Transit Riders Union

Pedaling up Sutter Street toward Leavenworth from his dentist's office during the height of the Wednesday evening commute, Dan Nunes is riding in the transit-only lane for his bike trip home, despite the new sharrows recently painted in the center lane to his left. There, drivers often zoom by at alarming speeds, breaking the 25 mile an hour speed limit, narrowly avoiding crashes, and treating the three-lane arterial like a highway, especially as they make the descent down the hill on Sutter just past Leavenworth.

A parking tax increase that could send $19.2 million to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency moved a step closer to the ballot Tuesday, as Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi introduced the measure before his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's Board is set to vote Tuesday on a two-year budget plan [PDF] that would continue an imminent 10 percent reduction in Muni service through the next year, but restore half that service in the second budget year.

Roughly two dozen attendees came out to the inaugural meeting of the San Francisco Transit Riders Union (SFTRU) on Thursday evening and had a spirited -- at times heated -- debate about how to make the fledgling organization a vocal constituency representing the diverse interests of Muni riders. Billed as an opportunity for the public to become familiar with the new riders union, the meeting functioned largely as a two-hour brainstorming on the group's potential scope and agenda.