38 Geary is a bus line operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). Together with the limited service routes that share the number, the 38R Geary Rapid, 38AX Geary 'A' Express, and 38BX Geary 'B' Express, the Geary Boulevard corridor makes up Muni's busiest thoroughfare.

Route description

The route operates between the

Transbay Transit Center The Transbay Transit Center (officially the Salesforce Transit Center for sponsorship purposes) is a transit station in downtown San Francisco. It serves as the primary bus terminal — and potentially as a future rail terminal — for the San ...

and the Richmond District almost exclusively via Geary Boulevard. Much of the route features side-running

bus lane A bus lane or bus-only lane is a lane restricted to buses, often on certain days and times, and generally used to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. The related term busway describes a roadway ...

s to speed travel times. The route operates 24 hours with less frequent Owl service overnight as part of the All Nighter network.

38R Geary Rapid

The 38R Geary Rapid skips several stops along the route east of 33rd Avenue in order to provide a faster service through the corridor. The line has previously been known as the 38 Limited. Ridership just on this line was 29,500 daily boardings in 2019 — higher than the local line.

38AX / 38BX Geary Express services

Geary is additionally served by two special express bus services. Both lines originate inbound at Davis Street and Pine Street near

Embarcadero station Embarcadero station is a combined BART and Muni Metro rapid transit station in the Market Street subway. Located under Market Street between Drumm Street and Beale Street near The Embarcadero, it serves the Financial District neighborhood and s ...

and reach Geary Boulevard via Pine Street with only a few stops in the Financial District. Inbound trips run on Bush Street and California Street. The 38AX Geary 'A' Express continues nonstop to Masonic Avenue and Geary Avenue until 25th Avenue where it begins making local stops until terminating at 48th Avenue. The 38BX Geary 'B' Express turns off Pine at Presidio Avenue and makes local stops on Geary between Presidio and 25th. Buses run during peak hours on weekdays. Express buses were suspended during the

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History

The

Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway The Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway was a street railway in San Francisco. History The company received a franchise from the city to operate a cable railway on November 6, 1878. Operations commenced on February 16, 1880 as a Rus ...

began operating

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** Bi ...

s on Geary starting in 1880. San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) acquired the corridor as its first streetcar line, opening in 1912. Service was initially provided by the A Geary–10th Avenue, B Geary, and C Geary–California. The A was reduced to a shuttle service in June 1913 and the B Geary, itself previously a shuttle between 10th and 33rd Avenues, was lengthened to run from Downtown to the beach.Perles, Anthony; McKane, John (1982). ''Inside Muni: The Properties and Operations of the Municipal Railway of San Francisco''.

Interurban Press Interurban Press was a small, privately owned American publishing company, specializing in books about streetcars, other forms of rail transit and railroads in North America, from 1943MacDougall, Kent (May 19, 1983). "Books Ring Bell With Devotees ...

. . Rail service was replaced with buses on December 29, 1956, with the B Geary becoming the 38 Geary. 38 Geary turning onto Market, August 2011

During construction of the Transbay Transit Center, the inbound terminus was moved to the

Temporary Transbay Terminal The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2 ...

. Much of the

Geary Bus Rapid Transit The Geary Bus Rapid Transit project added bus rapid transit features to San Francisco Municipal Railway lines along Geary Boulevard. The corridor serves routes , , , which combined to serve 52,900 daily riders in 2019, the most of any corridor i ...

project was implemented between 2019 and 2021. Part of the final design was influenced by emergency measures made in response to the

Ridership

By 2014, over 54,000 daily trips were made along the corridor, more than the entirety of Caltrain.

References

External links

38 Geary
— via SFMTA {{Muni San Francisco Municipal Railway bus routes 1956 establishments in California