Muni

Though it won't help with the problem of cameras on buses failing to record fights and stabbings, the MTA could authorize cameras meant to thwart terror threats on the Muni Metro at its board meeting Tuesday.

The MTA had some good news to announce today about Muni amidst a deepening budget shortfall, service cuts, and fare increases: the agency is launching a pilot program to allow senior and disabled customers unlimited access to BART within San Francisco and all Muni transit services with a single pass. At least during the pilot phase, the pass will cost $15, the same price as the regular Senior/Disabled Pass.

At the MTA Board meeting this Tuesday, MTA staff will present the findings of the pathbreaking parking study [Summary PDF] [Full Study PDF] released earlier this week. It's the only official discussion of the study scheduled for now, and advocates for transit and parking reform will need to attend in force to show the MTA Board there's strong support for the recommendations.

With several well-publicized violent incidents on Muni buses recently, including two brutal attacks and a videotaped fight, security has become a hot issue for the MTA. Though the agency actually reported a slight decrease in crime over the past fiscal year, it hasn't matched the 13 percent citywide drop in the most serious crimes over the first half of 2009. The San Francisco Police Department responded in late September with a one-day sting called "Operation Safe Muni," and the MTA has scrambled to test its onboard camera equipment, which has failed during several incidents, including the stabbing of a young boy in September and the West Portal light rail vehicle crash in July.

The Municipal Transportation Agency and the San Francisco Police Department have launched a new initiative with Supervisor Carmen Chu to improve pedestrian safety around Muni light rail vehicle (LRV) boarding islands. The MTA has added new stickers to the front and back of LRVs warning drivers that they must stop and wait for pedestrians disembarking from the trains, and the SFPD says it will begin enforcing the law more aggressively.

It's a familiar scene for many Muni riders: standing in a huge crowd on a Muni Metro station platform, scrutinizing the archaic-looking map on the mounted LCD, hoping for a two-car LL or a one-car J. Since those displays first went up at Embarcadero station in the late 1990s, and the other eight stations in 2007, they've given waiting customers something to ponder while waiting for a particularly tardy train, but have been far too cryptic to reach their full potential in keeping riders informed. Within the next few months, however, displays in all nine Muni Metro stations will switch over to a much more legible map.

The Board of Supervisors today approved a five-year, $30 million umbrella purchasing agreement between the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Thales Transport & Security, Inc. for Advanced Train Control System (ATCS) "improvement services and upgrades." The ATCS system controls the speed, location, and routing of Muni's light rail vehicles when they're underground between Embarcadero and West Portal stations. The MTA says the upgrades are necessary to keep the ATCS in working order for the coming decades.

In light of news that the Mayor opposes extended parking meter hours and that taxi medallions may bring in $12 million less than anticipated, the MTA's mid-year budget could be in trouble, threatening to bring deeper Muni service cuts than the ones on the way later this fall.

Mayor Gavin Newsom has been quietly pressuring MTA Chief Nat Ford to delay or prevent proposals to extend parking meter hours on weeknights and Sundays, despite a looming mid-year MTA budget deficit and studies that show it's good policy, Streetsblog has learned.