SF News SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin is Resigning at the End of the Year The five-year reign of SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin will come to an end on December 31, and while he steered Muni through the pandemic and saw some big projects completed, he was a lightning rod for criticism over bike lanes and car-free streets.
SF News Could Muni Eliminate the Cable Cars? That’s on the Table, as the Agency Faces a Possible $320 Million Deficit Dark days loom for Muni after the failure of Prop L, an incoming Trump presidency, and a deficit as high as $322 million, so there’s talk of eliminating the cable cars, or axing some lesser-used bus lines outright.
Arts & Entertainment Muni Launches Online Store Full of Muni-Branded T-Shirts, Hats, Hoodies, Mugs, and More Well, that’s one way to address a $214 million deficit. Muni just launched an online store, in time for the holidays, where you can buy Muni swag like t-shirts, hoodies, hats, socks, and even baby onesies.
SF News SF to Start Enforcing New ‘Daylighting’ Parking Law for Parking Within 20 Feet of a Crosswalk You’ll soon be looking at a $40 citation for parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk, as new state law is kicking in requiring 20 feet of “daylight” between parked cars and crosswalks, though they won’t be handing out the fines until January 1, 2025.
SF Politics SF’s Prop L Hopes to Save Muni With a Tax on Uber, Lyft, and Waymo Rides With the SFMTA looking at a $214 million deficit and potential service cuts, a ragtag band of riders came up with Prop L, which would tax Lyft, Uber, and Waymo rides to effectively bail out Muni.
SF News West Portal Intersection That Was Scene of Deadly Crash Sees New Design Changes Changes have now been implemented at the West Portal intersection where a family of four was killed by an apparently out-of-control, speeding driver in March, but some in the neighborhood doubt these changes will make them safer.
SF News Muni Experiences Major Meltdown With Downed Overhead Line In Tunnel Near Civic Center It's not clear how many hours we may be looking at here, but Muni was melting down Tuesday morning, with no light-rail trains able to pass through the Market Street subway tunnel in the downtown direction.
SF News Beware Phony QR Code Scam Popping Up on SF Parking Meters Some fairly sophisticated scam artists have been slapping QR-code "Pay by Phone" stickers on SF parking meters, and the SFMTA just caught on last week.
SF News Twin Peaks Tunnel About to Shut Down Again for Eight Days, Starting Thursday Heads up, those who ride Muni’s K, L, M, and S lines — the West Portal and Forest Hill stations, and all of the Twin Peaks Tunnel, will be closed for eight whole days, effective Thursday morning.
SF News Muni to Update Train Control System From Floppy-Disk Era... Over the Next Ten Years Things don't happen fast when it comes to San Francisco's public transit systems. And in the case of Muni, that means a train-control apparatus that was installed in 1998 — and sounds like it might have been almost outdated even then — is finally going to get an update. But it will take a decade.
SF News Muni Somehow Scores Its Highest Rider Satisfaction Rate In 23 Years According to a new Muni survey, 72% of riders rated the city’s public transit service as “good” or “excellent,” though that comes with the catch that the more frequently people ride Muni, the less satisfied they are with it.
SF News Twin Peaks Tunnel Closes This Weekend for Repairs, Muni Trains Stopping at Castro The Twin Peaks Tunnel, which connects Castro Station to West Portal on the other side, will be closed throughout this weekend for repairs, and will be closed again in August.
SF Politics SFMTA Wants to Put a Bike Lane in Chinatown, Chinatown Leaders Not at All Happy With the Idea Right after the SFMTA’s embarrassing need for a do-over on the Valencia Street bike lane, the agency is now pushing for a bike lane in Chinatown. But Chinatown community groups don’t want it, and say the idea “just doesn’t make sense.”
SF News SFMTA Votes to End the Valencia Center Bike Lane Experiment, But New Curbside Lanes Won’t Arrive Until 2025 After nearly a year of controversy, the SFMTA has decided to flip-flop the Valencia Street bike lane back to the old curbside design, but the new curbside bike lanes won’t be completed until January 2025 at the earliest.
SF News SFMTA Will Consider Ditching the Valencia Street Center-Running Bike Lane Next Week Nearly one year and plenty of controversies into the center-running bike lane on Valencia Street, the SFMTA has had enough of the complaining, and will consider moving the bike lane back to the curb side at next week’s meeting.
SF News Muni Workers Might Go On Strike This Summer as Union Rejects Proposed Contract Well, this could shake up the mayoral race, as well as ruining everyone’s commute possibly as soon as July, as the union of Muni operators, fare inspectors, and mechanics has rejected their new proposed labor agreement and might go on strike this summer.
SF News L-Taraval Trains Get Closer to Returning as SFMTA Completes Paving Project The L-Taraval light-rail line, which has been suspended since 2019 and replaced by a bus, will be returning to service this fall. And the SFMTA just completed a paving project on Taraval Street.
SF News SFMTA Employees Are Nervous About Becoming Targets of Backlash Against Parking Crackdown Car owners without garages in SF are tensing up in preparation for an announced May sweep by the SFMTA's Parking Enforcement team, which is set to cover every district of the city in search of parking rule violators. But those parking enforcers are tense themselves.
SF News Day Around the Bay: SFMTA to Do 'Intensive' Sweep For Parking Violations In May The SFMTA is going to be doing an "intensive" crackdown on parking next month; an East Bay rapper has been charged with robbery and false imprisonment; and Redwood City is looking to permanently ban cars from a section of Broadway.
SF News You May See More Muni Fare Inspectors on Buses This Year as SFMTA Vows Crackdown on Fare Evasion Some state bailout funds that are flowing to the SFMTA came with the condition that the agency do more to crack down on fare evasion. So you will likely start seeing more scofflaws getting tickets for not having proof of payment.
SF News Ambitious Potrero Bus Yard Affordable Housing Project Might Get Slashed From 500 Units to 100 Units As the SFMTA proceeds with their grand plan to modernize the 109-year-old Potrero Yard bus facility and build 500 units of affordable housing on top of it, we receive word that they may reduce that affordable housing component to barely 100 units.
SF News SFMTA Takes No Action on Changing Valencia Bike Lane, Despite Its Ongoing Controversies Despite a new lawsuit and a claim that SFMTA might move the Valencia Street bike lane back to the curbside, the agency’s board made no changes to the controversial bike lane at Tuesday’s meeting.
SF News SFMTA Claims New Valencia Bike Lane Is Safer, But They Might Bow to Pressure and Redesign It Anyway If you believe the SFMTA, the new Valencia Street center bike lane has been a smashing success. But businesses say it has smashed their revenues, and some bicyclists say it’s uniquely dangerous, so SFMTA is considering redesigning the whole thing.
SF News Muni Ridership Reached 71% of Pre-Pandemic Levels In 2023, With Some Bus Routes More Crowded Than In 2019 Ridership on Muni buses and trains was up to 86% of pre-pandemic levels on weekends last year, and up to 68% on weekdays, but revenue across the SFMTA remains down — and are these ridership numbers even real if people don't pay?
SF News Vintage 1956 Muni Bus Delighted Transit Nerds This Weekend at Duboce Park The good folks at Muni busted out a 1950s-era Muni Mack bus this weekend, and let transit lovers hop onboard and enjoy it in its fully restored glory, as part of a “120 years of SFMTA” exhibit happening over that the Harvey Milk Photo Center.
