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Release date: April 9, 2012

*** Press Release ***

San Francisco—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 that will be covered at the next two TEP meetings. On April 10 staff will present proposals for the J Church from Church Street and Duboce Avenue to Balboa Park Station and the Mission corridor south of Cesar Chavez to San Jose Avenue; on April 11, the meeting will cover the Mission corridor from 13th Street and Duboce Avenue to Cesar Chavez Street and the 22 Fillmore from 3rd to Church streets.

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.

J Church Line from Church Street and Duboce Avenue to Balboa Park Station

The J Church line serves more than 14,000 customers on an average weekday. Within the four mile stretch between Church Street and Duboce Avenue to its terminal at the Balboa Park Station, the average speed is eight miles per hour. The main causes of delay are traffic signal delays, traffic congestion and frequent stops due to closely spaced transit stops.

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

• Replacing all-way STOP controlled intersections with traffic signals or traffic calming measures at four intersections
• Optimizing transit stop locations at three intersections
• Creating more consistent stop spacing
• Adding transit bulbs at seven intersections
• Extending boarding islands at two intersections

These proposals are anticipated to reduce the travel time of the J Church within the study area by about 6.5 minutes total in both directions (a 12 percent reduction), resulting in an average operating speed of nine miles per hour and improving service reliability. Other changes such as transit signal priority improvements, 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.

14 Mission from Steuart Street to San Jose Avenue

April 10: Outer Mission from south of Cesar Chavez to San Jose Avenue

April 11: Inner Mission from 13th Street & Duboce to Cesar Chavez Street

(May 1: Downtown Mission from Steuart Street to 13th Street)

The 7.5-mile stretch of the 14 Mission routes from Steuart Street to San Jose Avenue serve more than 46,000 customers per average weekday with an additional 12,000 served by the 49 Van Ness-Mission on Mission Street. The main causes of transit delay along the corridor are traffic congestion due to double-parked vehicles, buses getting stuck behind right-turning cars, narrow lanes and areas of closely spaced transit stops

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

• Reconfiguring the roadway
• Creating right-turn pocket at key intersections
• Converting side running transit-only lanes to center-running transit only lanes between 1st and 6th streets
• Adding transit boarding islands at six intersections
• Creating transit signal priority at three locations
• Increasing bus stop spacing from one to two blocks
• Optimizing transit stop locations at six intersections
• Adding transit bulbs at six intersections
• Extending existing transit stops at two locations
• Replacing all-way STOP controlled intersections with traffic signals at two intersections
• Restricting turns at 14 intersections

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 between 3rd Street and Bryant Street
• Creating peak-period curbside transit-only lanes through lane conversion and parking removal from 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 from 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 six 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 www.sfmta.com/tep and are attached.

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

Updated TEP Workshop Schedule

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