San Francisco County Supervisor announced an ambitious agenda to construct underground rail transit—arguing that the city "should always have a subway under construction."
"[San Francisco] Supervisor Scott Wiener hopes to lay the groundwork to increase subway infrastructure citywide. San Francisco’s transit future may resemble New York City, if his proposal is approved," reports Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez.
"Wiener plans to introduce his 'Subway Master Plan' ordinance to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. That plan will task San Francisco with 'always' having a subway under construction, and expanding the subway system throughout The City."
Supervisor Wiener took to the web to describe in his own words the thinking behind the ambitious agenda. "San Francisco has a lackluster history of subway construction," writes Supervisor Wiener, which "has significant negative impacts on our transportation system." Those negative impacts include a bus system that move at the slowest average speeds of any urban bus system in the country, according to a 2014 report from the City Controller's Office.
Wiener goes on to lay our an ambitious agenda, point-by-point, which includes a subway master planning process: "While our transit agencies are engaging in very strong planning around various aspects of our transportation system — and they deserve lots of credit for doing so — we need a long-term roadmap specific to subways so that we are constantly planning for the next subway project, rather than completing a project, only to enter into a period of political inertia."
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