San Francisco’s powerful cycling lobby is not pleased with a new proposal to shift biking off Market Street and onto Mission Street. Since 2010, a group of city agencies has been involved in crafting the Better Market Street project — a comprehensive set of improvement plans for San Francisco’s central artery. This week, the consortium announced plans to study an alternative in which cyclists would be steered onto nearby Mission Street instead of riding on Market Street. Buses would subsequently be removed from Mission Street. Read More

With a crucial vote on the project scheduled for Thursday, Muni has yet to reach a deal with a North Beach property owner about bringing up its Central Subway boring equipment at an abandoned 
theater. The agency wants to purchase a two-year lease of the Pagoda Palace on Powell Street so it can remove equipment for the $1.6 billion subway project. Originally, Muni planned on using Columbus Avenue, but changed course to 
alleviate neighborhood concerns. Read More

The passengers keep arriving and the records keep falling at San Francisco International Airport. Last year was the busiest in SFO’s history, with 44.5 million fliers passing through the hub. That marked an 8.5 percent increase from 2011, which had a then-record of 41 million passengers. Read More

Drivers in San Francisco soon may not need a cache of coins in their cars to feed the meters as a part of a proposal to replace The City’s entire network of parking meters — some 30,000 devices — with newer technology by this fall. San Francisco has about 23,000 older parking meters that accept only coins and payment cards issued by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which is in charge of parking in The City. There are an additional 6,000 or so meters that feature the agency’s new SFpark technology, which accept multiple payment forms and offer differing hourly rates. Another 1,000 meters are located on property the Port of San Francisco manages. Read More

A new loading zone set to be carved out for private shuttles on Van Ness Avenue could be a sign of things to come, as The City prepares to deal with the ever-growing number of unregulated buses. Van Ness Avenue has become the center of conflicts between Muni vehicles and private shuttles, which scoop up workers in San Francisco and carry them to jobs on the Peninsula and in Silicon Valley. The shuttles often pick up workers at stops designated for Muni vehicles, leading to public transit delays. Read More

Vehicles sporting pink mustaches could proliferate on the streets of San Francisco in coming months after a cease-and-desist order against a popular ride-sharing company was lifted. Lyft, a startup that combines new media functions with taxi-like services, had been threatened with fines of $20,000 and ordered to halt its operations while the California Public Utilities Commission investigated the company’s practices. Lyft is known for outfitting members’ vehicles with bright-pink mustaches on the front. Read More

From funding shortfalls to aging and inefficient facilities, Muni faces myriad entrenched issues. But the top priority now for the transit agency is dealing with its overcrowded vehicles. Muni’s capacity problem — particularly its crowded buses — is creating a “vicious cycle” of transportation choices in which travelers eschew public transit in favor of private automobiles, which in turn creates more traffic congestion, according to Timothy Papandreou, deputy director of planning at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni. Read More