Yeah, it is inexcusable that the N Judah takes close to an hour to travel 7 miles from the ocean to the Embarcadero, half that in tunnels/dedicated right of way.

Agreed, but part of it is just people having ridiculous expectations for how long it takes to get places by transit. San Francisco still has a lot of "car culture", where people think a 30-minute car ride is great, but a 30-minute bus ride is intolerable. Even a 45-minute train ride isn't that damned bad, if it means that you can run on Ocean Beach every morning, then read a book for 45 minutes and pop into the office. Perspective!

I was also recently surprised by the number of otherwise reasonable friends I have who are just completely unaware of life outside of SOMA and the Mission. I've had a lot of people tell me that they didn't know where the Inner Sunset was located. If they can't walk there in 15 minutes or get there by BART from the Mission stations, it doesn't exist.

Public service announcement to 20-something SF newbs: there is life outside of the Mission and SOMA, kids. The rent's cheaper, too.

I lived in the Sunset for 8 years until last December. I don't miss Muni at all. Mind you, running on the beach in the fog isn't my idea of a good time either.

Agreed, but when you say "half", are you talking distance or time? My experience is that once you're in the tunnel, it's pretty quick. Surface streets are achingly slow.

Distance. The surface streets (and entering/exiting the Market Street subway) are the slow parts.

I live on the N line and it makes 5 stops in a 7 block stretch near my house. It's insanely slow and frustrating.

Muni needs to reduce the number of stops a bus/train makes.

I agree, though I'm not sure if this is a possibility with a single set of tracks.

Aside from bart or muni in the tunnel, I found the fastest public transportation in SF was the various limited or express buses that go from the richmond to downtown. They make very few stops and move quickly.

The thing is, the express buses can easily pass the slower regular bus that make every stop. That wouldn't be possible with the streetcars, which I think would have to be all or nothing.