For the first time, some Muni buses last weekend have started displaying Chinese characters on the destination head signs that allow the Chinese community to know the final stop of the bus stop destination, transit officials said.
The Chinese characters are displayed on the head signs of the 30-Stockton buses, which travel through the Presidio, Chinatown, and eventually to the Caltrain station at Fourth and King streets. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) also runs a 30 short (30-S) between Van Ness Avenue and North Point Street to the Caltrain station to add capacity to the 30, which will also display the Chinese characters.
“For some of our customers who read Chinese, they’ll be able to just look up at a glance and see this vehicle is going to Yerba Buena, or this vehicle is going to Caltrain,” Director of Transportation Julie Kirschbaum said at the SFMTA board’s March 4 meeting.
Kirschbaum said the SFMTA’s liaison to the Chinese community, Jessie Liang, came up with the Chinese characters, adding that Liang gave a lot of thought to what would be displayed on destination head signs as some in the Chinese community could be more familiar with street names or specific destinations. One of the destination signs refers to the Moscone Convention Center, for example.
The announcement of the new destination sign displays came as the SFMTA late last year had originally presented plans to make changes to the 30-S as part of a cost-saving measure but Chinatown advocates were against the changes as they said the change would confuse riders and not serve the seniors who live in the South of Market neighborhood.
Originally, the SFMTA planned to reduce southbound service on the 30-S by ending the route near Union Square, instead of at Caltrain. Transit officials had said the change would help reduce redundancy as the regular 30 route and 45-Union/Stockton would continue to run to Caltrain.
Earlier this month, the San Francisco Public Press reported that a compromise was reached with Chinatown community leaders. The 30-S will now end at Mission and Fourth streets. The first stop heading back to Chinatown will be at Folsom and Third streets. The changes went into effect last Saturday.
“The proposal saves the same amount of resources, but addresses the community concerns that we were hearing,” Kirschbaum said.