Monday, December 29, 2008

Geary Blvd: A transit Rorschach test

What is it about Geary Blvd. that encourages people---especially bike people---to write silly things? Today's howler is from Peter Smith on his bikes-uber-alles blog: 
"Right now, buses can’t handle the load on Geary. They’re slow, unreliable, nobody wants to ride them, they’re just terrible all-around. Streetcars would probably be a good solution."
Several years ago, another bike guy named Smith---Matt Smith in the SF Weekly---denigrated the #38 Geary line: "the 38 Geary remains an underused extended sentence in transit jail."

In fact the #38 Muni is the busiest bus line in the Bay Area with more than 49,000 boardings a day.

What slows the #38 down are all the stop lights/stop signs in the avenues between 25th Avenue and Masonic Avenue and, on the last part of its run, between Van Ness Avenue and Market Street. 

Streetcars or a BRT system, like the #38 now, would still have to deal with the stoplight, cross-street issue. 

A possible solution: installing a system that allows Muni buses to control traffic lights in their favor, which would surely be cheaper and less disruptive to small businesses and the neighborhoods than building a $200 million BRT or a new rail line.

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