Skip to main content

September is Transit Month! 

September is Transit Month! 
By

Graphical image stating Transit Month : Celebrate Bay Area transit this September

Guest Author Cat Carter

San Francisco Transit Riders, an independent nonprofit advocating for the needs of public transportation customers, started Transit Month six years ago as a way to highlight the importance of public transit in San Francisco - for the city's livability, accessibility and sustainability. This event honors all the riders using Muni to travel in and around San Francisco, as well as all the Muni operators who get us there safely every day. We'll be celebrating the role of transit in the Bay Area's recovery with events, rides and prizes. 

Daily Muni ridership never dipped below 100,000 during shelter-in-place-- that's a lot of people who depended on Muni to access essential jobs and services. Muni staff showed up every day, even in the face of the uncertainty of COVID-19, to make sure people could continue reaching their destinations. San Francisco wouldn't be able to exist or recover without all of the Muni staff who make transit possible-- from planners, to street ambassadors, to operators, to mechanics, and the people in supporting roles behind the scenes! 

This Transit Month, we also need to talk about the Muni system we need for the future.  

We know the climate is changing. Public transit has a central role to play in the solution: while serving over 700,000 daily rides pre-pandemic, Muni contributes less than 1% of San Francisco's greenhouse gases. Getting more people out of cars and riding transit is essential to combating climate change. This means making Muni much more competitive with travelling by car – ensuring that it's fast, reliable and affordable. This requires investing in more drivers, more buses and trains, and more transit priority and infrastructure projects. 

As a society, we have also recently begun broad discussions about equity, access and the effect of institutional racism. Public transit has a central role in this discussion as well: it has the potential to give people access to opportunities, resources, and each other. This goal can only be achieved if there is good, fast, reliable service reaching all communities and neighborhoods. We, as riders, need to speak up about the type of service we need, and what safe and accessible transit for everyone looks like. 

Public transit is also essential for the stability and growth of our economy. Not only do we need reliable public transit to get to our jobs, but changes in street use over the past year have shown that businesses do better when we accommodate different modes of travel throughout the city beyond the private car. Good access by public transit is one of the hallmarks of bustling, successful business districts. 

Right now, Muni service looks a bit different than it did in 2019. These changes are largely a result of a drop in ridership (and revenue) and changes in rider travel patterns. But the changes are also a result of a reckoning with what resources SFMTA actually has. 

Now is the time to lay the foundation for the Muni system of the future - one that is clean, safe, easy to use, efficient, reliable and with plenty of service connecting everyone. We can have all of that. But to do it we need to come together as a city to build that vision. Importantly, we need to build the support for funding it. We need everyone on board the bus to speak up for the importance of public transit. That's what Transit Month is all about! 

You can check out all our events at transitmonth.org, including our Riders First party on October 1. Sign up to win prizes just for riding transit! See you on the bus! 



Published September 08, 2021 at 09:38PM
https://ift.tt/38QhfxF
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

If you have any doubt's, please let me know

Popular posts from this blog

Slow Streets Program to Help With Social Distancing

Slow Streets Program to Help With Social Distancing By With Muni service temporarily reduced during the COVID-19 health crisis, many San Francisco residents need to walk and take other modes of transportation to make essential trips. However, sometimes it is difficult to maintain 6’ of social distance on many sidewalks, park paths, and bikeways. This can be especially true when passing lines outside grocery stores and other essential services. Because of this, many pedestrians are choosing to walk in the street, exposing themselves to swiftly moving vehicle traffic. The SFMTA is implementing a new program, Slow Streets, to close some streets to through traffic and allow roadways to be used more as a shared space for foot and bicycle traffic. Throughout the city, corridors have been identified for Phase 1 Slow Streets. Beginning this week, some of these streets will be closed to through vehicle traffic to prioritize walking/biking and to provide more space for social distancing duri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Weight Loss Success Stories: 6 People Share How They Shed Pounds with a High-Protein Diet

Weight Loss Success Stories: 6 People Share How They Shed Pounds with a High-Protein Diet Sarah:  Sarah, a 32-year-old mother of two, struggled with her weight after having her second child. She decided to try a high-protein diet and was able to lose 30 pounds in just three months. She replaced her breakfast with a protein shake, ate a salad with grilled chicken for lunch, and had fish or chicken with vegetables for dinner. Mike:  Mike, a 45-year-old man, had been overweight his entire life. He tried various diets, but none of them worked for him. He decided to give a high-protein diet a try and was able to lose 50 pounds in six months. He ate eggs, chicken, fish, and lean meats for most of his meals and limited his intake of carbohydrates and sugary foods. Emily:  Emily, a 28-year-old woman, had been struggling with her weight since her teenage years. She tried many diets and weight loss programs, but nothing seemed to work for her. She decided to try a high-p...
Post a Comment
Read more

By The Numbers: The SFMTA’s COVID-19 Response

By The Numbers: The SFMTA’s COVID-19 Response By Erica Kato The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unforeseen c hanges to San Francisco’s transportation network. And the impact of the crisis will continue to be felt city-wide long beyond the end of the public health emergency. On March 13, 2020, when it became clear that San Francisco needed immediate adjustments to the transportation system, Director of Transportation Jeff Tumlin launched SFMTA’s Department Operations Center (DOC) team. Since then, the DOC has served as a centralized hub to ensure that we are minimizing health risks to employees and the public as we keep transportation running, both by coordinating internally within the agency and by collaborating closely with our city, state, and federal partners to deploy resources and information in the most effective way possible. San Francisco's response to the COVID-19 pandemic included implementing temporary emergency transit lanes  Our COVID-19 response has chal...
Post a Comment
Read more