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  #841  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2013, 11:15 PM
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I recommend reading the entire article.

40 Years of Ignoring Transit-First

Morgan Fitzgibbons
huffingtonpost.com
03/19/2013

If you live in San Francisco and pay attention to transportation issues, there's no doubt you are aware: San Francisco is officially a "Transit-First" city. You can review the full "Transit-First" language in Section 8A.115 of the City Charter, but the upshot can be found in the third point of the section:

Decisions regarding the use of limited public street and sidewalk space shall encourage the use of public rights of way by pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit, and shall strive to reduce traffic and improve public health and safety.

While this rhetoric sounds great in principle, a quick glance at our city's mode-share numbers or a visit to any street in San Francisco will reveal that our city's transportation infrastructure is still built overwhelmingly to accommodate the use of the private automobile.
....
A good many of our fellow San Francisco citizens actually want to move away from the private automobile to rely on public transit, biking or walking to navigate their daily lives, but are routinely met with poor service and, worse, downright dangerous conditions. That's because the MTA isn't a Transit-First department; rather, they are Foot-Dragging-First, Community-Process-Second, Placating-Car-Owners-Third, More-Foot-Dragging-Fourth, and, if, after years of meetings and patience, community members still have the energy to prod some more to make sure the MTA lives up to their own word, maybe the city can finally get that "Transit-First" project implemented on the ground. In a world where the shadow side of the private automobile becomes more prevalent every day -- exacerbation of environmental issues, serious bodily injury or death to pedestrians on a daily basis, the sacrifice of a sense of community in exchange for speedy throughways and plentiful car storage; the very challenges the Board of Supervisors was attempting to address in 1973 -- the MTA has failed time and again to do the job for which we San Francisco citizens amply pay them.
....
Look around the rest of the country -- mayors in many other big cities are showing strong leadership in actually implementing solutions that prioritize people over cars. In Chicago, Rahm Emanuel has committed to creating 645 miles of bikeways around his city by 2020, including 100 miles of physically separated bikeways by 2015, as well as working to eliminate all pedestrian fatalities by 2022. In New York, Mayor Bloomberg not only appointed a progressive Transportation Commissioner in Janette Sadik-Khan, but he actually empowered her to make improvements happen. Seemingly overnight, New York City transformed itself from a place where riding a bicycle meant taking your life into your own hands to one with a functional grid of safe, protected bikeways.... By contrast, Mayor Lee loves to trumpet our "proud Transit-First tradition," our "commitment" to having 20 percent mode-share for bikes by 2020, and our status as the "greenest city" in America, but has done absolutely nothing to position our city to keep pace with the cities that take seriously the necessary transformation of our urban infrastructure.
....
As the 21st century rolls on, cities will be judged primarily by their ability to adapt to the demands created by a surge in urban populations and the challenges presented by the planetary crises. It used to be that this city took pride in the glory of San Francisco -- we rebuilt our city in a flash after the 1906 earthquake and constructed the engineering marvels that are the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, earning us the nickname "The City That Knows How" because we wanted to prove to everyone that we are the greatest city in the world. Nowadays, we think releasing a series of buzzword-infused press releases will do the trick. When we declared ourselves a "Transit-First" city in 1973, we still had a sense of our responsibility to pave the way for the rest of the country and basked in the accompanying prestige that came along with it. Forty years later, we've lost our edge -- we no longer lead the country in anything but distance between our stated values and our actions and a misguided commitment to paralyzing hyper-democracy.
....
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  #842  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2013, 11:18 PM
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i wasn't claiming anything about muni compared to some transit system a thousand miles away. what does the midwest, or the south, or frankly anywhere outside the bay area have to do with this?

of the major transit systems (>50k boardings) which actually serve san francisco, muni is at the bottom.

bart 68%
caltrain 58%
muni 22%
ac transit - ? but about 20%
SamTrans' farebox recovery ratio is 18.6%.

My point: Muni is by far the agency that carries the most San Franciscans, and like automobile infrastructure, it is very heavily subsidized by the general public. All modes in San Francisco are basically funded by the SFMTA, and there's no reason to continue to fail to adequately fund bicycling infrastructure.
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  #843  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2013, 10:52 PM
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Financing Deal Set For Electrified Caltrain With Eye Toward High-Speed Rail



March 19, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – A new financing agreement between Caltrain and the California High-Speed Rail Authority means a clearer timeline for the electrification of commuter trains along the Peninsula.

