The Van Ness BRT Will Soon Welcome You

The Van Ness BRT Will Soon Welcome You
By John Gravener

New Van Ness Avenue transit lanes open to Muni and Golden Gate Transit buses April 1, 2022.

We will be celebrating the new Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit system with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the War Memorial on April 1, at 9:15 a.m., and you are invited!

This immense civic improvement project has not only brought the first Bus Rapid Transit corridor to San Francisco, it also presented the opportunity to do much-needed underground and utilities work. This project looks towards San Francisco’s future with an eye towards climate resiliency and transit efficiency

The Bus Rapid Transit corridor provides a globally proven solution to improve transit service and address traffic congestion on Van Ness Avenue. With the new, physically-separated transit lanes along the Van Ness corridor, buses will be able to travel without getting caught up in traffic and passengers will be able to board buses more easily. Other benefits include improved lighting, sidewalk extensions (bulb-outs), new countdown signals for people crossing Van Ness and improved accessibility for those with mobility needs.

As great as the street-level improvements are for Van Ness Avenue, the work that has been completed underground is just as important. The construction that has been completed allowed for extensive utility maintenance which included the replacement of sewer pipes and water mains, some that had not been replaced in more than 100 years! This work prepares San Francisco for the next major earthquake and the effects of climate change with stronger infrastructure. The emergency water supply system dating back to the early 1900s was also part of the overhaul, providing firefighters adequate water pressure and volume throughout the city to fight fires, a hard-learned lesson from the 1906 earthquake and fires: Fires ripped through the city after the 1906 earthquake because the water mains had been severely damaged and there was no water pressure. The emergency water supply system was implemented soon after to prevent history from repeating itself.

We look forward to seeing you on Van Ness. We appreciate your patience as we revitalize the historic corridor. We hope you’ll enjoy it.

For details about the ribbon-cutting and to RSVP, go to SFMTA.com/VanNess.

Published March 18, 2022 at 09:19PM
https://ift.tt/4zEQxZP

Comments

As the city gradually reopens, mechanical street sweeping enforcement is set to resume

As the city gradually reopens, mechanical street sweeping enforcement is set to resume By Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) today announced that the City will resume enforcement for parking violations related to street sweeping beginning on Monday, June 15. Mayor Breed had announced on March 17 that SFMTA would not ticket for street sweeping following the Stay Home Order for COVID-19 in order to allow people to stay home without worrying about receiving a parking ticket. While the City had still encouraged people to move their vehicles if they could, street sweeping crews from San Francisco Public Works continue to see a large number of vehicles failing to do so, as many as 18,000 per day. Resuming enforcement for mechanical street sweeping is necessary to ensure that streets remain clean as the City begins to allow more businesses and activities to resume. “At the beginning of the Stay Home Order we wanted to ensure that people wh...

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: The Fight for a $15 Minimum Wage Is Our Selma

https://ift.tt/37oF2Ez After the public lynching of George Floyd last summer, his cry of “I can’t breathe” galvanized a movement for Black lives that won majority support among Americans . Floyd wasn’t the only one gasping for breath. While Americans watched a police officer choke the life out of Floyd, we also witnessed Black Americans contracting a deadly respiratory disease at three times the rate of our white neighbors , according to an August report from the National Urban League. The growing public consensus that we as a nation must address systemic racism has led to serious soul-searching in families, churches, universities, corporations and political life. But just as the Selma campaign became a symbol during the civil rights movement of the need for legislation to expand voting rights, the $15 an hour minimum wage proposal in Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan represents the possibility that our government can take decisive action to make racial justice real tod...

Gene Henderson: Honoring Muni’s First Black Division Manager

Gene Henderson: Honoring Muni’s First Black Division Manager By Jeremy Menzies In recognition of Black History Month, we bring you the story of Gene Henderson, the first Black man to become the head of a Muni bus division, Muni’s Kirkland Division. Henderson’s Background Gene Henderson was born in Houston, Texas, in 1916. He married his wife Naomi in 1939 and then served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Following the war, Gene and his family moved to San Francisco where he began his career at the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Early Career On February 1, 1946, Henderson was hired as a streetcar motorman out of Sutro Division, which was located on the corner of 32nd Ave. and Clement St. He was hired just five years after Muni’s first Black transit operator, Audley Cole, had successfully fought to integrate the carmen’s union in 1941. In his early days at Muni, Gene worked one of the three lines running out of Sutro Division from the Ferry Building to the Richmond District o...

