SFMTA Fall Newsletter

SAN FRANCISCO MUNICIPAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCY NEWSLETTER

Service Changes 2009 – Know Your

Options Page 4

SFMTA Recognized for Excellence in Advertising Page 3

VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3

F A L L2 0 0 9

TransLink® Update

Page 7

FALL 2009, Volume 5, Issue 3

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up to 10 percent of allocated stimulus funds for operating assistance. Despite our initial hesitation, we have allocated the maximum amount of $6.7 million to help fill some of our funding gap. In this current climate it is imperative that we do everything we can to deliver the efficient, effective service that keeps San Francisco moving.

Service Changes

The most significant service changes in more than a generation will take effect December 5. These actions include service changes on more than half of Muni’s bus routes and one rail line.

While some of the changes mean discontinued routes and route segments and reduced frequencies on lightly used services, I am pleased to report that many of the changes feature expanded hours, route exten-sions and more frequent and faster service for resi-dents and visitors. I also want to underscore that these changes were meticulously planned using the wealth of data on the Muni system that was generated and analyzed as part of the Transit Effectiveness Project. Moreover, the service enhancements are a direct result of our productive working relationship with Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors.

To prepare the public for these changes a major customer information and outreach campaign is now underway to ensure that customers get the information they need to transition to new or modified Muni service along with personalized trip planning assistance. Accordingly, I ask each of you to assist customers in understanding and adapting to the changes, and to serve as an SFMTA Ambas-sador later this month and into December. You can sign up by responding directly to me by e-mail or on the SFMTA intranet site. This is a prime opportu-nity for us to serve those who support the SFMTA with their fares and taxes.

Complete details regarding the December 5 service changes are available at www.sfmta.com, by calling 311 and 511 and on our intranet site.

Despite these difficult times and the specter of continuing budget challenges, I would like to thank all of you for your diligent efforts. Because of you and your colleagues we continue to provide safe, reliable transportation alternatives in San Francisco.

Executive Director’s MessageAs we enter the holiday season, I extend warm greetings to you and your family and express my deep appreciation to each of you for your hard work during 2009. I do not have to remind you that it has been a difficult year, yet we have continued to serve every-one who moves about the City, regardless of mode. With this in mind a number of significant

challenges remain, and I hope that I can count on your support and continued diligence as we press forward during these uncertain economic times.

Budget

The unprecedented financial downturn that emerged as we developed the operating budget for the current fiscal year that began July 1 has not abated. I am sure that everyone remembers the $129 million anticipat-ed deficit we faced and that the single largest contrib-uting factor was the $65 million that we lost in State Transit Assistance funds.

Like so many transit agencies across the nation we have had to raise more revenue, specifically $52 million more through transit fares and a variety of other fees and fines, while reducing expenditures by $77 million. In fact, the most significant Muni service adjustments in more than 30 years take effect Decem-ber 5. Even with these and other efforts it is apparent that the Agency will not be able to cover operating costs for the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2010.

Economic Stimulus

The SFMTA received $67 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which is being directed to “shovel-ready” capital projects to rehabilitate, update and renew transit vehicles, facilities and systems and to improve customer convenience features. I am extremely happy to report that 100 percent of these allocated funds are under contract or out to bid. The largest of these projects directly improves Muni service including rehabilitation of Muni buses and reconditioning of light rail vehicles. Some of this work will be done in-house including $18 million for vital preventive maintenance.

It should be noted that we have also used a portion of ARRA funds to offset our significant operating budget deficit. Under ARRA transit agencies can use

SFMTA Executive Director/CEO,Nathaniel P. Ford Sr.


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SFMTA Recognized for Excellence in Advertising Two SFMTA advertising campaigns placed first in their respective categories at the American Public Transportation Association’s 2009 AdWheel Awards Ceremony held on Oct. 1 in Orlando. The SFMTA was involved in a third, award-winning endeavor, a combined-agency effort put forth by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the San Mateo Transit District, the SFMTA and the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District.

The SFMTA’s “Good People. Tough Jobs.” cam-paign, highlighting the dedicated work of the Agency’s Parking Control Officers and Transit Fare Inspectors, was awarded first prize in the Print Media Advocacy/Awareness category. Muni’s “Culture Campaign,” tying the Agency to various local cultural institutions using custom-ized slogans advocating the use of public transit to cultural events in the City, won first place in the Promotional Special Event category.

First prize was also awarded for the television component of the inter-agency “Healthier planet. Healthier you.” campaign. The 30-second television commer-cial, “Terry Firma,” featured a doctor prescribing public transportation as the cure for a “congested” planet.

