Muni Diaries

Photo by skronk!

MrEricSir has a suggestion for making Muni more efficient:

Anyone who regularly travels on Muni Metro through [the intersection at Church and Duboce], or the similar intersection at Ulloa and West Portal, can testify that these intersections are a major source of Muni Metro delays. (The West Portal intersection is actually worse, since Muni Metro has a signal but other traffic does not.)

If we really want to be a “transit-first” city, doesn’t it make sense to have traffic signals that give preference to transit? Especially in the case of Muni Metro, which is supposed to be “rapid” but when mixed with traffic is anything but.

Of course, that would mean that all of San Francisco would have to agree with the idea that public transportation sits atop a hierarchy, above cars, bikes, pedestrians, baby strollers, unicyclists, roller bladers, Segways, etc., etc., ad infinitum. Still, we like Eric’s idea. You can read the rest of what he’s got to say about it here.

What do you think?

Photo by mtarlock

Update (Wednesday, 11:36 p.m.):The Examiner speculates that the DC Airport Authority is likely to look past SFMTA chief Nat Ford for its next executive director.

Original post (Wednesday morning):City Insider/Chronicle reporter Rachel Gordon has the story.

Muni chief Nathaniel Ford, the front-runner for the job to run the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, was not offered the position after two-hours of closed-door deliberations this morning.

The authority’s 13-member regional governing board, which convened at 8 a.m. EST, opted to put off the decision.

The delay signals that the board is still deeply divided over whether to hire Ford.

Read the rest of the story at City Insider.