The system saw its highest ridership since before the Covid-19 pandemic, but faces a severe budget shortage in the coming year.
San Francisco’s Muni transit agency saw record post-pandemic ridership last year, signaling the success of Muni’s reorganization of its network to accommodate new travel patterns.
As Rachel Swan explains in the San Francisco Chronicle, “As of March, Muni had reached 75% of pre-pandemic ridership, with 158 million passenger trips last year — an increase of 13.5 million from 2023.” The system reached 78 percent of 2019 ridership in September. Some neighborhood routes recovered much more quickly, thanks in part to new bus-only lanes. For example, the 49 Van Ness line reached 143 percent of 2019 ridership last September.
“But the agency’s resurgence appears clouded by dismal budget projections for Muni,” Swan adds. “SFMTA planners are contemplating service cuts over the summer that could force some routes to turn around at Market Street, part of an effort to shore up $50 million, as the agency suffers from lost parking and general fund revenue.”
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Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
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Journal of the American Planning Association