Bike Plan UpdateThe City Attorney appeared on behalf of the SFMTA on Nov. 2 to ask the Superior Court to lift the injunction that has pre-vented physical improvements related to bicycles since July 2006. The Court asked the City and the plaintiff to provide additional information on the consequences of lifting the in-junction, and a new hearing is expected to take place soon. The SFMTA is poised to launch a broad spectrum of bicycle improvement projects, such as new bike lanes and expanded bike parking, as soon as permitted by the court.

Ride Your Wheels to Dreams on Wheels“Dreams on Wheels,” an exhibit celebrating the vital role of bicycling in advancing towards sustainability in Denmark, opened Thursday, Nov. 19 in the South Light Court of City Hall and runs through Dec. 15. Sponsored by the Danish Em-bassy, the exhibit will be open weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., except Nov. 26 and 27, and is free.

The exhibit has appeared in European cities and was most recently in Portland, Oregon. Its tenure in San Francisco coin-cides with the United Nations International Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

On Sept. 18, 53 walkers signed up to represent the SFMTA at the three-mile Ameri-can Heart Association’s HeartWalk from Justin Herman Plaza to AT&T Park and back. SFMTA employees, friends and family members raised close to $6,000 for the American Heart Association.

SOUND BYTES

She has traveled on virtually every Muni bus for years and yet no one seems to recognize her. Who is this woman? For the answer, go to “Sound Bytes” on the last page of the newsletter.


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The SFMTA will be implementing Muni service changes Dec. 5 to help bridge a $129 million budget deficit. Approved by the SFMTA Board of Directors and ratified by the Board of Supervi-sors, the package includes service reductions as well as service enhancements.

A comprehensive customer information and outreach campaign to inform San Francisco residents and visitors about the Muni route and schedule changes—the most extensive in a generation—is underway. Customers can visit www.sfmta.com to view the details on each of the changes along with maps illustrating the changes and nearby Muni services in areas where changes will occur. Customers may also call or visit 311 and 511 online.

Newspaper advertisements, on-vehicle ads and voice announcements and NextMuni alerts at transit stops are among the communications channels being leveraged to notify customers and the general public of the upcoming chang-es. Signs and banners are posted throughout the Muni system and printed brochures are be-ing distributed. The SFMTA is also working with stakeholders, community organizations, large employers and City partners to disseminate the information on the changes throughout Novem-ber and December.

Starting one week before the changes, the SFMTA will deploy Service Ambassadors on the system to distribute the brochures and to assist customers with trip planning. Recruitment of employees to participate in this initiative started earlier this month. All Service Ambassadors will receive training before going into the field. Please see related article on Page 6 with a direct link to the sign-up form.

The service changes affect more than half of Muni’s bus routes and one rail line. Service reductions include discontinuing routes and eliminating certain route segments with low rid-ership, decreasing frequency on less crowded routes and ending some routes earlier. A range

Service Changes 2009 – Know Your Optionsof service enhancements will also be imple-mented including: route extensions, adjusting schedules and running times to improve on-time performance and reliability, more buses on heavily used routes and faster service due to more limited stops.

The Dec. 5 service changes represent one facet of the SFMTA’s comprehensive approach to bridging the $129 million deficit for the fis-cal year that began on July 1. The SFMTA, like almost all transit agencies in the United States, faced an unprecedented budget deficit because of the global and national recession and a com-plete elimination of transit operations funding by the State of California. To close that deficit the SFMTA cut expenditures by $77 million through position eliminations and internal ef-ficiencies and raised revenue by $52 million, in part through parking rate and fee increases and Muni fare increases.

In April the SFMTA Board of Directors approved the Amended Operating Budget for fiscal year 2010. Discussions among the Mayor’s Office, Board of Supervisors and the SFMTA resulted in some changes to the budget in May, including the service enhancements on some of the busi-est Muni routes and lines that are part of the Dec. 5 changes.

While these service changes do not represent the implementation of the Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP), a two-year study of Muni service that generated recommendations for service im-provements, the data and public input collected through the TEP have informed the upcoming service changes.

SFMTA staff has conducted extensive planning and testing for the Dec. 5 route changes. In all, scheduled running times have been adjusted on 60 percent of weekday routes and 35 to 40 per-cent of weekend routes. As a result, customers should experience less bunching of buses and more reliable service.


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Muni Service ChangesDecember 5, 2009

New Routes

New Route Numbers

Express

Discontinued Routes

Frequency Changes

Route/Line Changes

Express

Service Hours Reduced

Last trip changed to 11 p.m.

Last trip changed (end times range from midnight to 12:45 a.m.)

No Changes

Rail Lines

Cable Cars

Bus Routes

For more detailed information on specific route changes customers are encouraged to visit www.sfmta.com or call 311 for trip planning and assistance in other languages.


