Ed Reiskin & London Breed Ensure Hysteria-Based SFMTA Decisions to Flourish

Think removing two bus stops on the same block is a no-brainer and is in the best interest of all transit users?  Well, you forgot where you live.

As my vast audience of faithful readers is well aware, Dearest District Five often has harsh and richly deserved criticisms for the SFMTA.  Whether they are recklessly wreaking havoc on the world economy by eliminating the profits of Apple, Ferrari, and Disney AND crushing the dreams of children—and during the holidays, no less!  Or destroying the economic vitality of the entire San Francisco Bay region and pooping on the grave of William Hammond Hall by completely ruining Golden Gate Park, they often seem to believe that they can and should make changes to our city, which is clearly ridiculous.

We were cautiously optimistic that the changes proposed in the Transit Effectiveness Plan (TEP) would be sufficiently watered-down and compromised away after a series of public meetings.   Because when it comes to making decisions in San Francisco, everyone's opinion matters, even when it comes down to removing two bus stops on the same block.  So when the SFMTA wants to make even a minor seemingly sensible change, they make sure they get the input of every single person in San Francisco and pay close attention to the loudest and most incoherent people on the planet.   And boy, did they do a great job with that here on a project close to both the block of Hayes street between Masonic and Central has not one, but two bus stops.  Yes, it is possible to walk from one bus stop to the other without ever crossing a street.

Which one should we remove?  Should we even remove one of them?  Why don't we ask everyone in the micro-community!

Ed Reiskin, the head of a transit agency that employs engineers with transportation engineering degrees from such laughable institutions as Cal Poly State University SLO, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Cornell Unversity, UC Santa Cruz, and the University of Washington did what a true leader does: he turned to the community to make decisions for him.  Specifically, the crazy community.

Removing two stops on the same block should never be an independent decision by the transit authority. 

Like clockwork, the task of removing a bus stop, like the 70% of them that aren't even to the SFMTA's standards, it quickly turned into a SFSS (San Francisco Shit-Show) and all kinds of crazy came out of the woodwork, mainly those who delusionally believed that they could be negatively affected by the removal of a bus stop.  The most active party in this case was the owner of Central Coffee, which has thwarted bus removal time and time again.  This time they successfully whipped up hysteria by claiming that the entire bus line would soon be terminated if ONE OUT OF TWO BUS STOPS ON THE SAME BLOCK were eliminated.

The SFMTA is extraordinarily receptive to any kind of hysteria-based conclusions.  Even from sub-par coffee shops like Central Coffee. Image via SFCitizen

A SFMTA official was asked about the logic behind keeping two stops on the same block and they said, "we just want to make sure that people who don't have any concept of how transit works, or should work, gets a say in the process.  Even though we know it needs to be removed, we rely on the loudest and craziest people to make these decisions for us.  Other transit changes like adding an extra stop to the already stop heavy Van Ness BRT, nixing a complete raised bike lane on Polk Street, and slowing down the upcoming Geary BRT in the interest of car parking along the upcoming Geary BRT have all been scrapped in the interest of a few angry & misguided residents.  Because why on earth would we want to rely on best practices in the field, the expert analysis of our own staff members, or even our own agency's empirical experience?  No, the best people to make decisions about transit planning are those whose minds are pure, who have not been tainted by experience or education."

SFMTA always makes sure to have billions of meetings with angry loud individuals so they can water down perviously approved plans from engineers & experts, like the scrapped Polk Street bike plan.

Bob's Commentary: It cannot be overemphasized that Ed Resikin did a great thing here.  When faced with a deluge of identical email parroting the same nonsensical talking points such as this:

 "YOU CANNOT TAKE OUR BUS LINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!  REMOVING THE SECOND STOP IN A BLOCK WILL DIRECTLY RESULT IN THE DEATH OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WE CAN SEE THROUGH YOUR NEFARIOUS PLAN TO ELIMINATE OF THE MOST HIGH-TRAFFIC BUS LINES IN THE CITY BY MAKING A SMALL STEP TO IMPROVE IT AND BRING THIS PART OF THE LINE UP TO YOUR OWN STANDARDS!!!!!!!!!" 

