San Francisco’s streets are getting the red carpet treatment. To speed transit, city traffic overlords have daubed red paint on bus lanes on stretches of five busy thoroughfares with Market street the most prominent.

After years of feeble markings to warn drivers to stay off lanes earmarked for Muni, the city is going graphic. The bright red paint is hard to miss for even the most oblivious road hog. A highly unscientific tour showed cars are getting the message and generally avoiding the lanes.

So far the paint has gone down on portions of Third, Church, O’Farrell, Geary and Market streets. Up next are stretches of Clay, Sansome, Sutter, Judah, Post streets and West Portal avenue. All were selected because of Muni routes that can encounter private-car bottlenecks.

Along with speeding up transit times, the big advantage is cost. Painting a street — or in this case, laying down a plastic surface on existing pavement — is cheap. Muni has toyed with a grander plan known as Bus Rapid Transit lanes which involves pouring cement that walls off the lanes from other drivers. It’s a much bigger task that’s run into trouble with merchants and drivers who would be left with narrower streets.

Enforcing the new red-painted world will be left to Muni drivers. If they spot a driver in the wrong lane, they can use an on-board camera to snap a license plate for a possible ticket delivered later by mail.

Red isn’t the only new look on San Francisco’s asphalt. A Castro district project to widen sidewalks and add seating areas has led to a new feature. In a toast to traffic safety and the neighborhood vibe, there are now rainbow-colored crosswalks at 18th and Castro streets.