Festival of words

Conditions You promised me That you would not change Now do not ask Here you are changing What is the secret of this change? Do I really ask? I know the answer You will say a hurried circumstance Am I replaced by the article? It is a delayed assassination You complain that the circumstances Invited you to move Took you to roam And forced you to wander So you do not know the way Nor the directions of reason Do not oppress fate And wait...slow down... We anchor the orbit In the boat of movement And we write the course In turn we represent And we read the letters In a fair port Perhaps it will tilt And to our knees it will pamper Either we walk Or it will be shackled With our heads spinning Searching for the one who calls And we are all waiting And our clothes are torn And we spread the shrine For the one we want to accept With a kind look And a kiss that dissolves And a passionate kiss For the one who makes sense The journey tires us And what we see does not reach Our difficu

.Caring for older dogs Once your dog is old, it is time to take some precautions to keep your dog healthy, happy, and active. Have your veterinarian examine your pet (if needed) every year or more. As with humans, keep your dog's weight within the appropriate or optimal range. Overweight dogs suffer from many health problems, such as joint problems, arthritis, diabetes, and liver or kidney failure. Reduce the amount of rewards given to the pet. It's hard to resist their emotional visions, but please remember that it is always in their best interest. You don't want to kill pets in a nice way to yourself. Feed the pet once a day or feed a small amount of pets twice daily, but if the pet resides there, remove it. If you have children, explain to them why they shouldn't sneak food on the family's pets. As with dogs of any age, make sure you always have fresh and cool water. Some older dogs will have a hard time fetching water, so you can bring water or place a bo

Your Market Street Muni Service FAQs - Answered By Mariana Maguire Even with temporarily reduced service and lower ridership across the Muni network amid the COVID-19 citywide stay-at-home health order, there are still multiple Muni Core Service routes overlapping along Market Street. We’ve rolled out new tools to provide important information to customers who are still taking Muni for essential trips, including: The COVID-19 Ambassador Program along Market Street New wayfinding signage for bus routes along Market Street New signage about physical distancing and face coverings Multilingual onboard audio announcements and PSA car cards, social media campaigns, and a dedicated website at SFMTA.com/COVID19 Even so, we know our customers still have questions — read on to learn a bit more about our most frequent inquiries: Which routes are operating on Market Street? Since bus service replaced Muni Metro and light rail service to help us consolidate resources, the routes curre

Director of Transportation Report: April 21, 2020 By In this week's Director's Report from the SFMTA Board of Director's Meeting, Jeffrey Tumlin gave updates on the following topics: The agency’s ongoing response to COVID-19 Ambassador program with agency staffing assisting transit in monitoring bus ridership along Market Street How the Essential Trip Program is helping to subsidize taxi use for older customers and those with disabilities Launch of the Slow Streets Program that will provide a network of streets that prioritize other modes besides public transit for essential trips while still allowing local vehicle traffic. Caltran’s US 101 Alemany Replacement Project shifting work to begin earlier on April 25 Status on the closure of the Great Highway following an early April sand event Third Street Bridge and bicycle traffic The SFMTA Board of Directors generally meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 1 p.m. in Room 400, City Hall. The meeting

M Bus Community Shuttle Starts Service Monday 5/4 By Erin McMillan Starting Monday, May 4, the M Bus will return to partial service as a “Community Shuttle” between Balboa Park and West Portal stations. This service update is based on ridership trends, staffing availability, and community feedback. It has strong support from District 11 Supervisor Safai as a way to improve transit connections in the southwestern area of the city. The modified M Bus Community Shuttle route will provide better access for essential trips in the Ocean View, Merced Heights and Ingleside neighborhoods and to the transit hubs of West Portal and the Balboa Park. Serving stops on weekdays only from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., the M Bus frequency will be approximately every 20 minutes. Since April 8, Muni has been operating a COVID-19 Core Service Plan to support essential trips that cannot be made any other way. With fewer operators, car cleaners and maintenance staff available during the shelter-in-place, Muni se

Muni inspired virtual backgrounds By Sophia Scherr Whether you’re telecommuting, teaching or learning online, or staying home and riding Muni for essential trips only - do it in style with these Muni virtual backgrounds. Download, save and use them for any of your preferred video chatting platforms. For the latest COVID-19 related transit updates please visit  SFMTA.com/COVID-19 .  Published April 28, 2020 at 11:07PM https://ift.tt/3cQpcTo

