Breed Tapped a New Transit Agency Director to Fix Muni

Mayor London Breed Wednesday tapped a new director of transportation to lead the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.  The mayor and city at large hope Jeffrey Tumlin can do what Ed Reiskin failed to do before him: Fix the damn Muni system.

Reiskin resigned in April under intense criticism. Muni is notoriously unreliable and, in the eyes of many, Reiskin had not done enough to facilitate significant improvements. People waiting through service delays and mechanical issues can attest to that. In days prior to his resignation, the whole system went down for a day when more than 1,000 feet of overhead wires fell onto the top of a two-car train. The train was extensively damaged and riders who depend on the public transit system were extensively pissed off.

It took months of searching before Breed selected Tumlin to take over. His job will be no easy feat, but he brings 25 years of industry experience and most recently served as a director of strategy for Nelson\Nygaard, a San Francisco firm specializing in transportation and engineering. And he’ll need to draw on every bit of his experience to fix the cluster that Muni has become.

Why advertise the 4:38pm 7X bus when it NEVER shows. #sfmta #munisucks #neverontime #outersunsetignored pic.twitter.com/lSLiqczhjj

— Cindy Fong (@Fongaroo) November 7, 2019

I’d like to report a stolen 35 bus ?#munisucks pic.twitter.com/CCL8rGFvze

— Gregory (@gregfalabella) October 28, 2019

Tumlin steps into the role as San Francisco faces an epidemic of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities. As of October 31, 25 people had died as a result of traffic incidents on the city’s streets. Less than a week ago, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution that declared a state of emergency related to pedestrian and cyclist fatalities. A robust, safe and reliable public transit system is key to reducing the increasing amount of traffic on streets that were just not designed to accommodate so many private vehicles.

Tumlin believes he’s up for the task, and we certainly hope he’s right.

He said:

“San Francisco is unlike any place in the world and I’m incredibly excited to help build a transportation system that serves all of our residents. I’m focused on putting people first and implementing solutions that work best for a diverse and ever-growing world class city.”