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Showing posts from June, 2020

Leading with Pride

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Leading with Pride By Jeffrey Tumlin addresses participants and attendees, including Mayor London Breed, at the Better Market Street opening day ceremony on Jan. 29. This week we are profiling several agency leaders, including Director of Transportation Jeffrey Tumlin, on their thoughts about this month’s Pride celebrations and their experience with equity and transit in San Francisco. Our agency has participated as a sponsor and with a parade contingent in San Francisco’s world-renown Pride celebration for many years. Last week Director of Transportation Jeffrey Tumlin logged in with our communications team to share some of his background and perspective on the 50th anniversary of Pride. The questions and answers have been edited for length. Q: What does the 50th anniversary of Pride mean to you? A: I think the 50th anniversary of Pride is interesting in the context of the George Floyd anti-police brutality protests that are happening in San Francisco. Pride started as a riot.
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Fast-Tracking Transit Lanes to Help the City's Recovery

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Fast-Tracking Transit Lanes to Help the City's Recovery By Amy Fowler Map of temporary emergency transit lanes being proposed at the June 30 SFMTA Board of Directors meeting We don’t have a crystal ball to see into San Francisco’s future, but one thing is clear: a citywide economic recovery is dependent in large part on a transportation recovery. And while we work to come back from one crisis, we’re looking to avert another—traffic gridlock. With hundreds of thousands of people dependent on transit to get around before COVID-19, our city is uniquely vulnerable to increased congestion. Congestion is already on the rise, and some studies are predicting that people may turn increasingly to private vehicles, turning the streets into a “Carmageddon” for both cars and transit. Our city’s streets simply don’t have room for more vehicles. At the same time, COVID-19 has impacted our ability to provide Muni service. Service levels depend on the availability of operators, car cleaners,
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The SFMTA celebrates 50 Years of Pride

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The SFMTA celebrates 50 Years of Pride By Sophia Scherr As we celebrate 50 years of Pride, we continue to stand with the LGBTQ+ community, by proudly honoring our core values of inclusion, diversity, equality, and respect for all. To commemorate this monumental month, we’re highlighting some of our amazing staff, their work, and what being part of the LGBTQ+ community means to them. We've also created  “line pride” phone and video conferencing wallpapers for you to download and show off proudly.  Moving SF with Pride Travis Fox   Travis Fox  (right, pictured at his first Pride celebration) has been with the SFMTA since 2003 and is the agency’s chief performance officer. He oversees  strategic planning ,  performance measurement , capital project controls for the agency and the  MuniMobile  fare payment app. Currently, his team is supporting the  COVID-19 response  and  Transportation Recovery Plan , as well as shaping our new strategic plan. Reflecting on what 50 years of P
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Taxi Taxi

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Taxi Taxi By Benjamin Barnett During this time of physical distancing and temporarily reduced Muni service, our Taxi program continues to provide essential trips around the City. A number of changes have been made to meet the challenges of this crisis and instill confidence in drivers and passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic.  To start with, taxi company representatives have been trained, including with an SFMTA  training video on proper cleaning procedures . Taxis are now required to be sanitized after each passenger trip and the SFMTA follows up with enforcement activities to ensure compliance.   In addition to making personal protective equipment (PPE) kits available to all taxi companies for distribution to drivers, the SFMTA has procured and distributed clear plastic shields for vehicles. These plastic shields are easily installed inside the vehicle, separating the rear and front seats, adding a layer of protection for both the driver and passenger. The SFMTA has provided
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Big Changes Ahead when Muni Rail Returns in August

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Big Changes Ahead when Muni Rail Returns in August By Mariana Maguire Photo: Muni Metro rail train at a subway platform. Get ready for a big addition to our COVID-19 Core Service Network :  Muni Metro rail is scheduled to return in August to coincide with San Francisco schools welcoming teachers and students back into their classrooms, and more businesses reopening. But the new Metro rail service will look different when it comes back: Some Muni Metro lines could be taken out of the subway to cut severe pre-COVID-19 delays and backups in the tunnels. This would also allow us to add more cars to our Metro trains to increase capacity. Putting Metro rail back in service frees up buses currently in use for the L, M, N and T to serve additional routes and improve frequencies syst emwide. A high-frequency shuttle in the subway would replace the Metro lines that we take out of the subway. Devoting the tunnels to the higher capacity routes would use the space in our subway much more ef
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We want to hear from you! Participate in the Muni Customer Survey

