SFMTA wants us out of our cars. Unfortunately, public transit is a dumpster fire

Dysfunction, mis-management and cost overruns. The trifecta.

We got the notice last week. The Fourth Street Bridge is going to “temporarily” become a one-way, one-lane street.

The idea is to make a smoother ride for Muni, whose buses and trains often get stuck in traffic there when cars are waiting for the light. For people driving in the neighborhood, however, it is going to be a pain, forcing drivers to find a work-around alternative, sending them out to other, residential streets.

As for “temporary,” if you believe that you’re probably new to the city. If they can pull this off without much pushback — there’s virtual community meeting in two weeks — the lanes will stay.

You’ve probably had the experience where you live. Suddenly, lanes in a street are blocked out in red. Intersections become no-turn zone. A dedicated bike lane appears and cars are parked in what used to be a traffic lane.

Understand, I’m not mad. This isn’t an accident. SFMTA is making it harder to drive in the city on the premise that San Francisco should become a transit first city. They want to push us out of our cars and onto bikes and public transportation.

A noble goal. There’s just one small problem.

Public transportation in San Francisco is a dysfunctional embarrassment.

Honestly, it is hard to fathom the depth of incompetence and mismanagement.

But don’t take my word for it. This Chronicle story, which was about how the $50 million redo of Muni’s Twin Peaks Tunnel was botched so badly that it will have to be done again, at a cost of millions, says it well. There is one astonishing paragraph, summing up what “city leaders, SFMTA staff and transit advocates” said were some of the problems. They were:

“. . . a policy of taking the lowest instead of the best contract, failure to manage contractors well, missing communication between engineering and maintenance departments, weak oversight of capital projects division and no clear chain of command on interagency projects.”

Other than that things are run well.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman spoke for us all when he said, “It is just extraordinary that this amazing city seems unable to deliver a transportation-related capital project.”

Those failing are how you make the mistake of re-using the rock and dirt bed that the train tracks sit on in the Twin Peaks Tunnel, rather than replacing it, or at least cleaning it. Instead, a cost-saving quick recycling of the old road bed was approved and now the resulting mud slog has to be removed and replaced at a huge cost.

This is how the Central Subway opening, originally scheduled for 2018, has now been pushed back to spring of 2022. This is the kind of oversight team that announces, in 2018, that — whoops — the contractor installing the train tracks laid down 3.2 miles of the wrong kind of rails.

This is how, just when Muni trains were supposed to come back in service in August, it was discovered that some splices in overhead wires had failed. That shut down the entire Muni rail system. There was talk of a return to service in December, but we’re almost there and we hear crickets.

As this Streetsblog entry says Muni has a lot to answer for in this mess. Why weren’t there exhaustive tests of the splices? There newer and more reliable products on the market, why not use those? And c’mon, really? Another shutdown?

In the Chronicle story SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin made an odd comment. He said there was “a culture of fear,” in the agency. He said people are afraid to call out problems because it might make them look bad.

OK, well that’s over. People are definitely calling MTA out.

Meanwhile, the agency is busy closing lanes, changing intersections and closing streets. They intend to push us out of our cars or bust.

And they may. But if you aren’t driving and need to get somewhere, here’s some advice.

Walk.

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Klay Thompson’s injury hits the Warriors hard — also there are draft picks

Last week the Warriors held something unusual in these times of a pandemic — a live press conference. Granted, it was in the open air in the plaza at Chase Arena, and reporters and interviewees were socially distanced.

But it was nice to be able to look someone in the eye, instead of a laptop screen, when talking to them.

As I wrote in my Sunday Santa Rosa Press Democrat column, the idea was to formally begin the new season — games start Dec. 22 — and to introduce this year’s draft choices, James Wiseman and Nico Mannion.

They seem like nice guys and there are numbers and analytics to show that they will be good players. But before reporters got to talk to them, general manager Bob Myers wanted to talk about Klay Thompson.

By then everyone had heard that Thompson tore his achilles tendon and was out for the year. This after sitting out last year rehabbing after ACL knee surgery.

Myers spoke for quite a while. It was heartfelt and it was frankly emotional. This was about more than 20 points a night. Although Myers was not GM when Thompson was drafted, he’s shared most of the journey with Klay.

Thompson, out of that basketball factory Washington State, was so overlooked in his rookie year that he wasn’t invited to the “Rising Stars” event at the All-Star game. Myers recalled they used to call him “Klay-up” because he couldn’t make a layup.

And for Thompson to turn out as he has — a five-time All-Star, three-time NBA champion — is pretty amazing.

And it reminds that these draft choices are really just educated guesses. Very educated, but still . . . You don’t know how a kid is going to turn out.

And every once in a while, when you get a player who raises his ceiling like Thompson did, you take a minute to recognize that.

Good for Myers, who did.

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Can the 49ers make the playoffs? Yes. (not really)

Coming out of the bye week and with six games left in the season, you know there is going to be talk about the 49ers reaching the post season.

As I wrote in Inside the 49ers, there is definitely a way to make a case for it. There are a few little markers.

Like that the NFC East is a dumpster fire. Not only do they not have a time with a winning record, all four have only won three games so far. So that eliminates them, meaning the 16-team NFC is down to 12 contenders.

And the 49ers are likely to get some of their injured players back — pending COVID tests. That could include Richard Sherman, receiver Deebo Samuel and a surprisingly important center Ben Garland.

As we’ve said previously, there are several problems the 49ers need to fix, but the offensive line, particularly the center, has to be at the top of the list. As of now, 49ers quarterbacks are taking the most hits in the NFL.

And that’s why this looks like a long shot. They basically have to win out to reach the post season. That makes this week’s game with the Rams a must-win. First, beating L.A. will be tough and second, we all said the last game with the Saints was a must-win and they didn’t.

Of the remaining six games they have to play the 7-3 Rams, resurgent 7-3 Buffalo, 6-4 Arizona and 7-3 Seattle.

That’s a tough lift. I don’t see them making it. But if they do it will be one of the great I-told-you-so’s of all time.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Suggestions and compliments cheerfully accepted. Complaints not so much. Twitter: @cwnevius