Two Decades of Transportation Experience, Including Achieving Strongest-Ever Muni Customer Satisfaction Ratings, Make Kirschbaum Right Person to Tackle Muni Challenges and Guide System into New Era.
SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Daniel Lurie and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Board of Directors today announced that Julie Kirschbaum will lead the SFMTA as its permanent Director of Transportation. Kirschbaum has been the Acting Director of Transportation since January 1, 2025. As the Muni system faces significant fiscal challenges, Kirschbaum’s focus on accountability and record of results make her the best person to lead the system into a new era.
The first woman appointed permanent Director of Transportation in San Francisco’s history, Kirschbaum brings two decades of transportation experience to the role, most recently leading the SFMTA’s largest division as director of transit from 2018 to 2024. In this capacity, she guided the agency through unprecedented and extraordinary challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, not only rebuilding the entire Muni system multiple times but also helping to improve the SFMTA’s customer satisfaction ratings. In 2024, under her leadership, those ratings were the highest they’ve been in the agency’s history.
Accountability, results, community partnership, and staff empowerment have been hallmarks of Kirschbaum’s leadership. She has delivered operational improvements throughout the system, including embracing the proactive, preventative maintenance practices that have helped reduce subway delays by an astonishing 70%.
She has made customer experience her North Star, elevating the experience for Muni’s 500,000 daily riders. Among other things, she launched an innovative customer experience initiative to systematically identify and resolve pain points for riders. Together, the reforms Kirschbaum spearheaded have dramatically improved Muni speed, reliability, and customer satisfaction, maximizing limited resources in the face of immense fiscal constraints.
As Acting Director of Transportation, Kirschbaum has already demonstrated how she plans to find common ground among all users of the transportation system and push for commonsense solutions to challenging problems. Earlier this month, after listening extensively to community feedback, she announced a new plan to prioritize fair enforcement of the state’s “daylighting” law.
Kirschbaum was recently awarded the 2024/25 Katherine G. Johnson Trailblazer Award by the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) SF-Bay Area Chapter for her groundbreaking work in transportation.
Kirschbaum resides in Ingleside with her husband and two kids and cites her experience transporting her kids around San Francisco – on foot and bike, by car and by Muni – as deeply informing her perspective on how to best serve San Francisco residents and improve safety on Muni and in our streets.
“Julie Kirschbaum has delivered transformative change and real results for hundreds of thousands of Muni riders, and that’s exactly the kind of leader the SFMTA needs right now,” said Mayor Lurie. “Under her leadership, Muni has reached new heights for speed, reliability, cleanliness, and safety. And with her commitment to collaborating with residents and businesses, Julie Kirschbaum is the right leader to tackle the significant challenges facing our transportation system and bring it forward into a new era.”
“I’m incredibly honored by this opportunity to serve the city I love,” said Director Kirschbaum. “Having a world-class transportation system is key to San Francisco’s economic recovery, and I’m going to make sure we maintain the incredible improvements we’ve made to the Muni system, despite the SFMTA’s daunting financial challenges. Fighting for transportation funding is going to be one of my top priorities. But an equally important priority is going to be rebuilding trust where trust has been lost between our agency and some of the communities and businesses we serve. I’m committed to listening, collaborating, and bringing people together to come up with solutions that will benefit all of us.”
“The SFMTA Board is pleased to have such an excellent candidate in house who is willing to step up into this critical leadership role for our city,” said Janet Tarlov, SFMTA Board Chair and longtime small business owner. “We need a leader who has the experience to hit the ground running, and the Board agreed unanimously that Director Kirschbaum is the woman for the job.”
“Julie Kirschbaum is the proven leader we need to steer SFMTA through a historic fiscal crisis and strengthen the public transportation San Franciscans can rely on,” said Senator Scott Wiener. “Muni service earned its highest satisfaction rating ever under Julie’s leadership as Director of Transit. She’s the perfect choice to lead the agency as we work to protect and build on Muni service improvements, support the needs of all road users, improve road safety and efficiency, and secure sustainable new funding sources so Muni can survive and thrive.”
“All roads lead to Union Square, and as the city’s premier transportation hub, we rely on strong transit connections to keep our district vibrant and accessible. From Powell Street and our iconic cable cars to BART and Muni, Union Square brings people together from across the city and beyond,” said Marisa Rodriguez, CEO of the Union Square Alliance. “We are thrilled to welcome Julie Kirschbaum as SFMTA’s new director, and we look forward to working with her to ensure a seamless, reliable, and dynamic transit experience for all.”
“Over the last five years, I’ve seen Julie work collaboratively and respectfully with business owners and neighbors in West Portal. She listens to people and works to bring people together, and that’s the kind of leader the SFMTA needs,” said Karl Aguilar, West Portal community leader and former owner of Papenhausen Hardware, which operated on West Portal Avenue for close to 90 years.