Transit Freak

Yays & Nays

2009-03-01T01:23:00.000-08:00

Yay to voters for passing the High Speed Rail bond measure back in November, which will hopefully start the process of building a high speed rail line that will zip people between San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2 1/2 hours.

Yay also to the lawmakers in the US Congress who were able to get a bunch of additional funding for public transit and high speed rail put into the Economic Stimulus Bill (with bipartisan support) that was recently signed into law.

BIG BIG NAY, however, to the California state government for drastically cutting funding to public transportation, with plans to entirely eliminate state funding for it in the near future.

This from the SF Examiner:

The state budget, which was approved by the Legislature on Thursday, slashed $61 million in funding originally allotted for Bay Area transportation agencies, including a combined $36 million reduction in transit assistance funds for BART and Muni.

The news only gets worse for the 2010 fiscal year, when transit assistance funds — which topped $700 million in 2008 — are expected to be discontinued completely. The funding comes from a portion of the state’s fuel taxes and is supposed to be dedicated to transportation agencies.

Read the full article here.

Are they cutting or eliminating road construction/highway funding? Taking away funding from CalTrans? Unlikely.

How is it that our supposedly green state, with its supposedly green Democratic legislature, and supposedly green moderate governator have their priorities so out of whack!

I know we're in a budget crises, but come on! Why are you cutting funding from these transit agencies that were already struggling to maintain current service levels, when they've been showing a steady boon in ridership for over a year?

They just don't seem to get it. You could have cars made out of hemp that run on recycled dryer lint... but that won't solve the problem... you'll still have traffic jams, and you'll still need to keep widening the roads until the entire country is paved over.

It's time to get with the program... and the rest of the world... and start making real and lasting investments into public transportation. The car culture is dying... the public seems to realize it... so why don't the people in charge? One of the best ways to help curb the climate crisis and our bottle-necked roads is by providing frequent, affordable, quality public transportation. If you keep cutting/eliminating funding from it, the agencies are going to keep raising fares and reducing service, which in turn makes it a less attractive option for many existing and potential patrons, reducing ridership and revenue, causing more cuts and higher fares, until eventually we've make it so inconvenient and unattractive, that people are once again forced to drive.

Our friends over at The N Judah Chronicles have been keeping up some much needed outrage on this issue, so be sure to check them out.

Please be sure to contact your state representatives and stress the importance of public transit in our state and let them know they must reinstate the funding, and that just 'cause they don't ride public transit themselves, doesn't mean we don't need, want and depend on it.

Transportation in Vancouver BC

2009-01-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

So, as usual, it's been a long time since my last post. I've since moved from the Richmond District to a studio in this lovely building on Polk St (at Ellis), in the Civic Center/Van Ness/TL area. Thanks to the move I no longer have to depend on the 38 Geary to get me to and from work or other places downtown. I can actually WALK to work now, which only takes about 10-15 minutes... about 15-30 minutes less time than it took to ride the bus from 17th & Geary.

Since I'm so centrally located, I actually almost never need the bus to get anywhere anymore, except when visiting friends in other parts of the city or when exploring other neighborhoods. Sometimes I'll walk up to Van Ness Station to catch the Muni Metro up to Castro or down to Embarcadero. I'm also right by the 47-Van Ness & 49-Mission/Van Ness lines, so it's super easy to get down to SOMA or The Mission, or I can go 1-2 blocks to catch the 31-Balboa or 38-Geary if I wanna head out to my old stomping grounds in the Richmond. It's also much easier to catch BART now (at the Civic Center Station) if I want to head over to the East Bay.

ANYWAY, enough about me. I'm currently finishing up a week long trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and thought I'd comment on their fantastic transit system. The city seems almost as large as San Francisco in terms of population and size, however it seems to have a MUCH more efficient transit network (what a surprise, right?).

I'll mainly be talking about TransLink, which is the regional transit authority that runs the majority of the buses, the SkyTrain and the SeaBus (however I didn't have any experience with the SeaBus, so it won't be discussed here).

