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Board expands evaluation window for Mid-Market loading pilot after heated public comment
Summary
SFMTA staff recommended moving from early monitoring to a full evaluation of limited commercial passenger services on Mid-Market; early data showed fewer than 20'25 provider trips per day and no measurable transit-travel-time degradation yet. The proposal to expand to Phase 3 prompted extensive public comment both for and against; the board asked staff to collect more data (provider logs, ADT, enforcement metrics) and return within 3'6 months, sooner if thresholds are exceeded.
SFMTA staff presented findings from an early-monitoring phase of a limited commercial passenger loading pilot on Mid-Market Street and recommended expanding to a full evaluation period to learn whether a larger presence of commercial passenger providers (Waymo, Uber Black, Lyft Black) would meaningfully affect transit travel times, variability or safety.
Jenny DeLumo of the Streets Division framed the evaluation around three core metrics: (1) whether transit travel time increases by more than 5%, (2) whether travel-time variability increases by more than 10%, and (3) whether providers stop in travel lanes. Staff said additional indicators (injury collisions, 311 reports, citations, trips by mode and TMC incidents) will also be tracked.
Early-monitoring results (July baseline versus October observations) showed few provider trips (fewer than 20'25 per day observed), no material change in typical Market Street surface-route travel times (10.1 minutes in July vs. 10.0 minutes in October on the corridor measured), and a slight rise in travel-time variability (from 5.6 to 5.9 minutes, roughly a 20-second increase). "Based on our observations ... we typically see fewer than 20 to 25 provider trips a day," DeLumo told the board.
The presentation triggered a heavy public turnout. Business and merchant representatives argued that restoring managed drop-off and pickup access is essential for downtown recovery and safety, while transit, bicycle, pedestrian and disability advocates warned that even small degradations in transit reliability and added vehicle presence would reverse gains from the car-free Market Street program and harm safety and equity. Advocates urged the board to adopt the Citizens Advisory Council's recommendation to close the "commercial passenger vehicle" loophole in the 2019 Better Market Street implementation.
Board members generally supported expanding to a Phase 3 full evaluation period that would remove operating caps for providers but asked staff to accelerate data collection and return to the board within 3 months (some members requested a 3-month target rather than 6), and to return sooner if metrics cross threshold values. Staff committed to more detailed provider data reviews (trip logs, pickup/drop-off locations), average-daily-traffic counts to detect private-vehicle encroachment, and enforcement/citation analyses as part of the full evaluation.
