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22 Fillmore 16th Street from 3rd Street to Church Street
Corridor Overview
 Muni’s 22 Fillmore bus route carries over 18,000 daily customers on an average weekday. The route’s study corridor is 2.2 miles long and includes 16th Street between 3rd and Church streets. Within the study corridor, the 22 Fillmore serves over 8,000 customers on an average weekday.
Within the study area, the 22 Fillmore operates at an average speed of 7 miles per hour during peak periods. Sources of delay include closely spaced bus stops and traffic congestion.
Travel Time Reduction Proposal Overview
In order to reduce transit travel times and improve reliability, the SFMTA proposes a toolkit of measures within the study area. The proposals include:
- Moving the route off of 17th and 18th streets and onto 16th Street between Kansas Street and 3rd Street. To connect to the growing Mission Bay neighborhood and to provide continuous transit service along 16th Street, the 22 Fillmore is proposed to be rerouted onto 16th Street from Kansas to 3rd streets. A revised 33 Stanyan would replace the 22 Fillmore on Connecticut and 18th streets.
- Create center running transit-only lanes through lane conversion (3rd Street to Bryant Street). Currently, the 22 Fillmore travels in general traffic lanes and is subject to delays due to traffic congestion. With the expected growth in the Mission Bay neighborhood, traffic congestion along 16th Street is anticipated to worsen, causing further delays to the bus route. To address these delays, center running transit-only lanes are proposed between 3rd and Bryant streets. A transit-only left-turn signal at 3rd Street is proposed as part of the transit-only lanes. Transit-only lanes can save significant travel time for the 22 Fillmore by giving the bus its own exclusive lane. To make room for the transit-only lanes, the existing bike lane on 16th Street would be moved to 17th Street between Kansas and Mississippi streets.
- Reconfigure 16th Street from Bryant Street to Church Street (Design Options 1-2):
- Design Option 1: Create peak-period curbside transit-only lanes through lane conversion and parking removal. West of Bryant Street, 16th Street is 10 feet narrower than in the eastern portion of the corridor with travel lanes too narrow for buses to travel in without straddling both lanes. Peak-period curbside transit-only lanes can be created by removing parking on both sides of the street during the morning and afternoon weekday peak periods and converting the wider curbside lane into a transit-only lane. The transit-only lanes can save significant travel time for the 22 Fillmore by giving the bus its own exclusive lane during the peak travel periods.
- Design Option 2: Create right lane transit-only lane in the westbound direction through lane conversion. A full-time westbound right lane transit-only lane can be created and parking preserved by reconfiguring 16th Street to one eastbound lane, one westbound lane, and one westbound transit-only lane. The transit-only lane can save significant travel time for the 22 Fillmore by giving the bus its own exclusive lane.
- Increasing bus stop spacing from an average of one to two blocks to an average of two to four blocks. Currently, the 22 Fillmore stops at every major block in the Mission area and at about every two blocks east of Potrero Avenue. This proposal moves towards a two block spacing west of Bryant Street and a four block spacing to the east where the blocks are smaller. By stopping fewer times, the bus would take less time to move through the corridor.
- Adding median transit boarding islands at six stops in each direction. Between 3rd Street and Bryant Street, median transit boarding islands are proposed to complement the center running transit-only lanes. Under this proposal, the bus would run in center running transit-only lanes and would pick up and drop off passengers at the proposed boarding island. In conjunction with the transit-only lanes, the islands, which would be 8.5 feet wide and 100 feet long, would reduce delays associated with the bus pulling into and out of traffic.
- Restricting left turns at most locations (7th Street to Dolores Street). Left turns from 16th Street would be restricted at all times at all intersections from 7th Street to Dolores Street with the exception of both directions at 7th Street, eastbound at Vermont Street, and eastbound at Potrero Avenue. Restricting left turns would improve travel times for both transit and through traffic by eliminating delays associated left turning vehicles waiting for gaps in oncoming traffic.
- Adding new traffic signals at four locations. Due to the anticipated growth in traffic along 16th Street from the Mission Bay developments, traffic signals at Missouri, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and San Bruno streets are proposed.
- Improving the pedestrian environment. Corner sidewalk bulbs are proposed throughout the corridor to reduce the street crossing distance. In addition, as a potential second phase of the project, the sidewalk on both sides of 16th Street between 7th Street and Potrero is proposed to be widened from 10 feet to 18 feet. This would require removing parking on both sides of the street. Some parking and loading areas would be maintained through cut-ins in the sidewalk.
Summary
Together, the proposed changes are anticipated to reduce the travel time of the 22 Fillmore by about 5 minutes in each direction (10 minutes total) within the study area (25 percent reduction), improving the average operating speed to XX 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 cost effectively increased.
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