What a Year It Has Been! Let the Celebration of Transit Month Continue

What a Year It Has Been! Let the Celebration of Transit Month Continue
By Erin McMillan

Muni bus stopped at intersection and unloading passengers at bus stop.

49 Van Ness/Mission using the brand new bus rapid transit lanes on opening day in April.

During Transit Month this September, we’re continuing the celebration by looking back to more of the work we’ve done over the last year— some that has been less obvious to Muni customers, but critical to a well-functioning system and other work that is more front and center.

Fix It! Week and Continuing State of good Repair Work

Muni is an impressive transit system. Moving thousands of people on rail and buses every day takes a lot of coordination and a lot of work. Dealing with unique challenges like San Francisco’s geography and shifting travel patterns, we also have to deal with issues related to the Muni system’s age. Proper care and maintenance of a transit system many decades old takes strategic planning as regular maintenance needs to happen while continuing to provide service. Typically, regular Muni Metro maintenance work occurs each night after subway service hours, SFMTA maintenance crews work to maintain the tracks and equipment underground. On most nights, this gives crews only about two hours to get work done. This two-hour window sometimes isn’t enough to complete critical maintenance tasks, so beginning in April, we started Fix It! Week, a quarterly week of planned maintenance that occurs during extended, overnight shifts when trains aren’t in service.

This year Fix It! Week provided 63 total work hours during which several SFMTA teams completed over 2,000 hours of maintenance and inspections. On the busiest nights, the maintenance teams had up to 55 staff in the tunnel from West Portal to Embarcadero delivering safety improvements, station and tunnel enhancements, subway track and wayside equipment maintenance, and traction power upgrades.

In addition to finding new and creative ways to maintain the system more efficiently, we also had to entirely reimagine the service network to accommodate changing travel patterns and in response to the pandemic. Over the past year alone we’ve increased Muni service multiple times as the impact of the pandemic has eased and we’ve slowly been able to hire new operators.

Trip patterns have changed over the last two years with a noticeable shift in San Francisco residents traveling neighborhood to neighborhood instead of the peak period downtown-centric travel pattern that was prevalent pre-pandemic. And we’ve adjusted. Service is slightly over-supplied so that there is capacity when it is needed. Anticipating how people will move in the future is difficult, but our service planning team is hard at work tracking ridership, customer feedback and operator availability to do our best to accommodate how folks want and need to move around the city. We are working to build back our ridership by providing high-quality, reliable service that people can count on.

Our response was the 2022 Muni Service Network which was developed through an extensive outreach process. Throughout the COVID-19 emergency and recovery, the SFMTA prioritized restoring service to these, and other neighborhoods identified in the Muni Service Equity Plan.

On the more visible side of our work, in April we started bus rapid transit (BRT) service on Van Ness Avenue as part of Muni’s Rapid Network, which prioritizes frequency and reliability for customers. Muni and Golden Gate Transit customers are already experiencing shorter travel times. With dedicated transit lanes in the middle of the street, enhanced traffic signals with Transit Signal Priority, the Van Ness BRT is the fastest way to travel north-south in this part of San Francisco, and riders are noticing. Since the BRT corridor opened on Van Ness Avenue in April, ridership on the 49 Van Ness/Mission has nearly doubled and is exceeding pre-pandemic ridership by 13%.

In other major capital and service news, last October service started on Geary in its new transit lanes after the completion of the Geary Rapid Project. Pre-pandemic, the combined Geary routes had one of the highest bus riderships in the country, with more than 56,000 daily customers relying on the 38 Geary and 38R Geary Rapid. As riders return, they are experiencing a faster, more reliable ride thanks to transit improvements like red colorization and dedicated transit lanes, bus stop optimization and signal retiming that were made along the three-mile stretch of Geary. These quick-build improvements alone resulted in 38R Geary Rapid travel time savings of up to 20%.

And last but certainly not least, you may have heard we have officially announced the opening of Central Subway! Weekend service starts Saturday, November 19 and will give customers a chance to check out its four new stations, and also allow our operators and crews to work out any kinks while operating. We’re looking forward to welcoming you aboard!

Wishing you a Happy Transit Month!

Published September 29, 2022 at 11:07PM
https://ift.tt/cvAmX1k

Comments

New top story from Time: Hurricane Ida Winds Hit 150 MPH Ahead of Louisiana Strike

https://ift.tt/3jmdoyl NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Ida rapidly grew in strength early Sunday, becoming a dangerous Category 4 hurricane just hours before hitting the Louisiana coast while emergency officials in the region grappled with opening shelters for displaced evacuees despite the risks of spreading the coronavirus. As Ida moved through some of the warmest ocean water in the world in the northern Gulf of Mexico, its top winds grew by 45 mph (72 kph) to 150 mph (230 kph) in five hours. The system was expected to make landfall Sunday afternoon, set to arrive on the exact date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The hurricane center said Ida is forecast to hit at 155 mph (250 kph), just 1 mph shy of a Category 5 hurricane. Only four Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the United States: Michael in 2018, Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. Both Michael and Andrew were u...

New top story from Time: John le Carré’s Silverview Is Not the Defining Final Chapter of a Literary Career

https://ift.tt/3BMuXOI When John le Carré died last December, his obituarists struck a common theme: here was a master spy novelist who, despite selling millions of books and having his work adapted for television and film , never received the recognition he deserved as a literary giant. Over six decades, le Carré drew upon his brief career in British intelligence to chronicle the decline of the U.K. as a global power and critique what he saw as an arrogant and corrupt Western neo-imperialism, typically through the perspective of those in the “secret world” of spying. His archetypal heroes were not James Bonds or Jack Reachers but often disillusioned men driven by moral values they are not certain they still believe in. What compels people to serve their country, or betray it, was a consistent theme in his work. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But just as Graham Greene —another former spy turned novelist—divided his work into “entertainments” and serious fare, so can one...

