SFMTA Inexplicably Drops Townsend Safety Project
Often I’m in awe of the evening procession of Caltrain commuters marching towards the 4th & King Station. On the King Street side of the station, masses of riders descend from both the N and KT Muni lines. On the Townsend side, hundreds of FordGoBike bikeshare riders hand off their bikes to valet attendants. However, SFMTA has recently abandoned its obligation to provide a safe street for everyone traveling to this critical transportation hub.
Months ago SFMTA released plans for a protected bike lane and walkway that would have brought order to the busy, high-injury corridor Townsend Street by the end of 2018. However, a couple weeks ago, SFMTA unexpectedly cancelled the Townsend Street Project. SFMTA claimed the abrupt cancellation was due to rising construction costs and the potential construction of the unfunded Caltrain Downtown Extension (DTX) on Townsend Street within the next 5 years. This indefensible decision to kill the Townsend Project illustrates a dysfunction within SFMTA that is preventing the agency from meeting its Vision Zero and Transit First goals.
SFMTA got cold feet when Townsend cost estimates increased to $6 million from a previous estimate of $4 million. SFMTA’s design added a right turn lane to Townsend at 4th Street, which required lane shifting and repositioning Muni overhead wires. SFMTA staff claim they will have to move the wires before and after the DTX construction at a cost of $3 million. However, I believe there are several ways to avoid this additional expense. First, right turns could be banned on 4th Street and the turn lane removed from the plan. Second, Muni doesn’t need to move the wires at all. John Haley, SFMTA’s Director of Transit, explains that the new Muni electric-trolley buses “ are made in such a way that it’s 1–2–3 electric, just drop the poles” (http://www.sfexaminer.com/muni-planning-pilot-battery-powered-buses/). He’s planning to test these new electric buses running solely on battery power on segments of the 9-San Bruno. Why not implement the same test on the 45-Union and the 30-Stockton, which are temporarily utilizing the overhead wires for one block of Townsend until Central Subway construction ends next year? Last, SFMTA falsely claimed the wires would have to be moved back after DTX construction is completed. By the time DTX construction is finished, the 45 and 30 Muni routes will be relocated off the segment of Townsend Street in question. Furthermore, SFMTA claims they can convert all their new electric trolley buses and hybrid buses to battery electric buses well before their 2035 deadline, which wouch make overhead Muni wires obsolete infrastructure before DTX is finished (http://www.sfexaminer.com/sfmta-road-electric-fleet/). Clearly, SFMTA has many options to avoid the somewhat expensive task of moving the Muni overhead wires, while maintaining the near-term protected bike lane and walkway project. So why won’t they consider any of these alternatives?
The potential DTX construction on Townsend is also a terrible excuse to abandon the Townsend Safety Project. Anyone with knowledge of San Francisco transportation projects understands that the Caltrain Extension is a massive project that will face many delays and obstacles before construction begins. For example the much simpler Van Ness BRT Project was first conceived in 2004, expected to open in 2012 and now is delayed until the end of 2020 (https://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/12/02/whats-the-hold-up-for-van-ness-brt/ http://www.sfexaminer.com/van-ness-bus-rapid-transit-construction-delayed-another-5-months/ ). SFMTA’s Director of Transportation, Ed Reiskin, is on the Board of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, so he should be very familiar with the obstacles DTX will face. The Caltrain Extension is a $6 billion project with very little identified funding (I’ve counted about $425 million from Regional Measure 3 and Prop K). The project expects $650 million of federal funding, which is highly improbable given the Republican Party’s disdain for high-speed rail, which would also utilize the tunnel. Even if the Caltrain Extension was completely funded today, the most aggressive timeline estimates construction wouldn’t start until mid-2021 and wouldn’t end until mid-2028 (http://default.sfplanning.org/Citywide/railyard_blvd/RAB_PublicMeeting_Presentation_052918.pdf ).
So construction on Townsend won’t start for a minimum of 3 years and likely more than 5 years based on typical transportation project delays. On other streets, SFMTA has been very willing to implement near-term improvements that will only last for a couple years. SFMTA recently spent $1.9 mm on planning and construction of near-term parking protected bike lanes on 6 blocks of Folsom Street (https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2017/12/10-17-17_item_11_traffic_modifications_-_folsom_near-term_improvement_project.docx_.pdf). Construction of the fully-funded, long-term redesign of Folsom is expected to begin in 2020, meaning the near-term improvements will last less than 2 years.
Townsend Street’s near-term protected bike lane should actually be higher priority than Folsom’s due to bicycle ridership and injury data. Townsend Street has higher peak bicycle ridership than Folsom Street. While Folsom Street has about 300 people cycling on it during the weekday peak AM hour and only 50 people during the weekday peak PM hour, Townsend has over 350 people cycling during both its weekday peak AM and weekday peak PM hours. Also similar to Folsom, two blocks of Townsend are a high-injury corridor (the 13% of SF streets that account for 75% of severe injuries and fatalities). Lastly, Townsend’s bicyclist injury rate is slightly higher than Folsom’s. Townsend had 43 bicyclist injuries in the past 5 years, compared to 38 bicyclist injuries (including one fatality) on Folsom. San Francisco cannot meet its Vision Zero goal of zero traffic fatalities by 2024, if it delays near-term street improvements on the busiest high-injury corridors until well after the 2024 deadline.
With the cancellation of the Townsend Street Project, SFMTA is also abandoning crucial safety improvements that were promised to the community. Earlier this year, several bike activists voiced concerns to the SFMTA Board about the lack of protected intersections in the proposed extension of the 8th Street parking-protected bike lane. Specifically, SFMTA replaced a planned protected intersection at 8th Street and Townsend Circle with a dangerous mixing zone where cyclists are expected to merge into a vehicle lane and drivers are expected to yield to the merging cyclists. SFMTA staff admitted to the Board that the intersection needed to be redesigned, but due to the complexity of the circle, staff promised that it would be part of the Townsend Street Project. With the cancellation of the Townsend Project, SFMTA has reneged on its promise to the Board and the residents of San Francisco to correct this dangerous portion of the 8th Street bike lane.
I cannot fathom why SFMTA was so quick to abandon this much-needed protected bike lane and walkway project on Townsend Street. SFMTA should have understood long ago the constraints of Townsend due to the overhead Muni wires. SFMTA should obviously explore alternatives to moving the overhead wires. However, ridership and injury data shows the project would be worth the cost, even if the wires had to be moved. Obviously, the unfunded and wildly expensive DTX project is a terrible excuse to delay this project. I have concluded that SFMTA is not being practical, but rather giving up and abandoning their Vision Zero and Transit First promises to San Franciscans. They have thrown up their hands and condoned the indefinitely chaos on Townsend for all Caltrain commuters: pedestrians, bus riders, scooter riders, rideshare riders and drivers. We cannot let SFMTA walk away from this Townsend safety improvement.
How you can help:
People Protected Bike Lanes is holding a demonstration on Townsend and 5th on July 10th from 5:00 PM — 7:00 PM. Everyone is welcome to join and stand on the line to protect cyclists and show your support for the previously planned protected bike lanes.
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is leading a great effort to reverse SFMTA’s decision. Click here: http://www.sfbike.org/news/action-show-up-for-townsend/ to learn more and voice your concern to Director Reiskin of SFMTA.
SFBC and People Protected Bike Lanes hope to have lots of people raise their concerns about the abandoned Townsend Plans at the 1:00 pm July 17th SFMTA Board Meeting. Speaking to the SFMTA Board in person is incredibly impactful.
