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Release date: April 23, 2012

*** Press Release ***

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees all transportation in the city, including the Municipal Railway (Muni), today announced the proposals for the three corridors to be covered at the TEP workshops on Tuesday, April 24 and Saturday, April 28. On April 24, staff will present proposals for the 28 19th Avenue. On April 28, staff will present proposals for the 5 Fulton from Market Street to La Playa and the 22 Fillmore on 16th Street between 3rd and Church streets. The 22 Fillmore proposal was previously presented at the April 11 workshop and the 28 19th Avenue at the March 31 workshop.

The SFMTA is hosting a total of 10 outreach workshops for the next phase of the Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP), a joint effort by the SFMTA and the City Controller’s Office that aims to transform Muni so that people can get where they want to go more quickly, reliably and safely. The SFMTA will host the community workshops to review the TEP travel time reduction proposals, facilitate future community involvement and inform the final recommendations. Input from community stakeholders will also shape the TEP environmental review currently underway.

“The TEP has been and will continue to be a powerful prioritizing tool for improving Muni,” said Tom Nolan, Chairman of the SFMTA Board of Directors. “Public input will be vital to this process as the TEP provides a road map for Muni’s transformation during the coming decade.”

“The good work underlying the TEP provides us with the first opportunity in a generation to systematically improve Muni service,” said Edward D. Reiskin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. “As a Transit First city, we need to be smart about how we improve transit to make it an attractive, reliable choice for San Franciscans.The TEP is a significant part of how we’ll get there.”

The TEP travel time reduction proposals that will be covered in the workshops include various traffic engineering and transit stop treatments. When combined with other initiatives such as new and ongoing Muni Operations improvements (e.g. all-door boarding) and transit signal priority, these proposals are expected to reduce Muni travel times by 15 to 30 percent and improve service reliability.

28 19th Avenue Route between Lincoln Way and Junipero Serra Boulevard

The 3.4-mile 28 19th Avenue corridor between Lincoln Ave and Junipero Serra Boulevard carries almost 50 percent of the daily ridership of this route and has a travel speed of less than 10 miles per hour.

Several proposals to improve travel time and reliability, as listed below, will be reviewed with workshop attendees at small group roundtable discussions:

• Increasing bus stop spacing from one block to two blocks
• Optimizing bus stop locations at five intersections
• Adding transit bulbs at 14 intersections
• Adding right-turn pockets at up to 19 intersections
• Adding pedestrian bulbs at 11 intersections
• Removing one left-turn lane on northbound 19th Avenue at Winston Drive

These proposals are anticipated to reduce the corridor travel time by about 11 minutes, a 26 percent reduction.

5 Fulton from Market Street to La Playa

The 5 Fulton route serves more than 19,000 customers on an average weekday. The corridor under study is the 5.6 mile stretch between La Playa and Central Avenue, Central Avenue between Fulton and McAllister streets and McAllister Street between Central Avenue and Market Street and serves over 13,000 customers daily. The current average speed of the 5 Fulton bus is less than ten miles per hour. The main causes of delay include closely spaced bus stops, traffic congestion and frequent STOP signs along the route in the Western Addition.

Several proposals to improve travel time and reliability as listed below will be reviewed with workshop attendees at small group roundtable discussions:

• Increasing bus stop spacing from 1.5 blocks to two blocks east of Arguello Boulevard and from two blocks to three blocks in the Richmond District
• Optimizing bus stop locations at 15 locations
• Adding transit bulbs at 17 locations
• Replacing all-way STOP-controlled intersections with traffic signals or traffic calming measures at nine intersections
• Adding right-turn pockets at 11 intersections
• Implementing a road diet on Fulton Street between Stanyan Street and Central Avenue
• Adding peak-period parking restriction along east side of Central Avenue between Fulton and McAllister streets
• Adding pedestrian bulbs or islands at 8 intersections

These proposals are anticipated to reduce the travel time of the 5 Fulton by about six minutes in each direction (12 minutes total) within the study area (18 percent reduction), improving the average operating speed to 11.7 miles per hour and improving service reliability. Transit signal priority improvements are anticipated to save an additional 1.5 minutes in each direction. Other changes such as operational improvements and network enhancements would further improve travel times along the corridor and add valuable customer amenities such as NextBus displays. The travel time savings would also reduce operating costs on the line and allow for service to be more cost effective.

22 Fillmore 16th Street from 3rd Street to Church Street

The 22 Fillmore serves over 18,000 customers on an average weekday of which over 8,000 board between 3rd and Church streets. The current average speed of the 22 Fillmore is seven miles per hour. The main causes of delay include closely spaced bus stops and traffic congestion.

Several proposals to improve travel time and reliability as listed below will be reviewed with workshop attendees at small group roundtable discussions:

• Moving the route off 17th and 18th streets and onto 16th Street between Kansas and 3rd streets
• Creating a center running transit-only lane through lane conversion (3rd Street to Bryant Street)
• Creating peak-period curbside transit-only lanes through lane conversion and parking removal (Bryant Street to Church Street)
• Increasing bus stop spacing from an average of one to two blocks to an average of two to four blocks
• Adding median transit boarding islands at six stops in each direction
• Restricting left turns at most locations (7th Street to Dolores Street)
• Adding new traffic signals at four locations
• Improving the pedestrian environment

These proposals are anticipated to reduce the travel time of the 22 Fillmore by about 6 minutes in each direction (12 minutes total) within the study area (28 percent reduction), improving the average operating speed to 8.7 miles per hour and improving service reliability. Transit signal priority improvements are anticipated to save an additional minute total. Other changes such as operational improvements and network enhancements would further improve travel times along the corridor and add valuable customer amenities such as NextBus displays. The travel time savings would also reduce operating costs on the line and allow for service to be more cost effective.

The details of these proposals can be found at sfmta.com/tep and are attached.

For updates and additional information, please visit sfmta.com/tep.

Updated TEP Workshop Schedule

311 Free language assistance / 免費語言協助 / Ayuda gratuita con el idioma / Бесплатная помощь переводчиков / Trợ giúp Thông dịch Miễn phí / Assistance linguistique gratuite / 無料の言語支援 / 무료 언어 지원 / Libreng tulong para sa wikang Tagalog / คว“มช่วยเหลือท“งภ“ษ“โดยไม่เส’ยค่าใช้จ่าย

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