March 10, 2008
MUNI Underground
We don't usually read the Op Ed pages of the Chronicle, because it's always either rehashed columnists from other papers or something like "give birth control pills to deer in Point Reyes" -- but can you believe it? The Chron actually got someone local to write about a local issue today -- if we're going to build out the MUNI underground, why not actually build it out and have a subway that runs to Fisherman's Wharf?
None of this will come as a news flash to anyone who actually lives here (Newsflash! The 30 Stockton is crowded!), and it's sort of depressing that the state of public transportation is so bad here that we're only just now, in 2008, possibly contemplating building a subway that hooks up to one of the city's most popular tourism areas.
In addition, the editorial, written by a public policy person at SPUR, is a little light on how we'd pay for this extension, or whether or not the moneyed residents in the tony Pac HeightsRussian Hill/Telegraph Hill area would actually agree to allow their streets to be hacked up for years to put a subway in (which is what we had always assumed had killed off any previous discussion of this idea in the past), but hey, we're just glad to see an actual opinion on the op-ed page that we're interested in learning more about!
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Few things:
Pac heights has nothing to do with this proposal and isnt typicall lumped in the telegraph hill..
Also
Not only is the slice of pie east of van ness and north of market one of the most "popular tourism areas" - It is home to the most densely populated zip code west of the mississippi (94109). Only in SF would the most dense parts of the city have the slowest public transit.
Uh, much as I care about the birth control plan for Point Reyes deer, linking to it twice was probably unneeded ("actually build it out" links there too.)
(wow, it's been so long since I've commented that I forgot my password!) Thanks for the catch on the link, torque! Will fix.
And doh! Sorry -- longtime readers probably have figured out by now that in my District 6-centric mind, I always call Russian Hill Pac Heights. Will fix that as well.
I'm in Telegraph Hill and if there's one thing I've been ranting and raving about for years, it's the lack of a subway that links from Powell St. BART station straight out to Fisherman's Wharf.
Not that I don't LOVE dodging drunks when I'm out late walking my dogs on the weekends. It's lots of fun and keeps me on my toes.
The first $10 Billion is always the hardest. Go for it.
Can I add on a slightly related note that it's also stupid that the 38-Geary isn't a street car?
Any who read the oped piece could tell you that nowhere was a Van Ness or Geary subway mentioned. The fact this those two things are included in the graphic are entirely baffling.
Any who read the oped piece could tell you that nowhere was a Van Ness or Geary subway mentioned. The fact this those two things are included in the graphic are entirely baffling.
monorail! monorail! monorail! monorail! monorail!
The Chronicle graphic looks to be the SPUR vision for Muni, not what's currently being planned by either the SFMTA or the TA.
The dark, wide line makes Van Ness appear to be a subway, but is labeled as a busway. The TA is studying options for a dedicated busway, most likely running in the center lanes where the starting and stopping of busses won't interfere with traffic.
The TA is also planning a busway for Geary, but the dedicated lanes would only be west of Van Ness. SPUR, and anyone with any sense, has been pleading with the TA to at least create a "rail ready" design that can be converted to rail later.
As was mentioned in the editorial, SFMTA plans for the Central Subway have the tunnel boring machines going all the way to North Beach for extraction. The tunnels they build will be ready to use, minus the rail and overhead wire. At a whopping 1'/day, there will be a lot of time to plan the next extension before the machines get to North Beach and there's a couple options for where to extract the machines depending on where North Beach Station might be located.
The Chronicle graphic looks to be the SPUR vision for Muni, not what's currently being planned by either the SFMTA or the TA.
The dark, wide line makes Van Ness appear to be a subway, but is labeled as a busway. The TA is studying options for a dedicated busway, most likely running in the center lanes where the starting and stopping of busses won't interfere with traffic.
The TA is also planning a busway for Geary, but the dedicated lanes would only be west of Van Ness. SPUR, and anyone with any sense, has been pleading with the TA to at least create a "rail ready" design that can be converted to rail later.
As was mentioned in the editorial, SFMTA plans for the Central Subway have the tunnel boring machines going all the way to North Beach for extraction. The tunnels they build will be ready to use, minus the rail and overhead wire. At a whopping 1'/day, there will be a lot of time to plan the next extension before the machines get to North Beach and there's a couple options for where to extract the machines depending on where North Beach Station might be located.
In Boston, a seventeen year old schools the MBTA on how to fix transit for Boston. In Chicago, readers got something other than tuna surprise as a featured recipe. In San Francisco...