The new Van Ness bus lane that the 49 uses is super nice. I personally use both the 49 and 22.
Gotta say, other than the headline and main message, there's some shitty parts of this article:
But we will yuck on your yum, Muni fans, because the reason for these bus lines’ touted rebounds may be a depressing flip side. As the Chronicle points out, “Neither route serves San Francisco’s downtown core.” So these anomalies do not indicate any kind of broader ridership recovery across the Muni system.
In case you weren't reminded that San Francisco is in a "doom loop," SFist is here to remind you and hopefully scare you into clicking on more of their links.