Every Friday, KSFS production manager Casey Crews is preparing for his music show at 5 p.m., “Friday Night Drive.” While he’s compiled a playlist for his show spanning from Latin rock to heavy metal, there’s more in store for listeners before it starts: “The KSFS Transit Traffic Report.”
Crews swiftly updates listeners about the transit situation, including how the 57 Parkmerced is on time, delays on the 101 and the 280 highways towards the Bay Bridge and time updates on M-Ocean View’s route to the university. In just 30 seconds, Crews packs in seven reports.
This semester, San Francisco State University’s radio station, KSFS, launched a weekday report for students, faculty and staff leaving the university for the day. Whether it’s rainfall, fender benders or late trains, there’s always something affecting travel around the city. With the station’s new transit report that started in the last week of February, they hope to make commuters’ rides more optional and less stressful.
“As a commuter student myself, I hope they can better gauge timing and maybe try to get in the sweet spots and avoid some extra drama, now that they’re aware,” Crews said.
Elaine Leung, a professor in the department of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts as well as a traffic and weather reporter for iHeart radio stations, said the idea for the report is specifically designed for the campus community who leaves campus at around 4:45 p.m.
“It’s a great way to tune in and check out how Muni is doing, what the 57 Bus is like. Are there BART delays, and how is traffic on 19th Avenue? Especially heading towards 280, so there’s a need,” Leung said.
KSFS students have been trained to put together a report by getting alerts and looking at links from BART and Muni while looking at traffic sensors for highways.
SFSU, a commuter school, has a student population of 88.5% of students commuting to campus, according to the Fall 2021 university census. Drew Thomas is a student who commutes from North Concord four days a week through a combination of driving his car, riding the BART and the bus. His commute takes an average of three hours. He says that he “gets delayed at least once a week,” which sometimes adds an extra 30 minutes to his already busy commute.
Another commuter student, Elsy Monroy, who comes from downtown San Francisco, takes the M train to and from campus and tunes in to the report.
“Sometimes I’ll get out of class and go to the M station to go back home and it’ll be a 20-minute wait,” Monroy said. “I finish my radio show at 4:30, so we’re usually out of there right before they do it. It’s kind of perfect.”
Commuter student Khaleah Abdulrahim, who commutes from Alameda to campus, said she has not heard of the show but plans to tune in.
“The buses are sometimes too crowded,” Abdulrahim said. “I can prepare in advance and find other options.”
With the SFSU shuttle bus discontinued last fall and other future changes to BART and Muni, Leung said it’s important to keep tabs on those changes.
“[For students] it’s a great real-world experience because it’s what we do as traffic reporters in the field,” said Leung. “It’s very much on par for the professional world for public or commercial radio providing transit traffic reports.”
Other shows on KSFS are also starting to report on any major Muni or BART issues if they occur during air time.
The reports will air every weekday at 4:45 p.m. with the possibility of expanding next semester, according to Leung.
“The KSFS Transit Traffic Report” can be heard on the KSFS app or on their website.
