Controversial San Francisco Muni transportation chief Jeffrey Tumlin stepping down

By Rachel Swan | San Francisco Chronicle (TNS)

Jeffrey Tumlin, the San Francisco transportation chief who envisioned a version of the city where cars don't rule the road, is set to step down at the end of the year.

He will appoint Julie Kirschbaum, now the director of transit at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, to take over as the agency's acting director. It will be up to Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie and the SFMTA board to name a permanent successor.

Tapped by Mayor London Breed in 2019 to fix a battered subway system, fill bus driver shortages and redesign dangerous intersections, Tumlin took his post at a moment of radical change for San Francisco's transportation system — and the city, itself.

Within months, the pandemic would devastate transit, forcing leaders at Muni to temporarily shut down the subway and re-think every bus route. It also opened the door for experimentation — most notably in the form of "Slow Streets," a concept that Tumlin and Breed pioneered to reduce vehicle speeds in residential areas, allowing people to recreate outside while practicing social distancing.

An avid cyclist and transit rider, Tumlin was forthright about his priorities. At the time of his hiring, he told the Chronicle that with street space so limited in San Francisco, a bus carrying 80 riders should take precedence over an automobile carrying one.

It didn't take long for him to become one of the city's most polarizing figures.

Political division "comes with the job of every city transportation director position in the country," Tumlin said in an interview. "Our streets are not getting any wider. So in order to improve safety, or make it safe for kids to bike to school, or put in a transit lane, it means we have to face trade-offs."

Although Tumlin said he did not initially want the job that required leading such a big department and answering to so many stakeholders, he said he had a change of heart after a 10-day meditation retreat.

"It made me realize it was time to serve," Tumlin said. He promised Breed he would stay in the position for five years — a term that ends Sunday.

His exit coincides with the election of a new mayor, Lurie, and also comes as San Francisco's pandemic recovery ramps up, with more people commuting to the office — though, transit ridership numbers continue to be far below 2019 levels.

As a result, complaints about transit and the scarcity of parking have reached boiling points. Tumlin said he felt a sense of responsibility to "know when it is time to take all the frustration and grievance and bad feeling upon one's person, and exit stage left — in order to protect the work, and protect the team."

In a statement announcing Tumlin's departure, SFMTA touted successes, including 76% reduction in major subway delays since 2019 and an 89% decrease in short delays. The number of crashes involving pedestrians has dropped by 32% in that timeframe.

Still, over five years of service, Tumlin has also endured critics blasting from all sides.

Roughly a month after his arrival, the city banned private cars from one of its main downtown arteries: a stretch of Market Street from the waterfront to Van Ness Avenue. The long-gestating plan, suddenly accelerated by a new "quick-build" procedure that allowed planners to bypass some bureaucratic approvals, drew applause from transit advocates and scorn from businesses — much of it heaped on Tumlin.

Controversy over " Better Market Street" festered for years, re-erupting during this year's mayor's race when candidate Mark Farrell pushed an "economic vitality" platform that included a proposal to "open Market Street back up to cars."

Yet the pandemic quickly eclipsed any concerns about street configuration and became Tumlin's first test of leadership as Muni ridership plummeted and the transit system's drivers became part of the wave of "first responders" who had to navigate their own personal safety against the risks of contracting the novel coronavirus.

Not knowing how many officers might get sick and be unable to make it to work on a given day, Muni had to effectively "abandon schedules," Tumlin said, and simply ask operators to space themselves evenly.

"The emergency order, and everything we had to go through during the pandemic forced us to be nimble, and respond quickly and re-invent things," Tumlin said. Despite harsh challenges, he said SFMTA's work during that period resulted in faster, more frequent and more reliable buses long afterward.

Not everyone was happy. Larry Marso, chair of the campaign that successfully defeated the Prop A $400 million Muni bond in June 2022, said Tumlin had failed to adapt transit for the rise of remote work.

"At the time he was criticized for running downtown service at pre-pandemic levels, rapidly exhausting federal and state emergency funds, and a number of ill-conceived, expensive projects," Marso told the Chronicle in an email.

Prop A drew approval from 65 % of voters, falling just short of the two-thirds threshold it needed to pass.

The push to close some city streets from cars, allowing people to congregate safely in outdoor spaces, culminated in the fight to close JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park. The street, which has been closed since voters approved it in 2022, became a political maelstrom, with people publicly advocating for less traffic through the park and others suggesting it would create more gridlock on surrounding streets.

During his tenure Tumlin also oversaw development milestones such as the long-awaited opening of the Central Subway system and the bus rapid transit lanes on Van Ness — each a project that was delivered years later than expected, but carrying the promise to create more efficiency in how people move around the city. Under Tumlin SFMTA and other city departments also finished the L Taraval project, a major infrastructure upgrade to a rail line that carries people from downtown to the west side.

And while the declining ridership of Bay Area transit systems became a dire dialogue during the city's pandemic recovery, Muni found ways to rebound with some of its lines among the nation's best at returning ridership numbers.

Breed described Tumlin in a statement as "a leader in building infrastructure, improving operations and making the hard decisions for our city as we grow." She cited plans to build more than 80,000 new homes in San Francisco, filled with residents who would need functional transportation.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat representing San Francisco, praised Tumlin's "forward-looking approach" and said Muni improved under his stewardship.

"Service is faster and more reliable due to Jeff's focus on making Muni work, and as a result Muni rider satisfaction surveys are at historic heights," Wiener said in a statement, in which he also highlighted Tumlin's efforts to boost pedestrian safety.

Whoever replaces Tumlin permanently will still face pressing issues and difficulties. Muni projects a $214 million shortfall in fiscal year 2027, and officials are still struggling to lure riders back.

In October, SFMTA officials said Muni's systemwide ridership overall is 74% of pre-pandemic levels and on weekends is 92% of pre-pandemic levels. The data did not include ridership on cable cars or streetcars, officials said.

On top of that, a new state daylighting law will take effect in January, requiring a 20-foot buffer between parked vehicles and crosswalks. In San Francisco, it's likely that many of those no-parking zones will not be clearly marked: The Chronicle recently reported that the city lacks sufficient money to paint all the daylighted curbs red.

Reach Rachel Swan: [email protected]

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