Excuses?

I was reading an article about how Muni will have a hiring freeze and perhaps not be able to do the Transit Effectiveness Project. I have to say that isn't a very good excuse. Reworking routes and making them more effective shouldn't cost so much money that the whole idea gets axed in a downturn. NJC has more just about how annoying much of this situation is.

Tolls Would Pay for BRT

Does anyone feel like if they tolled downtown San Francisco, that BRT would be able to carry the load on Geary that would swell with new riders? It already seems like a sardine tin. I hope Tom's comments pertain also to Geary, not just the Muni Metro tunnel.

Drivers interviewed said that better transit service will be necessary if the plan is to work. Tom Radulovich, a BART director from San Francisco, told the board that trains are already crowded and urged investments in BART and Muni Metro as part of the plan.

"We've already reached our design capacity," he said, "and are going to need to make investments in expanding rail capacity."

Framing Livable Communities

I know we've discussed this before, but we need to change the way we talk about livable communities and mobility. Today's version comes from the San Francisco Chronicle who's writer Rachel Gordon sits on the side of the automobile when she talks about "anti-car crusades". Since we're not in the 10th century and ridding ourselves of cars is not the ultimate goal, this is a way for reporters to make the world into black and white instead of shades of gray. Fortunately, Nat Ford says it right.

"Our goal is to encourage more bicycling and walking in San Francisco, and we will continue to work on every front - from education to engineering - to make those activities as safe as possible," said Nathaniel Ford, executive director of the Municipal Transportation Agency.

But we need to make sure that when we talk to the press, the framing isn't an us versus them. It's about creating livable communities. It's about encouraging all levels of cyclists and pedestrians to participate in the streets renaissance (H/T Mike L) and creating situations where people can ditch their car keys if they so choose. I have a car and live in San Francisco. I can use it when I really need it, but for the most part, I have options, and this means that filling up is once a month if that and I get some good hill workouts in. Sure it's not for everyone, but there is a huge demand out there that is not being filled.

Urban Bumper Sticker

Considering a lot of people around here don't have cars and take transit, the bumper sticker is not an available option of displaying your politics or causes. However, I've noticed even before the presidential election that messenger bags can have the same affect. After the election started though, they have increased exponentially around here. Mostly Obama and No on Prop 8. I've noticed people on the train checking out my bag as well, which has my own "urban bumper stickers"


I've got the longhorn patch which has brought me closer to fellow Texans randomly on BART and the Hey Mercedes buttons of my favorite band that have gotten comments from some rock kids. Though no one has said much about the SF Municipal Railway or the Market Street Railway pins, it might be because we're usually smooshed together on the J Church.

The thing though is that unlike bumper stickers, you have to be in close quarters to see what the pins and buttons say, which makes people a bit more cordial than if they were in the space of their own car. No honking on transit.

October in San Francisco

Another weekend, another Muni Fail to the game. I got passed by three 22 Fillmore buses before I could get on one. I'm even more convinced now that more buses on routes are not the answer with the constant special events on the weekend. It's a North South subway. Even if the J just went underground at Market Street and continued North to the Marina it would be worth it. In any event, I had another exciting Saturday watching the Texas game and went to the Red Bull Soap Box Derby which was only a few blocks from my house.

Muni LRV at Dolores Park


The Derby had an attendance of 75,000.


People were hanging from windows and fire escapes


Lots of trespassers on the private ROW


Soap Box Vehicles. A hamster wheel that spun and a baseball


Here are a few Videos from the Derby. My favorite was the Death Star, but the fastest I saw was the fire truck....woosh.

Fire Truck



Death Star



Rubicks Cube

Fleet Week Awesome. Muni FAIL

Today was an awesome day on the North end of the city that started with Texas(5) beating Oklahoma(1). I watched from a bar on Union Street with about 200 Texas exes and friends. Then I went with some friends to watch the Blue Angels fly over San Francisco at varying angles. All of this was great and made me pretty tired but glad I got out today. It was an amazingly beautiful day.

