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December 5, 2005 (SF Examiner)
Voter-approved plan for Geary runs into hurdles
By Marisa Lagos
Staff Writer
Some Richmond District merchants are worried that
a plan to speed up Muni by giving buses priority at traffic lights
and redesigning streets to include “transit-only” lanes
could harm businesses, and they are asking The City to study the
economic impact of the proposal.
The Bus Rapid Transit system, or BRT, was embraced by 75 percent
of San Francisco voters in 2003, when they agreed to a “transportation
expenditure plan” that calls for the implementation of BRT
along Geary Boulevard, Van Ness Avenue and Potrero Avenue.
In addition to improving bus shelters and sidewalks, the plan would
speed up city buses by giving them traffic-light priority, similar
to rail systems, and create transit-only lanes. The system is hailed
by transit advocates as a cheap, fast way to improve public transportation
— something they say will make Muni more efficient, less expensive
to run and more pleasurable to ride.
But some Geary Boulevard businesspeople worry that the construction
impacts could affect small businesses and that the possible loss
of parking spaces in the area will drive customers out of The City
and to easier places to shop.
“I’m fighting for the businesspeople in this city,”
said David Heller, president of a neighborhood merchant’s
association and a member of the project’s Citizens Advisory
Committee. “This business took me years to build.”
City officials say the economic study asked for by some local merchants
is not part of the normal planning process and that Heller and others
are way ahead of themselves. BRT on Geary Boulevard is still in
the very early planning stages, they point out, so there is nothing
to base an economic study on.
“The perception that I have is that a call for a study is
very premature. We don’t know any of the details,” said
Transportation Authority Director Jose Luis Moscovich, whose agency
is charged with overseeing BRT.
“If they [merchants] were being steamrolled, I would have
put this through four years ago … there’s certainly
no rushing into this,” said Richmond District Supervisor Jake
McGoldrick, the Transportation Authority board chairman. He added
that concerns about construction impacts have been overblown. “The
[possible] median work involved is hardly different than ordinary
repaving of the street.”
However, Supervisor Fiona Ma, who last week met with Heller and
other concerned merchants, said she understands their fears.
“My concern is the livelihood of small businesses,”
she said. “The community is concerned that this is an open
process. … I understand that San Francisco is a transit-first
town, but it’s not a transit-only town.”
E-mail: mlagos@examiner.com
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