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.
Category: Transportation
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.
Posted inCity Hall, Transportation
S.F. controller’s audit finds meter maids need more ongoing training
Audit also finds that transit agency should seek reimbursement for city events
A city audit released Tuesday said the Municipal Transportation Agency needs to do a better job training parking control officers. The audit, conducted by the city controller’s office, looked at whether parking control officers are adequately trained, how officers are deployed throughout the city and if staffing levels are sufficent.
Posted inCity Hall, Labor, Transportation
City plans to write more parking tickets, but says raising money isn’t the only reason
San Francisco transportation officials need to do a better job managing parking and if they make extra money to balance its books in the process, all the better. That’s what the head of the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency is telling city supervisors as he tries to close an expected $17 million budget gap over the next two fiscal years.
Posted inBay Area, Bay Area Smart Growth, Environment, Housing, Land use, Technology, Transportation
Rising gas prices exacerbated foreclosure crisis, researchers find
Spiking gas prices in recent years were likely a contributing factor to foreclosures in newly built outlying housing developments in the Bay Area, researchers say, suggesting that sprawl may be bad for the region’s economic stability. Two recent studies found links between gas prices and foreclosure rates across California and other parts of the nation. The highest concentrations of Bay Area foreclosures were in eastern Contra Costa and parts of Solano and Sonoma counties. The areas with the lowest foreclosure rates were in the urban corridors of Oakland, San Francisco and parts of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties — areas most accessible by public transit.
Posted inCity Hall, Transportation
Muni to try quicker boarding scheme in latest effort to meet elusive performance goals
Clipper Card readers placed in the back of Muni buses long ago will finally get more use starting July 1.Transit officials are gearing up for all-door boarding throughout this system, which will reduce travel times, speed up loading on Muni buses and generate more fare revenue, said Muni spokesman Paul Rose. Muni will become the first bus and light-rail system in the country to have all-door boarding for its entire system.
Posted inBay Area, Bay Area Smart Growth, Land use, Parks & Open Space, Transportation
With redevelopment’s end, Bay Area cities scramble to keep grand plans alive
Oakland’s Auto Row renaissance may have to work on a smaller scale
Since 2000, city officials have had big plans for Auto Row. They called it the Broadway-Valdez project, a 96-acre development that included a strip of housing and restaurants next to the 19th Street BART station, the Valdez Triangle.Planners said the effort, if fully funded, would be Oakland’s best bet to revive its sagging retail sector. But the project’s prospects have dimmed since California killed redevelopment funds as a way of backfilling the state budget deficit.