On the other hand. It was an epic epic Muni FAIL. In my first year here. I made the mistake of driving the 3 miles North to watch the football game during fleet week. Bad idea. No parking (when is there ever?) and traffic you wouldn't believe. The last few years, I've decided to take Muni which I try to do as much as possible. This morning I would take my usual J to 22 connection. But it started out badly. When I left my house, the NextMUNI webpage said 3 and 15 minutes for the J at 24th and Church. I got to the stop and the 3 min J was just leaving. I felt that was ok. 10 minutes wasn't bad and I would be a little late to the game but no problem right?

Not right. I waited 25 minutes for the J and the driver was chatting away with what seemed like a supervisor with a yellow MUNI vest. I was already annoyed that they were 15 minutes late and the talking really wasn't doing much harm, but because they were late more people had gathered meaning more people had to pay as they entered which always slows the whole process down. And why they have so many stop signs on Church I'll never know.

So i get to Duboce and Church where I would hop on the 22 and the next one comes in 12 minutes. It's already 9am and the game starts at 9am. I wait 12 minutes and off we go. The 22 gets there and I'm responding to texts from my friends telling them I'll be a little late but not too bad. Then some crazy stuff happens. The driver decides that at stop lights he'll read the SF Chronicle. And at one point he hops out of the bus at a stop and walks into a store to pick up a sandwich. What?!

Obviously I was annoyed. I was already late because of Muni. But this was ridiculous. So what would have taken me about 15 minutes in a subway or a car took me an hour on Muni. I know this is the reason people drive. It annoys the heck out of me that we can't get it right. Between the late train and the crazy bus driver...it was enough to make me almost declare war on Muni.

The way home pretty much sucked as well. So much traffic on Van Ness (I walked that way to see the ships from Fort Mason) I decided to go back to the 22. Well I got passed by three full buses and ended up just walking the 2 miles to the J. It was ok though. I got to take some pictures on Union Street. But for the once in a while rider, that day would probably kill your riding for about a year. Cabs it is!

In any event. This needs to be improved. And the TEP would really do almost nothing to change that trip. BRT on Van Ness could possibly help that trip but honestly there needs to be an east west and north south subway. I should be able to get anywhere in a 7 mile by 7 mile city in 30 minutes. That should be the goal. That would be quite impressive mobility for here and guess what, more people would take transit!!!

Here are some pictures and movies. The first one shows the final seconds of the game at the Blue Light bar. Pretty exciting.



The following pictures are of the Fleet Week traffic...

Van Ness



Lombard



North Point Street



People Traffic and Ships!



Marina Street - They would be dumb not to put the future F Line extension to the presidio in its own lane when you see this:



Union Street Life

Sunday Photo Dump: San Francisco

So I was out and about today around the N Judah and took a few photos. I also took a few on the 4th of July that I didn't get to post. I really like capturing what's going on around me and I always have my camera in my bag in case something inspires me to capture it. In any event, some of these are transit related but it's mostly about great cities, which are an essential part of the transit-oriented lifestyle.

This is a mural on some plywood on my street. This house has been under construction for about 2 years and the neighbors got tired of it. They told me that when the house is done, they are going to use these as their back fence. It's kind of sad because no one will get to see them. I kind of enjoy seeing something new on them each day I come home from work. It's a very cool evolution.


Over at the East Portal of the Muni Sunset Tunnel, made famous by numerous cars that drive in there thinking its a throughway even though its clearly for rail cars, purple flowers grow between the tracks.



Fixes for the entrance for the Market Street Subway for the N and J tracks are much needed. I hear they are coming soon. But here's the condition now. This is why speeds of 5 mph are used in this section of track.


This was a look at the Bay towards the Golden Gate bridge from Fillmore street on the 4th of July. It's quite a regular occurrence to have this much fog on the 4th. It's bad because it blocks out the fireworks show.