Did Ed exercise leadership?  Did he respond to each message with a careful explanation of SFMTA's own evidence-based policies and the time and cost savings that would be involved?  Did he note that the stop in question is literally without shouting distance of two other stops and on the same block with one of them?  Did he assure people that removing one stop is not foreshadowing the removal of an entire major bus line?

The answer, dear readers, is no.  No, the SFMTA director of transportation did not take an opportunity to engage with his community and exercise leadership in explaining a decision made falsely controversial by outright lies.  He simply rolled over and allowed a loud liar with access to a photocopier and the tired bus riders who saw a scary sign to make city policy.  And that, my friends, is a beautiful thing.

Ed Reiskin is ~all about~ improving Muni, except when it comes to removing bus stops within 300 feet of each other. 

As you may have noticed from Ed Reiskin's email above, there is still, sadly, one unnecessary gatekeeper between the people's transit planning and the real world.  We can only hope that the MTA board doesn't allow logic or basic common sense to enter into this situation.  If you worry that the MTA board will recklessly and foolishly remove the second bus stop in a single block, you can contact them to register your outrage: MTABoard@sfmta.com.  Until next time, keep loving your city so much it can never, ever change.

SFMTA: One Last TEP Meeting With Citizens to Render it Useless

The Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP) is a comprehensive overhaul of San Francisco's transit network.  It has been developed over several years of data collection, intensive planning and public outreach efforts.  It's also been sitting on the shelves collecting dust for the past 6 years, working through the guts of city bureaucracy. Finally, the SFMTA is ready to have it completely ruined by a selfish public that is vehemently opposed to participating in an activity commonly known as "walking".

Suggested improvements will benefit all transit users, but it will undoubtedly piss off one or two people and likely get scrapped.
Image via SFMTA.

The TEP aims to accomplish the following:

• Improve Reliability – Make service more predictable to build customer confidence before implementing proposed route changes

• Reduce Travel Times – Develop small- and large-scale strategies to reduce delay, enhance pedestrian safety, and get more service from existing resources

• Update Muni Routes – Redesign routes and adjust service to benefit the maximum number of Muni customers

SFMTA explaining to a group of angry car storage loving people, looking at "sheets of colored paper on sticks".
Image via Streetsblog

Feedback from the city residents aims to:

• Don't Make us Walk and Don't Remove a Bus Line - Make the lines more reliable and faster, but keep stops on every block, or even 2 on every block.  Walking three blocks to a bus that goes faster than 8 miles an hour?  Are you insane?

• Streamline and Enhance the Lines, but only inconvenience other people -  61 percent of Muni riders in a 2010 survey said they would consider walking a longer distance to their stop if they knew it would reduce their overall travel time, and only inconvenience someone else.

• Complain About the Change to Anything - Do it or don't, but don't expect any less anger of confusion from us.  And you better not get rid of one parking spot to enhance a bus route or there will be hell to pay.

SFMTA spokesman said, "We were very meticulous and careful in this planning, and now we're ready to have micro-democracy and politics completely dismantle all the good work we've done so far.  Think of us as the San Francisco Mini Democracy Agency.  Your opinion matters no matter how ruinous it is to our bus system."  Similar proposals like the Gearty BRT, Van Ness BRT, Polk Street, Market Street have gone through similar channels and will be completed in 2000sometimemaybenever.  Once the final TEP meeting is finished, they'll go door to door to make sure that every citizen in San Francisco has had their say.  Meeting will be held on Friday, March 28th at 8 am.

With the help of community input, we can make sure the TEP keeps the lines like the 21 Hayes Bus Line, with 1-2 stops every block and take twice as long as simply walking!
image found here.