The High-Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors approved a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday with the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board to enhance the rail corridor between San Francisco and San Jose by improving the tracks, adding safety features and preparing the route to accommodate future high-speed rail service.

The old diesel trains could be ditched by 2019 in favor of all-electric propulsion according to Caltrain’s Jayme Ackemann.

“Not only is it a smoother ride, but because the vehicles stop and start more quickly, it helps them to make the trip between San Jose and San Francisco faster,” Ackemann said.

Caltrain modernization, which boasts a cleaner approach to travel, will arrive a decade before high-speed rail service to Los Angeles becomes a reality.
....
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  #844  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2013, 11:18 PM
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Eyes on the Street: At Last, Red Transit Lanes on Church

Aaron Bialick
sf.streetsblog.org
Monday, March 25, 2013
....
The SF Municipal Transportation Agency installed red-colored transit-only lanes on Church between Duboce Avenue and 16th Street in a pilot project to test how well the treatment keeps the lanes clear of private cars. SFMTA spokesperson Kristen Holland said signs and pavement markings are also being added over the next couple of days.
....
Most importantly, this improvement will be a boon for riders on the J-Church and 22-Fillmore who for too long have been delayed by auto drivers blocking boarding islands and turning trains. If the project is successful, Muni riders can expect more pavement treatments like these to be rolled out with the Transit Effectiveness Project in the coming years.





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  #845  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2013, 2:57 AM
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Financing Deal Set For Electrified Caltrain With Eye Toward High-Speed Rail



March 19, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – A new financing agreement between Caltrain and the California High-Speed Rail Authority means a clearer timeline for the electrification of commuter trains along the Peninsula.

The High-Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors approved a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday with the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board to enhance the rail corridor between San Francisco and San Jose by improving the tracks, adding safety features and preparing the route to accommodate future high-speed rail service.

The old diesel trains could be ditched by 2019 in favor of all-electric propulsion according to Caltrain’s Jayme Ackemann.

“Not only is it a smoother ride, but because the vehicles stop and start more quickly, it helps them to make the trip between San Jose and San Francisco faster,” Ackemann said.

Caltrain modernization, which boasts a cleaner approach to travel, will arrive a decade before high-speed rail service to Los Angeles becomes a reality.
....
Fantastic news! I wonder what other improvements are involved. Hopefully some passing tracks so Caltrain can up the frequency of express trains once they go electric.
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  #846  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2013, 2:59 AM
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Red lanes? I knew San Francisco was full of Communists!

Kidding aside, they look good. Hope they work.
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  #847  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2013, 7:12 PM
zilfondel zilfondel is offline
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Of course they won't work. You think some paint is going to stop a car?

There are youtube videos of cars in Europe attempting to drive through those automatic bollards, which are remarkably strong. Portland has experimented with transit lanes and green bike lanes, and we have a large number of people who drive in them anyway. Enforcement helps, but I think the tickets are less than a parking violation.
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  #848  
Old Posted Mar 26, 2013, 11:57 PM
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Of course they won't work. You think some paint is going to stop a car?

There are youtube videos of cars in Europe attempting to drive through those automatic bollards, which are remarkably strong. Portland has experimented with transit lanes and green bike lanes, and we have a large number of people who drive in them anyway. Enforcement helps, but I think the tickets are less than a parking violation.
the tickets here are a lot more than a parking violation - a couple hundred dollars depending on the situation. there are some drivers who frankly don't know what they're doing and don't pay attention to signs. they believe any portion of the paved horizontal surface of the universe is theirs to use. i think the bright red paint will at least cause a few synapses to fire and ask, why is this painted red!!

unfortunately cross traffic is often the real issue, and there's not quite as easy a solution to that.
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  #849  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2013, 6:39 AM
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I love the red lanes, it's a good step in the right direction. I did laugh when I saw a truck driving in the lane in the first picture!

I am hopeful they'll help, too many trains in SF have to deal with motorists driving in a me-first, you hundreds of people on the train second.
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  #850  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2013, 8:10 AM
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The new Bay Bridge might not last as long as we all thought it would.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier...ts-4386943.php
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  #851  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2013, 7:13 AM
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The new Bay Bridge might not last as long as we all thought it would.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier...ts-4386943.php
I heard a report on this earlier tonight--the Chinese made steel is doing just fine while the American steel seems to have a manufacturing defect. What a role reversal from the norm!
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  #852  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2013, 5:32 PM
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I heard a report on this earlier tonight--the Chinese made steel is doing just fine while the American steel seems to have a manufacturing defect. What a role reversal from the norm!
it would be surprising if a giant project like this *didn't* have some problems. the good news is that they're finding them and will fix them.
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  #853  
Old Posted Apr 8, 2013, 10:31 PM
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The San Mateo Daily Journal reports average weekday Caltrain ridership in February increased 11.8 percent "compared to last year when it averaged about 42,959 riders a day. This year, however, the number climbed to more than 48,000 riders a day for the same month. Last year, the transit agency set some all-time ridership records by hitting an average of 50,000 riders a day during at least three months."