Here's golden gate park on the 4th. San Francisco fog style.
I've been seeing a lot more of these as well...

And while this might look ugly to some, it's music to my lungs. I would take visual pollution over air pollution any day. Usually you don't even notice, but it hurts more to breathe diesel exhaust than it does to see these.

Yosemite's Relation to Transit

This weekend I was in Yosemite camping with my siblings. There always seems to be a transit twist with my trips and this one was no different, even in the wilderness where there was no cell phone reception or access to technology but there were buses.

On the first day we went to Yosemite Valley. If you haven't been I certainly recommend it. It's stunningly beautiful and made me wish that I could still run twenty miles at a time, specifically during this picture...



After the meadow, we drove to a parking lot and left our car. We hopped on the bus and it took us to a trail head for mirror lake. It was amazing and we got a good view of the lake's reflection of the mountains.







The next day we went to Hetch Hetchy, where San Francisco gets its water. Down stream that water gets turned into hydroelectric power for Muni Metro and trolleybuses. You'll have to turn your screen sideways for the video of Wampama falls.








All in all it was a fun trip.

Assorted Bay Area News

Update: I changed the time of the Livermore meeting to 6pm as it was pointed out in the comments.

Whoa Muni. Looking at the ridership statistics on light rail from this last quarter, more people are definitely riding the rails. 173,000 a day is pretty good I would say. Although it sounds weirdly high. The Transit Effectiveness Project when taking ridership accounted for 157,424.

Also, if you're interested in the Livermore BART extension, there will be a public meeting Wednesday June 18th in Livermore at 6pm. I'm thinking I might show up, given that I'm on that side of the Bay on Wednesday evenings. Here's a post we wrote a while back on it.

More info:

Robert Livermore Community Center, Larkspur Room
4444 East Ave.
Livermore, CA 94550
The website to view the alignments is at www.barttolivermore.org

Their contact info is:
Phone: (510) 464-6151
E-mail: info@barttolivermore.org

H/T to Joel for the email.

Sunday Photo Blogging

Here are some photos I picked up last weekend before dinner with some transit friends who were in town for the APTA rail conference.

I know folks complain about Muni signage. But here is one to give some hope. But just a little since this is the first time I've seen a map of this kind. It's a braille map of the Muni light rail system at the Embarcadero station.



Here's a small pocket park, just on the other side of the shrubs is the busy Embarcadero. I wonder how many people know this is here. It's at the intersection of Greenwich and Embarcadero, right before the Fog City Diner.



And who wants to stand in the middle of a rail ROW taking pictures? Why me of course. This is the F-Line tracks, and hopefully soon to be E-Line.



And the F-Line is at Crush Load as usual.

Muni LRT to be Powered by the Sun

Calgary powers its light rail with wind, Seattle with hydro and Muni which was partial hydro, will now be solar. So much for those coal fired power plant arguments against light rail and future energy.

The photovoltaic systems at the two facilities and the solar energy they generate will be developed and operated under a "Power Purchase Agreement" between the SFPUC and Recurrent Energy. Under the agreement, which the SFPUC members authorized SFPUC staff to negotiate today, Recurrent will finance, design, build and operate the solar energy projects and provide all the energy generated to the SFPUC for a period of 25 years. The five megawatts generated between the two facilities will be used to help power other San Francisco public services and buildings, including streetlights, San Francisco General Hospital, Muni light rail and city schools.

Fast Pass Art

I've collected a good amount of transit passes over the past few years and noticed that Muni had perhaps the most colorful. Well someone else noticed, actually a lot of people noticed and John Kuzich is creating art with them. Very cool. Check it out.

H/T Rescue Muni

If You See Someone, Say Something

Ben has an post up about subway love in NYC. I've often wondered what, if any, etiquette there was to talking to girls (or guys) that caught your eye on transit. Some of my friends have said that it creeps them out while others are indifferent. One of my friends said that she gave a specifically creepy guy an evil look until he moved seats.

