San Francisco public transit could be disrupted due to drivers and staff holding out on providing proof of vaccination against COVID-19 before the city's Nov. 1 deadline, even as the Municipal Transportation Agency tries to get transit operators and parking control officers onboard with vaccinations.
Jeffrey Tumlin, Director of Transportation at the agency, said Monday that 275 active employees were either unvaccinated or hadn't reported their vaccination status. A day later, those numbers dropped.
"Seventy reported transit operators are unvaccinated, and 48 have not reported at all," Tumlin said in Tuesday's Board of Directors meeting. "That's out of of 1,473 who are fully vaccinated."
Without more vaccinations for transit operators, riders are the ones who will be left waiting for the system's bus, train, streetcar and cable-car routes.
"(We) are already missing a significant number of transit runs due to operator unavailability," Tumlin said. "That is already impacting our service."
In addition, 32 parking control officers either haven't reported their vaccination status or are unvaccinated. Tumlin said 14 officers were partially vaccinated, while 197 were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday.
"It is possible that we may need to reduce enforcement of non-safety matters, like residential parking permit stickers," he said at an event on Wednesday.
Emails, Q&A sessions with the public health department and 1-on-1 meetings are some of the strategies the agency is utilizing to reach unvaccinated employees.
Tumlin reiterated on Wednesday that the agency is still recovering from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic upon the city. The agency "will need to increase the pace of our hiring" to make up for any employees lost for failure to comply with the vaccination mandate, Tumlin said.
Related
