By now, most people have heard something about the Transit Effectiveness Project, a project of the SFMTA to try and make things run more efficiently. The braniacs at City Hall have been touting the process as an example of their commitment to A Better MUNI, and clearly the top brass at MUNI and the SFMTA have bet most of their chips on this thing to try and make things better.
The good citizens at The Transbay Blog have posted some very thoughtful comments on the proposed changes, and it’s well worth your while to take a look at what they have to say. I was struck, in particular about their comments about the 36-Teresita line, which I have relied on when house-sitting for a friend up in the hills (and have been stranded more than a few times waiting for a bus as-is).
There are many ways you can get involved with the process and offer praise and critiques of the proposed changes. One way, of course is to attend public meetings, a list of which is provided at the end of this post.
For me, I have found the research they’ve done to be quite interesting, but often times of the “we knew that” variety. For example, they discovered that people want the buses to run on time so they can plan their time accordingly. Well, um, yeah. Also, while they’ve done a heck of a job pinpointing the most and least used routes, et al, I haven’t seen a lot so far about projections for the future.
One of the problems we have now is that we have lots of people living in places that did not have lots of housing 20+ years ago, the last time we made any real changes. So I wonder how they’re gonna try and predict where the up-and-coming regions of Our Fair City will be, and how they’ll accomodate those changes in the years to come.
Anyway, here’s a list of meeting times and places. You can also contact them via email (and be sure to CC your Supervisor and the Mayor when you do!) or via traditional USPS mail. No matter how, do what you can to learn more and get involved.
They can ignore my silly blog, they can ignore a small band of folks, but if enough people learn more and participate in good faith, eventually they have to listen to someone. Surely the good citizens of our city can offer up good ideas to make things work better for all of us, right?
- Saturday, May 3, 10:30 am, Jean Parker Elementary, 840 Broadway St. (at Powell St.)
- Monday, May 5, 6:30 pm, Visitacion Valley Elementary, 55 Schwerin St. (at Visitacion Ave.)
- Saturday, May 10, 10:30 am, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, 4235 19th St. (at Diamond St.)
- Monday, May 12, 6:00 pm, West Bay Conference Center, 1290 Fillmore St. (at Eddy St.)
- Wednesday, May 14, 6:30 pm, Bessie Carmichael Elementary, 375 Seventh St. (at Harrison St.)
- Saturday, May 17, 10:30 am, Mission YMCA, 4080 Mission St. (at Bosworth St.)
Oh the TEP is a sham if I’ve ever seen one. They want to cut useful ‘local’ routes like the 66, and then they claim to be able to increase metro service. Puhleeze. Anyone who’s taken the L in the past few months has surely noticed the service reduction they’ve pulled recently (fewer two-car trains during peak hours). Maybe their proposed service increase would be to restore it to last year’s anemic levels? Certainly I didn’t see any funds to procure more LRVs.
Additionally their proposed changes to the 28 are a crock. Turn the Richmond district portion into a limited service area? So what?! Service in the Richmond isn’t the problem! Extend the 28L into Vis Valley? Are you freaking kidding me? The one saving grace of the 28 as it stands is that the 28 is (somewhat) more reliable than the 29. The absurdly long routes (like the 29!) are unreliable in large part because of their length.
The worst part of their proposed changes is that nobody has even mentioned repurposing the artics for the 28. There is simply not enough capacity on the 28 as-is. That is the primary problem! Crush loaded buses south of Judah are the norm in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, and during the weekends. Are you seeing a pattern here? Of course, the forty-five minute headways aren’t helping things either.
While there is substance to the TEP’s report, all we’re going to get out of it are service cuts (or restoration to 2007-level service). Mark my words.
Reorganization of the routes is not a bad idea, per-se, some of the suggestions in the TEP report are reasonable even. However, MUNI, the MTA, and the Gav have proven that common sense and logic won’t prevail. Look at the subway to nowhere. Look at the elimination of service to CCSF (oh, I meant the K-Ingleside… the T-Third Street? The Katie-Third slash Ingleside? The 10? 20? Ugh). Look at Natty Tatty Ford’s response to criticism of the subway to nowhere. Community meetings or not, nothing good will come out of this.
Come on, Muni! Quit thinking crack and start using your common sense! Use the package I’ve e-mailed you. Trust me. It’ll work.