Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit is a bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, California, United States. The line, which runs between Mission Street and Lombard Street, has dedicated center bus lanes and nine stations. It was built as part of the $346 million Van Ness Improvement Project, which also included utility replacement and pedestrian safety features. Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit is primarily used by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) 49 Van Ness/Mission line, as well as two Golden Gate Transit routes.
Public transit on Van Ness Avenue began with streetcar service in 1915. It was replaced by trolleybuses in 1950–51, with diesel bus routes later added. Planning for a rail line on the corridor began in 1989 with the passage of a ballot measure. By 1995, it was to be the last of four major rail corridors constructed in the city. The planned mode was replaced with BRT in 2003, with studies and environmental analysis lasting the next decade. Construction began in June 2016; the planned completion in 2019 was delayed several times. The corridor opened to service on April 1, 2022.
Design
The Van Ness BRT corridor is long, running north–south between Lombard Street and Mission Street. Van Ness Avenue has six travel lanes on this section – two general-purpose lanes in each direction, plus center-running red bus lanes. Nine stations are located along the corridor, each with side platforms on the right side of buses. A landscaped center median is located between the bus lanes except at stations. The northbound bus lane exits at Filbert Street, with a marked transition for buses to move to the curb lane. The red lanes on Van Ness are poured red concrete, rather than paint or thermoplastic markings applied over conventional pavement, for increased durability. A layer of reinforced concrete was poured as the foundation, followed by a curing compound. The red concrete was then poured, with dowel baskets to join adjacent slabs, then topped with a color hardener layer. The finished lane pavement has a compressive strength of , 60% stronger than a typical roadway, extending its life.
Services and stations All services using Van Ness BRT operate only part of their length on the BRT lanes; they operate in mixed traffic or on separately installed bus lanes off the Van Ness corridor. SFMTA normally operates one primary route along the full length of the BRT corridor – 49 Van Ness/Mission – with headways as low as 6 minutes. The 90 San Bruno Owl operates on the corridor at 30 minutes frequencies between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. as part of the Muni Owl All-Nighter Service. In April 2020, SFMTA suspended the 47 Van Ness bus route due to the COVID-19 pandemic in California, leaving only route 49 running the full length of Van Ness BRT. Golden Gate Transit (GGT) operates two routes along the Van Ness BRT corridor: 101 and 120. GGT buses use only the seven stops from Union to Eddy, as they run on Golden Gate Avenue and McAllister Street to reach downtown San Francisco.
The Van Ness BRT alignment has nine stations named after cross streets. Market Street station is located at Van Ness station, providing transfer to Muni Metro, while a transfer to the Geary BRT service is available at Geary–O'Farrell station. Street Image Routes Muni connections Union Muni: , GGT: 101, 120 Vallejo Muni: 49, 90GGT: 101, 120 — Jackson Muni: 49, 90GGT: 101, 120 , Sacramento Muni: 49, 90GGT: 101, 120 Sutter Muni: 49, 90GGT: 101, 120 — Geary–O'Farrell Muni: 49, 90GGT: 101, 120 , (Geary BRT) Eddy Muni: 49, 90GGT: 101, 120 McAllister Muni: 49, 90 , Market(Van Ness station) Muni: 49, 90 , , , ,
Cost As rated in November 2014 by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the project was planned to cost $162.7 million, with approximately $75 million to be provided as federal funding under the Small Starts Project Development Program. In December 2016, the FTA awarded the $75 million Small Starts grant. The entire Van Ness Improvement Project had a budget of $309 million when construction began. By 2022, the budget for only the transit improvements had grown to $169.6 million, with a total project cost of $346 million. Part of the increased cost was covered by contingency funds in the original funding; the FTA also awarded an additional $21.9 million to the project in 2021 using funds allotted from the American Rescue Plan.
A 2021 civil grand jury report determined the planning process had failed to account for the location and future maintenance of underground utility lines; because existing water and sewer lines were buried under the center of Van Ness, they had to be relocated curbside to avoid future disruption of BRT service when these utilities required maintenance. The choice of center bus lanes, rather than side lanes, also required substantial reconfiguration and temporary de-energization of the trolleybus wires. The report found that the choice of center lanes increased the cost and complexity of the project, as well as the overall benefits. Although the general position of the existing utility lines was known as early as 2006, detailed survey maps and routing were not developed until after the project had started construction, and the task of determining exact utility routing fell on the construction contractor rather than SFMTA, exceeding the contractor's intended scope of responsibilities and causing project cost and schedule overruns.