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We want to hear from you! Participate in the Muni Customer Survey By Sophia Scherr The SFMTA hopes that you and your family have been staying well during these challenging and uncertain times. As San Francisco and the SFMTA begins the transit recovery planning process, we are seeking input to help inform a Transportation Recovery Plan. This plan will include service and operational strategies, such as expansion of Muni service, frequency and operation, leading to a broader reopening in line with public health guidelines. We invite you to participate by taking the survey below. This survey is also available in Spanish , Chinese and Filipino and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.   Take the Survey!   We appreciate your participation and taking the time out of your day to provide this valuable information.     Published June 15, 2020 at 08:04PM https://ift.tt/2B7wIMi
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Adapting Our Public Process to Meet the Moment

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Adapting Our Public Process to Meet the Moment By Sophia Scherr The SFMTA has quickly adapted our in-person public process to meet the moment and ensure that San Franciscans can still provide input and participate. Through our partnership with the SFGovTV , we were able to adapt open houses, Townhall, and board meetings from a face-to-face format to an interactive, multilingual, online platform that is accessible to all. As developments surrounding COVID-19 accelerated throughout March, the SFMTA was one of the first city entities to begin hosting public meetings remotely with our online budget town hall . Originally planned to be held in-person at City Hall, our team quickly created a multilingual video series in which our Director of Transportation took members of the public through the proposed budget. We leveraged this townhall our social media channels, included information on our webpage and streamed it on the SFGovTV webpage and cable access channel. Once the city mandated
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Muni Service Changes Starting June 13

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Muni Service Changes Starting June 13 By Mariana Maguire Beginning Saturday, June 13, the SFMTA will increase Muni service and frequency, add select routes into service and extend some current routes to continue to support essential trips. A key goal of these service increases is to support the community’s economic recovery by providing more connections to neighborhood commercial districts as businesses begin to reopen. We are also adding more frequent service on targeted routes to help address crowding and improve onboard physical distancing. These service changes will improve transit access through Chinatown, SoMa and the Excelsior neighborhoods, identified by the Muni’s Service Equity Strategy as neighborhoods that rely on transit service the most based on the percentage of households with low incomes, private vehicle ownership and race and ethnicity demographics. Although Muni continues to be for essential trips only, many people have no choice but to use transit to return to
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4th Street Transit Lane Offers Muni a Path Forward

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4th Street Transit Lane Offers Muni a Path Forward By Bonnie Jean von Krogh A new transit lane was installed last week   on 4th Street in SoMA as part of the previously approved 4th Street Transit Improvement Project . As the first transit lane put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, this change will help protect Muni passengers as congestion returns to city streets. Transit lanes allow buses to complete trips in less time and turn around back into service more quickly. That means with our limited resources, we can provide more Muni service with the same number of buses, reducing crowding and maintaining better physical distancing onboard. The benefits that transit lanes provide – saving time and avoiding congestion – have become critically important during COVID-19 to protect the health of Muni passengers. Physical distancing requirements mean that Muni’s passenger capacity is cut in a third from pre-COVID levels. When buses take longer to complete their routes, customers i
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We're In This Together: The Taraval Community Spirit

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We're In This Together: The Taraval Community Spirit By As we continue to respond to COVID-19, signs and images of support are sprouting across the city. Images include lighted windows forming the shape of hearts on high rise buildings, posters of encouraging words on residential properties and even local art. These are reminders that we are all in this together. Bright and colorful art donated from local community members fill the window of Far Out Gallery, adoringly called by the acronym FOG, located in the Sunset Parkside District at Taraval and 40th Avenue. Located along the L Taraval Improvement Project corridor, Anne Herbst and Peter Munks of the Far Out Gallery are a member of its working group that is making efforts to support the Taraval community and its vibrant neighborhood during construction. As both a resident and small business owner in the Taraval neighborhood, Anne and Peter are advocates of inspiring creativity through art and keeping Taraval’s vibrancy alive
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Central Subway Update – Projected to be Open for Service by the End of 2021