Apparently its not unusual to find creepy people on the subway, but its not unusual to see cute girls either...although most seem to have wedding rings. I certainly don't want to get the evil eye and I usually try to follow the golden rule, do unto others... And since I really don't like being bothered, I find it really hard to bother other people. So I end up listening to NPR or watching Diggnation and every once in a while catching a glimpse of a cute girl walking on or off the Muni or BART.

Dolores Park Blogging

I live a few blocks away from Dolores Park which some also call Dolores Beach because on sunny San Francisco days everyone is out in the sun having a good time. It's a wonderful thing. Here are a few images collected today. It also showcases the ability to get to nice parks and views in San Francisco by transit.

LRT Vehicle Design Elements

There have been many discussions recently about light rail but not much about vehicle design. Well there are a number of elements that make a tram attractive to passengers, not just from a visual standpoint, but also from a physical comfort standpoint.

Visual Appearance:

Whether its a Porche designed tram from Skoda to one of the older PCC's that used to run in most american cities, appearance has mattered a great deal to patrons. Recently tram designs have gone from functional designs that served tram companies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s to the more stylish models that are seen today. Some will say that today's designs aren't as classic. Below are a few examples.



The Trams in Prague are functional and to those who ride them familiar. Many of you know my favorite below, the Siemens Combino Supra "Caterpillar". It's a bit boxy but others such as the Siemens SD70 Avanto used in San Diego, Charlotte, and Houston are much more streamlined.





Seats:

Now some don't think this is very important, but there are a few who push the need for soft seats every chance they get. It's important to be comfortable, especially as Light Rail travels further out of the city and people need to sit longer. I noticed that seats in Denver had nice cushions while the Muni LRVs here have hard seats that I wouldn't want to sit on for very long and don't. I usually stand, but its not uncomfortable for the few minutes I'm on. The PCC seats remind me of school bus rides in 9th grade. They aren't super plush but they aren't uncomfortable either.


Flickr photo of Muni Metro Seats by Digiyesica.

Flickr Photo of PCC Seats by Jef Poskanzer.

Complaints about trams aren't just for folks in the United States. A blogger in Prague has been complaining and for some of the commenters, it seems a bit like sour grapes. There is also a facebook group against the new trams as well which my dad happened to take a photo of this fall in Prague.




Accessibility:

This is a major issue and drives a lot of decisions in planning for new light rail lines, streetcars and tramways. Buses, even low floor, have ramps that can be flipped up and down. Many light rail vehicles have level boarding which means they pull up next to the platform and there is no need for a ramp or bridge plate. This makes the train more accessible, especially since in trains, wheelchairs don't need to be strapped in with belts as they do in buses.

Flickr photo of Level Boarding in Seattle. Photo by Bejan.

Portland Streetcar Bridge Plate. Photo by the City of Albuquerque.

This brings up another important consideration of LRV design which is aisle width. Moving around inside of the vehicle is important. A currently cited issue with many BRT vehicles is that the aisles where the wheel wells are very narrow. Light rail of the low floor variety is rather wide in the center.

Flickr Photo NJ Transit LRV Interior. Photo by Manish Karnik.

All of these things are important. Depending on the length of the trip, some are more important than others. More standing room in streetcars is better because there are lots of ons and offs while LRVs need more seats for longer distance passengers. And then there is the future. What will future designs bring? I've only covered a few of the most discussed elements but does anyone have more of what they look for in a LRV?

Yes, Thank You San Francisco

Transbay Blog reports that Measure A won and Measure H, the evil parking measure lost. Thank You San Francisco.

Can Transit Cause a Loss of Morals?

File this under: I'm not making this up.

According to a newspaper article dug up by TwoBells (Joe Lacey) on the SFMuni history list and confirmed by other list members, Cable Cars apparently caused one San Francisco woman to become a nymphomaniac. A few weeks after coming to San Francisco in 1964, she was involved in a terrible Cable Car crash which she claims made her go against her Lutheran morals. This in turn made the cable cars more popular (3rd Article). For the whole story you have to read the articles from the San Francisco Chronicle in their entirety below. It's quite hilarious and shows that you never know what could happen on transit or in the court of law.

