[Special thanks to Richmondsfblog reader David for providing this report.]
About forty neighbors gathered Tuesday night at Congregation Beth Shalom on 14th Avenue, where SFMTA officials held a public meeting to discuss proposals for a new terminal for the 2 Clement MUNI line.
The terminal is part of a planned service change for the 2 Clement that results from budget cuts the SFMTA is making to several MUNI lines. Beginning in October, the 2 Clement line will no longer run all the way to 33rd Avenue, but will instead end at 14th Avenue. View the current 2 Clement route
As a result, SFMTA officials sought input from Richmond District residents about whether to locate the new terminal (where the buses idle between runs) at Funston and Geary, or at 14th Avenue and Geary.
According to Muni officials, at any one time there are ten or so riders going downtown now on the 2 Clement with five buses in service on the line during daylight hours.
In previous meetings, the proposal to terminate the 2 Clement on 14th Avenue had received stiff resistance from neighbors and this meeting was no exception. Questions and comments ranged from the number of parking spaces gained and lost (gain of approximately 25 over the old abandoned route) to abolishing the route entirely.
Of the two terminal location proposals, overwhelming support was voiced for the second option presented which would terminate the bus at Funston and Geary. There were a few Funston Avenue residents present at the meeting.
Assuming this terminal location is approved, it will route the bus left from Clement onto Funston with the last stop across from the now abandoned gas station at the corner of Geary. Buses will then make a tight right turn onto Geary, right on Park Presidio and right again onto Clement to resume their route.
Muni officials did not have substantial data to present on the impact that this new terminal and route would have on Geary Boulevard traffic, other than anecdotal information from two test trips made recently and some template modeling being done in their offices. With a right turn lane onto Geary at Park Presidio, the 2 Clement’s new line is bound to tangle with the heavy pedestrian traffic and numerous 38 Geary buses.
Also up for consideration but not yet approved is a possible first stop along Park Presidio Blvd. An additional public meeting will be September 1st at 2pm in City Hall, Room 400, where the last public comments will be heard before the SFMTA Board presents their final plans for approval.
At last night’s meeting, several residents commented about the lack of information and notices for the meetings. Here on the blog, a few commenters noted they had no idea the meeting was happening.
Another Richmondsfblog reader, Rachel, attended the meeting and commented “I genuinely felt that the MTA workers who attended really do plan to take our ideas into account. Slightly disturbing but there were few to none Funston residents at the meeting, despite apparent outreach attempts.â€
Sarah B.
The 2 duplicates existing lines on Sutter and California. Strange it was rerouted from Euclid. It seems the line’s uniqueness is on Clement west of Arguello, a good chunk of it that Muni wants to chop. Already the 2 stops at 8pm, so obviously the 2 is a burden for Muni. ‘Might as well can the whole line.
They are axing the 4 Sutter so the 2 will now cover the areas the 4 used to cover. At last night’s meeting, we learned that several years of public input and study went in to making the line cuts, etc. Pretty interesting. It sounded like there are a lot of older folks and people with mobility issues that use the 2. I ride the 1, 2 and 38 and agree that there is a lot of duplication, but I can also see that people who live along the 2 and have mobility issues are best served by keeping it around a bit longer. Besides, who knows, they might discover that shortening the route means even less of a ridership. I guess we will see.
There are some flats on that block of Funston and it is the back of a school. According to Muni officials each resident got a flyer. Looking at the crystal ball I see a cloud at Geary/Park Presidio. Busses will have to swing out into the right turn lane at Geary outbound where 38’s often back up, swing wide onto Park Presidio and then make a right cut at Clement. There are lots of pedestrians at this intersection which also houses red light cameras. Stir in a few bikes and yikes!