Can S.F.’s next mayor save Muni? – Part 2
San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos, who is seeking the mayor’s job, says Muni has an infrastructure problem within the transit system. He has said that Muni is too centered in the downtown area. He wants all residents in the city to have better access to Muni and wants to stop the practice of switchbacks, where Muni buses or trains change direction during mid-route.
Can S.F.’s next mayor save Muni? – Part 1
Public Defender Jeff Adachi, a candidate for mayor of San Francisco, said Muni must live up to its voter-mandated on-time performance rate of 85 percent. How does he plan to do that if elected? One of his ideas is to stop city departments from taking resources from the transit agency, known as work orders. Work orders are charges from city departments to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Last year SF 311 charged the agency for each customer assistance call related to Muni, which resulted in a $6.3 million bill.
UPDATE: 10/19/11 Muni announced more service improvements to other lines this week. Plans to improve one of the Muni’s worst performing bus lines will finally take affect on Monday. The 28L-19th Avenue bus line, which usually is packed with riders and not on-time (42 percent on-time performance in the latest Muni report), will not make stops at the Golden Gate Bridge and four stops along 19th Avenue and Park Presidio.
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed bills to make it illegal to openly carry handguns and to ban the sale and possession of shark fins in California. The shark fin bill goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2013 while the open carry ban begins Jan 1, 2012. The shark bill has been a controversial topic in the past few months, with state Sen. Leland Yee, who is running for San Francisco mayor, calling the ban “insensitive to the Chinese culture” when the bill was introduced by Assemblyman Paul Fong in February.
Since installing Clipper Card readers on the front and back doors of Muni buses, riders have wondered if Muni would ever go to an official all-door boarding system. At Tuesday’s San Francisco Municipal Board of Transportation meeting, Muni chief Ed Reiskin said it could happen in 2012.
A systemwide all-door boarding would speed up boarding on Muni buses and reduce travel time for riders, according to Muni officials.
It’s that time of month again — when the city’s transit agency releases its quarterly performance report card. And it looks like not much has changed from previous reports, which is not good news for Muni officials. For the last three months of the 2010-2011 fiscal year (April through June 2011), on-time performance measured at 72.9 percent, far below the 1999 voter-mandated goal of 85 percent. During the previous quarter for the first three months of 2011, on-time performance was at 74.7 percent.
The apparent success of Muni’s Nx-Judah express bus service could offer hope to riders on other crowded streetcar lines. Municipal Transportation Agency spokesman Paul Rose said other express buses could be possible, but the agency will look at community needs before adding buses to other lines. For now, riders seem to be enjoying the added service to the N-Judah line. Ridership on the express bus, which started in June, has grown from 938 passengers to 1,282 a day during the first four weeks, according to the transit agency. Muni projected an average daily ridership of 1,000 to 1,500 passengers. Riders have asked Muni to extend the hours during the evening and to add express buses for other rail lines.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors announced Thursday that the Department of Public Works Director Ed Reiskin will become the next agency’s executive director. Reiskin arrives at a crucial time in the agency where Muni’s on-time performance fell slightly to 71 percent and the relationship between the agency and its drivers is increasingly strained.
An arbitrator-imposed labor contract for the city’s Muni operators went into effect on Friday and is expected to save the city $41 million over the next three years. City Supervisor Scott Wiener wants the transit agency to show where those savings are coming from.
Wiener introduced a resolution at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting calling upon the transit agency’s governing board to give periodic updates on how the agency is saving money from the deal.
Muni N-Judah streetcar riders may soon get some relief during their packed morning and evening commute home. A six-month pilot project to run an express bus between Ocean Beach and the Financial District will begin on Monday. With 38,000 daily boardings, the Municipal Transportation Agency says the N-Judah is the most used and crowded of all the rail lines. Complaints have been coming in to the transit agency from passengers who are not able to board the N-Judah during peak hours, according to the agency. The six-month pilot project will operate on weekdays during peak morning and evening hours making stops between Ocean Beach and 19th Avenue and Judah Street in the morning before heading to Montgomery and Bush streets.