Fares throughout the system range from $2.50-$5.00 CDN depending which zones you're traveling between and what time of day/day of the week it is. Similar to Muni, their transfers are good throughout their network for 2 or 2 1/2 hours (I forget which).

Also similar to Muni, they run their trains and buses from early in the morning until about 1:30 at night, with a night bus service taking over after that.

BUSES:
They have an extensive bus network (including the largest trolley bus network in the North America, after San Francisco) and for the less traveled/hillier routes, they use smaller coaches (similar to the UCSF shuttles). I think using such shuttles on the less travelled routes was part of the SF Transit Effectiveness Project proposal, and I think it's a great idea. Not only are they cheaper to buy in the first place, but they probably also use less fuel, and prevent empty busses from driving around wasting money and resources. What's interesting, though, is that, unlike San Francisco, they seem to run these smaller bus routes almost as often as the main bus lines! Unlike San Francisco which only runs them about ever 1/2 hour (if you're lucky!).

They also run a B-Line rapid bus network (I think on about 3 different routes) where people are allowed to board all three of the doors (they use articulated diesel buses for these routes), as long as they have pre-paid and have proof of payment with them. These routes generally have dedicated bus lanes. It seems to be pared-down version of the proposed Geary & Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit projects in San Francisco.

They recently vamped up their fleet with all new busses. They have pretty much the same types of buses as Muni: standard, trolley, long articulated (bendy bus), and small shuttle coach; but unlike Muni, all their buses (with the exception of the small coaches) are low floor models (which greatly speeds up boarding for seniors and persons with disabilities). The bus drivers are generally very friendly and helpful, and when you pay your fare, a transfer/fare receipt is automatically printed out of the fare box with the amount paid and the expiration date/time.

All their busses appeared to run at regular intervals (about every 3-15 minutes... and I never saw any "bunched up" buses like you so often see in SF. They were all well spread out and timely. Also, almost every bus I saw seemed very full, but not to the point that you couldn't fit more people on them or that they would be uncomfortable, which makes it seem like two great things are happening here:

1. A lot of people use the transit system here.

2. They've found a way to utilize the passenger capacity available on the buses, without making them so packed they're uncomfortable or unable to take on more passengers. They appear to do this by paying close attention to the needs of each particular route and running the appropriate types of busses at just the right intervals based on those needs.

SKYTRAIN:
The city and surrounding Metro area is served by the SkyTrain, which is a fully automated system, and is (I think) the most extensive fully automated train network in North America, if not the world.
BART is fully automated, however it has "drivers" on each train to close the doors, make announcements and take manual control of the train if the system goes down. Unlike BART, though, SkyTrain has no drivers or conductors on board and all the stop announcements are pre-recorded (like on the subway portion of Muni Metro).

Most the network operates on elevated guide-ways, however there is a small underground section downtown. There are no fare-gates, however just like BART & Muni, you must purchase your ticket before boarding, or face the possibility of a citation from the Transit Police.

The most amazing thing about SkyTrain is how often it runs. Get this, each line runs every 2-5 minutes! I rode it several times, and this proved to be true. No more than a few minutes after arriving at any station, a train would arrive. So there was no need to run to catch the train, because I was confident another would arrive in a few minutes. Like the buses, the trains were generally very crowded, but there was never a time that it was too crowded to board more passengers, and even if it had been, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal to wait a few minutes for the next train.

Now, they do have a much less extensive network than BART or Muni, with only two lines (soon to be three), but it's still very impressive. Even their new Canada Line, which is set to open before the upcoming Winter Olympics next year, is scheduled to arrive every 5 minutes or less.

Whenever I told locals here that most our trains/buses (with the exception of some of the busier lines or during rush hour) generally only came about every 5-30 minutes (sometimes longer if there's a delay, or if they get bunched together), they were shocked, and thought that a train coming every 2-5 minutes was normal, and that it'd be nice if they came more often. O, Canada!