COVID-19 Ambassadors Help You Ride Muni Correctly By Mariana Maguire If you’re taking Muni for essential trips along Market Street you might see SFMTA’s yellow-vested Ambassadors wearing face masks or coverings and directing customers to maintain safe physical distance at curbside bus stops and boarding islands. What you can’t see are their smiles behind their masks as they work throughout the day to help San Francisco “flatten the curve.” COVID-19 Ambassadors at a bus stop on Market Street. Last week, the SFMTA launched our COVID-19 Ambassador Program. Although overall ridership is down, during peak times in certain areas we sometimes still see crowding at bus stops and on buses. If a bus is too crowded, our operators will stop picking up new passengers until there is enough room for more. We know that this and other changes are tough on everyone. That’s where our Ambassadors come in. Their aim is to encourage customers to practice good public health behavior throughout the entir

SFMTA Budget: Outreach and Engagement By The Coronavirus pandemic and current shelter-in-place order have changed our daily routines. The timeline for the SFMTA budget approval has been extended to August 1st. However, we are moving forward with the budget because we need a reference point for where the Agency intends to go. As such, we are taking steps to ensure we continue to engage in a thoughtful and comprehensive community process in light of the current circumstances.  If you would like to comment on the budget, please email sfmtabudget@sfmta.com , call 415.646.2222, or post on our  Facebook  page or  Twitter  using #sfmtabudget. You can also visit our  budget webpage.  The SFMTA Board of Directors will be voting on the budget during their regularly scheduled hearing on Tuesday, April 21st .  This is the fourth in a series of blogs exploring the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA’s) budget process and proposal for Fiscal Years 2021-2022. The first blog prov

Slow Streets Program to Help With Social Distancing By With Muni service temporarily reduced during the COVID-19 health crisis, many San Francisco residents need to walk and take other modes of transportation to make essential trips. However, sometimes it is difficult to maintain 6’ of social distance on many sidewalks, park paths, and bikeways. This can be especially true when passing lines outside grocery stores and other essential services. Because of this, many pedestrians are choosing to walk in the street, exposing themselves to swiftly moving vehicle traffic. The SFMTA is implementing a new program, Slow Streets, to close some streets to through traffic and allow roadways to be used more as a shared space for foot and bicycle traffic. Throughout the city, corridors have been identified for Phase 1 Slow Streets. Beginning this week, some of these streets will be closed to through vehicle traffic to prioritize walking/biking and to provide more space for social distancing duri

Muni Updates: Restoring Some of Our Service By Erin McMillan Since April 8, Muni has been operating a COVID-19 Core Service Plan to support essential trips that cannot be made any other way. With fewer operators, car cleaners and maintenance staff available during the shelter-in-place, Muni service has been significantly reduced. Our initial network of 17 key lines was informed by our data on where ridership is highest, our Muni Equity Strategy to provide transportation for those with the fewest options, locations of essential services like hospitals and groceries, and to provide coverage across the city. Over the past week and a half, SFMTA has seen a small increase in the number of available key personnel, allowing us to expand our service based on ridership trends and public feedback during the pandemic. On April 25, we will be modifying Muni’s Core Service by adding back some modified routes and increasing the frequency of buses on others. This additional bus service was infor

A New Way Of Generating Prediction Times By The last month has brought about dramatic changes in virtually all aspects of our lives, including how we use our Muni transit system. When we implemented our Core Service Plan that focused our limited resources on 17 lines that were serving the majority of our customers, we also transitioned our service operation from a schedule-based system to a headway or frequency-based system. This means vehicles depart their terminals at regularly timed intervals instead of at specific times. In so doing, we also had to make adjustments on how this information was processed by NextMuni to generate reliable arrival time predictions. Up until now, if a Muni vehicle departed the terminal before its scheduled departure time, it would register on NextMuni as being on break and would not generate predictions, even though it was on its regular route. When we transitioned to a headway-based system, and as the buses experienced fewer delays on their routes,

Vision Zero Monthly Highlights By Vision Zero SF is the City’s road safety policy that will build safety and livability into our streets, protecting the one million people who move about the City every day. From education to traffic engineering, from enforcing traffic laws to changing public policy, Vision Zero SF is driving an agenda to change the way we think and act on San Francisco streets. This month, we’re featuring some improvements to benefit motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Here is a list of what we’ve been working on this past month: Safe Streets in the Year of the Rat Safety Improvements to Page Street New Daylighting and Crosswalks Published April 18, 2020 at 01:33AM https://ift.tt/2RPMCQW

