San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Agency Communications and Community Engagement

Centered on Equity

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Background

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is responsible for all ground transportation in the city. It has oversight over the Municipal Railway (Muni) public transit as well as bicycling, paratransit, parking, traffic, walking, and taxis. In early 2017, Civic Edge was selected alongside Katz & Associates for SFMTA’s community outreach and public engagement on-call contract. Our team continues to work closely with SFMTA staff and other contracting partners on a number of the city’s most important transportation projects. 

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Approach

Few things affect daily life in a city as much as transportation. SFMTA’s unique structure sets it apart from any other transportation agency in the country and further raises the bar on the importance of public outreach and engagement. SFMTA’s distinctively broad jurisdiction, encompassing the management of taxis, streets, parking, and one of the busiest transit systems in North America, follows voter mandates in 1999 and 2007 to bring several city agencies under SFMTA. Our team approaches every project with SFMTA with a commitment centered on advancing equity and building relationships within the diverse communities being served.  

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No Project Too Big or Too Small 

Our team’s work with SFMTA has included:

  • Building Progress, a $1.2 billion multi-year effort to repair, renovate, and modernize aging facilities, beginning with the Potrero Yard Modernization Project to replace the current two-story maintenance building and bus yard with a modern, more resilient facility equipped to serve SFMTA’s growing fleet and transition to battery electric vehicles
  • Geary Bus Rapid Transit, a three-year capital project that has upgraded one of San Francisco’s busiest corridors between Market and Stanyan with safety improvements, more reliable bus service, and utility upgrades
  • Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies for SFMTA’s 30 facilities and approximately 6,000 employees
  • “Muni Forward,” a neighborhood-by-neighborhood campaign to tailor information on proposed bus line changes and accompanying transit benefits for each community
  • 66 Quintara multilingual survey, messaging, and materials as part of the larger SoMa Improvement Strategy
  • Temporary Emergency Transit Lanes, Quick Build, and Slow Streets projects
  • Bicycle safety outreach
  • Language Assistance Plan and Public Outreach and Engagement Team Strategy (POETS) communications and materials development 

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Project Expertise

  • Multilingual, culturally competent community outreach and engagement
  • Merchant, resident, and transit rider outreach
  • Strategic communications
  • Collateral and materials development
  • Stakeholder engagement and facilitation

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