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SPUR 2007 ANNUAL REPORT
PROGRAM UPDATES:
SPUR's Top Policy Goals for 2008
This article appears in the April 2008 issue of Urbanist
Transportation
Getting people out of their
cars and onto transit is a
crucial part of SPUR’s plan
to fight climate change.
Decreasing job sprawl and housing sprawl depends upon increasing density in the city center, where infrastructure already exists. This cannot happen without a thriving transit system for the city and region.
SPUR’s transportation policy work seeks to increase the use of public transit while advocating for specific service and administrative improvements in the overall system. We emphasize efficiency, choice and capacity: How can the City’s transit needs be met with the smallest investment of tax dollars? What kind of system gives travelers the most options to get around? How can Muni accommodate thousands of new passengers in an already crowded city? Our goal is to create a diverse transportation system that takes full advantage of the Muni, BART and Caltrain systems we’ve already built while making room for new riders. SPUR also is involved in efforts to improve roads and land use patterns to better accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians.
"Transit not Traffic" campaign
Last November, voters backed Proposition A — more commonly known as the “transit not traffic” campaign — to give Muni more money from the City’s General Fund and more autonomy from political interference. This victory affirmed SPUR’s goal to create a balanced transportation system that poses itself as a viable alternative to driving. Prop. A also gave the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency more power to improve transit routes, stops and traffic signals. It (along with the defeat of Prop. H) also limits the City’s ability to increase allowable parking requirements for new construction, an important consideration in a city where worsening car congestion inhibits our ability to implement more transportation choices. Many thanks to SPUR Board Member Lisa Feldstein for prompting our early involvement in the campaign.
Visit www.spur.org/transitnottraffic/ for a full summary of the campaign.
Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP)
Muni’s slow speeds make it unproductive and inefficient, not to mention unattractive to potential riders. Throughout 2007, planners with the
SFMTA and the Controller’s Office examined almost every aspect of our transit system with the goal
of making it faster and more reliable. The TEP recommendations will help speed up the system by at least 25 percent. As a result, passengers will get faster service and more service at no cost to the system. SPUR and SFMTA Board Member Peter Mezey played a crucial role in educating his colleagues about the proposed recommendations. Implementing the TEP in 2008 will be one of the SPUR’s two most important transit initiatives of 2008. The other is increasing funding.
Read “Muni on the Rise,” SPUR’s summary of the TEP at www.spur.org/documents/020608_article_01.shtm.
Downtown Extension Task Force
The extension of Caltrain to downtown San Francisco is the Bay Area’s single most important transit project. Construction on the Transbay Transit Center is slated to begin this year, but there’s only enough money right now to build the bus terminal and the foundations of the train terminal. With the leadership of Committee Chair Andy Barnes, and hours of work donated by Emilio Cruz, Paul Sedway and Libby Seifel, SPUR made huge strides in 2007 toward finding the funding for the Caltrain extension. It would do for the San Franicsco-Peninsula commute what BART does now for the San Francisco-East Bay commute: High-speed rail will enable commuters to walk from their downtown offices and get to San Jose by train in 30 minutes — or to Los Angeles in just two and a half hours!
For a summary of all phases of design and construction for the new Transbay Transit Center, visit www.transbaycenter.org.
Bus Rapid Transit on Geary and Van Ness Avenues
We reached significant milestones last year for bus rapid transit: Initial studies were completed and underwent environmental review. SPUR worked hard in 2007 to build support for these projects, with a great deal of help from Transportation Committee Chair Jean Fraser, who sat on the citizens’ advisory committee for the project. Together, we formed a coalition of Geary BRT supporters — the “Go Geary” coalition — to coordinate members of SPUR and other organizations in canvassing bus riders and
going door to door to talk to merchants along the Geary corridor. The work paid off. Supporters outnumbered opponents at every important public hearing and the options that provide the best service were included as choices for environmental review.
To find out more about the “Go Geary” campaign, visit www.gogeary.com.
