Transportation

San Francisco is a compact city where achieving a smooth, efficient, and reliable transit system is something we can make a reality with the right leadership. We can turn MUNI into a world-class public transit system while making our city a friendly place for all modes of transportation—walking, biking, public transit, and driving.

IMPROVING MUNI

San Francisco has one of the highest rates of public transit use in the country, but residents and commuters alike are frustrated by MUNI and heavy traffic congestion in many parts of our city. Most of MUNI’s bus routes and transit lines share our city’s roads with cars, and traffic congestion is one of the primary reasons why MUNI service is often slow and unreliable.

To improve MUNI, I support taking measures to ease traffic congestion and focus additional resources on the most used routes and lines while ensuring that every community has access to our public transit system. I also support work rule reforms that allow MUNI drivers to work part-time to cover routes during peak times.

ADDITIONAL REVENUE FOR MUNI

San Francisco should have a world-class public transportation system and funding for MUNI will be a priority in the budgets I propose as Mayor. State budget cuts have hit our public transit system particularly hard. In addition to other structural reforms, new revenue is required to get MUNI on solid ground. I will investigate ways to increase revenue and support a $100 vehicle mitigation fee. Once we provide MUNI with a reliable source of revenue, we can make progress on other important transit issues like improvement of on-time performance, cleanliness and expansion of service.

MUNI: SAFE, RELIABLE AND CONVENIENT

Use of pubic transit will increase if it is convenient, reliable and safe. I will work to improve the flow of MUNI vehicles and increase on-time performance. I support implementation of bus rapid transit (BRT) lanes and synchronization of traffic lights on major transit corridors for buses and light rail to give them priority.

We need to speed up the process when customers board MUNI. I will expand and incentivize the use of clipper cards and fast passes, investigate ways to allow back door boarding and find new options to allow customers to pre-purchase one time fares.

MUNI’s on-time performance is improving, but not fast enough. I will seek and listen to public input from MUNI customers and drivers because nobody knows how to improve MUNI better than the people who use it and the workers who operate it on a daily basis.

TRANSIT FIRST: MEANS MORE THAN GOOD PUBLIC TRANSIT

I believe we can make getting around our city cleaner, greener, and faster by creating and maintaining sustainable streets for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. Promoting transit-oriented development, and speeding up the adoption of new traffic technologies are among my top priorities. I support policies to encourage more biking, walking, and ride-sharing to work while respecting residents’ and commuters’ choice of transit.

“Transit First” means more than having a world class public transit system. We need more dedicated bike lanes and additional bike storage. We need pedestrian friendly sidewalks and street crossings. I support developing a city-wide bike network, to make bicycling an integral part of our transportation system. Our land use policy needs to reflect our transportation values as well, which is why I support new transit oriented development.

TRANSPORTATION INNOVATION

Technology, innovation and data should be utilized and readily available to the public. Some of the brightest and most creative minds live within our city borders. Having information available and seeking public involvement will lead to innovation and the type of out-of-the-box thinking we need to improve our public transit system. We should evaluate solutions developed in forums like the recent Transportation Camp that was held in San Francisco attended by innovators in the field.

I will make all data related to Muni and transportation available to the public. We need to give our innovators the tools they need to effect change.

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Showing 6 reactions

James Wilder commented 2011-10-31 18:05:15 -0400 · Flag

@Nick I agree with your comments and ideas.

Tom Hess commented 2011-10-10 13:54:07 -0400 · Flag

When is Joanna going to respond to these posts requesting specific plans on various topics?

Paul Hollowell commented 2011-10-10 01:24:25 -0400 · Flag

Don’t see anything here about addressing the desperate need for additional parking throughout the city.

Tom Hess commented 2011-09-20 18:48:15 -0400 · Flag

Are you willing to turn around the city’s zealous anti-car policies? Some may not realize it, but there are people in the city who actually need to drive a car. Consider a family with two working parents and two kids in school in different parts of the city. Logic says they need a car to drive the kids to school and get to work on time. It is not reasonable to say they should take the bus. What, get up at 5:00 am to catch a bus that may not arrive, and transfer 3-4 times to get to work…nuts? At least, they should have a choice. Ease driving and parking restrictions, or this family will join the mass exodus to the suburbs. It’s crazy to force a developer to provide fewer parking spaces in a new apartment or condo building than there are living units. Who in their right mind would buy a condo without parking? Aiding biking and walking is a good goal, but we should not continue to punish car drivers.

John Riley commented 2011-09-02 09:49:23 -0400 · Flag

I don’t see anything here about the Central Subway. I think it is a bad idea.

Nick Aster commented 2011-08-16 16:17:27 -0400 · Flag

Great to see the commitment to Muni. I would argue, however, that more funding is NOT what Muni needs. What muni needs is to cut expenses (outrageous pensions and salaries for both union and management) followed by the gumption to take pride in their routes.

Eliminating ~30% of the stops in the city, eliminating duplicative routes (such as the useless 2 Clement) and building out curbs to meet the bus (such as what has been done on Divisadero). Then put more busses on the routes that are used.

Finally, all muni routes should be run on an honor system. No more gates, no more fare collection, let people board by the back door. Have PLAIN CLOTHED cops come around and find people who cheat. Uniformed inspectors can be seen a mile away.

Just my two cents