Effective immediately, the power to eliminate parking places and alter traffic patterns on key San Francisco streets lies in the hands of one person.

The Board of Directors of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency gave those powers — all meant to unsnag buses and Muni trains from the tangles of traffic and bureaucracy — to the city traffic engineer on Tuesday.

The engineer’s new authority extends only to at least 10 streets where congestion stymies public transportation, and must follow a public hearing, according to a staff report and resolution approved this week by the agency board.

In those limited areas, the traffic engineer, a post held by Ricardo Olea, can shave away vehicle lanes. Add tow away zones. Adjust traffic signals to give the buses priority at intersections. And even remove parking to designate more space for Muni, said Erica Kato, an agency spokeswoman.

San Francisco’s “transit first” philosophy rings hollow, officials say, if buses get snarled in jams that slow the red and gray coaches to 3 mph.

“We have to make transit and alternative transportation options more palatable,” Malcolm Heinicke, chair of the transportation agency’s Board of Directors, said in an interview Thursday. “We cannot have administrative delays.”

So on Tuesday, the board unanimously approved a new “quick-build” program, empowering the traffic engineer to make simple but consequential modifications. The idea: Cut through the bureaucratic morass that can hobble vital transit projects, including those with little or no opposition.

Officials expect the new approach to make Muni faster within a few months. Through August, the agency intends to focus on 10 trouble spots where buses slow to a crawl. Among them: Larkin Street between O’Farrell and Geary streets, a painful stretch for riders of Muni’s 19-Polk line. Staff have also identified sluggish points for the 44-O’Shaughnessy, the 24-Divisadero and seven other lines.

Previously, changes to bus stops, lanes and tow away zones required a board vote in City Hall, where it can take months to get on the agenda. But now the Board of Directors wants to speed up the process by cutting themselves out.

Significant decisions, such as the removal of parking, must get a public hearing under the new policy, but engineers from the SFMTA’s Sustainable Streets division — not board directors — will preside.

Olea, the city traffic engineer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last year, the city enacted a similar quick-build process to streamline approvals for safe crosswalks and bike-lane infrastructure. Within months, the SFMTA had added protective posts to bike lanes throughout SoMa, Dogpatch and the Tenderloin.

Heinicke emphasized, however, that the goal is not to turn over the board’s authority to engineers.

“This discretion is being granted with some trust,” he said. “I can assure you that if problems arise, or if this authority is misused, it will be revisited, and revisited quickly.”

Directors Gwyneth Borden and Cheryl Brinkman touted the policy as “brilliant” at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Three Muni riders who stuck around for the late-afternoon vote also were excited.

“It’s been frustrating ... to see how many years and years and years (it takes) to implement seemingly simple transit improvements,” said Chris Pederson, one in a handful of speakers who praised the new policy. Pederson and another speaker, Roan Kattouw, said it should be applied not just to small street alterations but to streamline approvals even for larger, more controversial projects like red bus-only lanes.

Yet the final commenter, Herbert Weiner, was wary.

“I question the proposal because I wonder what the effect is going to be on traffic,” he said, noting that any change to open more space for a bus could increase congestion for cars.

“You really have to have public input,” Weiner said. “And when you do get the public input, please respect it. Please act on it.”

Kato, the SFMTA spokeswoman, said the mandated hearing means people will have an opportunity to weigh in on quick-build transit projects.

Bus delays create hardships for commuters and add costs for Muni, which has to run more buses and devote more drivers to its slowest lines. The agency doesn’t have the fleet or workforce to do that — and it’s struggling with a chronic labor shortage.

Board Director Cheryl Brinkman said she hoped more drivers would stay on the job if driving their routes becomes less stressful.

“We’ll give them a lane so they won’t have to worry about side swipes,” Brinkman told The Chronicle. “We’ll build a boarding island so they don’t have to pull up to the curb.”

Roger Marenco, president of the Transit Workers union that represents bus drivers, said he doubted that SFMTA bureaucrats know more than drivers about what will improve their driving experiences.

“The engineers are not the ones on the streets driving the buses ... dealing with Ubers and Lyfts, protests, (cyclists), or re-routes,” Marenco said. “They’re just looking at this from a computer screen.”

Mayor London Breed has pressed for the transit quick-build program, which was one of several recommendations from a transit task force she created last year.

“We should waste no time in making the small, simple changes that can improve the transit experience for everyday riders,” Breed wrote in a statement Wednesday, applauding the board’s decision.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan