Milestones on the Waterfront

Milestones on the Waterfront
By Benjamin Barnett

Over the summer, the SFMTA and Port of San Francisco broke ground on the Embarcadero Quick-Build Projects, bringing protected bikeways to the Embarcadero between Bay and North Point streets and Harrison and Mission streets, freeing space for pedestrians along its iconic Promenade. Just last month, Public Works and SFMTA crews substantially completed the centerpiece of this effort, The Embarcadero’s first segment of two-way protected bikeway - by installing 47 concrete islands, striping and signage changes, and a new bike signal at Howard Street. Now open in front of the Ferry Terminal between Mission and Folsom streets, this bikeway directly connects with the Folsom/Howard corridor and will be fully completed in early 2021 with the installation of metal railings. Our staff will also conduct a user survey and project evaluation in spring 2021 in connection with the Embarcadero Enhancement Project. 

Check out the progress that has been made so far!

Protected bikeway with enhanced loading along Pier 35

Concrete barrier under construction by Public Works for protected bikeway between Mission and Folsom streets

Protected bike lane and motorcycle parking under construction between Harrison and Folsom streets

Our Work Has Just Begun

The Embarcadero corridor between Townsend and Lombard streets is part of San Francisco’s Vision Zero High Injury Network (HIN), the 13 percent of streets accounting for 75 percent of severe and fatal traffic injuries. Sadly, 189 reported severe injury collisions and two fatalities have taken place along this corridor in the last five years.

To achieve our safety goals, the SFMTA will continue its partnership with the Port of San Francisco and community stakeholders to deliver the greater Embarcadero Enhancement Project (EEP). The EEP seeks to:

• Build a safer Embarcadero for all users
• Improve connections between the Embarcadero and nearby neighborhoods
• Elevate the Embarcadero’s role as a valued destination and workplace for locals, visitors, businesses, maritime, and industrial uses
• Invest in critical infrastructure to support the renewal and recovery of our City while protecting public health

Stay Informed as We Create a Safer Embarcadero

The Embarcadero is a special place for many in San Francisco and beyond. We look forward to engaging with the community in the months ahead as this important project takes shape. Please visit our project website at SFMTA.com/Embarcadero to stay up to date on the latest information or contact the project team by emailing Embarcadero@SFMTA.com.

Published December 11, 2020 at 01:06AM
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Understanding Upcoming Muni Service Changes

Understanding Upcoming Muni Service Changes
By Mariana Maguire

In December and January 2021 the SFMTA will phase back in surface rail on the J Church and T Third. This will free up buses so we can bring back more routes like the 27 Bryant, extend bus service on other routes and continue to manage crowding on routes like the 38 Geary and 14 Mission. We also have more buses available for lines like the 5 Fulton and 33 Ashbury.

You may be wondering, “how is Muni able to add service?” Or, “why some routes but not others?” Three key factors guide our service decisions:

• Service priorities
• Available vehicles
• Ongoing constraints to Muni service

Service Priorities

Our service planners look at the Muni system as a whole. Our goal is to provide as much consistent, reliable service as possible even though our resources are limited due to an ongoing budget deficit. These service changes in response to the evolving public health emergency will add new connections to different parts of the city and increase service on the highest-ridership routes. This means planning carefully so we can:

• Meet ridership demands on routes that are in service and avoid crowding
• Prioritize service for people who have access to fewer transportation options, including those who live and work in neighborhoods prioritized in our equity service strategy
• Use our limited number of vehicles to provide Muni service throughout the city
• Connect essential workers to essential locations such as neighborhood business corridors and medical facilities

Most of our essential workers live in the pandemic’s hardest-hit neighborhoods and don’t have as many transportation options to get to their essential jobs. It’s vital as our city fights coronavirus that essential workers can get where they need to go.

How We Are Able to Add Service

We only have a certain number of vehicles that we can put into service. To add bus service in January we are using two strategies:

1. More buses will be available as we gradually bring back rail. We’ll start with surface rail service until we finish this round of subway maintenance work. Bringing back the J Church and then the T Third will free up multiple buses that we will put on other routes to reduce crowding and add new critical connections.
2. By making our sanitizing process more efficient, we can return buses to service more quickly during the course of a day.

Surface service on the J Church and T Third lines will provide connections to Market Street where customers can easily transfer to the K Ingleside bus, L Taraval bus or N Judah bus for downtown service. Without the use of the subway, our other surface rail would have to terminate where there are fewer connections to downtown and the rest of our system. Between February and March 2021, we will aim to bring back the N Judah Metro by rail between La Playa and 6th and King streets, pending subway work and COVID developments. We expect the K Ingleside, L Taraval and M Ocean View to remain as bus routes through the spring as subway repairs continue, particularly in the Eureka Curve near Castro Station.

