4th Street Transit Lane Offers Muni a Path Forward

4th Street Transit Lane Offers Muni a Path Forward
By Bonnie Jean von Krogh

Work crews paint transit lane on 4th Street

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 increase their possible exposure to COVID-19.

The 4th Street transit lane can be used as a model for how this proven tool can benefit Muni customers throughout the city. The SFMTA is using travel time data to evaluate additional locations where adding new transit lanes would achieve the biggest time savings and provide the greatest benefit.

4th Street Transit Lane: A Model for a Broader Return of Muni Service

The new transit lane is the primary feature of the 4th Street Transit Improvement Project approved in October 2019 following months of community engagement. Other key elements of the project include additional passenger and commercial loading, as well as improved safety for people walking. The dedicated transit lane runs from Market to Folsom streets. It is currently identified with white “Bus/Taxi Only” stenciling and will later be painted red. The 4th Street lane complements the recently updated transit lane on 3rd Street as part of the 3rd Street Transit and Safety Project. Taken together, these transit lanes can substantially reduce transit delay, minimizing health risks for Muni passengers.

See the diagram below for the new design of 4th Street approaching Howard.

Diagram of cross section of 4th Street with transit lane approaching Howard.

The 4th Street corridor is a major transit and traffic corridor, providing connections to Caltrain, 101 South and the Bay Bridge and is anticipated to have high levels of traffic congestion moving forward. Typically, it is used by five of Muni’s busiest bus lines, including the 8 Bayshore, 8AX and 8BX Bayshore Expresses, 30 Stockton, 45 Union/Stockton and 91 OWL lines. During COVID Core Muni service, it supports the 8 Bayshore and 91 Owl lines.

As economic activity gradually resumes, we know that if just a fraction of the people riding Muni before the crisis switch to driving, congestion will be so severe that it will cripple San Francisco’s economic recovery. Simply put, without transit there is no recovery. Transit lanes are a proven success that allow Muni to avoid traffic congestion, improve travel times and increase frequency. If buses are less frequent, customers will have to wait longer and more people will need to use the same bus, increasing crowding or pass-ups when buses are full.

SFMTA has the task of meeting changing mobility needs in real time. But our challenge is that much greater with the immense loss of revenues the SFMTA is experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With limited resources, Muni’s number one goal is to keep transit moving while protecting the health and safety of our passengers and operators as we recover.

The 4th Street transit lane can help reduce the current crowding on the 8 Bayshore and ensure that when additional Muni routes return, they too can avoid traffic congestion. Given the critical importance of this corridor to local and regional transit, it will serve as an example to look to for similar treatments on other corridors.

Published June 09, 2020 at 06:03AM
https://ift.tt/3dKHfvl

Comments

New top story from Time: President Trump Golfs as COVID-19 Relief and Government Shutdown Hang in the Balance

https://ift.tt/38AGnrK (PALM BEACH) — After tossing a grenade that threatens to blow up a massive COVID relief and government funding bill and force a government shutdown in the midst of a pandemic, President Donald Trump spent his Christmas Eve golfing in Florida. Failure to agree on the bill could deny checks to millions of Americans on the brink. Trump had no events on his public schedule on the first day of his winter vacation Thursday, but traveled to his Palm Beach golf club, where he was spotted by CNN cameras on the links. Reporters were given no details of his schedule for the day, but told that, “As the Holiday season approaches, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American People. His schedule includes many meetings and calls.” Trump’s departure came as Washington was still reeling over his surprise, eleventh-hour demand that an end-of-year spending bill that congressional leaders spent months negotiating give most Americans $2,000 COVID r...

New top story from Time: The Trial of the Chicago 7 Is as Entertaining—and Galvanizing—as Anything You’ll See This Year

https://ift.tt/304Ck3k Though it’s tempting to view the courtroom sketch as a quaint relic of legal decorum, the physicality of drawing is urgent in a way that camerawork can’t always match. If you’re so inclined, you can Google a color-crayon courtroom drawing from October 29, 1969 showing Bobby Seale —cofounder of the Black Panthers and one of eight men put on trial that year for staging anti-war demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago—gagged and bound to a chair. Earlier, in a fit of justified anger, he’d verbally interrupted the proceedings; the judge responded by ordering court officers to remove him from the court and restrain him. The drawing, by Howard Brodie and preserved in the Library of Congress, shows Seale holding his strong posture to the degree it’s physically possible, as he strains to write something on a legal pad; a Stravinsky-like stanza of strokes, slashes and loops, the sketch is an urgent, evocative work of reportage. That ...

Enhancing Safety on Franklin Street

Enhancing Safety on Franklin Street By Mark Dreger We're excited to share an update on the Franklin Street Quick-Build Project, an effort to enhance traffic safety on Franklin Street between Broadway and Lombard Streets. This roadway stretch was the site of 38 collisions between 2017 and 2021, including the tragic loss of a Sherman Elementary School paraeducator in November 2021. Our data-driven approach focuses on several key safety improvements, and we are ready to share the evaluation results and the next steps to bring further safety changes to Franklin Street. The project includes the implementation of a suite of safety measures focused on the intersections where neighborhood stakeholders expressed most concerns during the outreach process. Painted safety zones (PSZs) have been installed to increase pedestrian visibility at crosswalks by keeping the corners of intersections clear. Slow-turn wedges have been added to encourage drivers to turn at safer speeds...

