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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Sunday Streets Changes Route, Still Forces Muni's 18-46th Avenue to take 51-Block Detour

Sunday Streets in Golden Gate Park and the length of the Upper Great Highway is happening this Sunday, and hopefully the weather will be cooperative.

But once again, Sunday Streets organizers are forcing Muni to waste time and extra gas for one of my favorite lines, the 18-46th Avenue.

Why? The 18 line must cross through Sunday Streets at Great Highway in order to make it to the opposite side of Golden Gate Park. But if the Sunday Streets organizers don’t allow the line to cut through the event’s route, the bus line is forced to take a 51 block (10-15 minute) detour via 25th & Fulton (northern side) and 19th Avenue & Lincoln (southern side).

Regular route of the 18:


Re-route due to Sunday Streets:

When I saw the Sunday Streets map for this Sunday’s event (PDF document), they made an event route modification to not use Great Highway between Lincoln & Fulton, and I felt this was a success from my previous blog entry complaining about the issue with the 18 line. The new route map only cuts through one short city block from Lower Great Highway & Lincoln to Upper Great Highway & Lincoln (less than 500 feet), which would make it possible for the 18 bus to make a minor cut through the event route.


View Larger Map

But the old Sunday Streets route (below) made it impossible for the 18 line to get through because it took a huge chunk (half a mile) of the Great Highway (from JFK drive to Lincoln).


View Larger Map

Muni hasn’t confirmed a re-route for the 18, but Sunday Streets believes the 51 block re-route will be in effect. I ask Sunday Streets and Muni to allow the bus line to briefly cut through the new Sunday Streets route so it doesn’t drastically effect their on-time schedule and wasting the taxpayer’s gasoline for a totally wasteful 51 block reroute.

If the 44 line can cut through the Golden Gate Park road shutdown every Sunday to go north & south, why can’t the 18 also get an exception for this event?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can confirm that the 18 was rerouted. Exiting the park on bicycle at Chain of Lakes/41st Ave, I saw an 18 approaching from the east on Lincoln.

In addition to having the big detour, traffic was heavier than even rush hour on a weekday afternoon at Lincoln near Chain of Lakes/41st Ave.

Your second map with the 18 detour is possibly incorrect because it depicts a left turn from Lincoln on to 19th which is illegal. If it followed the 29, then it would have to turn right on to 20th, left on Irving (heavily congested block), and then left again on to 19th Ave.

I did pass by the Sunday Streets event at Great Highway and Lincoln and there wasn't so much activity there that the 18 had to be rerouted. Great Highway north of Lincoln was desolate.

There were numerous DPT and other staff (not sure if they were workers or volunteers but they held stop signs up while the DPT officials directed traffic) directing traffic inside GG Park. I wonder why an additional person could not have placed at Great Highway x Lincoln to aid the bus.

The crossing of the 44 bus at JFK and 8th Ave is barricaded and someone moves it for the bus. I always see someone inside a private auto sitting by the barrier on Sundays.

Akit said...

Yep, I noticed the re-route too. You are correct about the illegal turns, adding another map to a blog entry would make it longer than it should.