SFMTA outlines Transit Effectiveness Project progress, flags staffing and reliability shortfalls

Chair Sean Ellsburn convened the Government Audit and Oversight Committee for an update Tuesday from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Transit Effectiveness Project. Julie Gershbaum, the project’s program manager, said the study has completed market research and an operations review and will present recommendations after a series of public workshops.

Gershbaum said the TEP’s goals are to improve SFMTA performance and long-term financial stability, retain existing riders and attract new ones, and produce a 5–7 year roadmap balancing near-term fixes and longer-term investments. “I’m excited to have an opportunity to update you on the transit effectiveness project because we’ve made tremendous progress since we were last here in April,” she said.

The presentation highlighted outreach and data the agency says shaped its analysis: staff reported more than 3,000 responses to a general rider survey and about 400 responses to a targeted survey of seniors and people with disabilities, which emphasized reliability and the problem of “pass-ups” when riders in wheelchairs cannot board full vehicles. Gershbaum said wheelchair use…