Streetsblog San Francisco

Warm Planet Bikes has provided more and more Caltrain commuters a secure place to park their bikes at the Fourth and King Street Station in downtown San Francisco in recent years. But the shop could soon shut down without continued support from the public transportation agencies it relies on. Though Caltrain is developing an agreement to support the shop, it may not come until it’s too late.

SF Bike Coalition Executive Director Leah Shahum (left) stands with transportation officials at Warm Planet's grand opening in January 2008. Photo: SFBC/Flickr

“Caltrain needs to provide interim funding for uninterrupted service of bike parking at Fourth and King,” said Shirley Johnson, vice chair of the Caltrain Bicycle Advisory Committee and head of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Bikes ONBoard Project. “To expect Warm Planet to stay open without paying for it, that’s just not possible.”

When the bike shop opened in January 2008, it had room to provide attended parking for up to 100 bikes. But over the years, demand has grown, and managers have sacrificed more and more retail space to accommodate parking and avoid “bumping” bike commuters the way Caltrain often does.

Today, Warm Planet parks up to 170 bikes per day, all for free. But the grant the shop had originally relied on ended a year and a half ago, and without a lift from agencies like Caltrain — the transit system whose customers it serves — the shop can’t sustain itself much longer.

“It’s been difficult, but I’ve been making a go of it,” said Warm Planet’s owner and president, who goes by the single name Kash. “This facility doesn’t exist so I can run a bike shop. This facility exists so that people who want to get on Caltrain can park their bikes.”

Kash has sought out other sponsors but says it’s difficult to attract support, since Warm Planet is a for-profit business despite the bike parking services it provides for a public transit agency. Advocates have been pushing Caltrain to find interim funds to keep the shop going, and though staff is negotiating one, a proposal has yet to be put on the table.

“We are very pleased to have a bike parking facility there,” said Caltrain spokesperson Christine Dunn. “We know how important it is, and we have no intention of closing it.”

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Bicyclists have to contend with a mess of taxis, delivery trucks and other vehicles obstructing the bike lane on Townsend Street near the entrance to the Caltrain station, to the right. This is why some ride on the sidewalk. Photos by Bryan Goebel.

San Francisco police returned to the Caltrain station at 4th, King and Townsend streets this morning to warn bike commuters not to ride on the sidewalk one day after a sting that resulted in a number of citations for people on bikes. Bike advocates complained, however, that Caltrain has known for years the station presents a challenge to bicyclists, and said the agency’s inaction has allowed conflicts between bicyclists and pedestrians to continue.

Instead of seriously addressing flaws in the street and station design, the situation has led to the selective enforcement of bicyclists. Police told Streetsblog they have received complaints from pedestrians about bike commuters, and yesterday issued a number of citations to bicyclists for riding on the sidewalk. SFPD Lt. Troy Dangerfield said today it was part of a “month-long campaign on bicycle and pedestrian enforcement.” However, the officers did not target drivers obstructing the bike lane.

Shirley Johnson, a member of Caltrain’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and a longtime leader of the Bikes ONBoard program, said she’s been riding on the sidewalk for years.

“I just thought that’s how you’re supposed to get to the station. There’s a curb cut right there, on the sidewalk,” she told Streetsblog. “No one has ever said anything and people are getting ticketed. That seems very unfair.”

“I’m very careful. I ride really slow on the sidewalk,” she continued. “But I can only imagine if someone’s late for the train they’re probably coming along at a pretty good clip. I always got there early enough that I never had to do that but I can see that it’s a safety concern.”

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A number of Streetsblog readers are reporting that officers from the San Francisco Police Department were ticketing bicyclists riding on the sidewalk near the Caltrain station at 4th and King this morning. But they were not ticketing any of the drivers blocking the bike lane, which forces many bicyclists onto the sidewalk.

Bike commuter Jean Fraser, who happens to be the director of the San Mateo County Public Health Department, sent us this word about the sting:

This morning at the Caltrain station I discovered two officers ticketing bicyclists for riding on the sidewalk as they approached the Caltrain station. When I asked if the officers were also enforcing the traffic laws against the taxis and private cars that double park and block the bike lanes leading to the station, forcing people who ride bikes to have to move into the traffic lanes, the officers stated they had been given instructions only to focus on bicyclists.

Given the limited resources of the SFPD, the small risk that bicyclists pose compared to the risks of vehicles, as well as the fact that virtually every person who rides a bike to Caltrain represents one less car on our streets, this choice to enforce only one law against only one group seems to be a very poor one. Not only does it not promote public safety much, but it diminishes the credibility of the police department as a neutral enforcer of our laws. People who ride bikes and people who drive cars should all be required to obey the laws, with enforcement actions focused on the areas that pose the greatest risk to the public’s safety.