The Central Subway
SPUR advocated for improvements for Muni’s proposed Central Subway. The extension to Chinatown of the T-Third streetcar line will cut a 22-minute bus trip down to seven minutes. SPUR Board Member Stephen Taber has led the efforts to get the SFMTA to build three-car platforms (instead of small platforms that can handle just two cars), as well as for an extension of the line beyond Chinatown to a surface station in North Beach. Our victory here is tentative: The SFMTA has included the extension in its long-range capital plan and is trying to figure out how to pay for longer platforms. SPUR is working with the SFMTA to secure these changes. The long-range plan has the potential to connect the Presidio with the Bayshore Caltrain station, while providing service to San Francisco’s northern neighborhoods — Union Square, Market Street, Mission Bay, the Eastern Neighborhoods, Bayview and Visitacion Valley – along the way.
The Central Subway task force meets monthly.
For more information, check out SPUR’s policy paper on the Central Subway at www.spur.org/documents/062007_article_01.shtm.
Doyle Drive
Almost 10 years ago, when Caltrans wanted to build concrete span through the Presidio to replace the aging Doyle Drive, SPUR tapped designer Michael Painter to create an alternative that would be more integrated with the Presidio’s natural landscape. Caltrans adopted our proposal, and plans are now complete to construct a beautiful bridge and tunnel that restores unfettered pedestrian access to Crissy Field and protects a natural flowing creek.
When the state left Doyle Drive off its list of projects to be funded by recently approved transportation bonds, long-time SPUR Board Member Michael Alexander traveled to Sacramento with José Luis Moscovich, executive director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, to help secure $405 million from Caltrans for construction. However, the $1.1 billion project remains inadequately funded. With the help of Amanda Hoenigman, SPUR advocated for the implementation of a congestion-based toll as a viable revenue source to pay back construction costs, and continues to work with state and local officials to find an available funding source for this important project.
Get the latest update at www.doyledrive.org.
Walking
The foundation of the best urban transportation systems is walking. People walk to transit; they walk in their neighborhoods at home and they walk to lunch and for meetings and cultural events during their workdays. Yet walking is too often dangerous and unpleasant. Last year was especially bad, with 32 pedestrians killed and 850 injured, an increase over previous years. SPUR is working closely with the Planning Department, the SFMTA and other agencies to develop the San Francisco Better Streets Plan, a comprehensive guide to building complete streets that are safe and pleasant for walking. The idea is to change the template engineers and planners use when rebuilding streets to ensure that wider sidewalks and slower traffic. With leadership from Manish Champsee, president of Walk San Francisco, and Gillian Gillett, incoming chair of SPUR’s Transportation Committee Chair, we support the plan and have argued for its proposals to be adopted as standards for street construction.
Learn about the contents of the Better Streets Plan at www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/planning/Citywide/Better_Streets/about.htm.
Bicycling
Bicycling could play a much larger role in the City’s transportation system if its bicycle network were more safe and convenient. However, the City’s efforts to improve bike lanes were stymied last year due to a lawsuit filed to block implementation of the 2005 Bicycle Plan on the argument that it had not undergone sufficient environmental review. The litigants won an injunction against any physical bicycle improvements, including safety markings on the street and bicycle racks on the sidewalk. Environmental review has an expected completion date of spring 2009, with no physical improvements until 2010. That makes the upcoming year a good time to prepare for the next phase of improvements. SPUR will also seek to make sure the funding for such improvements is in place.
Learn more about the City’s Bicycle Plan at www.sfgov.org/site/bac_index.asp?id=11525.
Providing leadership
SPUR continues to convene a sustainable transportation coalition – which brings together the leaders of SPUR, Livable City, Walk San Francisco and the Bicycle Coalition – for monthly meetings with the executive director of the SFMTA. SPUR also will play host this October when Railvolution, the national transit advocacy conference, comes to San Francisco.
Learn more about the members of this coalition at www.livablecity.org, www.walksf.org, www.sfbike.org or www.railvolution.com.
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