The article also notes this represents 31 consecutive months of increased ridership on Caltrain.
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  #854  
Old Posted Apr 9, 2013, 12:25 AM
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I think it's funny how they painted over the potholes.

Guess it was now or never, and they can always do a patch job when they fix them
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  #855  
Old Posted May 7, 2013, 7:19 AM
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Popular Caltrain heads toward fiscal crisis

Michael Cabanatuan
San Francisco Chronicle
May 6, 2013
....
Ridership on Caltrain has been growing for years but has skyrocketed in the past three. Passenger service on the line started in October 1863, mostly as a way of hauling commuters from bedroom communities on the Peninsula to and from jobs in San Francisco. But today commuters head in both directions. Many young tech workers live in San Francisco and work in Palo Alto or deeper in Silicon Valley.

Riders forced to stand

For each of the past three years, Caltrain has seen an 11 percent growth in ridership. The railroad provides an average of 47,062 rides each weekday on 92 trains. During commute periods, trains are extremely crowded. Some trains regularly operate at 130 percent of capacity, meaning many people are standing.

"We're almost on the verge of being overwhelmed," said Mark Simon, a Caltrain spokesman. "We could not have anticipated this kind of growth."

Caltrain can't add more trains during the commute periods but has already put extra trains on the tracks just before and after. It plans to start promoting those trains more heavily, Simon said. It's also considering buying some used rail cars from another agency - it hasn't had a chance to see them yet - to lengthen its most-crowded trains.

"We're worried that if it gets too crowded, we could start losing customers," Simon said.

Along with the extra riders, Caltrain is also seeing higher-than-anticipated revenues from fares.
....
So why the doom-and-gloom forecast for the 2015 budget year? Unlike most of the 27 other transit agencies in the Bay Area, Caltrain lacks a dedicated source of funding such as a property tax, parcel tax or sales tax.
....
[T]he agency is also looking at obtaining funding from a San Mateo County general services tax, getting cap-and-trade money from the state, supporting legislation that would lower the threshold for passing tax measures, and some "more creative options" that Simon wasn't ready to discuss.

Caltrain's electrification plans, now fully funded thanks to $700 million from the state high-speed rail bond, will help cut costs and increase capacity, Simon said. But the $1.5 billion project won't be done until 2019, and it won't solve all of the railroad's financial troubles.
....

Read more: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/a...#ixzz2SaYZraTa
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  #856  
Old Posted May 10, 2013, 8:04 PM
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  #857  
Old Posted May 11, 2013, 8:34 PM
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The last time I rode Caltrain was a couple weeks ago right after a Giants game ended. The train was so packed that the doors almost weren't able to close. The driver made a joke that if we were in Japan no-one would be complaining. I was amazed, the train stayed that crowded until about Paolo Alto or so. The bike car was so full that there was barely an aisle to walk through.
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  #858  
Old Posted May 11, 2013, 9:07 PM
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^Caltrain carries as many weekday riders as the subway in Baltimore, and more riders than the light rail systems in Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Jose, Pittsburgh and Seattle.

They're now trying to buy extra cars to extend their consists, because they can't fit any more runs into the schedule. Hopefully the upcoming bike-share system, half of which will be focused around Caltrain stations outside SF city, will help to keep the on-board bike situation workable.
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  #859  
Old Posted May 13, 2013, 1:24 AM
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^Caltrain carries as many weekday riders as the subway in Baltimore, and more riders than the light rail systems in Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Jose, Pittsburgh and Seattle.
This is why it really pisses me off when people say it shouldn't be upgraded, or that nobody in California rides trains. Last I checked on a ridership per mile basis, its second in the US only to the Long Island Railroad.
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  #860  
Old Posted May 13, 2013, 4:11 AM
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It would be amazing if Caltrain was extended to Santa Cruz, or even Monterey and Carmel. Those cities are so close but seem so far because of transit options. I know it's a pipe dream, but it would be incredible. Have there ever been discussions about this?
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