Muni

Muni still hasn't launched double loading of trains in its metro stations, a.k.a. "double berthing," but says it could finally happen in October -- a full year after the original launch date.

BeyondChron editor Randy Shaw, who gets funding from the Mayor Ed Lee's office for projects like the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, penned a predictable defense of Lee's recent attack on Supervisor Scott Wiener's transit funding ballot measure today. Shaw backed Lee's decision to drop support for the vehicle license fee increase, and argued that Muni's share of the city's general fund has increased enough in recent years, compared to other city services.

Mayor Ed Lee, who has cut into transportation funding by nixing Sunday parking meters and abandoning a proposed vehicle license fee increase, now says that he will punish the six supervisors who voted to approve a ballot measure to increase transportation's share of the general fund. Supervisor Scott Wiener proposed the charter amendment as a stop-gap measure to fund the city's transportation needs, while SF waits two years for the mayor to support a vehicle license fee measure.

When it comes to effectively enforcing parking regulations to make San Francisco's streets work more efficiently, SF hasn't changed much since 1988.

The first segment of Market Street's transit-only lanes was colored red this weekend, on the eastbound side between Fifth and Sixth Streets.

The SFMTA announced that red paint will be added this weekend to the transit- and taxi-only lanes on mid-Market Street, between Fifth and 12th Streets. The treatment, already rolled out recently on bus lanes on Third Street and the Geary-O'Farrell Street couplet, is intended to make it more obvious that private auto drivers shouldn't be in the heavily-abused Muni lanes.

The Board of Supervisors voted 6-4 today to put on November's ballot a charter amendment that would increase the share of general funds devoted to transportation, based on population growth.

The SFMTA says it's impossible for stations on the coming Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit route to have one of the key recommended features of BRT: High platforms, at the same level as bus floors, that allow passengers to quickly step onto the bus. SFMTA planners say that complications with the design of Muni's buses mean there's no practical way to make high platforms work, at least without adding high costs associated with new equipment.

Supervisors are expected to vote next week on Supervisor Scott Wiener's backup plan for transportation funding -- a charter amendment that, with voter approval, would increase the share of the city's general fund that gets allocated to Muni, pedestrian safety, and bike infrastructure. That share would be tied to the city's growing population.