No question: The shuttles used by UCSF (which, is, forgodsake, a health-care organization) ought to have seat belts. So should school buses (actually, full-body restraints in school buses might not be such a bad idea. I want them in my car, too. Shut up and sit down, you little bastards — we’re driving here.) And the UCSF drivers should be more careful.
There are also other safety issues around those shuttles, though. Particularly when they pick up and drop off passengers on city streets.
The UCSF campuses have their own shuttle stops; the ones at Mission Bay are the same as any normal bus stops. But the shuttles don’t just stop on the campuses. They stop, among other places, at 16th and Mission — and typically they use the Muni stop.
Or sort of. Travel west on 16th St. any afternoon, and you’ll see this scene: A UCSF shuttle is halfway in and halfway out of the Muni stop. A Muni bus is stopped behind, unable to pull in. Cars are pulling around the bus and can’t see the (smaller) shuttle as it starts to pull out of the stop (and the bus starts to pull in). Traffic is all backed up waiting for this mess to clear — except for the drivers in a rush, who pull around (sometimes inching into the opposing lane of traffic), typically missing the shuttle bus by inches as it slides back onto the street.
And there are a lot of bicycle riders in the mix. It’s pretty much a bloody accident waiting to happen.
If UCSF gets to use Muni stops (nobody else can — nobody. Not the On Lok shuttle, not the private Genentech buses, not commercial tourist vehicles) then the university ought to pay the city a fee to make the stops big enough, then the drivers ought to be trained to pull forward all the way into the stop to let the Muni bus in behind (and so other cars can see them). And the Muni drivers and everyone else should be trained to treat the shuttles as part of the local transit system.
I get the need for the UCSF shuttles. Without them, all those doctors and medical students might be driving all over town between the campuses (although again: health-care organization. Bicycles are very healthy). But either they’re part of the city system and can use city facilities (properly) — or they aren’t, and they shouldn’t stop in the Muni zones.
Pet peeve of the week.