The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency now has a Mission Street compromise it hopes will ease concerns from the community.
After anger erupted from merchants and residents from traffic changes made on Mission Street between March and April of this year, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency now has a compromise it hopes will ease concerns from the community.
The project called the 14-Mission Rapid Project included changes on Mission Street between 14th and 30th streets that included a red-transit only lane for the 14-Mission and 49-Van Ness/Mission routes, a number of restricted left turns and forced right turns at some intersections.
Officials said the goal of the project was to improve the reliability of the two Mission Street Muni routes and to improve traffic safety in the corridor.
Since the implementation of the traffic changes, merchants have said that patrons are having a harder time accessing stores, which has led to a decrease in sales for some merchants. Drivers have also said that they have harder time accessing Mission Street merchants and finding parking, according to a survey conduced by the transit agency.
After a community meeting held in June with the SFMTA’s Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin and District 9 Supervisor David Campos, the transit agency has come up with a slightly different plan.
The alternative plan, which will be heard at the SFMTA’s Board of Directors for approval on Aug. 16, will take out two of the forced right turns on Mission and 22nd streets and on 26th Street, and move the Cortland Street outbound bus stop nearside to improve boarding for riders and allowing taxis to make the left turn on Mission and 21st Streets.
But some have said the new proposed changes are not enough. The San Francisco Examiner reports that Erick Arguello, who represents the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, said he wants to see the forced right turn on Mission and Cesar Chavez streets to go as well. Arguello told the paper that the forced turn divides the Bernal Heights and Mission neighborhoods heading north.
The transit agency wrote on its website on why it’s not removing the forced right turn on Mission and Cesar Chavez streets:
“Doing so would make traffic and transit performance worse on northbound Mission Street than before the project was implemented because one lane of traffic was removed.”
Despite some opposition from some, the transit agency has said the project has made the corridor safer and improved reliability for Muni buses traveling in the corridor.
Muni bus collisions saw a decrease in collisions of 85 percent with just seven collisions occurring in the project corridor since March 27. During the same time last year, the transit agency said there were 45 Muni-related collisions.
Buses on average are traveling two minutes faster in each direction in the corridor, the transit agency said. A survey of riders (61 percent) said they felt they were saving an average of 10 minutes because of spending less time in traffic and signal priority, which holds the green light for approaching Muni buses.
The SFMTA’s Board of Directors meeting is at 1 p..m. next Tuesday at City Hall, Room 400.
Anyone who can not attend can email comments to the transit agency at [email protected].
Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.
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The Mission Street transit improvements are wonderful and they certainly are fitting of a city that considers itself to be “transit first.” Riding Muni on Mission, especially the 14 R, is finally a more reliable and less slow, cumbersome, and inefficient experience. Thank you to the SFMTA for the red lanes and other improvements.
We are told to fix the traffic and parking problems SFMTA brought to Mission Street that killed businesses and drove customers away will cost a lot of money and take years to accomplish. People on Taraval and Lombard take note. Demand that they paint and test their plans before pouring any concrete. Don’t settle for anything more now that you see the mess on Mission Street. Surveys on Mission and Castro streets show up to 55% loss of income among merchants since the streetscape improvements. JUST SAY NO! And support the SFMTA Charter Amendment: stopsfmta.com
The SFMTA has spent MILLIONS of our Tax dollars on “road diets” by closing streets and removing driving lanes claiming that the streets are “too fast and dangerous.” Now that they have GRIDLOCKED the streets
they are spending BILLIONS MORE to increase the speed of buses with Transit only lanes and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Projects.
SFMTA planners wont admit that that their plans aren’t working; it’s those stupid commuters, truckers, and other travelers who should be riding bikes and walking instead of driving. San Francisco is now rated the third worst in the country for parking the second worst for driving. Muni delivers less than 98.5% of scheduled service and has never met 85% of on time performance.
These JOB KILLING “Rapid Transit” projects have been paid for by passing bonds that increase our property
taxes and rents. The MUNI routes are are no faster than they were before the changes were made so why is the city still pushing these terrible projects on to the public? Residents and businesses have had ENUF! A recent poll by the Bay Area Council reports that 34 percent of city residents are planning to move move away, citing high housing costs and GRIDLOCKED traffic as reasons.
Now that’s the RAGE FILLED caps I remember! Glad to see you’re on the mend!
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