Safe and Secure Restroom Access Helps Muni Run On Time

Safe and Secure Restroom Access Helps Muni Run On Time
By Adrienne Heim

For those working in the field and delivering transit service, restroom access is not as easy as you may think. Bathroom breaks are a human necessity and require advanced planning for our thousands of transit operators. This is particularly true during the pandemic, as the shelter in place guidelines closed many restaurants and offices that were previously available to our transit staff.

Photo of muni operator behind the wheel, wearing a mask

Muni operators provide essential transit service in San Francisco

As the city looks forward to reopening, the SFMTA wants to ensure that all San Franciscans will be able get around the city safely and quickly. This means continuing to invest in maintaining the infrastructure that makes it possible for transit operations to be carried out. And that includes ensuring our Muni bus operators have safe and secure restroom access at the beginning and end of their routes.

Seven years ago, SFMTA’s Operator Restroom Taskforce was formed with a single mission – to overcome obstacles and provide safe, clean and reliable restroom access for staff working in the field throughout the city. And that is exactly what the team members represented by nearly every agency division, including members of Transport Workers Union Local 250A have been doing.

Since 2012, the group has been successful in delivering additional access at key locations, bringing the total number of available restrooms location to 151. This includes securing licenses and free restroom agreements with businesses, buildings, and organizations, portable units and permanent SFMTA dedicated operator restroom facilities.

Completing A Refresh of Older Operator Restrooms

Between 1990 and 2005, 17 standalone restrooms were constructed to kickstart supporting operators out in the field.

Geneva Avenue and Munich Street Operator Restroom built in 1990

Geneva Avenue and Munich Street Operator Restroom built in 1990

Throughout 2020, the Operator Restroom Taskforce sought out additional restroom facilities to compensate for those that had been closed. They also procured and located portable restrooms. Additionally, the group’s maintenance team members began updating 21 restroom facilities, which include the first set of operator restrooms that were built, as well as more recently-built facilities.

This refresh consisted primarily of replacing worn or rusted electrical conduit and plumbing fixtures. Repairing or replacing the Instahot Instant Water Heater was also a top priority because handwashing is essential to safety and hygiene. Paper towel dispensers are also being replaced with electric hand dryers in all of our operator restrooms.

Main and Mission Restroom Refresh October 2020

Main and Mission Restroom Refresh October 2020

Powell Station Staff Restroom Refresh August 2020

Powell Station Staff Restroom Refresh August 2020

The team also built a restroom trailer to support the 30 Stockton bus route to Crissy Field.

Restroom Trailer at the Sports Basement-Crissy Field

Restroom Trailer at the Sports Basement-Crissy Field

By providing reliable restroom access, the SFMTA is working to meet the health and safety needs of our transit operators and other agency field staff, an often-overlooked aspect of improving Muni’s reliability.

Learn more about the project and subscribe to project updates by visiting SFMTA.com/OperatorRestrooms.

Published February 26, 2021 at 11:32PM
https://ift.tt/2ZS4yht

Comments

New top story from Time: U.S. Lawmaker Wants to Ban Booze ‘To Go’ at Airports Amid Surge in Unruly Passengers

https://ift.tt/3kExvs4 Limiting the sale of “to-go” alcohol at airports and creation of an industrywide no-fly list are among the steps that may be needed to help stem the epidemic of air rage incidents on airline flights. But disagreements over which ones to pursue emerged at an often contentious U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing Thursday that also highlighted the deep divide among industry sectors and the emotional politics surrounding mask requirements during travel. While most lawmakers decried the surge in unruly passenger incidents some Republican lawmakers attacked what they called hypocritical policies by the Biden administration and criticized airlines for enforcing the mask rule. Democrats, in turn, said lax standards in some states contributed to the problem. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “I would agree totally that there are mixed messages out there and that it’s confusing to the public and at times makes it very difficult for f...

Upset on app ban, China urges India to restore normal trade relations https://ift.tt/2UZaL8L

China on Wednesday urged the government to restore the trade relations for mutual benefit. The development comes after reports of China being upset by India's latest ban on 43 Chinese mobile applications. According to an official statement issued by the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, "China and India are the opportunities of development to each other rather than threats. Both sides should bring bilateral economic and trade relations back to the right path for mutual benefit and win-win results on the basis of dialogue and negotiation."

Bangladeshi man arrested in Singapore for plotting attacks against Hindus, planning to fight in Kashmir https://ift.tt/350fQSE

A Bangladeshi man, who was plotting attacks against Hindus in his own country and planning to fight in Kashmir, has been arrested by Singapore's security agencies which investigated the suspicious activities of 37 people as part of the heightened security measures in the city-state following recent terror strikes in Europe. In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that counter-terrorism investigations into the suspicious activities of 37 people in Singapore have been carried out after most of them posted on social media, inciting violence or stoking community unrest in the aftermath of the terror attacks in France.

New top story from Time: EPA to Drastically Limit Hydrofluorocarbons Used in Refrigerators and Air Conditioners

https://ift.tt/3ELWLoj (WASHINGTON) — In what officials call a key step to combat climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency is sharply limiting domestic production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners. The new rule announced Thursday follows through on a law Congress passed last year and is intended to decrease U.S. production and use of HFCs by 85% over the next 15 years, part of a global phaseout designed to slow global warming. The administration also is taking steps to crack down on imports of HFCs, greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide. They often leak through pipes or appliances that use compressed refrigerants and are considered a major driver of global warming. President Joe Biden has pledged to embrace a 2016 global agreement to greatly reduce HFCs by 2036. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy, a for...

