With pedestrian deaths reaching a high point in San Francisco last year, elected leaders vowed Tuesday to address a problem that killed 20 people in 2013. The issue was given a new sense of urgency with the tragic death of another pedestrian just outside City Hall shortly after the supervisors’ weekly meeting concluded.
Category: Transportation
Posted inHousing, Transportation
Board of Supervisors Cripples Transit Agency Plan for More Parking Meters
Drivers will soon be able to use their credit cards to pay for parking at all 25,000 meters throughout San Francisco, but efforts to greatly expand metered parking are on hold. On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors approved a $51.2 million contract to replace the city’s aging coin-operated meters with machines that accept credit cards. But the supervisors rejected transit agency’s request for 10,000 new meters that it could install wherever it chose. In other news: Mayor Ed Lee responds to concerns about Ellis Act evictions and affordable housing, and Supervisor David Chiu wants to legalize existing in-law units.
Posted inClimate Change, Climate Change, Land use, Transportation
Planners Claim Reduction in Car Pollution, but Details Show Overall Increase
Inscrutable “per capita” and “business as usual” comparisons hide rise in total greenhouse gases
Essentially, it’s a math trick: The per capita figure hides a predicted regional population growth of 28 percent. That means total passenger vehicle emissions regionwide would actually rise by 9.1 percent — an indication that regional planning is not helping California’s efforts to become a model in combating climate change.
This story is part of a special report on climate change in the Summer print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
Posted inCity Hall, Social Justice, Transportation
UCSF Facing Cuts in Wake of Sequester; Free Bus Passes for Youth
Sequestration isn’t just some Washington abstraction. It’s hitting home. The automatic federal budget cuts that rolled out on Friday — known as the sequester — are going to hurt the University of California, San Francisco. The world-class teaching hospital and research center receives funding from the National Institutes of Health. According to KQED’s “California Report,” the university’s vice chancellor for research, Keith Yamamoto, said that some laboratories have already instituted hiring freezes.
Posted inCity Hall, Land use, Muni, Neighborhoods, Transportation
A Central Subway North Beach Station? Not So Easy, Planners Say
A proposal to pull out tunnel-digging machines in North Beach has spurred debate about the prospect of building additional stations to extend the Central Subway project north of Chinatown. But transit officials say that’s not in the current plans, and such a move would take years more planning.
Posted inCity Hall, Muni, Transportation
Muni May Use Extra Funds on Fast Passes for Low-Income Youth, Maintenance
San Francisco transit director Ed Reiskin wants to use $6.7 million in extra regional transportation funds for a 12-month pilot program to hand out free Fast Passes to the city’s low-income youth and to rehabilitate light-rail vehicles.
Posted inTransportation
Muni Reports Low On-Time Transit Rate Remains Far Below Goal
The poor on-time performance of San Francisco’s public transit, which the city started reporting accurately over the summer, is officially a trend. Muni vehicles were on time 58 percent in September, up a little more than one percent from the previous month. But it was more than 10 percentage points lower than the numbers the […]
Posted inMuni, Transportation
Muni’s all-door boarding plan sees modest improvements in waiting times
Muni’s all-door boarding policy that went into effect July 1 appears to be working – although riders on at least one line are complaining about everyone not lining up at the front. A transit agency report found that passengers spent less time waiting at bus stops for riders to board while use of the back door became more frequent.
Posted inCity Hall, Muni, Transportation
Muni train switchbacks insult San Francisco riders, says watchdog panel
Hate it when you’re late to work because the Muni driver tells you to get off the train? You’re not the only one. San Francisco’s civil grand jury — a kind of officially sanctioned panel of city residents who report on what doesn’t work in county government — recommended on Thursday that Muni officials do away with the practice of switchbacks. That’s when riders are forced off a Muni train before it makes its usual final stop, and heads in the opposite direction to make up for lost time elsewhere. Muni downplayed the report. “We recognize that anytime you do a switchback, it has an inconvenience to the riders,” Haley said. “So we do everything we can to minimize that,” said John Haley, Muni’s director of operations.
Posted inMuni, Neighborhoods, Transportation
Geary bus rapid transit project poses design challenges for city transportation planners
Bus rapid transit, which is meant as a cheaper substitute to light rail by using special buses in dedicated traffic lanes, is set to debut on Van Ness Avenue in 2016. However, design challenges and funding are slowing down plans for the Geary route.