SFMTA

Muni is poised to begin double-train loading and running three-car trains at underground metro stations to speed up boarding and increase capacity on the system's busiest stretch.

After a nudge from two city supervisors, Muni is looking to convert forward- and backward-facing seats to side-facing seats in its light-rail train cars as a way to squeeze in more passengers and speed up boarding.

KTVU: "So far, it seems to be working, and that has critics concerned."

As Muni seeks its next-generation fleet of light-rail vehicles to serve the metro system, the manufacturer of its current, notoriously unreliable train cars has been barred from competing for a new contract. Italy-based AnsaldoBreda, which produced the LRVs that Muni riders use today, was the only one of four prospective manufacturers which didn't meet the new criteria set by the SF Municipal Transportation Agency.

The next executive director of the SF County Transportation Authority will be Tilly Chang, who currently serves as the agency's deputy director for planning, the SF Chronicle reported yesterday. Chang will succeed José Luis Moscovich, who resigned from the position last November citing health reasons, and Maria Lombardo, who has served as interim director since.

The SFMTA isn't quite ready to declare that it will expedite protected bike lanes on Folsom Street with a pilot project, but planners say they're fleshing out the details of what near-term safety upgrades on the street could look like.

The SFMTA held a public meeting last week about how to calm traffic on three blocks of Scott Street along the Wiggle. On the table are design features that would signal drivers to slow down and possibly prevent them from using the street as a cut-through route. Even though planners say the project may remove few, if any, parking spaces, a familiar handful of pro-car activists showed up to fume about the agency's livable streets projects in general.

The speed limit on Woodside Avenue was recently raised from 30 miles per hour to 35 MPH, according to Mark Dreger, who's lived in the neighborhood his whole life. Dreger posted a photo in the Streetsblog comments section of a 30 MPH sign on Woodside, with a 35 MPH sign seen right behind it, in what appeared to be slip up by the crews who switched them out.

The 5-Fulton could get less crowded this fall after Muni launches a package of speed improvements [PDF] in a pilot of the Transit Effectiveness Project.