SFMTA Expands Connection Between the Public and Staff Through New Podcast

SFMTA Expands Connection Between the Public and Staff Through New Podcast By We have taken to the airwaves, or the “digital waves” anyway, with the new SFMTA podcast, Taken with Transportation . Taken with Transportation showcases the people and policies that make accessible, equitable transportation possible in San Francisco, and two episodes already have dropped. The first brings listeners along for the ride aboard one of Muni’s hardest working bus lines: the 22 Fillmore. The second profiles several members of our transit car cleaning staff and takes a detailed look at the hard work they do to keep our buses, light rail vehicles and cable cars clean and safe. Every episode will feature SFMTA staff members and offer listeners a deeper understanding of the agency. These stories will cover everything from the city’s streets to the SFMTA’s inner workings and offer insight and perspectives that aren’t available anywhere else. We’re passionate about the work we do an...

New top story from Time: Google’s Employee Vaccine Mandate Could Influence Other Companies to Do the Same

https://ift.tt/3BQnXRv (SAN RAMON, Calif.) — Google is postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened in an attempt to fight the spreading Delta variant. In a Wednesday email sent to Google’s more than 130,000 employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning Oct. 18 instead of its previous target date of Sept. 1. The decision also affects tens of thousands of contractors who Google intends to continue to pay while access to its campuses remains limited. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “This extension will allow us time to ramp back into work while providing flexibility for those who need it,” Pichai wrote. And Pichai disclosed that once offices are fully reopened, everyone working there will have be vaccinated. The requirement will be first imposed at Goog...

SFMTA to Replace All Parking Meters in the City

SFMTA to Replace All Parking Meters in the City By Jessie Liang San Franciscans will see new parking meters on city streets beginning in early March 2022. Staff from the SFMTA’s Parking Meter Shop will replace the meters at all the nearly 27,000 paid parking spaces in the city because those meters have reached the end of their useful lives, and because many of the meters rely on 3G communications technology that soon will be phased out by the wireless companies. The first new meters will be installed in the South of Market and Mission Bay neighborhoods. SFMTA staff will provide notices on vehicle windshields when the new meters are activated. The new meters will provide several benefits, including larger and more legible screens, more intuitive user interface, more powerful batteries, and more resistance to vandalism. The following neighborhoods will move to a pay-by-license-plate system with new paystations. South Beach SoMa Mission Bay Civic Center H...

New top story from Time: Afghanistan Faces a ‘Make-or-Break Moment,’ U.N. Chief Says

https://ift.tt/3FERaRq UNITED NATIONS — Warning that Afghanistan is facing “a make-or-break moment,” the United Nations chief on Monday urged the world to prevent the country’s economy from collapsing. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also appealed to the Taliban to stop breaking its promises to allow women to work and girls to have access to all levels of education. Eighty percent of Afghanistan’s economy is informal, with women playing an overwhelming role, and “without them there is no way the Afghan economy and society will recover,” he said. He said the U.N. is urgently appealing to countries to inject cash into the Afghan economy, which before the Taliban takeover in August was dependent on international aid that accounted for 75% of state spending. The country is grappling with a liquidity crisis as assets remain frozen in the U.S. and other countries, and disbursements from international organizations have been put on hold. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Rig...

New Delhi Railway Station, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal to undergo redevelopment worth crores: What's in store https://ift.tt/3b9o51p

Two major railway stations in the country are set to undergo redevelopment with state-of-the-art amenities and facilities for passengers. The railways have sought private participation to redevelop the New Delhi Railway Station complex with a capital investment of Rs 4,925 crore. It also sought private participation for the redevelopment of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal with a capital investment of Rs 1,642 crore.

FOX NEWS: College student sheds 100 pounds after years of dedication: 'The greatest accomplishment' Lori Odegaard, 24, from Fargo, North Dakota, tells Fox News about her incredible weight loss journey.

College student sheds 100 pounds after years of dedication: 'The greatest accomplishment' Lori Odegaard, 24, from Fargo, North Dakota, tells Fox News about her incredible weight loss journey. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/6S8knsb

New top story from Time: 6 Russian Military Officers Charged in Vast Hacking Campaign

https://ift.tt/35hiCmD (WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department announced charges Monday against Russian intelligence officers in a string of global cyberattacks that targeted a French presidential election, the Winter Olympics in South Korea and American businesses. The case implicates the same Kremlin unit that interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections, but is not related to the November vote. The indictment accuses the six defendants, all said to be current and former officers in the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU, of hacks that prosecutors say were aimed at furthering the Kremlin’s geopolitical interests and in destabilizing or punishing perceived enemies. All told, the attacks caused billions of dollars in losses and disrupted a broad cross-section of life, including health care in Pennsylvania, a power grid serving hundreds of thousands of customers in Ukraine and a French election that saw the late-stage disclosure of hacked emails. The seven-count ...

Delegation of 60 farmers meet Narendra Singh Tomar, extend support to farm laws https://ift.tt/37Py5x3

A delegation of 60 farmers belonging to Kisaan Majdoor Sangh, Baghpat on Thursday met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar at Krishi Bhawan in Delhi. These farmers also submitted memorandum wherein they extended support to the new farm laws.

My precise view

Search This Blog