Banning Cars from Boulevards

There was an article in the Los Angeles Times on banning cars from Wilshire Avenue and bringing the Subway to the surface. There are tons of cross streets meaning that there would have to be a lot of over or underpasses if it was going to be grade separated. Maybe this can be achieved by tunneling under the major intersections and not allowing cross traffic on the smaller ones. Although everyone would be pretty mad about the construction. I really like the idea of subways though. Mostly because they can go in straighter lines and you won't have the ugly under and overpass issues. They also integrate into the landscape better since people don't have to cross streets. The New York Subways were an investment made over 100 years ago, why can't LA make that investment for the lifetime of that city?

BRT Meets in the Morning

I saw on the SFist that there was a meeting about the Geary BRT. I would have gone however the meeting was in the morning during work. I'm rather annoyed because i would have hoped that I would have been able to make some comments about the need to make it LRT ready and push for the downtown subway segment. But alas I would have had to skip work to make comments. Perhaps they allow emails. Why is it that only certain activists are allowed to attend meetings? Skipping work? Geez.

What If...

Transit Miami did it for Miami, M1ek did it for Austin, Christof did it for Houston, and the Transit Coalition has lots of maps on possible LA scenarios so I thought maybe i would throw my hat in the ring.

Above is my dream map of San Francisco. Black lines are existing and colors are not. The northern most green line would be an extension of the F line. It would also serve as a piece of the Van Ness blue line subway. The reason it wouldn't be a surface line is that that street is way too busy as it is and being the main 101 freeway route to the Golden Gate the line should be underground.

The red elbow is the central subway thats under planning right now. However it should be extended to the orange line into the Marina district. The indigo line goes north south to connect lines and the Richmond district with the San Francisco State. And finally the bottom red line connector would meet up the Geneva rail yards with the end of the 3rd street light rail that just opened up. These are my dream routes to expand an already pretty good rail transit system. I hope they do the blue, yellow and orange lines first because those are the ones i would use the most! Anyone else have dreams?

3rd Street Light Rail Open in SF

Now running on the weekends, light rail is rolling on third street. This is the first part of the Central Subway project that will be the future lead to the Geary Subway and potential extensions to the Marina. The Central Subway should be paid for completely by the Feds because Muni is looking to use this initial segment as its match in the New Starts Process. Hopefully this means moving faster to the Geary Subway but until then, I'll be watching third street and the Central Subway with great interest.

Muni Gets an F

I love transit, but this weekend when trying to get from the Mission to North Beach I had an awful time on what should be a rapid transit corridor. Aside from my subway under Geary, I'm going to say that Van Ness needs one too. This is the 101 corridor from LA to Oregon and it's always packed. Muni wants to turn it into a BRT corridor but once again that will just make people mad. Making a 6 Lane Urban thoroughfare into 4 lanes is a good idea most of the time. And people don't go fast on this street because there are too many stoplights.

But in this instance, taking away a lane for buses is A. A bad idea and B. A bad idea. Why? Because making a major road like this go to 4 lanes is like a snowstorm blocking planes at the airport in Denver. No one will get anywhere. If there was a subway, it would have taken me 35 minutes instead of an hour to get where i was going. 25 minutes is a HUGE time savings and worth it to the folks who want to get to the north side of town out of bus traffic. So instead of planning this long term, it should be done now, with the Geary Subway.

But we have no money says MUNI. There is tons of money out there. As referenced in the article above, Don Shoup (king of parking), states that parking in downtown San Francisco is too cheap. I have never driven downtown at any time other than 11pm or Sunday afternoon but the reason is I don't want to have to worry about parking. It's so much easier and faster to just take the train in the subway. But apparently if I did find a space downtown on the street it would be cheap cheap cheap.

While San Francisco has taken steps to make transit friendly and parking harder to come by it comes as no surprise that they still cater to the automobile. It is so entrenched in our society that even the most dense metropolis' can't get away from it. So if we can't get away from it, lets make it as expensive as possible. Another funding source that is being discussed is closing off downtown from anything but Taxi's, buses and rail. This is a great idea and it would raise money for transit, specifically the subways that are in planning but need funding.

(The Other) Subway to the Sea

With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa planning the subway to the sea on Wilshire in Los Angeles, I think Mayor Newsom should start his own program in San Francisco. One of most ridden bus lines in the United States, the 38 Geary is always plastered with faces on the windows because it is so full and needs more capacity. The Geary Corridor also has the limited service 38L which acts as an express bus. So why are they going to spend millions of dollars to take away a lane and save riders only a few minutes while using the same buses?

The first step of the second subway to the sea is the 3rd Street light rail which opens in the next few months. The next step is the central subway project which leaves a spur going west to link up a future Geary Subway before it turns off to go under Stockton(which by the way should continue past broadway). The decision to build the GS to at least Masonic though is very far off while they wait for more money. But really the line is ready to go.

So the problem with this picture is that while the United States FWHA would put in 90% of the cost for a road that desperately needed to be built, they would do it. This is the top example of what is happening with the new starts program. Funding for major urban rail projects is getting stymied for artery clogging BRT and unneeded roads by folks who don't like to invest in infrastructure needed to make cities work. aka the libertarian movement. Where would they be without the Federal Highway Program in their arguments? Probably arguing for better transit to support the free market.

The point is that projects like Geary are the projects that need to be funded. Folks shouldn't be plastered on the windows bus service is not adequate. This is why the case needs to be made for a major transit infrastructure initiative that rivals that of the Highway expansion of the last century. The first project? Geary Subway to the Sea