Ongoing Constraints on Service

Ultimately, we don’t have enough buses to bring back all pre-COVID routes  at this time due to several constraints:

1. Sanitizing: Our COVID sanitizing procedure means we don’t keep the same vehicle in operation all day. Pre-COVID, three operators would drive the same bus, switching out in the field. Now, when it’s time for operators to switch, the vehicle returns to the yard for sanitizing and the next operator takes out a sanitized vehicle. The time we spend returning vehicles to the yard and sanitizing means we need at least 50% more vehicles to serve any route daily.
2. Physical distancing: The number of customers we can carry on our vehicles is much lower than before COVID-19, so it takes more vehicles to move the same number of customers, especially on high-ridership routes. For example, on the 14R Mission – one of our highest demand routes – we were running 18 vehicles at a time pre-COVID. Now we’re running 35 vehicles at a time with less onboard capacity.
3. Not all vehicles can serve all routes: We can’t put a light rail vehicle on a route without tracks, or an electric trolley bus on a route without overhead wires. We can’t put larger buses and articulated buses on certain routes because they can’t navigate some of San Francisco’s iconic slopes and curves. This limits our options.
4. Subway repairs/construction: We learned the difficult lesson in August that our subway needed some significant repairs. We can’t run Metro rail service until we’ve fixed the most pressing subway issues, and ongoing maintenance needs are likely to come in the future. Also, with the L Taraval Improvement Project continuing construction, we will wait to bring back the LK Ingleside-Taraval light rail line. For now, L Taraval Bus and K Ingleside will continue to go directly to downtown.

We will keep monitoring and adjusting routes so that we can expand Muni service to levels that we can sustain in light of these constraints.

If you can stay home or use alternative forms of travel, we still need you to do so. This helps make space on Muni for essential workers and people who rely on public transportation.

Please remember to pay your “fare share” as well. A fare is required to ride and the SFMTA relies on fare revenue to provide service. For customers who can’t afford Muni, we have programs that can help.

Published December 10, 2020 at 12:47AM
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Upcoming Muni Service Expansions Phase-in Rail Service, Add Bus Service

Upcoming Muni Service Expansions Phase-in Rail Service, Add Bus Service
By Mariana Maguire

Graphic: Updated core service map, effective December 19, showing the temporary J Church surface rail route.

On Saturday, December 19, the SFMTA will gradually start to bring back Muni Metro service by rail and increase bus service, including resuming several routes based on community feedback.

Muni Metro begins resuming rail service on December 19 with the J Church between Balboa Park Station and Church and Duboce streets. On January 23, the T Third resumes rail service between Sunnydale and Embarcadero Station once safety and operational improvements are finished at Embarcadero Station.

These two rail changes will put more operators back on Muni and free up to 20 buses, allowing us to extend routes, increase frequencies, resume service like the 27 Bryant, and bring two new lines into service: the 55 Dogpatch and the 15 Bayview-Hunters Point Express. The full 33 Ashbury-18th Street will also return to service to provide another cross-town connection.

In February and March 2021, we will aim to bring back the N Judah Metro by rail between La Playa and 6th and King streets, and a shuttle train between Embarcadero and West Portal. We expect the K Ingleside, L Taraval and M Ocean View to remain as bus routes through the spring as subway repairs continue, particularly in the Eureka Curve near Castro Station.

These service changes focus on providing access to essential destinations and services to support San Francisco’s essential workers and economic recovery, especially for communities that depend on transit the most. The 15 Bayview-Hunters Point, 27 Bryant, and 55 Dogpatch are examples of service for these populations and are the result of community engagement and feedback. We continue to work on adding more service on our high-ridership lines and using available vehicles and operators to help relieve crowding.

Service hours will remain approximately 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily unless otherwise noted. Owl network service hours will remain approximately 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. daily. Subway maintenance will be conducted evenings starting at 8:00 p.m. daily. Bus substitutions will run on Metro lines that enter the subway starting at 8:00 p.m., shifting to Owl service at 10:00 p.m.

Below is the complete list of service changes. Please note that some details are subject to change. The information will be updated accordingly. For the most up to date information with free language assistance and accessibility please call 311.

