There’s been a long-simmering dispute between a group of north Bernal neighbors and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency over the location of the existing 67 Muni bus stop on Ripley Street near Folsom.
Bernalwood is told that a group of neighbors on Ripley really really really want the stop relocated, to avoid gumming up their street with two-way bus traffic.
Here are the specifics of the proposed change, along with the details about a community meeting taking place on Tuesday, January 28 to discuss the matter, via the SFMTA’s public announcement:
Proposed Change
The SFMTA, in response to neighborhood concerns, is proposing a reroute to the inbound 67 Bernal Heights (towards 24th Street BART) via Bernal Heights Boulevard. Buses traveling to the Mission District and 24th Street BART Station would travel on Bernal Heights Boulevard between Bradford and Folsom Streets. Buses traveling towards Cortland Ave. will travel on the existing routing. The proposed routing leads to the following stop changes:
- The stop at the northwest corner of Ripley St. and Alabama St. would be discontinued.
- The stop on Ripley at Folsom would move across the street to a stop on Folsom Street before the intersection with Ripley.
- The stop on Bradford at Esmeralda would move back to the stop sign where Bernal Heights Boulevard and Bradford meet (approximately 80 feet south).
There are no proposed parking changes at this time. There are no planned changes to the street design as part of this project.
Public Outreach Meeting
This proposal will be discussed at a public meeting at the following date and time:
Tuesday, January 28 at 6:00 pm
San Francisco Public Library – Bernal Heights Branch 500 Cortland Avenue
If you have further questions or would like to submit comments regarding the reroute proposal, please contact:
Jeff Flynn
Transit Service Planning Manager – San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Phone: 415.701.4646
Email: jeffrey.flynn@sfmta.com
In advance of the meeting, Bernalwood has received some strongly-worded commentary about the proposed rerouting from several Bernal neighbors. A flyer circulated by Neighbor Veronica says:
Long term residents are been left out of the conversation regarding changes – the notices are limited to a small number of people and not given enough time.
- We having people who don’t use the service attempt to change something that has been working for over 30 years.
- The issues they are attempting to tackle can be easily tackled with technology (i.e. communication or mapping devices we use on our phones to see where the buses are.)
- Our taxes pay for this service.
From your neighbors who use this service all the time, we ask that you support us in keeping this service intact by EMAILING:
Another neighbor summarizes the state of play this way:
The Ripley folks between Alabama and Folsom are lobbying the SFMTA and David Campos to reroute the inbound 67 (toward BART) over Bernal Heights Blvd to avoid the buses passing and getting “stuck” on Ripley. There’s only one bus line that serves the North Slope and moving the stop at Ripley and Alabama to Bradford and Bernal Heights Blvd effectively cuts it down to ½ bus service. I use the bus every day to get to BART and I’m perfectly capable of walking to Ripley and Folsom (although my dogs are going to be barking in my high heeled shoes) but there are a number of elderly and disabled persons who may not be able to swing the uphill walk.
A neighbor who now rides the 67 regularly comments:
I moved offices and can now take the 67 every day to work. Its proximity to my house was in the plus column when I bought this place 4+ years ago, after having lived in Bernal 7 years prior. When I had surgery, and couldn’t drive for a month, that stop being across the street meant I could go to the farmers market and up to Cortland for groceries and to be in the world. I would have been isolated otherwise. When I imagine myself being twice my age, still living here, it’s comforting to imagine the same could happen. […]
I worry about the elderly neighbors on Alabama who I think will be more isolated if this goes through. I worry that total ridership might go down and that that might catch the eye of downtown number-crunchers looking at lines to cut. The 67 is really a connector for Bernal, and I don’t want to see that go away.
I’m sure people who live between Alabama and Folsom on Ripley would be thrilled to see the change. That block is narrow and driving it can be kind of a pain. Frankly, though, it feels very Bernal-y, every time I drive that block and see an approaching 67 and pull over so it can pass. The driver and I wave to each other. It’s friendly and neighborly.
And a neighbor on Folsom writes:
Wow! The SFMTA actually listened to the neighbors. I’m impressed. Ripley neighbors will rejoice!
This isn’t so bad, but then, I don’t know anyone who will be directly affected by the changes. I’m not sure how many people use the Ripley/ Alabama stop [that will be discontinued], but making the bus stop at the top of Folsom at Ripley isn’t so bad. I like the idea of the bus stopping at the top of the hill. It seems like people would want that, instead of having to walk a couple more blocks up. There were more extreme options, including making Ripley one way.
My only concern is that there is much more traffic on Folsom that will have to stop or go around buses. Perhaps that will slow people down but… probably not.
Proposals like this are inevitably contentious, so if you have an interest in the matter, Tuesday’s meeting at the Bernal library will be a good place to make your views known.
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