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Ask a Muni Driver
In today's installment, our Muni Driver takes a look at the Transit Effectiveness Project and gives us his thoughts on it. As always, drop us a line if you have any questions you'd like answered.
Our driver begins: Before I start on a new topic, I’d like to add an addendum to last week’s post. When I was talking about schedules, I was referring only to bus schedules, not train schedules. Train schedules are a whole ‘nother kettle of fish, trust me.
We can talk about those fish and how fast or slow they swim in their too-small pond at a future date.
Question: “what do you think of the Transit Effectiveness Project?”
What do I think of the 18-month “study” known as the Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP)? Well, for starters TEP is a classic example of a bureaucratic make-fake-work, fail-to-address-the-actual-problem approach. It’s being completed as a partnership between the Municipal Transit Authority (MTA) and the San Francisco Controller’s Office. The stated goal is to discover what’s currently working for MUNI, what needs to be changed to satisfy as many riders as possible, and how to lower transit costs. It’s the last bit that’s the tip-off. Let me put it this way: If the final TEP report doesn’t contain a strong recommendation for adding service, it’s garbage. A big, fat, time-killing, bean-counting exercise in futility.
O.K., so here’s the scoop so far: TEP is already talking about two major changes, at least one of which has happened in the past with very mixed results. The first is to eliminate what they feel are unnecessary stops. That’s all fine and dandy if you’re 30 years old or less and have no problem walking another block or two to the next stop. Of course, if you’re elderly or have any number of a range of mobility problems, this isn’t gonna help you have a good MUNI experience. How about leaving the stops alone and adding more buses? No, wait, what was that OTHER thing TEP is looking into? O yeah, lowering costs…
The second item TEP is emphasizing is the creation of dedicated transit-only lanes. This looks pretty damned cool on paper, but for those of us who actually drive, walk, and pedal San Francisco’s narrow, already-constricted streets, the obvious question is this: Where do we get the space for dedicated lanes big enough for buses, bikes, and people? Do we steal sidewalk space? Knock down buildings? Remove auto lanes (I really doubt this one!)? So some of you are saying, yeah but I’ve seen dedicated bus lanes, so what’s the big deal about adding more of them? Do you mean the dedicated lane for the 38-Geary on O’Farrell St.? The one with all the taxis and double-parked cars and unloading bigrigs at all times of day and night? That one? You gotta be kidding me. Or the one on Market St., which works better (in a very loose use of the word ‘better’) only because it’s not a curbside lane and doesn’t do anything worse than endanger of the lives of a lot of would-be MUNI passengers who recklessly run out into traffic trying to catch their bus? Transit-only lanes could work, sure, but only if they were enforced. So the answer is more DPT personnel? Cops? MUNI police? And out of whose budget will this magic moohla materialize?
We can all hope that TEP comes up with some constructive ideas. Of course, we have nearly 18 months to wait for their final report. But I’m an optimist: let’s assume they do lay some reality on the transit table…what mechanism is in place to ensure adoption of TEP’s recommendations? Because hey, Prop E is working so well!