Muni riders on the 14-Mission could soon start seeing cleaner buses during their rides, or at least see a crew boarding to clean up a possible messy situation during revenue service.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced a two-week pilot program that will run through Oct. 9, which includes having staff ride the buses and deploying a mobile cleaning crew along the 14 route.
“This pilot is geared towards meeting our customers where they’re at,” said SFMTA’s Director of Transit Brent Jones in a brief YouTube video posted on Monday, announcing the pilot program.
The SFMTA stated that staff will ride along the route to “monitor conditions” on the bus and speak with riders to address any issues that may arise on board.
A cleaning crew will also be on standby along the route to ensure the buses remain clean during service hours, while maintaining service. The SFMTA added that they will be monitoring Muni bus stops based on customer feedback.
While the 14 and 14R Mission Rapid routes are among the busiest Muni routes postpandemic (the 14 local is 87 percent of prepandemic ridership levels, and the rapid is 16 percent above prepandemic ridership levels as of August), the 14 route has had issues with complaints about feces on the buses.
The San Francisco Standard in September reported that the 14 route received the highest number of complaints about feces, at 186, from January 2024 to August of this year, out of a total of 805 feces complaints on Muni bus routes. The 38-Geary placed second with 38 complaints about feces.
Transportation officials are asking the public who regularly take the 14 to take an online survey about their most recent trip on the 14, with questions related to cleanliness, safety, and whether they saw a cleaning crew or staff onboard the bus.
The SFMTA said they were able to do the two-week pilot as part of Bloomberg Philanthropies 2025 Mayors Challenge, a competitive grant program that sought cities to come up with creative ideas to improve the lives of their residents. Finalist cities received a $50,000 grant to prototype their ideas. San Francisco was named a finalist this year in June.
Next January, ideas from 25 cities with the most promise will each receive $1 million with support to bring the ideas to fruition.