San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Board of Directors today announced that Jeffrey Tumlin will serve as the next SFMTA Director of Transportation. Tumlin has spent his career improving city transportation and previously served as Interim Director of Transportation at the Oakland Department of Transportation. The SFMTA Board of Directors will formally appoint him as Director at its meeting on November 19^th, and he will begin officially on Monday December 16^th.  

Tumlin is a renowned transportation expert with 25 years of experience working in cities around the world. Tumlin is currently the Director of Strategy at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, a San Francisco-based transportation planning and engineering firm that focuses on sustainable mobility. In that role, he has worked to help cities achieve their broader goals through transportation, such as livability, economic growth, and equity. During his time as Oakland Department of Transportation, he guided the newly restructured department to institute a data-driven and equity-based approach, while streamlining a bureaucratic system that had historically delayed project implementation. He is a longtime resident of San Francisco and lives with his immigrant, artist husband of 25 years in Noe Valley. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Stanford University.

“Jeffrey Tumlin is exactly the type of forward thinking, results oriented leader that the SFMTA needs and I am excited to announce his new role as Director of Transportation,” said Mayor Breed. “I believe Jeffrey is the right person to improve our public transportation, continue making our streets safer, and ensure that our approach is equitable and serves all of our residents across San Francisco. The SFMTA is an agency that requires a balance between managing an enormous day-to-day operation and developing the vision to help our City continue to grow without increasing gridlock. I know Jeffrey is ready to lead this agency.”

“San Francisco is unlike any place in the world and I’m incredibly excited to help build a transportation system that serves all of our residents,” said Jeffrey Tumlin, incoming SFMTA Director of Transportation. “I’m focused on putting people first and implementing solutions that work best for a diverse and ever-growing world class city.”

In April 2019, Mayor Breed sent a letter to the SFMTA Board of Directors Chair Malcolm Heinicke outlining the ongoing challenges at the SFMTA and calling upon the SFMTA Board to launch a search for a new Director who could help deliver a world-class transportation system for San Francisco. A subcommittee of SFMTA Board Members led the candidate search process and the full SFMTA Board will take the final action to appoint Jeffrey Tumlin as the next Director of Transportation.

“With over twenty years’ experience, Jeffrey has earned a reputation as a renowned asset to the global transportation space,” said Malcolm Heinicke, Chair of the SFMTA Board of Directors. “We were lucky to have found him right here in our own backyard, and are thrilled for Jeffrey to lead our City’s goals and values in the realm of mobility and street space.”

“Jeffrey is a deep thinker invested in values-based solutions,” said Gwyneth Borden, Vice Chair of the SFMTA Board of Directors. “We are grateful to have his expertise at the SFMTA and look forward to utilizing his experience balancing transportation modes and reimagining our streetscapes.”

In June, Mayor Breed, along with Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Aaron Peskin, created a Transit Performance Working Group tasked with reviewing the performance of the City’s current bus and rail system and recommending actionable steps that the City can take to improve service for riders. The working group includes transit experts who have operated large systems throughout the country, labor leaders representing the City’s transit workers, and transit advocates pushing for improvements in Muni service. This group has been meeting regularly and will provide the new Director of Transportation with a roadmap to address challenges facing the City’s transit system.

Upon his start in December, Tumlin will begin by assessing the state of the agency and taking action on some of the city’s most pressing transportation needs. This includes focusing on public transportation and taking steps to implement the recommendations of the Transit Performance Working Group. In parallel, he will reinforce the early successes of the “quick-build” safety program and take additional steps to accelerate the pace of delivering safer streets for all users. Finally, 2020 will be a significant year for major capital transportation projects around the city and Tumlin will focus on improved project delivery and ensuring proactive communication around these transformational efforts.

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