Celebrating the SFMTA (even when others won’t)

By Dylan Fabris, SFTR Community and Policy Manager

For better or worse, 2024 is an election year, and as we get closer to November a few powerful people seem eager to use the SFMTA as a political football to advance their own agendas. From mayoral candidates, to business interests, to rich, techno-accelerationist CEOs, recent articles and Twitter threads attempt to paint the agency and its leadership as malicious forces on the city, hell-bent on inconveniencing San Franciscans and ruining our economy, for no other reason than to advance some secret “Big Bicycle” conspiracy. (Yes, you read that right. Side note: If there really is some big anti-car conspiracy being planned in this city, we, and our friends at the Bike Coalition, certainly haven’t gotten the memo.)

Here at San Francisco Transit Riders, we are no strangers to the shortcomings of the SFMTA. A major part of our role as public transportation advocates is to keep the agency in check and push back when it isn’t working in the best interest of the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on public transit in the city every day. That’s why earlier this year we fought against (and successfully reduced) proposed transit fare increases, and why, among other things, we continue to demand common-sense parking policy reform that can fund public transit and better adhere to our city’s Transit First mandate. The SFMTA should be doing more to prioritize public transit, prevent traffic deaths on our streets, and shift San Francisco away from the car-centric planning and politics that have been dominant in this city for decades.

But when we hear people in power complain about the SFMTA, their critiques are rarely in line with our own vision of a transit-first city that’s accessible to all, and too often the SFMTA’s detractors fail to acknowledge the real positive changes the agency has recently implemented in a relatively short period of time.

For example, through a mix of physical on-the-ground infrastructure, proactive vehicle maintenance, and smarter, more realistic service planning, Muni is currently delivering historic levels of service reliability with close to 100% of all planned trips ultimately running.

“Service filled” refers to trips that began as scheduled. “Hours delivered” refers to total service hours completed as planned, and is lower than “service filled” due to vehicles that are pulled out of service (e.g. for mechanical issues) before a trip can be completed. (Source: SFMTA)

And despite some obvious missteps (we’re looking at you, Valencia Street,) SFMTA’s infrastructure improvements have been a crucial component of the city’s economic recovery. Because of the agency’s successful delivery of several Muni Forward projects in recent years, Muni is now connecting even more San Franciscans to the businesses, services, and activities they love to support.

Before the pandemic, overall ridership on Muni Rapid bus lines increased by 23% as a result of Muni Forward projects, even as transit ridership decreased nationwide. And during the pandemic, ridership has returned faster on lines with major Muni Forward improvements — like the 38 Geary, 14 Mission, 49 Van Ness/Mission, and 22 Fillmore. Ultimately, these Muni Forward projects will create a complete Muni Rapid network across the city, which will connect even more people to our city’s culture and economy.

Rapid routes where SFMTA has implemented infrastructure improvements are recovering ridership faster than the rest of the Muni system. Although some of these improvements initially received pushback from merchants, it’s clear that these projects have been successful at increasing access to the neighborhoods and business corridors they serve. This chart depicts the percentage of total monthly boardings in April 2024 relative to April 2019. (Source: SFMTA)

SFMTA has also made improvements in the way it conducts outreach with the public. While there is always room for improvement here, we are heartened by the various working groups and community outreach events that have been started up by the agency since the start of the pandemic. From the Bayview Shuttle Community Congress, to the recently re-launched Muni Equity Working Group, to the Welcoming West Portal Committee (which was created following merchant backlash to a project that would improve transit safety and reliability), the agency has demonstrated that it is capable of not only proactively engaging the community on upcoming and present issues, but also pivoting to bring in more community voices when the need presents itself — even if San Francisco Transit Riders doesn’t always support the added delays.

Even as the SFMTA engages in fiscal “belt-tightening” in anticipation of the massive budget deficit set to impact the agency in coming years, we’re proud of our city’s recent transportation victories. It’s clear that, despite recent headlines, San Franciscans agree. According to last year’s City Survey, Muni was the only city service whose satisfaction rating increased between 2019 and 2023. Currently, Muni rider satisfaction is the highest it’s been in a decade, with 71% of riders approving of the agency. (Only about half of non-riders approve of the SFMTA — maybe they should give Muni a try!)

There is a lot to push SFMTA to be better on, but also a lot to celebrate. At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that the agency is made up of people — dedicated public servants working together at all levels of the agency to make San Francisco a better place. When a few powerful people try to bash those public servants or use them as leverage, we should all ask ourselves: “Why?” Do they really want a city where everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, and wealth can travel safely, conveniently, and affordably? Do they care about making streets safer for people who take transit, bike, and walk? Are they committed to shifting travel away from cars and reducing our city’s carbon emissions? Chances are, they may instead be more interested in advancing financial or political goals of their own.