services since 1978, and we have never been more aware of how essential our programs are than during the past few years. We are so grateful for the work our paratransit staff has done and continues to do to serve older adults and people with disabilities in San Francisco.

Published October 14, 2022 at 03:08PM
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How Muni is Tackling the 10 Worst Delay Hot Spots Across SF

How Muni is Tackling the 10 Worst Delay Hot Spots Across SF
By Cassie Halls

The SFMTA has had its fair share of ribbon-cutting ceremonies over the last two years. These celebrations draw attention to some of our biggest projects. Also attention-worthy are some of the more incremental efforts happening at the agency.

One such effort led by the Muni Forward team is the Transit Delay Hot Spots Program, launched in February 2020. Muni Forward is known for corridor projects such as the L Taraval Improvement Project, 16th Street Improvement Project, and M Oceanview Transit and Safety Project. These efforts are increasing the already sizeable 80 miles of transit reliability upgrades since 2014. There are also other ways we’re working to slash travel times and improve reliability across the Muni network.

The Transit Delay Hot Spots Program aims to tackle the 10 worst “delay hot spots” each year, where buses crawl between stops at four miles an hour or less. We’re looking closely at the causes of delay at these hot spots, whether it’s a lengthy traffic signal, clogged curb or difficult turn. And results have been promising so far – with travel time savings of up to 50%.

We identified the slowest segments of the Muni network to improve travel time, whether on the highest ridership routes or less ridden but essential connector routes. This also helps us to support the Muni Service Equity Strategy. The Muni Service Equity Strategy aims to make measurable improvements to safety, connectivity to key destinations, reliability, frequency and crowding.

The hot spots fall on routes such as the 44 O’Shaughnessy, 8AX/BX Bayshore Express and 24 Divisadero. So far, we’ve noticed some patterns of what causes the most delay. Common causes of Muni delays include very close stop spacing (where stops are on both sides of the same intersection), tricky turns, traffic and curb space issues. We address these delays with a toolkit of priority treatments.

Maps of Current Transit Delay Hot Spot locations

The preliminary results of the program have been promising:

• 54 Felton: Removing a nearside stop shortened travel times by 50%.
• 8AX/8BX Bayshore Express: The NoMa/SoMa Signal Retiming Project cut pre-pandemic travel time by 20-25 seconds or around 22% and travel times have improved further with less congestion downtown.
• 27 Bryant: The line was rerouted in SoMa to take advantage of transit lanes on 7th and 8th streets that were installed through the Temporary Emergency Transit Lanes program.   

You can read more about each of the hot spots on the Transit Delay Hot Spots program page. We will continue to track performance and community feedback and will make changes if needed.

We will be making improvements at three more hot spots over the next few months (two locations along the 44 O’Shaughnessy and one location on the 19 Polk). Each year, we will run the numbers on the 10 worst hot spots, install improvements and measure results. Stay tuned for more updates on our current hotspot program and our 2023 hotspot locations!

Published October 11, 2022 at 01:14PM
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What’s in Proposition L?

What’s in Proposition L?
By Andrea Buffa

On November 8, San Francisco voters will decide whether to continue a half-cent transportation sales tax that has been funding city and county transportation projects since it was first enacted in 1989. Proposition L is not a tax increase but does require a two-thirds majority vote to pass.

The half-cent sales tax is administered by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA).  Proposition L would approve a new 2022 Transportation Expenditure Plan for how these funds will be spent for the next 30 years.

The 2022 Transportation Expenditure Plan will fund projects in these categories:

• 41% for transit maintenance and enhancements: Funds Muni, BART, Caltrain and ferries. The money goes toward maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement of vehicles; station and access improvements; and planning for the next generation of public transit.
  • Examples: New buses and light rail vehicles, electrifying Muni’s bus fleet, maintaining buses and trains so they operate safely and reliably
• 23% for major transit projects: Funds Muni bus and train reliability and efficiency improvements; increasing Muni and BART capacity; and major expansion projects
  • Example: The Caltrain Downtown Extension from 4th and King railyard to the Salesforce Transit Center
• 19% for streets and freeways: Funds street repaving; walking and bicycling safety improvements; signals and traffic calming; and major street and freeway redesign planning
  • Examples: Neighborhood-level investments such as crosswalks, traffic calming, new and upgraded traffic signals, bicycle lanes and Safe Routes to School programs
• 11% for paratransit: Funds the SFMTA’s paratransit service, which is a van and taxi program for people who are unable to independently use or access public transit because of a disability or disabling health condition
• 6% for system planning and community equity: Funds transportation demand management; neighborhood and equity-focused planning and implementation
  • Example: Implementing improvements identified in community-based plans across the city and particularly in Equity Priority Communities

The SFCTA website provides more details on the 2022 Transportation Expenditure Plan.

In previous years, the sales tax has funded projects large and small, some of the well-known ones being the Salesforce Transit Center, the electrification of Caltrain (anticipated to be done in 2024), Muni Central Subway and reconstructing Doyle Drive, now known as Presidio Parkway.

It has also funded smaller projects like traffic calming, street repaving, protected bike lanes, new and upgraded signals and, during the pandemic, taxi rides home for essential workers.

To compete for federal and state grants, such as the funds in last year’s federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, San Francisco needs local funds that match the money from the grant. The sales tax funds are our main source of these matching funds. On average, we’ve leveraged every dollar in half-cent sales tax funding to attract $4 - 7 in additional funding from federal, state or other sources.

If Measure L does not pass, the half-cent transportation sales tax will continue to be collected until March 2034. However, the money can only be spent on projects that were included in the Transportation Expenditure Plan from 2003.

To learn more about the half-cent transportation sales tax, you can go to the SFCTA website.

Published October 06, 2022 at 01:32PM
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