Tailgating & Transit Don't Mix

Why is this not a surprise? Tailgating apparently is ranked by the amount of parking available which of course is limited in transit oriented cities. Even in the most transit oriented city, a recent uproar has been caused in the Bronx over the cost of parking for the new Yankee Stadium. Makes sense, but when it causes a city to lose a bid for my favorite sports event every 4 years it gets personal. I know this is old news, but when I saw the post at Transit Miami, it kind of poured some salt in an old wound.

San Francisco will abandon its bid to bring the 2016 Olympics here in the wake of the 49ers' announcement that the team no longer plans to build a new stadium in the city, the group leading the Olympic effort announced today.

Scott Givens, managing director of San Francisco's bid, said last week's surprise announcement regarding the stadium -- until then a central part of the group's San Francisco Olympic bid -- irreparably damaged the city's reputation with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The reason for the drop? The cost of a light rail extension from the T line and the lack of tailgating!

The team's largest objection to the San Francisco site, they said, was the high cost of bringing transit and parking infrastructure to the Point. York also cited the loss of traditional parking lots, saying tailgating would not be an option for fans if the stadium was located in San Francisco.

I sometimes wonder if San Francisco is really transit first, if one of its most beloved institutions, the 49ers are so beholden to the car. At least you'll be able to get to AT&T park on a PCC at some point in the future. But I won't be going to watch the 5k.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July. It was an exciting day as all of my trips today were either on Muni Metro or walking but I wonder how everyone else did their traveling on our nation's birthday. My day included going to a movie, going to get dinner from the grocery store and going to watch fireworks. My sister and I took Muni to see Ratatouille. walked to the grocery store to get burgers to grill and took Muni to Duboce to see the fireworks.

Every time we walked out of my door I saw my car sitting on the curb and smiled. It's a great liberating feeling to know that I can get around without having to get in the car. I don't have to do the driving meaning i can chat with my sister about how good the movie is without worrying about hitting people while using hand gestures. We could walk to the grocery store and stop in shops along the way that sold wine, cheese, beer, shoes or whatever else. We could also listen to the little kids talking about Star Wars and Pokeman. It's pretty cool, I'm not gonna lie, I just wish everyone had the same options.

Feel Free to post your own transit-oriented Independence Day in the Comments.

The Next Earthquake

What could be more devastating than a huge earthquake or atomic bomb hitting San Francisco?

A proposal to have 1:1 parking ratio in the city outside of downtown among other provisions. Just about the dumbest idea I've ever seen or heard of. Idiocy knows no bounds. Here are some other crazy provisions from a the comments...

The ordinance does NOT leave the recent C-3 (downtown) parking controls as is. In fact, it guts them. And it doesn't gut just the recent changes. It guts the fundamental controls that have existed in downtown for decades, and were the core of the City's renowned 1985 Downtown Plan, on which the Financial District we know today was built. The biggest change is not just the residential controls. The biggest, and most drastic change is the complete elimination of the limitation on commuter parking for commercial (office) buildings. The initiative would more allow (via changes to Section 151.1) more than 650% of the commuter parking currently allowed downtown! Where 100 spaces are now allowed, this initative would allow 667 spaces! This is a fact, and the math is simple:

The current controls place an absolute parking maximum equivalent to 7% of the gross floor area of an office building. 500,000 sf office = 35,000 sf parking = 100 parking spaces. Under the initative, a builder could build up to one space for every 750 square feet of office space. 500,000 sf office = 667 spaces. The words drastic and dramatic don't even begin to capture the magnitude of this change for downtown. The entire downtown has been built on a limited parking model, and only because of that reason (and only) the commute to downtown SF has the highest share of commuters taking transit outside of lower manhattan.