The San Francisco Bay Area Bench Collective (SFBABC), a transit advocacy group, announced Monday that it had installed eight bus benches in San Francisco, most on or near Mission Street.
"Despite being the urban center of the bay, San Francisco has the worst bus stops of any cities here, almost always lacking signage, often lacking clear red curbs, lacking shelters, and of course lacking seating," wrote a transit advocate representing the group, who asked to remain anonymous, in an email to Streetsblog.
"The SFBABC’s installation of benches at Muni stops demonstrates a clear desire from the public to improve accessibility and comfort for all people—especially children, families, seniors, and people with disabilities—at Muni stops," wrote StreetsForward advocate Luke Bornheimer, in an email to Streetsblog. "In addition to increasing accessibility and comfort for people, installing benches at transit stops increases safety, making these improvements a win-win-win for the City at a time when it faces a massive budget deficit."
For some time now, advocates associated with SFBABC have installed bus benches throughout the Bay Area, with the majority in Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond. Recently, Richmond's city council approved a directive for its staff to create a permitting process under which SFBABC could do its work without fear of the city removing them.
The spokesperson for SFBABC told Streetsblog that they've installed some 80 benches in the East Bay already. Only three were removed, they explained: one was inadvertently placed on private property. Another was removed by the city of Oakland because of excessive graffiti, but the advocates have since replaced it. Another disappeared for unknown reasons.
This isn't the first time an advocacy group has installed benches in San Francisco either. The Public Bench Project (PBP) has done so for years. However, "All PBP benches go to local businesses or neighbors, while these are at bus stops," explained an advocate on social media.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Public Works recently removed community-installed benches and planters near Duboce Park with no real explanation except "liability concerns." Streetsblog reached out to SFMTA and San Francisco Public Works to ask if the new benches will be tolerated and will update this post. However, at least one of the recently installed benches, at 30th St & Dolores Street, is already gone (see above image). It's unclear who removed it.
"It's disappointing to see people's hard work and improvements to the city removed," wrote Bornheimer. He added that San Francisco needs to join Richmond in developing a permitting process to allow advocates to install benches at transit stops legally, without fear of the city destroying them.