So basically, Vancouver seems to have a well run, well funded system that's designed and operated in a way that actually meets the needs of the community and is therefore frequently used by said community.

I'm sure if I were here longer, I'd discover some of the problems with their system, as every community always has some complaint or another about their transit system, but at first glance, it seems pretty damn good, especially when compared to San Francisco.

San Francisco could learn a thing or two from Vancouver, or London, or Paris, or Zurich, or countless other cities that have found ways to provide frequent, reliable transit service to their citizens.

Now, I do realize that things are a little different in the US. For example, we spend about $700 billion on our military, while Canada only spends about $20 billion. So Canada has a lot more money to spend on things like single-payer healthcare and transit infrastructure. They also don't have as many people or as many large cities as the US, so there's probably more money available for the large population centers.

But, even with all our financial woes, it seems like with the right political will, and someone in charge at the SFMTA who actually understands public transit needs and infrastructure, we might actually be able to create a functional system, and find the proper funding sources to keep it functional. Also, it's just common sense that if we have an efficient, on-time, frequently run system, with good fare collection methods, then more people will ride it, which means more fares and more funding.

For more info on TransLink in Vancouver, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransLink_(British_Columbia) or http://www.translink.bc.ca/

On a side note, I thought it was awesome that every taxi I saw was either a Prius, Civic Hybrid, or another fuel efficient car, like the Corolla. I didn't see one Crown Victoria while I was here. Apparently the provincial government is going to make it law (if they haven't already) that all new taxis are hybrids, and they give incentives to cab companies to help achieve this.

Double Decked Out

2007-12-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

I just saw online today that Muni is going to be testing a double decker bus starting next week (12/12) through January 8th:

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/malerts/SFMTAandTEPtestingdouble-deckerbuses.htm

The first line they're gonna try it on is the 38L-Geary Limited, and then later on on the 38-Local, so if I'm there at the right time, I might get to try it out! The articulated buses are getting a little funky, what a great idea to replace them with double deckers and add a little London flare to our fine city.

They're just trying them out for now and seeing how they work on SF streets. They have no plans to buy any just yet, and may be trying other options as well, including a possible new articulated bus.

There will be no charge to ride the double decker during the trial.

They're diesel (although all SF diesel vehicles are now running on biodiesel) and they have a diesel/electric hybrid version in development.

Anyway, it's very exciting to see the possibility of some new busses coming our way in the near future (in addition to the hybrid buses they've already been buying)... I was really starting to get jealous of AC Transits' busses.

More Recall Stuff

2007-08-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

It's been nice seeing all the new "No Richmond Recall" signs around after seeing so many "Recall Jake McGoldrick" signs for so long. If I owned the building I live in, I'd definitely put some "No Recall" signs up as well.

I found a great website, which sums up why this recall is so ridiculous:

http://stoprecall.org/

According to the site, the proponents of the effort were about 1000 signatures short of getting the recall on the November ballot, so now they're going to try for the February 2008 ballot.

Looks like one of the main (and only organizational) supporters of the recall is the San Francisco Republican Party, along with a few vocal business owners who don't like Jake's pro-labor/pro-transit policies.

If you live in (or are just visiting) the Richmond, please join me in avoiding businesses with "Recall Jake McGoldrick" signs in their windows. One if these businesses is Tia Margarita on 19th Ave at Clement, which I used to enjoy going to, until I saw the HUGE "Recall Jake McGoldrick" sign on the outside wall of their building. Sufficed to say, I won't be patronizing them any longer.

High Speed Rail

2007-08-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this will actually happen!

Recall

2007-05-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

So I saw in the paper that there's some group that's gotten together (the Geary Blvd Merchants Association, in disguise, I bet) that's trying to recall Jake McGoldrick, the District 1 (my district) supervisor. Their complaints are that he supports Geary BRT, as well as the City's minimum wage, sick leave and healthcare policies. All the reasons they hate him are the reasons I think he's doing a great job!