A spokesperson for the SFPD, Sgt. Michael Andraychak, claims the enforcement was based on “some complaints” from pedestrians about people on bikes and scooters riding on the sidewalk. The enforcement started yesterday morning with education and warnings “that it’s against the law and unsafe to ride bicycles on the sidewalk.”

“They returned out there today and I’m told that at least one repeat offender was issued a citation. I don’t have any specific citation numbers,” he said.

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Flickr photo: b|m

Six months ahead of schedule, Caltrain announced today it has increased its bicycle capacity to two cars on every train. The move is expected to provide some relief to the many Caltrain riders who bike and are routinely bumped from trains when the bike cars are full.

“This is going to make a huge difference for cyclists using Caltrain on a daily basis,” said cycling Caltrain rider John Murphy. “This should have happened a long time ago, not only because it provides better service for those customers, but because it makes financial sense. A cyclist with a bike in the rack and sitting in a seat pays more fare money than two empty seats ever will.”

“Caltrain’s parking lots are full, and the population in walking distance or willing to use Muni, SamTrans, and VTA has been tapped out,” he added. “The bike program is a winner.”

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Caltrain may have averted a disaster of year-long service cuts. The Caltrain Joint Powers Board voted 5-3 today to approve a budget plan that would retain all of the system’s service for the coming fiscal year, granted partnering agencies vote to increase their annual funding contributions.

Flickr photo: SP8254 - Catching Up

Board members and advocates praised the plan, which would spare riders from proposed station closures and minimal service limited to peak hours. Still, three board members took the unpopular vote to cut nearly half the trains, deriding the full-service plan as unrealistic and short-sighted.

“This is not a solution, this is a one-time spending plan,” said San Mateo County representative Omar Ahmad, who proposed a failed amendment that would’ve reduced service to 48 trains instead of the full 86. “Deferring preventative maintenance is not kicking the can down the road, it’s kicking it into the ditch…We didn’t dodge a bullet, we took this one straight in the chest.”

The budget plan keeps Caltrain afloat with increased funding contributions from member agencies as well as solutions like a 25-cent fare hike, a $1 increase in daily parking fees, $1.5 million from the maintenance budget, and a requested $3.5 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

San Francisco representatives Jose Cisneros and Sean Elsbernd voted for Ahmad’s amendment, which would’ve minimized funding contributions from the ailing local transit agencies. SFMTA Executive Director/CEO Nat Ford was not present, opting to attend the launch of SFPark at San Francisco City Hall.

“It’s a dream scenario,” said Elsbernd. “I can absolutely guarantee you, with the budget we’re about to adopt, we’ll be back here in January, February, declaring a fiscal emergency.”

Caltrain has declared fiscal emergencies for the last three years to fix its chronically ailing budget, but San Mateo representative Adrienne Tissier, the 86-train budget’s main proponent, remained optimistic about attaining long-term funding solutions.

“We’ve got the momentum,” said Tissier, who urged the adoption of a two-year plan to find permanent funding such as a voter-approved tax. “There’s not a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – at the end of two years, we could go off a cliff. But the outcry from the public is they’re willing to step in and help find long-term solutions.”

But there’s too much risk in relying on a two-thirds vote to approve a tax measure, said Ahmad. “Getting a [dedicated] revenue source is going to be an extremely heavy lift. If that doesn’t happen, is the expectation that Caltrain will take several more months, wring its hands, and dance for rain?”

“I don’t think we can do that.”

Photo: Eric Gneckow, Los Gatos Patch

Has the governing board of Caltrain helped lead riders into the current storm of budget deficits?

As the Mercury News reported today, Caltrain’s Joint Powers Board (JPB) has for several years seemed to make its decisions in a passive manner, approving the last three years’ worth of agenda items without any deliberation. Despite the apparent pitfalls of relying on an unstable funding stream, members have yet to be seen actively pursuing other dedicated sources of revenue.

The board’s charter agreement [pdf] doesn’t actually obligate them to do so. The board, comprised of top representatives from SamTrans, the SFMTA, and the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), exists essentially to negotiate their own financial contributions, renew contracts, apply for grants, and approve changes like service cuts.

This policy is different from those at other Bay Area transit agencies like the SFMTA, which is mandated by San Francisco’s City Charter to “diligently seek to develop new sources of funding.” Lis Kniss, a new Caltrain director who also sits on the VTA board, told the Mercury News she hopes to emulate the more deliberative nature seen in the Santa Clara agency’s board meetings.

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Flickr photo: Lucius Kwok

Communities from San Francisco to San Jose may be saved from much of the expected crippling Caltrain service cuts. A new Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) plan being developed could make up much of the agency’s budget deficit for the next two years, said MTC Public Information Officer John Goodwin.

A large chunk of the coming fiscal year’s $30 million budget deficit could be balanced using short-term funding sources like fare and parking fee increases, employee contributions, diverted capital funds, and collected money owed by other transit agencies, MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger told members at Wednesday’s Planning and Allocations Committee meeting. That could allow Caltrain to lessen the impacts of its expected budget cuts which would slash all but rush-hour train service and shut down up to seven stations.

