The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity to take a fresh eyes look at the City’s bus system and re-tool it to reflect the increasing population with most added housing on the east side of San Francisco in neighborhoods like Rincon Hill, SoMa, Potrero Hill, Mission Bay, and Civic Center/Van Ness. The challenge in San Francisco as it is in many cities is that once services are started, they are politically challenging to end when they become too costly, suboptimal, and otherwise not serving the core mantra of government to do the most good for the most people.
Our bus service provider, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is phoning a friend for help – YOU!!
They are asking YOU to vote (Take the 2022 Muni service Survey online or by phone at 415.646.2005) for 1 of 3 options for MUNI service in 2022 to help cover the political butts to make a good dollars and sense choice to turn off the spigot in suburban designed portions of San Francisco in favor of making the MUNI bus service routes more appealing to the new, high-density neighborhoods like Rincon Hill and SoMa that built the bulk of new housing in San Francisco over the past 20 years with the Frequent Alternative or Hybrid Alternative. Check out the details of the proposed alternatives for SoMa/Rincon Hill/FiDi in particular.
The great news is that the 12 Folsom bus route has resumed serving our neighborhood for the first time since December 5, 2009’s service cuts due to challenging economic times caused by 2007-08’s Great Recession. The 12 Folsom bus will take you to the nightclubs in West SoMa and to the Mission neighborhood and its wonderfully developed commercial corridors and popular parks like Dolores. The 12 Folsom bus also takes us further north to Jackson Square, Chinatown, North Beach, and the Russian Hill where there are all sorts of great restaurants, sights, walking paths and stairs up to hilltops, and other experiences to try out. However, the 12 Folsom bus’s frequency is typically 15-20 minutes. Voting for the Frequent Alternative or the Hybrid Alternative options in SFMTA’s survey both will increase the frequency of the 12 Folsom bus to every 8 minutes along with increasing frequencies of many other highly utilized bus lines in the denser populated sections of San Francisco. The Familiar Alternative leaves the suboptimal status quo that ignores the 2020 Census and extent of residential development that has already occurred on the east side of San Francisco.
Take the 2022 Muni service Survey online or by phone at 415.646.2005 – and I encourage you to choose the Frequent Alternative – or secondarily the Hybrid Alternative
Learn more with these SFMTA meetings online:
Attend one of 3 virtual open houses
Formal presentation plus Q&A
Free interpretation available. Please request 48 hours in advance at TellMuni@SFMTA.com or 415.646.2005.
Take the 2022 Muni service Survey online or by phone at 415.646.2005 – Please strongly consider the Frequent Alternative – secondarily the Hybrid Alternative
Please pass along this information to others and help get those votes for Frequent or Hybrid alternatives entered! Let SFMTA and San Francisco municipal government hear our voices!