I sure hope they don't get it on the ballot. And if I find out who "they" are, I'll be sure to avoid patronizing there stores. It's taken so long to improve the transit situation in the Richmond, the last thing we need is a bunch of narrow minded, misdirected, out of touch business owners to stand in the way. Anyone want to start a DON'T Recall Jake McGoldrick campaign?

Metro Situation Improving?

2007-05-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the infrequent posts, been busy with life (mostly in good ways).

So it seems like the Muni Metro situation has gotten a bit better. The trains don't seem to be getting all backed up in the subway as much and people just seem less frustrated in general. I saw in the paper that they're considering lots of options, including reinstating the 15 Bus Line and/or having the N-Judah go all the way to CalTrain again. They just got done changing all the maps and signs, and now they may have to change them again! I don't think reinstating the 15 Bus Line is the best idea, since it would be duplicating much of the T-Third service, but there does need to be better bus coverage for the areas that were served by the 15, and aren't served by the T. I think running the N-Judah to CalTrain again is a great idea. Right now only the T-Third and the J-Church (during peak hours) are running there, and they're usually one car trains. They really need two car trains going there, especially during peak hours. I think having the N (which is almost always a two car train) run there again would solve a lot of problems. It would help with all the peak hour capacity needed and wouldn't have to turn around at Embarcadero (which seems to be one of the things that was slowing the whole subway down in the first place).

Merchants Against BRT?

2007-04-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

I kept seeing signs in the windows at a few stores along Geary Blvd saying "Don't let MUNI ruin our street". I was curious what the heck they were talking about, so I did some research, and found the website www.savegearyblvd.com. Turns out the website was put together by the Geary Blvd Merchants Association and apparently they have a committee that is trying to prevent Bus Rapit Transit and/or light rail from being installed along Geary Blvd. Their main argument seems to be that all the construction and traffic would be bad for business and would force them all to close.

I just can't understand why they would want to keep Geary the way it is, with poor pedestrain safety, and buses pulling in and out of traffic all the time. And, frankly, it's just not a very attractive Boulevard, there's so much that could be done to improve it. After reading the website, I found the arguments so ridiculous, that I felt inclined to write a letter to the President of the Geary Blvd Merchants Association, David Heller. I also forwarded a copy of the letter to Supervisor Jake McGoldrick. I sent the e-mail on February 4, 2007, and got a lovely reply from a staffer at Jake McGoldrick's office almost right away. I have yet to hear anything from Mr. Heller (maybe I convinced him!).

Here is what I wrote:

Dear Mr. Heller,

As a resident of the Richmond District and as someone employed downtown, I ride the 38 bus line every day. Using either the 38, 38L, 38BX, or 31, it takes me at least 40 minutes to get from my house on 17th Ave to my final destination at 2nd and Market.

This is unacceptable. We need a faster, more reliable transportation system (especially since we live in one of the most heavily traveled transportation corridors in the the western US), and we're not going to get that with small fixes. It will take some major construction. As with any major construction project, there are headaches caused by the traffic while streets are being torn up, or structures being built, but the claim you make that it's going to force businesses to close is ridiculous.

I do most my shopping in the Richmond district, and walk where I need to go in the neighborhood, so having Geary torn up is not going to stop me from going to the local stores. Maybe it'll even encourage more local residents to walk and shop more locally, rather than deal with the traffic going downtown during construction.

I grew up in Santa Cruz, and about 10 years ago, they completely tore up the main street through town, Mission St, to widen it, and make several needed improvements. Traffic during the construction, as you would imagine, was a nightmare. But it did not cause any businesses to close, the businesses along that street are actually thriving now.

You also mention all the parking that would be taken away. Well, have you considered that with a more functional transportation system in place, perhaps more people will feel comfortable taking public transit to shop in the Richmond, which will reduce the amount of cars in the area and the amount of parking spaces needed?

