Category: News

Photo by wallyg

Update (8:23 a.m., Friday): Per SFBay report Jerold (below, in comments): The surplus is $22.2 million this year and $15 million the following year. There is also a recommendation to increase Muni service by five percent this year and five percent next year.

Original post: We linked to an SFGate story in our transit news roundup the other day. The story talks about several different proposals being shopped out concerning SFMTA’s budget for the next couple of years, and something gave us pause: a cash fare hike from $2 to $2.25, and a 300-percent increase in the single-ride cost for F-Market streetcars.

But that’s not all! Missing in SFGate’s report is the fact that SFMTA is actually running a surplus, its first in recent years. ABC 7 has the details:

“The Metropolitan Transportation Agency that runs Muni is facing a surplus and there are many different ways the public could benefit. At the hearing [on Tuesday], the agency was asking the public where some of that extra money should go.”

ABC 7 does not mention the amount of the surplus. Proposals for how to spend the money, however much it is, include:

• Expanding free Muni for youth from 16 to 18
• Expanding free Muni for seinors
• Expanding free Muni for low-income residents

Read more

Photo by analogskirt

• How Racial Profiling Leads to Tasering on BART (Medium)
• SFMTA trims overtime costs by 13 percent (SFBay)
• San Francisco Ponders Free Muni Passes Due to ‘Affordability’ Crisis (KQED)
• Changes Proposed For 6, 71 Muni Lines (Haighteration)
• Pedestrian fatality raises safety questions on Van Ness (KTVU)
• Muni pilot programs floated to improve transit along the waterfront (SF Examiner)
• Municipal Transportation Agency rolls out budget (SFGate)

Photo via SF Streetsblog

Last week a driver drove into the Duboce Muni tunnel again, despite numerous warning signs. And again, Muni riders got out to lift the car off of the tracks. SF Streetsblog‘s Aaron was on the scene and captured it on video. Here’s Aaron’s account of what happened:

Last night, the N-Judah train I was on with my fiancee (whom I happened to meet on the N) was approaching the east portal of the Sunset Tunnel when my fellow riders and I spotted a set of tail lights up ahead. We pretty much all knew what it meant — another driver tried to enter the transit tunnel.

We all got out to find the woman’s car lodged on the edge of the concrete. Pretty soon, another train showed up headed in the other direction, and she was blocking Muni’s busiest line, both inbound and outbound. Fortunately, some good Samaritans from our train decided not to wait for a tow truck — seven men lifted the front of the car back on top of the ledge, allowing the woman to drive the car away (I don’t know if she got a citation).

This is by far not the first time that a driver accidentally entered the tunnel, and not the first time that riders got involved to get the car off of the tracks. Last June, Haighteration reported a similar incident. And at Muni Diaries Live in 2010, Derek Powazek told the story of stranded Muni riders rising to the occasion (go to 11:07 in the video).

Seriously, though, what’s it gonna take to get drivers to stop driving into these “DO NOT ENTER” tunnels?

Photo by torbakhopper

• Late night transit options up for review, expansion (Castro Biscuit)
• Transit Researchers Want Your Videos of Tech Shuttles at Muni Stops (SF Streetsblog)
• SFMTA officials announce promising budget outlook (SF Examiner)
• SFMTA seeks community input on commuter shuttle fee locations (SF Examiner)
• Muni Metro moving faster, breaking down less (SF Bay)