Fast-Tracking Transit Lanes to Help the City's Recovery

Fast-Tracking Transit Lanes to Help the City's Recovery
By Amy Fowler

Map of proposed temporary emergency transit lanes 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, maintenance staff and other personnel to operate the system and support expanded cleaning protocols. To support physical distancing, our buses can only carry one-third of the number of passengers as they could before the pandemic. And, severe revenue cuts are also taking a toll. We estimate that we may only be able to provide 70% of pre-COVID-19 Muni service hours next year. If buses get stuck in traffic, that number could be even lower.

We need to ensure that transportation works for those who don’t have the privilege of working from home or using a private vehicle. Now more than ever, Muni is serving those riders who have no other options and are more likely to be people of color or from low-income households. In order to protect people who rely on transit from increased exposure to COVID-19 on slow or crowded buses, we need to act quickly to move more people with fewer resources.

One of the most effective tools we have to improve Muni travel time and reliability are transit lanes. Dedicated transit lanes allow buses to complete trips in less time and return into service more quickly, increasing vehicle frequency and moving more people with more space to physically distance. Emergency vehicles are also able to use the lanes to bypass traffic congestion.

The benefits these transit lanes bring are critically needed for Muni customers who have no other options during this public health emergency. We recently implemented a new transit lane on 4th Street and on June 16 the SFMTA Board of Directors approved new transit lanes as part of the Active Beale Street Project.

At a special meeting on Tuesday, June 30, the SFMTA Board will consider fast-tracking temporary emergency transit lanes that would benefit five Muni routes:

14 Mission and 14R Mission Rapid: Mission Street in SoMa
19 Polk: 7th and 8th Streets in SoMa
43 Masonic and 44 O’Shaughnessy: Locations on Presidio, Masonic, Laguna Honda, Woodside, and Bosworth streets

If approved, these temporary emergency transit lanes would be installed in late summer and striped only with white paint, “Bus/Taxi Only” stenciling and signage. Lanes will automatically be removed within 120 days after the emergency order is lifted, unless there is a public process to make a lane permanent.

These locations were chosen based on where the benefits are greatest, based on current ridership, travel time data and to prioritize routes that serve neighborhoods with high percentages of people of color and low-income households, including Ingleside, Outer Mission, Excelsior, Visitacion Valley, Bayview, Mission, SoMa and the Tenderloin.

On June 30, the Board will also consider delegating authority to the City Traffic Engineer’s Office to streamline the approval process for any future temporary emergency transit lanes. A public hearing would also be required for each corridor. The SFMTA is using travel time data to evaluate additional locations where adding temporary emergency transit lanes would achieve the biggest time savings and provide the greatest benefit. We will work with the community to evaluate and make any adjustments that are needed to the temporary transit lanes in real time based on public feedback and data monitoring.

Map showing Muni travel time savings on several corridors during shelter-in-place

At the beginning of the shelter-in-place, we saw massive time savings on several streets that don’t currently have transit lanes (see map), including the streets where temporary emergency transit lanes are proposed. Those are gains we’ll need to maintain to protect essential workers and our future economic recovery. Meanwhile, on most streets that already have transit lanes, there was no or very little improvement with the decreased traffic—demonstrating just how effective those lanes have been.

Delivering the city we want in the future, with a transit network that seamlessly connects people to jobs and neighborhoods to neighborhoods won’t come without tradeoffs. Temporary transit lanes will require removing some general-purpose lanes or parking in some places. As lanes are implemented we will be closely evaluating and gathering public feedback, and are prepared to make adjustments as we go—or even remove lanes—to ensure we meet the needs of the community and Muni customers.

Learn more about temporary emergency transit lanes.

Published June 27, 2020 at 05:08AM
https://ift.tt/382yjiP

Comments

New top story from Time: How Spirited Away Changed Animation Forever

https://ift.tt/3xVoGP5 Twenty years ago, on July 20, 2001, a film that would become one of the most celebrated animated movies of all time hit theaters in Japan. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, titled Spirited Away in English, would leave an indelible mark on animation in the 21st century. The movie arrived at a time when animation was widely perceived as a genre solely for children, and when cultural differences often became barriers to the global distribution of animated works. Spirited Away shattered preconceived notions about the art form and also proved that, as a film created in Japanese with elements of Japanese folklore central to its core, it could resonate deeply with audiences around the world. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The story follows an ordinary 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, as she arrives at a deserted theme park that turns out to be a realm of gods and spirits. After an overeating incident ...

New top story from Time: Deaths and Blackouts Have Hit the U.S. Northwest Due to the Unprecedented Heat Wave

https://ift.tt/2UgzckI SPOKANE, Wash. — The unprecedented Northwest U.S. heat wave that slammed Seattle and Portland, Oregon, moved inland Tuesday — prompting a electrical utility in Spokane, Washington, to resume rolling blackouts amid heavy power demand. Officials said a dozen deaths in Washington and Oregon may be tied to the intense heat that began late last week. The dangerous weather that gave Seattle and Portland consecutive days of record high temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celcius) was expected to ease in those cities. But inland Spokane saw temperatures spike. The National Weather Service said the mercury reached 109 F (42.2 C) in Spokane— the highest temperature ever recorded there. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] About 9,300 Avista Utilities customers in Spokane lost power on Monday and the company said more planned blackouts began on Tuesday afternoon in the city of about 220,000 people. “We try to limit outages to one hour per...