I don't know if you take the Geary bus every day. If you do, I would hope you realize how vitally major changes are needed. If you don't, I'd recommend you try riding the 38 bus line from the Richmond to downtown and back each day, for at least a week, during rush hour, and see if that changes your mind. Having a viable transit option to the Richmond will help this neighborhood thrive, and help the businesses thrive here as well.

Personally, if they decided not to build a major transit alternative here, such as BRT, I would move to a neighborhood with better public transit, one that's on a light rail line, preferably. So, then by not building BRT or whatever, the businesses here would actually be losing business, as I'd be shopping at the businesses in the neighborhood I move to. I'd much rather stay in the Richmond, but I can't do that indefinitely with such a lousy bus system.

I know change isn't easy, and it doesn't happen overnight, but sometimes it's necessary to help improve our lives.

I know if I owned a business in this neighborhood, I would be thrilled at the opportunity of having a fast, comfortable mode of transportation nearby for my employees and my customers.

In the end, the amount of time and frustration a new bus service/light rail would save the residents of the Richmond would be incredible. MUNI is not going to "ruin" Geary Blvd, as you claim. Of course it would suck during construction, it sucks when they re-pave roads, too, but if they didn't re-pave roads, then they'd be pretty difficult to drive on at all. And in the end, after the dust settles, we'd have a beautiful, accessible, safer district for everyone, including the businesses.

I'm sure you're stuck in your opinions, just like I'm stuck on mine, but I just wanted to let you know how I felt about the issue. I'm not affiliated with MUNI or any other advocacy group at this time, I'm just a regular guy who lives in the Richmond and wants a better, faster way to get to work and downtown.

Sincerely,
Brendon....

Backfire

2007-04-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

So it just so happens that after I started regularly going across the park every day to catch the N Judah, they launched the full service T-Third Line. It was all going fine as I was heading to work on the N last Monday morning, until the train got into the subway, at which point it was stop and go all the way to the Embarcadero. The driver came on the intercom about half way through the subway to let us know that there was a back-up of trains, so it would probably take a while. This made me about a 1/2 hour late to work (and a bunch of other people, too). Isn't the point of the subway to AVOID traffic? They've had all this time to plan for the T-Third, and nobody thought about the effect it might have on the existing trains and infastructure? They totally blew it! I don't want to hear any more excuses or apologies from MUNI, I just want them to find a permanent solution to fix the problem. Let's hope they plan better for the future Central Subway, or any future rail lines, for that matter.

Through the Park, to the Train

2007-04-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

So I have a new routine. Rather than take the 38 Geary or 31 Balboa (which are the two bus lines by my house) to and from work every day, I've started walking through Golden Gate Park over to the Sunset district and catching the N-Judah at 9th & Irving to/from downtown. Not only is it great exercise and a great way to see our beautiful park, it's also just so much more fun than taking the bus! It's quicker and has more frequent service. And even though it tends to gets much more crowded than the buses, I still prefer it.

Oh, if only they had a MUNI Metro line out to the Richmond, I would use it constantly! Back in the day, there used to be a couple trolly lines along Geary to the Richmond and Ocean Beach, one of which was called the B-Geary. If/when they put a train line out here again, it would probably be given the same name.

Free Transit!

2007-03-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

So Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed looking at the possibility of making Muni totally free! This is a fantastic idea in my opinion. It would improve reliability and ridership. The big questions, of course, is where will all that lost revenue be made up, and how will they pay for the equipment and staff that will be needed to handle the increased ridership? It may not happen, but I think it's fantastic that Newsom is talking about it. More on this later.

Welcome!

2007-03-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to by blog. As you may have gathered from the title, I'm a big fan of public and alternative forms of transportation, especially trains, subways and lightrail. This blog is intended to promote public transportation and let you know what's going on (that I know of) in San Francisco (where I live) regarding Public Transit. I'll start with a video from City CarShare, which is a non-profit car sharing organization here that I'm a member of. It's allowed me to be able to get rid of my car!