Eric

November 2008 Election: No on Measure KK (Berkeley)

Posted by Eric ⋅ 3 November 2008 ⋅ 4 Comments

BRT at Bancroft, near Sproul Plaza. Courtesy AC Transit, extracted from this video clip. This past July, the Berkeley City Council voted to place Measure KK on this November ballot, thanks to the efforts of a vocal, persistent group of Berkeley NIMBYs whose goal is to prevent AC Transit from building dedicated bus lanes in … Continue reading →

November 2008 Election: Yes on Measure VV (AC Transit Parcel Tax)

Posted by Eric ⋅ 1 November 2008 ⋅ 6 Comments

There has been an hypocrisy underlying the conversation in California concerning transit and sustainability. On the one hand, we talk about curbing sprawl and offsetting climate change; but on the other hand, we also yank the funds that already cash-strapped transit agencies need to operate. This year, AC Transit, which provides fuel-dependent bus service, got … Continue reading →

November 2008 Election: No, No, No on Measures B, C, and D (Santa Clara County)

Posted by Eric ⋅ 1 November 2008 ⋅ 4 Comments

VTA has placed three measures on this November’s Santa Clara County ballot: Measures, B, C and D. Santa Clara County voters are strongly urged to vote NO on all three measures. We’ll begin with Measure B. If passed, Measure B would institute a thirty-year 1/8-percent sales tax in Santa Clara County to generate money to … Continue reading →

November 2008 Election: Your BART Board of Directors

Posted by Eric ⋅ 1 November 2008 ⋅ 1 Comment

Lynette Sweet (District 7): Lynette Sweet currently represents District 7 on the BART Board of Directors, a district that spreads from Montgomery to Richmond Stations, and which includes sections of all three counties in the BART district. I had not initially planned to write any specific endorsement for her, but then I ran across a … Continue reading →

November 2008 Election: Yes on Proposition 1A (High-Speed Rail)

Posted by Eric ⋅ 30 October 2008 ⋅ 11 Comments

If transit routes can be analogized to the networks of nerves that are spread throughout the human body, then one might say transit planning in California has been almost entirely occupied with the peripheral nervous system. But a crucial link has been missing — the spinal cord. The notion of building a high-speed rail system … Continue reading →

BART to San Jose (Volume 4): All’s Well As Ends Better

Posted by Eric ⋅ 27 October 2008 ⋅ 24 Comments

As things stand now, reasonably frequent rail service circles almost the entirety of San Francisco Bay. Caltrain serves the western shore of the Bay, while BART serves the eastern shore down to Fremont, and four BART routes operate in the Transbay Tube. The missing hole is the segment between Fremont and San Jose Diridon Station, … Continue reading →

SFTEP Moves Forward to Environmental Assessment

Posted by Eric ⋅ 21 October 2008 ⋅ 4 Comments

This evening, the SFMTA Board endorsed 7-0 the latest set of revisions of the Transit Effectiveness Project, which was the subject of rather extensive public hearing last month. The Board’s unanimous vote effectively closes the planning phase and moves the project forward into the environmental assessment and implementation phase. Rollouts of specific recommendations are anticipated … Continue reading →

BART to San Jose (Volume 3): Wicked, Tricksy, False

Posted by Eric ⋅ 20 October 2008 ⋅ 12 Comments

In a Merc editorial last week, Caltrans director Will Kempton urged us to support BART to San Jose because “transportation professionals with 70 years of combined experience” support the project. Kempton’s piece also proclaims that the inflated ridership projection, in the vicinity of 100,000 daily riders, is “solid,” a statement that appears highly dubious in … Continue reading →

Can MTC Take the Heat? Redux

Posted by Eric ⋅ 6 October 2008 ⋅ 8 Comments

Remember this past summer, when we ruminated about the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s ongoing update to the Regional Transportation Plan (Transportation 2035)? Remember when we were peeved by MTC’s unwillingness to heed the sage advice of the Advisory Council, the body that encouraged MTC to reevaluate $191 billion worth of “committed” projects, including several billion dollars … Continue reading →

BART to San Jose (Volume 2): The Shadow of the Past

Posted by Eric ⋅ 6 October 2008 ⋅ 7 Comments

Dashed dreams at Millbrae Station. Buried in the middle of the introductory post about BART to San Jose was the project’s ridership projection for the year 2030: about 104,000 riders. That number was settled on in 2006, but in 2005, the official projection had even gone as high as 111,500, before the two downtown stations … Continue reading →