New top story from Time: Louisville Police Department Fires One Officer Who ‘Blindly’ Shot Into Breonna Taylor’s Apartment

https://ift.tt/2Z3wfTt LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Metro police department has fired one of the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor. A termination letter for Officer Brett Hankison released by the city’s police department today said Hankinson violated procedures by showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly” shot 10 rounds of gunfire into Taylor’s apartment in March. The letter also said Hankinson violated the rule against using deadly force. Taylor, who was Black, was shot eight times by officers who burst into her Louisville home using a no-knock warrant during a March 13 narcotics investigation. No drugs were found at her home. Mayor Greg Fischer said last week interim Louisville police Chief Robert Schroeder had started termination proceedings for Hankison. Two other officers remain on administrative reassignment while the shooting is investigated.

New top story from Time: More Than 100 Injured in Stampede at Israeli Religious Festival

https://ift.tt/3e9j7VT (JERUSALEM) — More than 100 people were injured, dozens critically, in a stampede at a Jewish religious gathering in northern Israel attended by tens of thousands of people, Israel’s main rescue service said early Friday. Magen David Adom tweeted that it was treating 103 people, including 38 in critical condition. Israeli media had earlier reported that a grandstand collapsed, but the rescue service said all the injuries happened in a stampede. Israeli media reported that up to 38 people were killed, but the rescue service did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation. The Ynet news website was among those reporting the figure, and published a photo appearing to show several bodies. Tragedy in Meron: MDA is fighting for the lives of dozens wounded, and will not give up until the last victim is evacuated. 38 are in critical condition and still in the field 6 in critical condition who were evacuated 18 injured severely 2 ...

FOX NEWS: Happy National Cat Day: There’s a new dating app for ‘cat-forward lifestyle' Pet influencers Nathan Kehn and Sterling Davis created a new cat dating app for "cat -forward lifestyles"

Happy National Cat Day: There’s a new dating app for ‘cat-forward lifestyle' Pet influencers Nathan Kehn and Sterling Davis created a new cat dating app for "cat -forward lifestyles" via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3jRD4mj

Muni Customer Satisfaction Survey

Muni Customer Satisfaction Survey By Jeanne Brophy The results of the 2021 Muni Customer Satisfaction Survey reflect ridership impacts and concerns during the global pandemic and a local shelter-in-place order. As a result, Muni reduced service and experienced significantly lower ridership demand. Muni was able to provide service to essential workers along with protecting its front-line workforce and the overall financial outlook for the agency. Survey respondents gave us a 57 percent overall positive satisfaction rating. Topping the customer list of most important attributes were accessibility, cleanliness, and operator helpfulness. Highlights of the 2021 Muni survey: 57 percent of Muni riders rate its overall service as “good” or “excellent” – a 2% decline from 2019 Low-income riders rate Muni service higher now than before the pandemic indicating our data-driven service delivery was aligned to the public need of focusing on essential workers and the transit dependent: ...

New top story from Time: IMF Board Keeps Georgieva as Chief After Data Scandal Review

https://ift.tt/3oUqWUZ Kristalina Georgieva will remain as head of the International Monetary Fund after the lender’s board reviewed accusations that she improperly influenced a World Bank ranking of China’s business climate. The fate of Georgieva—a Bulgarian economist and the first person from an emerging-market nation to run the IMF—had been in limbo since Sept. 16. That’s when a report written by law firm WilmerHale and commissioned by the World Bank, her previous employer, asserted that she pressured subordinates to boost China’s position in the bank’s influential “Doing Business” report. “The executive board considered that the information presented in the course of its review did not conclusively demonstrate that the managing director played an improper role regarding the Doing Business 2018 Report when she was CEO of the World Bank,” the fund said in a statement following board deliberations Monday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Having looked at all the evidence...

New Customer Information System Signs Coming to a Transit Shelter Near You!

New Customer Information System Signs Coming to a Transit Shelter Near You! By Kharima Mohamed As part of the Next Generation Customer Information System project, over 700 new Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) signs will display real-time information at Muni transit shelters. Approximately one-third of these signs will be double-sided to provide additional visibility at the highest-ridership stops and major transfer points. This week we installed a single-sided prototype at Eddy and Larkin streets. Serving the Tenderloin, an Equity Neighborhood , this sign will feature real-time predictions for the 19 Polk and 31 Balboa routes. The primary purpose for installing this prototype is to conduct in-field hardware testing, especially with rain, wind and colder temperatures. We know there is an urgent need for more effective signage and are excited to roll out the new customer information system later this year. The new LCD signs will eventually replace all existing Next...

New top story from Time: Virginia Lawmakers Vote to Legalize Marijuana in 2024

https://ift.tt/3b3B864 RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia lawmakers gave final approval Saturday to a bill that will legalize marijuana for adult recreational use, but not until 2024, when retail sales of the drug would also begin. With a compromise bill clearing the House and Senate, Virginia becomes the first Southern state to vote to legalize marijuana, joining 15 other states and the District of Columbia. The legislation now goes to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who supports legalization. The bill was a top priority for Democrats, who framed legalization as a necessary step to end the disparate treatment of people of color under current marijuana laws. But talks between Democrats in the House and Senate grew tense in recent days, and a compromise version of the massive bill did not emerge publicly until late Saturday afternoon. “It’s been a lot of work to get here, but I would say that we’re on the path to an equitable law allowing responsible adults to use cannabis,” said Se...

My precise view

Search This Blog