D5 Supervisor London Breed, whose district includes the Inner Sunset, says that the downsized proposals for transit bulbs on Irving Street and Ninth Avenue are "headed in the right direction," according to Conor Johnston, a legislative aide.
"We are balancing a lot of competing interests," Johnston told Streetsblog, citing vocal opposition from neighbors and merchants to parking removal.
City surveys showed strong support in the neighborhood for sidewalk extensions to make boarding easier along the full length of two-car Muni trains. They also found that the vast majority of people get to Ninth and Irving without a car, a finding consistent with a number of other commercial districts where travel surveys have been conducted. Nevertheless, to preserve car parking, the SFMTA downsized the bulb-outs to less than half the full-length proposals.
Johnston said the parking-first opponents have been vocal, which largely drove the SFMTA's decision. "We've been contacted by residents and a number of merchants who didn't want full-length bulb-outs, a lot of whom didn't want any changes at all," he said. "As with any democratic process, it's a balance, a matter of finding consensus."
Sure, give-and-take can be positive if it produces a better result -- streets that are safer and more efficient. But democracy doesn't mean catering to the loudest complainers and tossing aside the city's purported "Transit First" commitment, which is supposed to prioritize the most efficient modes -- transit, walking, and biking -- in the allocation of street space. Is it more democratic to delay and inconvenience thousands of transit passengers each day so that a few dozen people can store their cars on a public street?
When Supervisor Breed took office over a year ago, she indicated that she gets it. "As supervisor, my goal is to look at data, to look at what’s happening, to look at ways in which we can improve the ability for people to get around," she told Streetsblog in February of last year. "We have to look at it from a larger scale. We can’t just piecemeal it together."
Breed's position is crucial -- we've seen in many transportation projects that a supervisor's support (or opposition) can make a real difference, leading city agencies to stay the course on transit and street safety upgrades. She helped face down the naysayers when it came to implementing a protected bikeway on Fell and Oak Streets. In this case, however, Breed is okay with letting a loud and irrational subset of cars-first residents dictate the extent to which transit and walking will be improved.
The Inner Sunset Park Neighbors hasn't taken an official position on the project. The proposal went to a public comment hearing on Friday and is scheduled for consideration by the SFMTA Board of Directors on March 28.
Update: In the comment section of this article, Johnston said that appeasing opponents is important to ensure support for the Muni Transit Effectiveness Project and the vehicle license fee increase and General Obligation bond measures headed to the ballot in November: "If the MTA or we pushed the 2nd car bulb outs (or anything else) 'opposition-be-damned,' it would leave a very bad taste in the community's mouth and jeopardize much greater efforts. Absent collaboration, public sentiment can turn against not only the TEP but the VLF and GO bonds, all of which need support and are far, far more important to our transit first goals than a 2nd car bulb out in the Inner Sunset."