Public art
In August 2013, a selection panel of the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) recommended the proposal from Cuban-born artist Jorge Pardo for consideration by the full SFAC over competing proposals from Norie Sato and Janet Zweig for a series of three sculptures that would be installed at the Market, Sutter and Union stations. Pardo presented a formal proposal in 2015, calling for a series of caged weathering steel sculptures, lit from within. According to Pardo, the three sculptures were intended to be "urban coastal redwood[s] ... made of steel, light and weather". The SFAC formally selected Pardo in September 2015. By 2017, the proposed work and location had been consolidated to a single installation at the two McAllister station platforms; each platform would have thirteen steel-and-polycarbonate light sculptures, distinguished by a warm or cool palette. The Arts Commission authorized a budget of $815,000 for the work on October 2, 2017. This final design subsequently was moved to the Geary–O'Farrell station, with the cool palette on the southbound platform and the warm palette on the northbound platform.
Criticism
Some automobile drivers complained about possible changes in traffic patterns and loss of automobile parking along the corridor. Concerns that trees would be removed were met with plans to plant more trees on the route. Residents supportive of the project complained about continued delays in completing the project, and that the project took longer to complete than other similar projects in other cities because the SFMTA did not close the street to automobile traffic during construction. Businesses along Van Ness complained of lost customers due to construction disruption and the delays in completion. Mayor Ed Lee announced a Construction Mitigation Program (CMP) in September 2017 to provide grants to businesses affected by transit construction, but the focus of that program primarily focused on Union Square businesses and Central Subway construction. CMP funds were not available until November 2019 and were not opened for Van Ness businesses until September 2020.
The project has been criticized for using platforms, the standard sidewalk height, instead of platforms that would match the level of the bus floor to allow for level boarding. Field tests indicated that interference with wheel lug nuts would create a gap at least wide between the edge of a 14-inch-high platform and the boarding doors, and bridge plates would be required at middle doors to meet ADA standards for level boarding; the added complexity could impact vehicle reliability. In addition, because the buses would also operate outside the Van Ness BRT corridor, they would continue to need to be equipped with boarding ramps at the front door for regular curbside service. Concrete poles
The original concrete poles built to support the overhead electrical supply lines for the streetcars in 1914 were moved onto the sidewalks in 1936 to accommodate the widening of Van Ness. Since then, the poles have deteriorated due to extra loads from additional wires (added for the electrical return path when the lines were converted to trolleybus service) and modified catenary geometry, exhibiting significant spalling and cracking. In some cases, Muni has supplemented the original concrete poles by moving wires onto adjacent, modern metal poles. By the mid-1980s, records show the city was concerned the original poles could not support their existing loads, and starting in 1997, began replacing missing cast iron pole bases with fiberglass replicas. A 2009 evaluation of the original 1914/36 poles concluded they could not be rehabilitated and retrofitted for use on the modern BRT line because of their shape, height, and inadequate foundation. A separate report determined the original trolley poles were not eligible for retention on a historical basis due to their loss of physical integrity.
The city's Historic Preservation Commission provided conditional approval to remove the original 1914/1936 trolley poles and streetlamps in November 2015, but preservationists were concerned over the loss of the Van Ness "Ribbon of Light", and three prominent organizations formed the "Coalition to Save the Historic Streetlamps of Van Ness Avenue" in 2016. The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution on September 20, 2016, urging SFMTA to "make all efforts to preserve the historic character of the Van Ness Corridor". As a result, SFMTA approved the installation of 350 vintage-style light fixtures at $18,500 each, adding $6.5 million to the project cost. Ironically, because the proposed fixtures are insufficiently faithful to the original design, the Historic Preservation Commission required that modern-style light poles be used in the Civic Center Historic District instead as "they don't create a lot of visual clutter". As a compromise, four poles were retained and restored in front of San Francisco City Hall and War Memorial Plaza.
History Early streetcar and bus service
The San Francisco Municipal Railway was formed in 1909 and opened its first line on Geary Boulevard in 1912. A bond issue to build routes serving the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition was approved in 1913. Construction work started on a Van Ness Avenue line on April 6, 1914; electrical and track work were completed by August 15 of that year, earning the contractors a $15,000 bonus (). As completed, the line on Van Ness included 259 concrete poles to support the overhead electrical supply wires, and streetlights were added to the poles one year later.
Streetcar service on Van Ness Avenue began on August 15, 1914. The H Potrero ran the full length of Van Ness Avenue between Bay Street and Market Street, while the D Geary–Van Ness ran on Van Ness Avenue north of Geary Street. Service on the F Stockton route, which used Van Ness Avenue between North Point Avenue and Chestnut Street, began on December 29, 1914. Several other routes also ran on Van Ness for short periods: G Exposition and I Exposition in 1915, J Exposition in 1915–16, J Church in 1917–18, K Ingleside in 1918, and E Union Street and O Van Ness in 1932.