Buses on San Francisco’s Mission Street corridor are running a bit faster thanks to a pilot signal priority program. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (CA) has seen measurable improvements after installing devices on buses that extend green time as the vehicles approach intersections.
Since the system was activated on March 26, average travel time on three routes serving the corridor dropped by nearly five minutes over 63 intersections, according to director of transit John Haley.
“The single biggest passenger complaint is, ‘What takes you guys so long?’” he said. “So this is a pretty significant drop in travel time one-way from 57 minutes on average to 52.” The system has also eased bus bunching on Mission Street.
Signal priority is also in place on Third Street, and transit officials hope to extend the system to other intersections. “When we talk about transit first, this is a prime example,” Haley said, referring to the city’s transportation policy. Link to full story in San Francisco Examiner.
Source: thetransitwire.com (April 30, 2014)
