Jeffrey Tumlin to step down as SFMTA director of transportation at end of 2024

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA) Director of Transportation Jeffrey Tumlin will be stepping down from his position at the end of 2024 once his five-year contract expires.

“Serving in this position has been the greatest honor of my life and I’m extremely proud of what the SFMTA has accomplished during my tenure,” Tumlin said. “While we’ve faced many challenges over the past five years, we’ve also made historic progress. Muni is better than it’s ever been and is experiencing record-high customer satisfaction, San Francisco is one of the safest larger cities in the U.S. for walking and biking and we have one of the strongest paratransit programs in the country. There is still far more to be done, but I have full faith that our talented and highly motivated staff and leadership, working alongside city and state partners, will shepherd the agency into a successful new chapter.”

SFMTA notes that when Tumlin took over the agency in 2019, the agency was suffering from systemwide Muni delays and an inhospitable agency culture with a high rate of equal employment opportunity (EEO) complaints and concerns. Under his leadership, the agency has made dramatic improvements, including:

Creating a significantly more reliable transit network, with major subway delays down 76 percent since 2019 and short delays down 89 percent.
Achieving Muni’s highest customer rating in 20 years, with 72 percent of riders rating Muni as excellent or good.
Making streets safer for people walking, biking and rolling through innovations like the Quick-Build Program, which installs adjustable traffic safety improvements that can be installed quickly and affordably.
Reducing crashes involving pedestrians by 32 percent and crashes involving bikes by 33 percent on streets where the SFMTA has installed quick builds.
Reducing the number of SFMTA EEO complaints by nearly 50 percent between 2020 and 2024.
Creating an Office of Civil Rights within the SFMTA.

“Jeff has been a leader in building infrastructure, improving Muni operations and making the hard decisions necessary for our city as we grow,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “As we plan for more than 80,000 new homes across San Francisco, we must have a transit system that moves people around this city whether they are riding Muni, driving, walking or bicycling. Under Jeff’s leadership, Muni is doing better than it has in years. It’s more reliable, safer and more efficient, even coming out of a pandemic. We’ve seen a dramatic decrease in subway breakdowns and a 20-year high in Muni approval ratings. Change can be hard, but Jeff was not afraid to make those decisions necessary to allow people to move safely and efficiently across this city. The SFMTA is a challenging department to run, and I want to thank Jeff for leading this department and serving our city through the difficult years of the pandemic and after to get us where we are today.”

“I’m incredibly grateful to Jeff Tumlin for his service to the people of San Francisco and for his forward-looking approach to our transportation system,” said State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-11). “I’ve been a daily Muni rider for 27 years and under Jeff’s leadership, Muni is better than it’s ever been during that time period. Service is faster and more reliable due to Jeff’s focus on making Muni work, and as a result Muni rider satisfaction surveys are at historic highs. Jeff has also focused like a laser on making our streets safer, which saves lives. Jeff’s leadership for San Francisco has been extraordinary and I wish him only the best going forward.”

Muni service improvements

The agency notes Muni service has improved dramatically. Muni’s main lines are faster, more frequent and more reliable than they’ve ever been. Ridership is steadily growing and riders have given Muni the highest customer satisfaction rating the agency has ever recorded. SFMTA says Muni carries over half a million daily riders, 2.5 times as many riders as the next largest Bay Area operator (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and nearly half of all Bay Area transit trips.

Tumlin was a champion of the Muni Forward program, through which the agency has installed more than 75 miles of transit lanes and more than 100 miles of overall transit priority improvements, which have made Muni faster than ever. He supported SFMTA mechanics’ embrace of preventive maintenance through programs like the agency’s regular fix it weeks.

During Tumlin’s tenure, the agency completed two transformative capital projects – the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit Corridor and the Central Subway. SFMTA notes that although previous directors developed and led these projects, Tumlin was responsible for bringing them to a close, conducting detailed audits, learning hard lessons from project errors and working to ensure those mistakes will not happen again.

Street safety improvements

Under Tumlin’s leadership, the SFMTA undertook innovative programs to make it safer for San Franciscans to bike, walk and socialize on city streets, including programs that limited through-traffic on designated slow streets and created safe, car-free promenades such as JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park.

The agency says quick build projects are reversible, adjustable traffic safety improvements that can be installed quickly and affordably. SFMTA has installed them throughout the city to make high-injury streets safer for people walking, biking and rolling.

Leading during COVID-19

Four months into his role as director of transportation, San Francisco went into lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tumlin guided the SFMTA as it provided essential transportation services to San Francisco residents. According to the agency, when the worst part of the pandemic waned, he steered the agency as it brought back services while grappling with the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. Muni adapted to the changing circumstances, expanding bus service to better serve people’s needs by investing in lines such as the 22 Fillmore and 15 Bayview Hunters Point Express and using data to create improvements that otherwise reflect the new ways residents live and work post-pandemic.

Improvement in workplace culture

SFMTA notes Tumlin promoted culture change within the SFMTA that encouraged staff to take initiative, speak out about ideas for improving service, innovate new ways of doing things and learn from past mistakes.

According to the agency, Tumlin has been determined to bridge the agency’s budget gap without laying off staff. The agency’s revenues in fiscal year (FY) 2023-2024 were $275 million, or 16 percent less than they were before the pandemic (adjusted for inflation). SFMTA says every major revenue source the agency relies on has decreased due to lingering pandemic impacts on the economy and travel patterns while parking and transit fare revenue shrunk due to the shift to remote work and General Fund and state grant funding are impacted by the ongoing economic slowdown.

In FY 26-27 when federal, state and regional transit relief funds run out, the agency’s budget deficit will range from $239 million to $322 million. SFMTA says that although Tumlin will be leaving the SFMTA before the financial crisis is resolved, he has worked with the San Francisco Controller’s Office to set up a working group, who will gather public input, identify solutions and prioritize options to address the SFMTA’s funding gap.

The Muni Funding Working Group includes representatives from the Mayor’s Office, Board of Supervisors, Controller’s Office, SFMTA Board of Directors, business, labor, community advocates and transit experts. According to SFMTA, the working group is considering options to both decrease costs and increase revenue through efficiency improvements, service cuts, revenue enhancements and service enhancements.