Sabarimala temple to tap on massive gold reserve, TDB to approach RBI for gold loans https://ift.tt/3j7tcSK

Feeling the heat of the financial crisis arising out the coronavirus pandemic, the Sabarimala Temple in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala is planning to tap on massive gold reserve in its vaults. The Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) is planning to approach the Reserve Bank of India for gold loans.

New top story from Time: Inside HBO’s Nuclear Family—and a Lesbian Family’s Fight To Exist

https://ift.tt/3i1aZbe The power of family—in its love, pain and fierceness—is universal. It transcends time and borders, and connects people of every race, gender and sexuality. Yet throughout the world certain families are granted more respect—while others are placed under direct threat. Such is the family at the heart of HBO’s new three-part documentary Nuclear Family , the first part of which airs on Sunday, Sept. 26 . The series follows filmmaker Ry Russo-Young as she turns the camera on her own childhood, documenting how her two lesbian mothers , Robin Young and Sandy Russo, chose to form a queer family in the late ’70s and early 1980s in New York City—at a time when the concept was inconceivable to many with in and outside of the queer community. Ry and her older sister Cade were born via sperm donors ; two gay men that the girls grew up knowing. Their sense of safety was shattered in 1991, when Ry was 9 years old, and her donor, an attorney named Tom Steel, sued h...

New top story from Time: Japan Opens Mass Vaccination Centers in Attempt to Curb COVID-19 Wave 2 Months Before Olympics

https://ift.tt/3u9TpoV (TOKYO) — Japan mobilized military doctors and nurses to give shots to elderly people in Tokyo and Osaka on Monday as the government desperately tries to accelerate its vaccination rollout and curb coronavirus infections just two months before hosting the Olympics. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is determined to hold the Olympics in Tokyo after a one-year delay and has made an ambitious pledge to finish vaccinating the country’s 36 million elderly people by the end of July, despite skepticism it’s possible. Worries about public safety while many Japanese remain unvaccinated have prompted growing protests and calls for canceling the Games set to start on July 23. Suga’s government has repeatedly expanded the area and duration of a virus state of emergency since late April and has made its virus-fighting measures stricter. Currently, Tokyo and 9 other areas that are home to 40% of the country’s population are under the emergency and further extension i...

New top story from Time: Belarus Opposition Figure Detained When Ryanair Flight Diverted

https://ift.tt/3bL9PxG KYIV, Ukraine — A prominent opponent of Belarus’ authoritarian president was arrested Sunday after the airliner in which he was traveling was diverted to the country after a bomb threat, in what the opposition is calling a hijacking operation by the government. The presidential press service said President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet accompany the Ryanair plane — traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania — to the airport in the capital Minsk. Deputy air force commander Andrei Gurtsevich said the plane’s crew made the decision to land in Minsk, but Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda claimed the plane was forced to land there. Belarus’ “regime is behind this,” Nauseda said on Twitter. The Belarusian Interior Ministry said Raman Pratasevich was arrested at the airport. Pratasevich is a co-founder of the Telegram messaging app’s Nexta channel, which Belarus last year declared as extremist after it was...

Muni’s R-Howard 80 Years On

Muni’s R-Howard 80 Years On By Jeremy Menzies Eighty years ago on September 7, 1941, the San Francisco Municipal Railway launched its first all-electric bus route, the R Howard. Today the route no longer survives in its original form but the legacy of the R lives on in our electric trolley bus fleet and bus routes that serve the same area. Two Muni buses lay over at the “Bridge Terminal” at Beale and Howard Streets in this November 1941 photograph. At left is the 4 Embarcadero, which ran along the waterfront and the recently established R Howard trolley bus at right. The R traces its lineage back to the 35 Howard streetcar line, operated by the Market Street Railway Company. This line ran from the Ferry Building to 24th and Rhode Island Streets on Howard and South Van Ness. In 1939, when the company’s agreement to run the 35 expired, the city decided to establish the R Howard in its place. Electric trolley buses were chosen for the new service for their low cost of operation and to...

New top story from Time: Inside Facebook’s Meeting with Palestinian Officials Over Posts Inaccurately Flagged as Incitement to Violence

https://ift.tt/3bK7IKd Senior Facebook executives apologized to the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh in a virtual meeting on Tuesday, after officials complained to the company about Palestinian posts being blocked amid the conflict with Israel , according to a diplomat who facilitated the meeting. Palestinian officials left the meeting on Tuesday with the impression that Facebook had admitted there was an “inherent issue with their algorithms” and that they had promised to address it, according to an account of the meeting shared with TIME by Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the U.K. As tensions rose between Israel and Palestine earlier this month, Instagram restricted access to Arabic-language posts and hashtags that mentioned Al-Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. The mosque in Jerusalem had been the site of recent Palestinian protests amid high communal tensions in the city. Posts mentioning Al-Aqsa were removed as Israeli pol...

My precise view

Search This Blog