Year: 2009

The purpose of the Central Subway Community Advisory Group is to provide community input and feedback at key milestones throughout the project. The CAG consists of representatives from neighborhoods along the entire Third Street Light Rail Project alignment: Visitation Valley, Bayview Hunter’s Point, Mission Bay/Potrero Hill, South of Market, Downtown, Union Square and Chinatown. The diverse membership represents citywide, neighborhood, environmental, transportation, commuter, historical and planning interests.

Democratic lawmakers are discussing the possibility of a one-year stopgap transportation bill but have yet to reach consensus on how to pay for the measure, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) said today.

The MTA parking meter extension study, and the recommendations to extend meters past 6 pm on weekdays and all day Sundays, which Mayor Gavin Newsom strongly opposes, is being circulated to business groups and community stakeholders throughout the city, though the pace of setting up meetings is underwhelming and MTA staff have no schedule for bringing the matter before its Board of Directors anytime in the near future, raising the prospect that the agency will have to balance its significant mid-year budget deficit on the backs of its riders, again.

Today on the Streetsblog Network, member blog UrbanCincy notes with deserved pride that Cincinnati was ranked the seventh-safest large city for pedestrians in the nation in Transportation for America's "Dangerous by Design" study.

SFCTA Report on Private Shuttle Services Due Thursday (SF Examiner) Tenderloin Stabbing Suspect is Not Man who Stabbed Boy on Muni Bus (SFGate) SamTrans to Lay Off 37 Bus Drivers After Cutting Operating Schedule (Merc) Marin Transit Board Approves Bus Service Cuts (Marin IJ) Daniel Borenstein: “BART board must stop micromanaging” (Oak Tribune) CA High-Speed … Continued

The Bay Area's major transit agencies are reacting with caution to news that the Obama administration will propose a federal takeover of subway and light-rail system safety regulation. Though administration officials have not yet released the proposal, Muni and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail systems, as well as all BART operations, would likely be included in a new oversight system.

The Obama administration's proposal for a new federal role in transit safety oversight would eventually apply to buses, although the first round of rules would be directed at subways and light rail, according to the U.S. DOT.

When it comes to infrastructure improvements that encourage more people to walk or bicycle to transit stations, how long will commuters be willing to travel? The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has officially answered that question, proposing a significant expansion of the rules governing how close bike-ped projects should be to transit in order to receive government funding.

The MTA Board will vote tomorrow on whether to sell a bus turnaround near Balboa Park station to make room for an 80-unit affordable housing and retail mixed-use development and new open space. The Balboa Park Station Area Plan, which was completed earlier this year and aims to promote transit-oriented development and improved pedestrians conditions in the neighborhood, identified the Phelan Bus Loop at Ocean Avenue between Lee and Harold Avenues as a prime spot for redevelopment.