Eyes on the Street: Muni Paints More Downtown Transit Lanes Red

The SFMTA is rolling out more red paint on transit lanes to keep cars out of Muni's way.

The agency is currently coloring the two-block bus-only lane on Clay Street in the Financial District, which is expected to be done tomorrow. This Muni Forward project, aimed at speeding up the 1-California and 41-Union lines, is also set to include an extension of the transit-only lane one block west to Montgomery Street, which must first be approved by the SFMTA Board of Directors. That extension is scheduled to go on the ground in April.

The SFMTA has not stopped painting the town red since rolling out the treatment on transit-only lanes on Church, Market, Third, Geary, O'Farrell, and eastern Haight Streets, as well as a left-turn lane at 19th Avenue at Lincoln Way. 

On Church, which was the "pilot" for red lanes, Muni found that its J-Church and 22-Fillmore lines sped up by 5 percent, and that the buses and trains are 20 percent more reliable, arriving closer to their scheduled arrival times.

On Sansome Street near the Clay transit improvements, the SFMTA also plans to create a three-block contra-flow transit lane extension to eliminate a detour for Muni's 10-Townsend and 12-Folsom lines. That's set to go in by spring 2016.