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The SFMTA Needs Your Help!Service Ambassadors are needed to ensure a smooth transition for our customers on Dec. 5. Service Ambassadors are needed from late November through early December to assist and inform customers of the service changes. These critical team members will be deployed throughout the system to distribute brochures and answer questions. Service Ambassadors will ride buses and be available at transit stops. No prior transit planning or opera-tions experience is necessary. Service Ambassadors will receive training to familiarize themselves with the service changes and to prepare for frequently asked questions. Thank you in advance for your support and for demonstrating the Agency’s ongoing commitment to customer service. Please sign-up here or online at www.sfmta.com/ambassadorsignup or visit the SFMTA intranet site.

Many of Muni’s senior and disabled customers will soon find an additional transportation option with the February 2010 launch of the SFMTA’s Senior/Disabled Pilot Pass Program.

The new trial program will allow 6,000 senior and disabled Muni customers unlimited access to all BART trains traveling within the City with the purchase of a standard Senior Pass or Dis-abled Sticker. Pilot participants will be chosen via a random lottery. The pilot is being rolled out in three, six-month phases with each consisting of 2,000 participants. The monthly pilot pass will be sold for the same price as the current Senior Pass or monthly Disabled Sticker. Customers in-

Senior/Disabled Pilot Pass Program to Launch terested in registering for the first round of the program must do so by November 30. They may register online at www.sfmta.com/pilotpass or call 311 in San Francisco and 415.701.2311 from outside San Francisco (for TTY, press 7).

All fare gates operated by BART within San Francisco will be programmed to accept the Senior/Disabled Pilot Pass and the pass will be accepted on all Muni vehicles. If the program is successful, it is expected that long-term imple-mentation will be made available on TransLink®, the regional transit smart card.

SFMTA’s Sunday Street Stretches Out in 2010The unparalleled success of this year’s six SFMTA-sponsored Sunday Streets events prompted Mayor Gavin Newsom to add two new words to the lexicon of the car-free Citywide event: “permanent” and “more.”

During a news conference held on the eve of the final 2009 Sunday Streets event along the Great Highway the mayor announced that the two-year event’s trial run would become a permanent San Francisco tradition. Mod-eled after Bogotá, Columbia’s “Ciclovía,” Sunday Streets promotes family-friendly fare that encourages San Franciscans to walk, bike, skateboard, dance or otherwise enjoy car-free City streets.

According to Newsom, the 2010 edition of Sunday Streets will feature “more routes, longer hours, more San Francisco neighborhoods and more programs at each event.” A joint venture between the SFMTA and Liv-able City, next year’s program will expand to eight or nine events that will include neighborhoods such as the Tenderloin and Western Addition. During the press conference the mayor also committed to pursuing more year-round street closures throughout the City, similar to car-free Sundays currently held in Golden Gate Park.

Before They Were Giants The 22 Fillmore lumbers past Seals Stadium at 16th and Bryant streets in this photo (circa 1958) as San Francisco Giants fans gather to watch their team take on the Philadelphia Phillies. The San Francisco Seals were forced to relocate to Phoenix in 1957 and then sent packing by the then-New York Giants. The re-christened San Francisco Giants would play their home games at Seals Stadium during the ’58-’59 seasons before moving to Candlestick Park in 1960.


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The TransLink® trial phase continues to move forward and expand at a rapidly increasing rate. As of October more than 11,000 adult customers, including SFMTA employees, had signed up to participate in the trial group, and total TransLink® card transactions topped 10,000 early in November.

To extend the convenience of TransLink® to all Muni customers the system has been upgraded to accept both senior and disabled fares, and the SFMTA is in the process of recruiting trial participants among these customers by working with the Muni Accessi-

TransLink® Update bility Advisory Committee, the Mayor’s Offi ce on Dis-ability, the Senior Ac-tion Network and other senior network groups.

SFMTA employees can still sign up to receive a free TransLink® card loaded with their employee pass by filing out the form located on the SFMTA intranet under Employees News and Services.

Central Subway Project’s updated Web site and new social media program are up and running at http://www.sfmta.com/central. The revised site provides visitors with the most current information and con-tinuing updates on the project as well as interactive pictures, videos of the alignment, a virtual tour of a proposed subway station, background on tunnel-bor-ing technology and images from community events.

In conjunction with the new Web site the Central Subway’s social media program currently features a Twitter profi le (http://twitter.com/central_subway) and a Facebook page. Additional online presences will be created on other platforms including YouTube, Flickr and a Central Subway blog.

The Central Subway Outreach Team welcomes your feedback. Send a message via Twitter or by e-mail to [email protected].