Essential Trip Card: Helping Older Adults and People with Disabilities Navigate Reduced Muni Service By Bradley Dunn With a shortage of operators, car cleaners and other key personnel, Muni has implemented  significant reductions to Muni service . We know that for many older adults and people with disabilities, walking farther to an alternate bus or paying for other transportation simply isn’t possible. To address this need, the SFMTA is announcing the Essential Trip Card (ETC) to help older adults and people with disabilities pay for essential trips in taxis. We are thankful that taxis have stepped up to serve this critical need.  The ETC will provide two to three round trips per month at only 20 percent of the cost of a regular cab fare.  All taxis in San Francisco will accept the card to pay for essential trips like going to the grocery store or the doctor during the shelter-in-place period.  Customers who pay $6 will receive $30 value or $12 for $60 value for taxi trips on a de

Update: Route and Stop Changes By Bradley Dunn With a shortage of operators, car cleaners and other key personnel, Muni has implemented  significant reductions to Muni service . The COVID19 pandemic has disrupted many parts of everyday life, including transit. As everyone is getting used to our new  Muni Core Service Plan , some key routes are continuing to run but are using different stops. And, other changes have been made in response to customer feedback.   As a reminder, during this public health emergency, we are asking San Franciscans to:  Comply with the shelter-in-place directive  Only make essential trips  Use Muni only for those essential trips that can’t be made in other ways  The following changes went in effect on Wednesday, April 8. All of these are in place until further notice with mulit-lingual signs-up at all stops detail the service.  K Ingleside Bus Temporarily Discontinued, T Bus Operating to Castro  The Muni Core Service Plan temporarily susp

Muni Core Service Plan Now in Effect By Bonnie Jean von Krogh Muni service is undergoing dramatic changes in response to COVID-19. Many critical Muni staff including operators, mechanics, and car cleaners are more vulnerable to coronavirus due to their age or preexisting health conditions, so they are sheltering in place in accordance with the city’s order. This has made it difficult for us to fully staff all our routes. Muni’s Core Service Plan now in place focuses SFMTA’s limited resources on providing service on our busiest lines with the highest demand during this crisis. Although we are running only about 20% of our transit lines (17 of 79 lines), last week those 17 lines carried approximately 80% of our passengers due to changing trip patterns. This core service is in support of essential trips that cannot be made in other ways. We are asking all San Franciscans to help us maintain adequate space on buses for social distancing by staying at home except for essential trips.

Modified OWL Service to Start 4/8 at 10 pm By Bradley Dunn The COVID-19 public health crisis is changing ridership patterns and affecting the availability of key staff who operate, clean and maintain our buses. Due to these shifting resources and needs, the SFMTA will be starting late-night Owl service at a new, earlier time during this crisis. Instead of switching from daytime Muni service to Owl service at 1 am, beginning Wednesday, April 8, our late-night Owl routes will start every night at 10 pm. All regular Owl routes will operate with the exception of the 5 Fulton and 48 Quintara/24th Street, which will be temporarily discontinued. We know that this and other Muni Core Service Plan changes will be difficult for many San Franciscans. We are making these changes to ensure that the limited resources we have are used to provide service for essential trips on our busiest lines with the highest demand with adequate space for passengers.  Starting Wednesday, April 8 - Map of the

SFMTA Prepares to Deliver Essential Trips Muni Service Only By Bonnie Jean von Krogh In the rapidly changing environment caused by COVID-19, the SFMTA is making additional updates to Muni service. While ridership has fallen significantly, our bus operators still serve approximately 100,000 passengers a day – getting nurses, cooks, custodians, and other essential workers to their jobs. The SFMTA has instituted some of the strongest health protections for our operators, mechanics, car cleaners and customers to minimize risk of transmission on our buses. These efforts have been paired with our continued effort to maintain regular service, so remaining essential workers have the space to maintain recommended distances on Muni.   However, it has become increasingly difficult to continue delivering service on our current network due to operator availability and the changing trip needs of the community.  Following public health guidance, there are operators are in self-quarantine out of a