Muni

Families are loving "Winter Walk SF," the temporary holiday plaza filling two blocks of Stockton Street in Union Square. As CBS reporter John Ramos put it, the on-street downtown play space "represents the San Francisco everyone wants it to be."

The nascent prospect of extending the Central Subway beyond Chinatown gained steam this week with the release of a preliminary city study [PDF] that lays out some conceptual proposals to bring the subway further into the city's northern neighborhoods.

Two years after Muni launched all-door boarding, the agency continues to report [PDF] quicker boardings and lower rates of fare evasion.

Muni could launch "double berthing," or boarding two trains simultaneously in its Metro stations, as early as next weekend -- if all goes well in a live test this Saturday, SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin told an agency board meeting today.

Muni's notoriously sluggish 30-Stockton line is finally set to get some upgrades that will give buses higher priority on streets through the dense neighborhoods of Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach, and near Fisherman's Wharf.

On Tuesday, the SFMTA Board of Directors approved plans to add traffic signals and bulb-outs along Haight Street, which could speed up Muni's 6 and 71 lines and improve pedestrian safety. The approval came despite complaints from some Upper Haight merchants over removing parking for bus bulb-outs, and mixed support for new traffic signals from pedestrian safety and transit advocates.

Muni has once again pushed back its launch of "double berthing" -- simultaneous loading of two trains in its Metro stations -- until December. SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose said that plans for a live test and launch in November were thwarted by recent weekend construction on the Sunset Tunnel.

The SFMTA has an online survey available where you can weigh in on the proposed improvements for Muni's 28-19th Avenue.

The latest of SFMTA's efforts to speed up Muni lines to run into some neighborhood opposition involves its proposed replacement of stop signs with transit-priority traffic signals. Some Western Addition neighbors have protested a proposal to signalize five intersections on McAllister Street to speed up the 5-Fulton, one of the designated "Rapid" routes receiving upgrades under the Muni Forward program (also known as the Transit Effectiveness Project).