Muni

The SFMTA extended the red Muni-only lane on the east end of Haight Street last week, adding a third block to the red carpet rolled out for the 6-Parnassus and 71-Haight/Noriega lines in November. The lane, which includes a contra-flow block connecting directly to Market Street, lets Muni riders headed downtown bypass the queue of cars turning toward the Central Freeway.

Muni may finally launch "double berthing" in its Metro stations in two to four weeks, "barring anything we can't think of," according to Muni Operations Director John Haley.

San Franciscans don't drive nearly as much as previously thought, according to new SFMTA survey data. But the needle hasn't moved much in recent years either.

Muni's new 55-16th Street line was sighted in service on Monday, with buses making runs between the 16th Street BART station and Mission Bay, nearly a week ahead of the official launch date on Saturday. Kyle Barlow sent in these photos of buses making stops at the University of California SF hospital, set to open next week, and said the buses were taking passengers.

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

Mission District residents who equate streetscape improvements with rising rents dominated a community meeting discussion yesterday about public space upgrades along Mission Street.

Another brilliant driver got his car stuck in the Sunset Tunnel Saturday night at about 8 p.m., bringing Muni's busiest line to a dead stop. A train full of N-Judah riders had to walk along the tracks out of the eastern portal. One of them was Streetsblog reader Sean Rea, who captured the walk in a video posted on YouTube (see below).

Muni plans to launch a new bus line this month to beef up service along eastern 16th Street, connecting the BART station at Mission Street to the soon-to-open University of California SF hospital at Mission Bay. The 55-16th Street route would complement existing 22-Fillmore service on 16th, extending beyond the 22's endpoint all the way to the east end of 16th and then north on Third Street towards its terminus at UCSF.

We've now lost count of how many times Muni has delayed the launch of "double berthing" in its Metro stations. Last we heard, it was promised to launch tomorrow, but the agency now says it needs one more week of testing before two trains can simultaneously board on the same platform.