New top story from Time: The Documentary Final Account Is a Rare Trove of Unfiltered Interviews With Former Nazis—Too Unfiltered, Some Historians Say

https://ift.tt/3u2CDYI In 2008, documentary filmmaker Luke Holland was looking for a sense of closure. His Viennese maternal grandparents had perished in the Holocaust and, more than six decades later, he wanted to better understand what had happened. So he decided to ask the people who would know: SS members , Wehrmacht fighters, concentration-camp guards and civilian witnesses. “ At first, I embarked on a project with the completely improbable aim of trying to find the people who had killed [my grandparents]. It was quickly clear that I was not going to achieve that,” Holland wrote in a statement about the project. “But I realized I could actually meet their peers. I could meet people who had also raised their arms and their guns for Hitler , people who had committed atrocious crimes. And maybe through them, I might better understand the context in which the Holocaust played out in the heart of a supposedly civilized Europe.” Holland did more than 250 interviews, bu...

New top story from Time: China Says It Will Provide COVID-19 Vaccines to Almost 40 African States

https://ift.tt/3f34nYP BEIJING — China said Thursday it is providing COVID-19 vaccines to nearly 40 African countries, describing its actions as purely altruistic in an apparent intensification of what has been described as “vaccine diplomacy.” The vaccines were donated or sold at “favorable prices,” Foreign Ministry official Wu Peng told reporters. Wu compared China’s outreach to the actions of “some countries that have said they have to wait for their own people to finish the vaccination before they could supply the vaccines to foreign countries,” in an apparent dig at the United States. “We believe that it is, of course, necessary to ensure that the Chinese people get vaccinated as soon as possible, but for other countries in need, we also try our best to provide vaccine help,” said Wu, who is director of the ministry’s Africa department. While the U.S. has been accused by some of hoarding vaccines, President Joe Biden on Monday pledged to share an additional 20 mi...

New top story from Time: Keeping Up with the Kardashians Is Ending. But Their Exploitation of Black Women’s Aesthetics Continues

https://ift.tt/3gahnMY The inaugural episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians , which debuted on E! in 2007, begins with an irreverent domestic scene. Kim Kardashian , the undisputed protagonist of the show, rummages through the fridge as she’s teased by her family for the size of her posterior. “I think she’s got a little junk in her trunk,” says Kris Jenner, the family’s matriarch and “momager.” She calls her daughter’s butt “jiggly,” as Kim’s sister Khloé Kardashian chimes in from the kitchen table, “Kim’s always had an ass.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] That the opener of the watershed reality show—which ends June 10 after 20 seasons—centered on the family’s fixation on Kim’s rear foreshadowed the now-ubiquitous public obsession with her body, and particularly that specific feature of it. This outsize fascination was perhaps best embodied by her controversial 2014 Paper magazine cover, shot by Jean-Paul Goude, where her bare bottom is flanked by the line, “Br...

Amit Shah to visit West Bengal as BJP, TMC cross swords after attack on Nadda's convoy https://ift.tt/3gzz9Yq

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit West Bengal later this month. It will be Shah’s second visit to the poll-bound state within a month.

New top story from Time: ‘Most Heinous Attack.’ Merrick Garland Pledges to Take on Domestic Terrorism as Attorney General

https://ift.tt/3dGuLHC As the federal government continues to grapple with the fallout of the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol Building by pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6, the Biden Administration has remained close-lipped about how it plans to confront the rising threat of domestic terrorism. This week, Americans got a first look into how that effort may unfold with the testimony of Merrick Garland, the nominee to be the next attorney general. In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday and Tuesday, Garland declared that investigating the Capitol insurrection was his “first priority” and promised to “do everything in the power of the Justice Department” to stop domestic terrorism. He also warned that the events of Jan. 6 were not a “one-off,” and that the U.S. is facing “a more dangerous period” than any in recent memory. Garland would know. More than 25 years ago, he led the Justice Department’s prosecution of the perpetrators of the 1995 Oklahoma Cit...

Breaking News LIVE: Top Headlines This Hour https://ift.tt/35SVywr

The total number of global coronavirus cases has surpassed 33 million, including more than 1,002,000 fatalities. More than 24,634,990 patients are reported to have recovered. Meanwhile, a state-wide bandh would be observed in Karnataka today (on Monday) by various farmers' organisations, protesting the amendments to the APMC and land reforms acts made by the BS Yediyurappa government. The dawn-to-dusk bandh call has been supported by several pro-Kannada and other outfits besides the opposition Congress and the JD(S), who had opposed the amendment bills in the assembly.

FOX NEWS: Mom accidentally walks by daughter’s Zoom call naked, recalls story in hilarious Facebook video: 'Humiliating'

Mom accidentally walks by daughter’s Zoom call naked, recalls story in hilarious Facebook video: 'Humiliating' This first-grade class got quite the eyeful. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3gw5HCs

Raksha Bandhan 2020

Raksha Bandhan 2020 is going to be celebrated in India according to the lunar calendar month of Shravan which is August 3 this year. During the celebration women tie a variety of Rakhi on the wrist of their brothers with a wish to keep all misfortune, distress, evils away from their brothers. In return, brothers promise them for protection and to stand by her in every circumstance. During the rituals, brother offers some gifts to their sisters as a customary gesture. Raksha Bandhan is a very important festival in India. During the festival, sisters who resides far away from their brothers send them Raksha Bandhan quotes to brother through SMS or any other electronic medium. Similarly, brothers sent to their sisters Raksha Bandhan quotes to sister through these media to express their good wishes and well beings for their sisters. In this festival, Raksha Bandhan Quotes, Raksha Bandhan Images, Raksha Bandhan greetings typically trends on all social media platforms. People sen...

My precise view

Search This Blog