Stop SFMTA from putting buses on Guerrero Street

PUTTING BUSES ON GUERRERO ST. IS A VERY BAD IDEA!!

SFMTA is proposing to re-route the 33-Stanyan bus from Mission St. between 16th and 18th Sts. to Guerrero St. and to install associated wiring infrastructure. Another part of this plan would have the 33-Stanyan no longer going directly to SF General Hospital, but instead would require riders to get off at 16th & Potrero and transfer to the 9-bus in order to get to SFGH. This would be a huge inconvenience for the elderly and disabled.

The re-routing onto Guerrero is a very bad idea for a host of reasons, including:
1) Guerrero St. is already a noisy and often-congested traffic corridor; turning it into a bus transit corridor will only make things worse on a largely residential street;
2) With frequent double-parked cars (dropping off/picking up kids at Boys & Girls Club, for example) and delivery trucks, and heavy vehicular traffic now, it makes no sense to force one more major source of congestion onto a street that is at maximum tolerable capacity;
3) on weekends and weekday evenings, local church parking on the inner median lane turns Guerrero into a one-lane street, ensuring more congestion and traffic bottlenecks. The last thing Guerrero St. needs to add to this maelstrom is a tethered busline;
4) Guerrero St., with its planted center median strip, and the 33-Stanyan being tethered to overhead wires, will make it tough for the buses to negotiate the tricky left turns onto Guerrero St. at 16th and 18th;
5) pedestrian and bicycle safety, already a serious issue, will be made not better but WORSE, despite SFMTA's assurances that one of the goals of the plan is to improve safety.

About 20 of us met with Sean Kennedy, SFMTA's manager of the Muni Forward Program in charge of the re-routing plan on March 30. We presented him with over 650 hardcopy petitions (thus far) opposing the plan. Unfortunately, the ultimate decision rests with the SFMTA Commission. But first, we learned, SFMTA wants to test the Guerrero route as well as at least one other, Church St., which we believe is a far better alternative since it already has wiring infrastructure in place and an existing busline (J-Church) and has relatively few residences between 16th and 18th. If Church St. is deemed unworkable, then we have suggested that SFMTA fix Mission St. (as it plans to do shortly anyway) before it even considers putting busses on  Guerrero St.

Please join us in saying loud and clear: NO BUSES ON GUERRERO ST., PERIOD!

NOTE: Mission Dolores Neighborhood Association invites members of the community to attend its monthly board meeting Wednesday, April 8, 6:30 pm at Dolores Park Church, 455 Dolores. Supervisor Scott Wiener will be in attendance. However, the 33-Stanyan issue will be just one of 5 topics to be discussed. The bus issue will probably be discussed around 7:30, so you are welcome to attend just that part of the meeting, but if you plan to come please notify us at missiondna@earthlink.net

IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SIGNED THE HARDCOPY PETITION (AND 650 ALREADY HAVE), PLEASE DO NOT SIGN THIS PETITION.