Central Subway Just a Tweet Away

The prime minister of Malta, Lawrence Gonzi, pauses in front of the cable car barn to chat in Italian with maintenance worker Frank Camilleri, Sept. 26. Pictured left to right: cable car Grip Tsombe Wolfe, Gonzi, Camilleri and Conductor Gregory Wiggins.

With fall here and the holidays just around the corner, we thought you

might enjoy trying a recipe guaranteed to make visions of sugar plums dance in your head.Annie Knight’s Butter Walnut CookiesIngredients:4 cups fl our 2 cups sugar1 lb butter (softened) 2 tsp vanilla extract1 tsp baking soda 2 eggs1 cup diced walnuts (Annie uses the Cuisinart)Special Equipment:2 ice trays (the silver ones that her mom used in the ‘70s)Wax paperPreparation:Use your hands to mix fl our, sugar, walnuts, butter, vanilla extract, baking soda and eggs until the mixture looks like cookie dough. Line ice trays with wax paper. (This mixture fi lls up about 1½ ice trays.) Mold cookie mixture into the ice trays and put into freezer until dough is fi rm (approximately six hours). Preheat oven to 300º. Extract dough from trays. Use a sharp knife to slice dough into small squares. Place cookies on greased cookie pan. Bake for fi ve to eight minutes until light brown. Keep an eye on the cookies as they tend to brown fast.

SO GOOD

SFMTA Represented at West Coast Green ConferenceThe SFMTA was represented at the recent West Coast Green conference held Oct. 1 through 3 at Fort Mason Center. The conference, touted as the largest conference in the nation on green innovation, featured SFMTA’s Nick Carr participating in the conference’s “Design Slam,” a gathering of industry pro-fessionals brought together to brainstorm design strategies and practical ideas for the continued evolution of Fort Mason Center as a leading environmentally sustainable destination.


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Debra A. Johnson:Services Murray Bond:CommuicationsJanis Yuen:

Chimmy Lee: Graphic DesignerCarmen Magana: PhotographerMark De Anda & Kristen Holland: Associate Editors

If you have a story idea for the SFMTA Newsletter, send an e-mail to Janis Yuen at [email protected]

Thank you to: Lulu Feliciano, John Funghi, Michael Kirchanski, Annie Knight, Corey Marshall and Gina Zagotta for their contribu-tions to this publication.

En Route is the official employee publication of the SFMTA. In an effort to keep our City green, this newsletter is distributed in an elec-tronic/printable format. A limited number of hardcopies is available in reception areas and Gilley rooms.

Actor Benjamin Bratt takes direction from direc-tor and brother Peter be-fore filming a scene from the soon-to-be-released

“La Mission,” filmed on location in the Mission District. Bratt stars as an ex-con Muni Operator struggling to come to terms with family life after prison. Inset: Nat Ford and Debra Johnson visit the set of “La Mission.”

Hatim Mansori Donations Update

The SFMTA collected $1,550 in donations for Hatim Mansori, the 11-year-old boy who was stabbed by a homeless man on a bus during a robbery attempt.

Helpers Needed for the 28th Annual Senior

Citizens’ Holiday Luncheon

For nearly three decades Transport Workers’ Union Local 250-A and the SFMTA, along with merchants and local restaurants, have sponsored a Holiday Senior Citizens’ Luncheon. This year’s event takes place on Friday, Dec. 11 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the recreation center located across the street from the Cable Car Barn at Washington and Mason streets. For some senior citizens this is the only opportunity to celebrate the holiday with a hot meal and companionship. Helpers are needed to set up, serve and clean up. Please contact Eric Williams, Cable Car Division Union Chairperson, at 292.2079 for more information.

SFMTA Annual Toy Drive Delivers

Holiday Cheer to Local Kids

Giving opportunities abound! Please contribute to the SFMTA’s Annual Toy Drive as the Agency strives to make the holiday season special for those less fortunate. Look for the big barrels strategically locat-ed at various SFMTA work sites. Your toy donation goes directly to San Francisco General Hospital and their satellite clinics for hospitalized and underprivileged chil-dren. For more information, e-mail Alicia Hopkins, Toy Drive Committee president, at [email protected]. This campaign ends Dec. 11 at 2 p.m.

‘Tis the Season to Protect Yourself

from the H1N1 Virus

Tips from the Center for Disease Control:

1. Contact your health provider and consider getting both the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine

2. If you get sick at work, go home

3. If you are sick, stay home until you are well

4. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water

5. When you cannot wash your hands, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer

6. Cover your coughs and sneezes

As with any medical condition or question, always consult with your physician or medical provider.

END OF THE LINE A look at the lighter side of the SFMTA

SOUND BYTESShe is Donna Reed, Spotlight Communications voiceover talent and the female voice you hear onboard Muni buses.

Documents

SFMTA Fall Newsletter