“It’s late in the game, but the game isn’t over,” said Goodwin. Riders will still likely see “a reduction of service of some sort, but much less draconian than the proposal that has been the subject of public hearings in recent weeks,” he said. Approval of heavy cuts by the Caltrain Board next month seemed imminent without an alternative plan, but just what service would be retained by the new proposals is yet to be determined.

New hope for staving off the funding crisis means the Caltrain Board of Directors may postpone their vote until May. Goodwin said service reductions would still help make up about $10 million in the plan along with fare and parking fee increases as well as efficiency savings from an expiring contract with Amtrak. Capital funds reserved for system projects, including those for electrification and $5.5 million for the Dumbarton Rail project, are also being eyed for operational savings.

A fix for this fiscal year would allow time for the MTC, SFMTA, Valley Transit Authority (VTA), and SamTrans to broker a two-year plan to pursue long-term funding sources to fix the agency’s structurally unstable budget. Payments made to SamTrans on loans to the VTA and SFMTA, amounting to $8.9 million according to the Examiner, could be a part of that.

The agencies would also have time to pursue more permanent measures urged by riders, city officials, and other Bay Area organizations such as a regional gas tax, which could be seen on the November 2012 ballot.

A speaker testifies at today's Caltrain Board of Directors meeting. Photo: Aaron Bialick

The Caltrain Board of Directors declared a fiscal emergency for the third year in a row today as a step toward enacting severe service cuts to help close a $30 million deficit. At the meeting, dozens of speakers representing Peninsula families, city agencies and organizations plead with the board not to close stations next month.

“For the last ten years, Caltrain has either relied on one-time emergency funding or declared a fiscal emergency,” said Shirley Johnson of the Caltrain Bikes ONBoard project of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. She criticized the board for relying “year after year” on a fiscal emergency, which grants them the ability to quickly execute service cuts without environmental review. “It’s wrong,” she said.

If the proposed cuts are approved, service on the system would be reduced to peak-hour trains only, which agency staff says carry 80 percent of its ridership. However, the suspension of service at up to 16 stations along the corridor was heavily criticized as an ineffective means to save operational costs.

“The $30 million deficit has been created by our county governments decommitting from the funding necessary to offset these costs,” said daily rider Tom Gormond. ”The actions being proposed… will do nothing in terms of reducing the primary problem of all commuter railroads – the high amount of fixed costs that are required to provide service.  In fact, they will have the opposite effect by reducing ridership and increasing the need for greater amounts of government support.”

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Up to 16 stations would no longer see Caltrain service under the latest proposal. Image: Caltrain

The Caltrain Board of Directors has decided to hold a series of public hearings and community meetings before voting on a declaration of fiscal emergency and approving dramatic cuts that would slash service and potentially close up to 16 stations.

“Hopefully, we will be able to come up with additional funding sources before we are forced to implement drastic service changes,” Caltrain Executive Director Michael Scanlon said in a statement.

If approved, the cuts would become effective July 2 and include a reduction in weekday service from 86 to 48 peak-hour trains along with eliminating midday, evening, and weekend service altogether, according to Caltrain spokesperson Christine Dunn. The board is also considering a 25-cent base fare hike.

Under the latest proposal, the six stations south of San Jose Diridon Station would no longer see Caltrain service and up to seven of the ten following stations could be closed: Bayshore, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Burlingame, Hayward Park, Belmont, San Antonio, Lawrence, Santa Clara, and College Park. Combined with three weekend-only stops, closures could affect a total of 16, or half of the system’s 32 stations.

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Photo: smif

There was a groundswell of support to save Caltrain at the Friends of Caltrain Summit Saturday, an event that brought a standing room only crowd to the auditorium at the SamTrans building in San Carlos. Friends of Caltrain is a grassroots effort attempting to stop Caltrain from cutting evening, midday, weekend, and Gilroy service.

The summit was an early step in a long process to keep Caltrain financially viable. Long-term funding for the railroad may take years to secure, but in the short term, Friends of Caltrain is urging people to take action by writing their representatives to prevent drastic cuts in Caltrain service. 

Yoriko Kishomoto, former mayor of Palo Alto, kicked off the summit by outlining the dire financial state of Caltrain. Caltrain is facing a $30 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2012. To close that gap, Caltrain will need to reduce its service from 86 trains per day to 48 trains per day, shrinking the operation to commute periods only. Even with only 48 weekday trains, Caltrain still projects a budget deficit of $4.7 million, but the agency thinks it can find that money somehow.

The Friends of Caltrain organizers emphasized that service cuts are not a done deal. Time is very short, but the attention that is being brought to bear on the issue may have an impact on monies that could be used to shore up the railroad, at least in the short term.

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