Muni needs broader service improvements
While the public debates a sometimes controversial set of proposed route changes, Muni has much more to do to attract more riders. As Muni prepares a Transit Effectiveness Project for the first time in 20 years, it needs to broaden its scope considerably.
First Muni should quickly implement simple, low-cost improvements that will not require waiting a year or two to prepare Environmental Impact Studies:
- purchasing low-floor buses;
- implementing a proof-of-payment system so that passengers can pre-pay and don't have to hold the buses and trolleys up while they pay at the door;
- lowering Fast Pass prices;
- installing ticket machines to save time at bus stops.
The city should increase the price of parking to raise more funds for transit and to provide a bigger incentive to ride transit.
As these changes kick in, Muni should rigorously study its busiest lines. Using its NextBus system of tracking buses by satellite, it needs to determine how times are improving on each route so that it can quickly adjust schedules and provide additional service where needed.
Further, Muni will need longer-term studies to consider other improvements such as:
- dedicated transit right-of-ways;
- more enforcement of rules for diamond lanes and double-parking;
- sidewalk bulb-outs at bus stops to facilitate boarding;
- traffic-flow improvements targeted specifically at helping Muni (Golden Rule: do for Muni at least as much as you do for other vehicles);
- traffic-signal priority for buses and trolleys;
- means of speeding up traffic such as parking removal and turn restrictions, especially on the "Rapid Network Lines", the 15 of Muni's 80 lines that carry 75% of riders.
These studies should itemize the cost as well as the potential for increased effectiveness for each improvement, to facilitate establishing priorities. Similar study will be necessary for improvements in Metro service both on the surface and underground.
These studies should take into account increased ridership in response to increasing gas prices and climate change and should be integrated with studies of congestion pricing for parking in the downtown area.
The City Charter states that: "Parking policies for areas well served by public transit shall be designed to encourage travel by public transit and alternative transportation." This can include using parking fees to reduce traffic and the impacts of congestion on transit. The Transit Effectiveness Project should discuss capital requirements and funding sources for doing this and should give priority to projects that will improve service for the most riders at the lowest cost. TEP should show Muni's future operating costs not as projections of the past but as a prediction of a successful TEP.
TEP should plan for incrementally implementing improvements while maintaining essential transit services for all.
Other San Francisco transportation briefs
Downtown parking. In the late 1960s San Francisco instituted a maximum of 0.2 parking spaces per thousand square feet of office space in the Central Business District. Along with improved transit, this limit has worked well to reduce driving into downtown. Now new offices are being built outside the old area, and traffic is increasing. The Sierra Club supports expanding the area covered by the C-3-0 Central Business District Parking limitation.
Doyle Drive. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority wants to use parking-meter revenue to fund the reconstruction of Doyle Drive. The Sierra Club opposes this proposal. Meter revenue in San Francisco should continue to be reserved for Muni. Highway construction can be funded from the gas tax and other revenues.