Before COVID, Muni was only delivering about 85% of its promised service hours - a measurement of operators and vehicles on the street every day. In addition to budget issues, there was a tangle of challenges related to hiring and promoting operators and service supervisors. While COVID has put a wrench in budget solutions, SFMTA has been building the infrastructure needed to hire efficiently. Now, SFMTA is saying that in terms of both budget and human resources, it can commit to 70% of Muni service hours in 2021, and get to 85% of service hours in 2022. We understand these are real constraints. But Muni is leaving people at the curb now, and many buses are more crowded than COVID capacity would dictate. The demand is there, and will only grow as people get vaccinated and businesses reopen. We can't let Muni service lag behind what we need to recover our lives and businesses. So how do we get to 100% of service? We have asked SFMTA and SFCTA to make sure all available resources are focused on returning service. We need to give SFMTA the confidence to hire aggressively, and with some guarantee that they won't have to lay off staff if long-term funding isn't secured soon enough. There was a lot of discussion at yesterday's SFCTA meeting about the return of traffic versus the continuation of the Slow Streets program, but we won't solve traffic if Muni isn't ready to give people an efficient, reliable alternative. Thanks to our members who spoke up at public comment to support a strong return of Muni service! Check out the letter we sent to SFCTA, and stay tuned as we continue to fight for the Muni service we all need. |
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