December 19 Muni Service Changes

J Church Metro Rail

• Service between Balboa Park and Church and Duboce streets
• Daily frequency: Every 12 minutes

 

January 23 Muni Service Changes

T Third Metro Rail

• Service between Sunnydale and Embarcadero Station.
• Service will be mostly surface-only on 3rd Street. Vehicles will enter Embarcadero Station, service the station, then turn back. This allows us to provide connections to downtown and Market Street.
• Starting at 8:00 p.m. daily for evening subway maintenance, bus substitutions will provide Muni Metro service and Owl service at 10:00 p.m..
• On weekends, buses will serve the T Third from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. between Sunnydale and Steuart Street. Embarcadero Station opens at 8:00 a.m.

1 California (short): Additional service between California and Presidio streets and Clay and Drumm streets, where ridership is highest.

5 Fulton (short): Additional service between Fulton and 8th Avenue and the Salesforce Transit Center, where ridership is highest.

7 Haight-Noriega:

• Due to limited numbers of 60-foot motor coaches, shorter 40-foot coaches will serve the 7 Haight-Noriega on weekends. 60-foot coaches will continue to provide weekday service.
• 60-foot coaches will serve the N Judah Bus daily, which overlaps with the 7 Haight-Noriega on Haight Street.

8AX Bayshore “A” Express (weekdays only): Additional service on the 8AX Bayshore between Kearny Street and Pacific Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard and Visitacion Avenue, where ridership is highest. Instead of peak hour service only, the 8AX Bayshore will be in service all day and in both directions.

12 Pacific: Adjusted headways to provide consistent service during the midday hours when ridership is high.

14 Mission: Additional service and frequency to address crowding.

14R Mission Rapid: Some 14R buses will go to Mission & Lowell streets to relieve terminal congestion due to high frequency at Daly City BART Station. 

14 Mission Owl: Longer 60-foot coaches and frequency increase to address crowding.

15 Bayview-Hunters Point Express (BHPX): Community members directly shaped the design and planning of this new line to provide a faster trip between Bayview-Hunters Point and downtown. The route between Palou and 3rd streets to Market and 3rd streets via Hunters Point reflects the community’s travel patterns and priorities. See more information about this new line.

22 Fillmore:

• Additional service to address crowding.
• As part of the completion of the first phase of the 16th Street Improvement Project, the new modified route will travel east on 16th Street and north on 3rd Street to the new terminal on Mission Bay Boulevard North.
• Once the 22 Fillmore moves to serve Mission Bay, the new 55 Dogpatch will begin service to continue to provide bus connectivity for the Dogpatch and Potrero Hill neighborhoods. See more about the 55 Dogpatch below.

27 Bryant:

• The full route will go back into service in response to community feedback and engagement.  
• To improve reliability by using temporary emergency transit lanes, the route will be modified to travel southbound on 8th Street between Market and Harrison streets and northbound on 7th Street between Market and Folsom streets. The temporary emergency transit lanes are restricted for Muni service only, so they can keep buses moving even if there is traffic congestion, which helps manage crowding.
• The reroute will maintain access to BART and Muni Metro and will provide a connection to new destinations like FoodsCo on Folsom at 14th Street.
• Over the next few months, SFMTA staff will ask for feedback from community members and evaluate the performance of the 27 Bryant on this modified route.

30 Stockton (short):

• A short line between Caltrain and Van Ness Avenue at North Point Street will add service in segments of the route that consistently experience crowding.
• The 30 Stockton will travel south on 4th Street, west on Harrison Street, south on 5th Street, then east on Townsend Street to its terminal.

30 Stockton (long):

• The extension to Crissy Field and the Presidio connects residents and visitors of San Francisco to an outdoor recreational area via public transit.
• The relocation of the daytime terminal to Crissy Field (at the Sports Basement parking lot) provides enough space for longer 60-foot coaches. These larger coaches have helped alleviate crowding on routes with high ridership.

33 Ashbury:

• The full route will return to service in response to customer feedback about cross-town connections that the route provides to a number of medical facilities.
• During street closure event hours Friday through Sunday on 18th Street between Collingwood and Hartford streets, the 33 Ashbury will use a special event reroute. Check the route page for special event route details.

37 Corbett: The regular route will come back between Parkridge Drive and Burnett Avenue, and Masonic Avenue and Haight Street.

38 Geary: Increased frequency on weekdays and weekends to address crowding. 

43 Masonic: The route will be extended slightly to connect to the 1 California at California Street and Masonic Avenue while maintaining the same number of bus resources.

55 Dogpatch: A new route will be added between 16th and Mission streets and 20th and 3rd streets to replace the eastern segment of the 22 Fillmore modified route to Mission Bay. This route was developed with community members from the Dogpatch and Potrero Hill neighborhoods. See more information about this new line.

 

Published December 09, 2020 at 12:01AM
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