New top story from Time: Who’s Ariarne Titmus? The Australian Swimmer’s Rivalry With Katie Ledecky Has Captivated Olympics Fans

https://ift.tt/3fdGe1v Before this week, many people knew Katie Ledecky as one of the most dominant names in swimming for the last decade. So they might have been surprised by the success of Australia’s 20-year-old Ariarne Titmus during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, who has now bested Ledecky twice to snatch gold medals. In Tokyo, Titmus’ rivalry with Ledecky has been one of the most captivating parts of the Tokyo swimming program. The rivalry between the two star swimmers dates back to the 2019 world championship, when Titmus became the first woman to beat Ledecky at the international level. They’ll have one more chance to race in Tokyo, this time in the 800-m freestyle on July 31. She isn’t the favorite this time, however. Ledecky is undefeated in the 800 m, holding the fastest 24 times in the event’s history as well as the world and Olympic records, which she set during her winning race at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics . [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Titmus, who gre...

FOX NEWS: Olympic gymnasts sound off on the evolving leotard: 'Power and prestige goes with those leos' The world may have grown accustomed to seeing Olympic gymnasts wearing leotards as they compete for the highest honor in the sport, but these garments haven’t always been the first pick for women.

Olympic gymnasts sound off on the evolving leotard: 'Power and prestige goes with those leos' The world may have grown accustomed to seeing Olympic gymnasts wearing leotards as they compete for the highest honor in the sport, but these garments haven’t always been the first pick for women. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3BQEKE3

New top story from Time: Watch TIME’s Exclusive Footage of NASA’s Most Powerful Rocket Ever Under Construction

https://ift.tt/3xqnVOf Rockets are built slowly—slowly and exceedingly carefully—which is in keeping with giant machines on which humans stake their lives and nations stake their prestige. In NASA’s cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, America’s next great moon rocket—the Space Launch System (SLS)—is being constructed with all that in mind. It is here too that TIME set up half a dozen cameras over the course of two months, capturing 3 million images for a time-lapse video that makes it possible to compress those months of work into just a few kinetic minutes. Under the eyes of the cameras, the rocket’s twin solid-fuel boosters came together—each of them 177 feet tall, weighing 1.6 million pounds and generating 3.6 million pounds (1.6 million kg) of thrust. Twenty-five percent taller than the solid boosters on the space shuttle, the twin engines are made of five separate segments, compared to the shuttle’s four. When they are completed, they will be attached ...

New top story from Time: This Is Who Will Replace Simone Biles in the Olympic Gymnastics All-Around Final

https://ift.tt/3zENvyY When Simone Biles withdrew from the gymnastics team event at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games on July 27, her teammates and coaches scrambled to fill in for her on the spot, since Biles made the sudden decision after the competition had started. Sunisa Lee and Jordan Chiles stepped in and both pulled off impressive routines with little notice — and no warm up time — to help the US women earn silver . Biles announced a day later that she is also withdrawing from the all-around event, the marquee competition for women’s gymnastics. Biles is the reigning Olympic all-around champion, but won’t be defending her title after admitting to struggling mentally with the pressures of competing in Tokyo. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Who will replace her? It’s not just a matter of swapping in a teammate. Biles was the top qualifier, and only the gymnasts with the top 24 scores from the qualifying round are eligible for the all-around. In addition, in order to g...

New top story from Time: Militarized Feds Will Stay in Portland Until Attacks on the Federal Courthouse End, U.S. Attorney Says

https://ift.tt/305Lo8I (PORTLAND, Ore.) — U.S. militarized officers will remain in Portland until attacks on a federal courthouse cease, a top official said Monday after another night of violence. And more officers may soon be on the way. “It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel,” U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said. ”We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so.” Local and state officials said the federal officers are unwelcome. Meanwhile, the mayors of Portland and five other major U.S. cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don’t want them. “This administration’s egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Washington ...

New top story from Time: Baseball Stadiums, Theme Parks, Cathedrals: See the World’s Makeshift COVID-19 Vaccination Hubs

https://ift.tt/3kbrfqb Earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, as arriving patients quickly overwhelmed hospitals from China to Italy to New York, officials converted all manner of public spaces into makeshift treatment hubs in a wartime-like effort to save as many people as possible. Now, as cases fall in many countries, public spaces are being changed once again—this time into mass vaccination hubs, where hundreds or even thousands of people can be inoculated against COVID-19 in a given day. Below, see some of the world’s most impressive makeshift COVID-19 vaccination hubs, from New York’s Citi Field to Moscow’s Krylatskoye Ice Palace to the United Kingdom’s Salisbury Cathedral. We’ve also included images from smaller, perhaps less remarkable venues, like high school gyms and a bus-turned-mobile vaccination unit. Combined, these facilities will play a critical role in ensuring the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Valery Sharifulin—TASS/Reuters A temporary COVID-19...

My precise view

Search This Blog