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Comment by abakker | Hacker News Reader

There is already a line that runs on Irving/Judah - it's the N line. Goes from Van Ness through Cole Valley and then tracks through UCSF and the sunset. Switches from Irving to Judah on 9th ave.

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But it's not a subway, it gets stuck with the cars. It's basically a glorified bus line.

They should dig and bury the N line. And then put stops every, say, 6-8 blocks instead of the current 2-3.

That'll be a huge amount of capital. The sunset is not very dense, so surface-level transit could work fine. The real trick is keeping cars out of the way of the N, via dedicated right-of-way and transit signal priority.

What about an elevated line? Less initial capital but similar benefits to an underground line, though I doubt it'd fly in the current political environment.

Did you hear about residents protesting that a 100% affordable housing projected blocked their view? Some San Franciscans have an entitled view that their basic rights include the right to have a nice view from their house (to the detriment of any other social issue).

Seems like if they wanted to assure themselves of a permanently-good view, they shoulhd have bought up all the air rights between their windows and the ocean.

Dig-and-cover type projects aren't as expensive as pure tunneling. Judah is ideal for it: wide and straight.

The N isn't that bad. I used to live near UCSF and would take it out to the beach on nice days.

Now the Green Line in Boston -- that's a glorified bus line.

The N line is the most dysfunctional and crowded lines. I used to depend on it, and it was terrible- you can count on it not showing for 45 minutes (outbound @ parnassus) and then stop/turn around at 19th or 37th without another train for 45 minutes. And, as mentioned, it gets horribly slowed by traffic in the busy corridors.

The point of this line would be serve the park and Richmond and Sunset, without the delays of the Irving line.

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