Help keep Muni improvements on track!

Bus Rapid Transit needs your help now

Improving Muni service is one of San Francisco's most important and popular goals, yet a handful of vocal opponents threatens to scuttle one of Muni's biggest opportunities.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a low-cost means to improve service and increase ridership. The County Transportation Authority and Muni are planning for BRT on Van Ness Avenue and Geary Boulevard - two of the city's most important transportation corridors. The Geary bus is already the most heavily used transit line in the city.

BRT is a proven method of increasing speed and reliability. BRT will:

• streamline passenger boarding for speed and convenience;
• reduce waiting at red lights through signal prioritization;
• cut travel time through physically separated transit-only lanes;
• locate transit stops for speed and reliability;
• make the system as easy to use as possible.

A small group in the Richmond district is opposing the Geary BRT. The complaints center on disruption of business during construction and on reduced on-street parking. These are legitimate concerns, and the Sierra Club supports the agencies' search for ways to ameliorate them. The opponents, however, claim that BRT will damage their neighborhoods. In fact, the improved transit service of BRT will be a strong force for neighborhood vitalization, as proven by BRT in other cities around the world.

Better, safer transit is the key to increasing ridership, thus reducing traffic congestion, air pollution - and budget deficits. Well-implemented BRT on Geary and Van Ness will serve as a touchstone for improvements throughout the Muni system. The Sierra Club wants to see BRT implemented right - and promptly, hopefully by 2011. San Francisco officials want to do this - but they need our support.

WhatYouCanDo

The next two months will be crucial for making sure that BRT is done well - and that it is done at all. Write a letter or testify in support of BRT. You can come to meetings of the Citizen's Advisory Committee, at 6 pm on the fourth Thursday of each month (except for its May meeting, which will be on May 18) at the address below, or write to:

San Francisco County Transportation Authority
100 Van Ness Ave., 26th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415)522-4800
fax: (415)522-4829.

For more information, including the schedule for public workshops starting in June, check the Geary BRT web site.

For more ideas for your letter or testimony, see the San Francisco Group's web site, or contact Rick Galbreath by email at rickgalb -at- aol.com or call (415)307-0321.

Rick Galbreath, vice chair, Sierra Club San Francisco Group