Muni

Here we are in week two of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)'s month-plus of weekend and evening closures of the core of its system--the subway tunnel from Embarcadero to West Portal. Overcrowding on the replacement bus service, as the SF Examiner reports, has left customers further peeved. In response, SFMTA is adding longer buses to its substitute routes to alleviate some of it.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (CTA) released the results yesterday of what it calls "the first comprehensive estimate of the volume, frequency and coverage of ride-hailing trips by Uber and Lyft in San Francisco."

A little over a week ago, the San Francisco Examiner ran the Op-Ed: “Fast and cheap: Getting Caltrain to Transbay Terminal … this year." Author Stanford Horn proposed extending Caltrain via Muni’s T/N tracks on King Street and building some more tracks on Howard Street to a platform at the new Transbay Terminal, as a stop-gap measure until the DTX tunnel is built.

As fans of San Francisco's F-Market and Wharves historic streetcar line are aware, the trains only clickety clack and clang as far as Jones St & Beach St--just shy of the Fort Mason tunnel, which once permitted trains to continue to Marina Boulevard and Laguna Street...and beyond. The San Francisco Examiner reported today that SFMTA has applied for a $1.1 million Federal Lands Access Program grant to study re-opening the tunnel.

Over the weekend, 40 to 60 teenagers swarmed a BART station and train, robbing seven people. The story grabbed the headlines because it was so out of the ordinary. But several disturbing crimes have also hit Muni over the last few months.

San Francisco was hit by a major power outage Friday that impacted Muni bus services and temporarily closed the Montgomery Street BART station. Traffic in downtown was snarled into the evening thanks to traffic lights in various locations that were flashing red.

Katherine Roberts was biking home to the Haight from a Passover Seder in the Dogpatch at 11:30 on April 11. It was raining heavily. She got to Church and Duboce and slowed to let an outbound N-Judah pass. When she started to pedal again, the wheel of her folding bike slipped and got caught by a steel plate that wasn't flush with the pavement. She crashed and smashed her head.

The San Francisco Transit Riders (SFTR) has hired its first Executive Director, Rachel Hyden. “We did a thorough search...and interviewed many good people,” said Thea Selby, SFTR chair, in the official announcement made last week. "Hiring Executive Director Hyden means that we have the capacity to reach out to more diverse riders around the city and be a better rider-based grassroots advocate for world-class transit in San Francisco.”

Tomorrow is Nicole Ferrara's last day at the helm of Walk San Francisco, where she's been since 2013. During her tenure, the group has fought hard for better and safer walking in the city of San Francisco. Ferrara and other advocates with Walk SF have been an ever-present force behind getting boarding islands for the L-Taraval, and adding turning restrictions and other safety measures on Market.