Muni and DPT letterhead
Dear Neighbor,
We are writing to inform you of a proposal to reconfigure a portaiton
of downtown Third Street to create a northbound transit-only lane from
Folsom Street to Market Street. The transit lane would reduce delays
on Lines 15-Third Street, 30-Stockton, 45-Union/Stockton, and the 9X,
9AX, 9BX and 81X expresses, which carry a total of over 80,000
passengers per day, and would also be used by buses serving Pacific
Bell Park.
As you are probably aware, Third Street and other streets in the
South-of-Market are have been increasingly congested since the 1989
Loma Prieta earthquake and the removeal of the Embarcadero Freeway.
Transit Preferential Street projects such as the proposed transit lane
(and the new contraflow transit/commerical lane on Sansome Street) are
an inportant part of the solution to San Francisco's downtown mobility
problem. By providing an exclusive travel lane for MUNI buses,
schedule adherance and reliability can be improved, and transit use
can be encouraged. Thus, the entire downtown community will benefit,
including not only MUNI passengers, but all downtown workers,
employers and merchants.
The proposed downtown Third Street transit-only lane would be in
effect at all times. A total of twenty-three parking spaces would be
removed, including four in the west side of Third Street and nineteen
on the east side of Third Street. All are already in a 7-9am and
4-6pm peak tow-away lane. The nineteen spaces on east side of Third
Street include five loading zones and fourteen regular metered parking
spaces. In order to compensate for the lost loading zones, some
existing metered regular spaces on Minna and Jessie Streets will be
converted to truck loading zones. There will be no reduction in the
traffic-carrying capacity of the affected portion of Third Street.
The Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) will hold a public meeting
to receive comments on this proposal on Friday, Mark 5, 1999, at 10am
in Room 408 (Hearing Room 3) of City Hall, 401 Van Ness Avenue [???
Old Address!!!]
Please refer to the attached drawings (Figure 1 and Figure 2) for the
existing and proposed lane configurations on the affected portions of
THird Street. If you have any question of comments, please call Javad
Miradbal of DPT at 554-2348 or Steve Patrinick of Muni at 923-6096.
Sincerely,
(signed) Carmen Clarke, Acting Executive Manager, SF Municipal Railway
(signed) Stuart R. Sunshine, Executive Director, SF DPT
[Hand-drawn attached diagrams shows a diamond lane in the right-most
Third Street lane from Folsom to Howard, the in the
second-most-right-hand lane to Mission, then in right-most lane to
Market. Bus stops will continue to exist on the near side of Howard
and Stevenson Streets. Parking is to be removed from the right hand
side of the road all along, most of it between Howard and Mission, and
from the left hand side four spaces are removed betwen Howard and
Hunt.]
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Comments: ABOUT DAMNED TIME! ABOUT 1% of what is needed city-wide!
What about Fourth Street? What about Third from Townsend to Folsom?
I've spent hours sitting on buses between Townsend and Market.
I'm leery, however, of buses continuing to be forced to run on really,
truly atrociously crappy pavement at road edges. Our buses have
miserable suspension at best, but combined with the potholed
half-asphalt half-concrete mess at the curb it can make for a really
bad ride. Likewise Mission Street, with its hacked up
(and nearly completely unenforced) obstacle course transit lanes.
And of course the lane will be unenforced and will be blocked by Bay
Bridge turning traffic anyway. At least it's 24-hour.
Write to DPT and encourage them to do more of this, SOON.
Incidentally, FYI here's what our very own Trolley Bus Captain Robert
Parks suggested for the 30/45 SOMA last August:
"A thought about a way of speeding service on my favorite trolleybus
line (30-Stockton, would also help the 45-Union). From Stockton and
Market heading towards CalTrain: bus lane would be far LEFT lane,
with island stops at Mission, Howard, Folsom; move to right lane
after the right 3 lanes turn right at Harrison; right side stops at
Bryant, Brannan; nearside stop to Drop passengers Only at Townsend;
trolley shoe switch to preempt light to allow crossing 4th St to
existing layover and boarding stops for 30 and 45; on 3rd St Left
lane operation with island stops at Townsend/Brannan midblock,
Bryant, Harrison, Folsom, Howard, Mission, farside Market; to
existing stop on Sutter. This would avoid right turn delays at
Mission/4th, Howard/4th, Bryant/3rd, Folsom/3rd, Mission/3rd; Bay
Bridge/Freeway traffic at Harrison/4th, Brannan-Folsom/3rd; and avoid
crossing 2-3 lanes of traffic at Harrison/4th, Townsend/4th,
Post/Kearney. Any thoughts on this? Any holes that need poking?"
PS There's nothing the Third Street Light Rail project is doing that
couldn't be done with some paint and a signal prioritization for buses...