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Central Subway Update – Projected to be Open for Service by the End of 2021 By A worker pauses on one of the massive escalators leading down to Rose Pak Chinatown Station's future lobby and fare gate area. The Central Subway project remains a key priority for the SFMTA, even during the current health crisis. Workers from the contractor and project staff continue to work every day while taking precautions and following best practices for physical distancing. Important progress was made over the last few months, but there were also challenges resulting in revisions to our target dates for the completion of construction. Heavy construction on stations was scheduled to finish this Summer, but now will continue into the Fall and finish by the end of the year. The date for revenue service when we can welcome our first customers is now the end of 2021. The opening of the subway will follow an extensive testing period because our number one goal is to open a service that is reliable
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Improving The Embarcadero

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Improving The Embarcadero By Traveling along The Embarcadero can be challenging at peak times. With bicyclists, pedestrians, scooterists and drivers all competing for the same space, conflicts arise regularly. The Embarcadero is also a prominent portion of the Vision Zero High Injury Network, something we would like to change. The community has voiced numerous safety concerns. SFMTA and the Port of San Francisco are listening. In partnership with the Port of San Francisco , we will begin construction of The Embarcadero Quick Build projects in mid-June. These projects will change the way people travel on the waterfront and mark a pivotal starting point in creating a safer environment for all. Most notably, bicyclists will be able to travel seamlessly into more areas of the City freeing up space for pedestrians on the Prominade. Quick Build projects can be built and evaluated within months, as opposed to years of planning and design. This allows SFMTA to achieve safety goals in t
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As the city gradually reopens, mechanical street sweeping enforcement is set to resume

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As the city gradually reopens, mechanical street sweeping enforcement is set to resume By Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) today announced that the City will resume enforcement for parking violations related to street sweeping beginning on Monday, June 15. Mayor Breed had announced on March 17 that SFMTA would not ticket for street sweeping following the Stay Home Order for COVID-19 in order to allow people to stay home without worrying about receiving a parking ticket. While the City had still encouraged people to move their vehicles if they could, street sweeping crews from San Francisco Public Works continue to see a large number of vehicles failing to do so, as many as 18,000 per day. Resuming enforcement for mechanical street sweeping is necessary to ensure that streets remain clean as the City begins to allow more businesses and activities to resume. “At the beginning of the Stay Home Order we wanted to ensure that people wh
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Biking by the Numbers: San Francisco’s 2019 Biking Statistics

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Biking by the Numbers: San Francisco’s 2019 Biking Statistics By Bradley Dunn Bicycling moves people around San Francisco using less space per person than when people go by driving. The SFMTA encourages bicycling and makes yearly ridership and trend data public. While Bike-to-Work day has moved to September this year due to the ongoing pandemic, we are excited to share San Francisco’s 2019 citywide bicycling data that we usually release in May. The SFMTA uses a variety of bicycle infrastructure and data metrics as indicators of a healthy and growing bicycle network. In 2019, the Agency prioritized the development of a robust data management system, improving high-quality bikeway infrastructure to make bicycling less stressful and more appealing, and expanding access to bikeshare services across the city. As in past years, 2019 data is pulled from the SFMTA’s automated bike counters, annual manual count data, operator-provided bikeshare data, and the US Census. Here are some key fin
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Biking by the Numbers: San Francisco’s 2019 Biking Statistics

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Biking by the Numbers: San Francisco’s 2019 Biking Statistics By Maia Moran Bicycling moves people around San Francisco using less space per person than when people go by driving. The SFMTA encourages bicycling and makes yearly ridership and trend data public. While Bike-to-Work day has moved to September this year due to the ongoing pandemic, we are excited to share San Francisco’s 2019 citywide bicycling data that we usually release in May. The SFMTA uses a variety of bicycle infrastructure and data metrics as indicators of a healthy and growing bicycle network. In 2019, the Agency prioritized the development of a robust data management system, improving high-quality bikeway infrastructure to make bicycling less stressful and more appealing, and expanding access to bikeshare services across the city. As in past years, 2019 data is pulled from the SFMTA’s automated bike counters, annual manual count data, operator-provided bikeshare data, and the US Census. Here are some key findi
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