Today’s Headlines

  • More on the Civil Grand Jury Report Blasting Muni’s Switchbacks (KTVU, City Insider, SF Examiner)
  • As if the Twitter Bus Wasn’t Empty Enough, It Will Soon Compete With a Private Shuttle (SFGate)
  • Biking in SF a Daredevil Activity? Only if You Make It, Say Two Middle-Aged Ladies
  • Alta Bike Share’s Troubles in Chicago, NYC Continue (Chicago Sun Times)
  • Bay Area’s Poor Road Conditions Often Contribute to Deadly Crashes (GJEL)
  • Judge Denies North Beach Residents’ Bid to Halt Central Subway Construction (City Insider)
  • Saturday Talk in Menlo Park: How Caltrain Transformed the Peninsula (Almanac)
  • Seizuring San Bruno Driver Who Killed Two in Crash Charged With Murder (SF Examiner)
  • 8 Washington Opponents Seek to Delay Vote by State Lands Commission (SF Examiner)
  • Mercury News Editors: San Jose Needs a Bike Lane Network “to Get From Here to There”

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • Guest

    The fact that the tenant gotr the landlord to pay for the shuttle says it all. No point relying on Muni to get your employees ANYWHERE on time.   Shameful.

  • mikesonn

    Just wait for the “Chinatown Subway off to slow start” stories coming in 2019*

    *hopefully!!

  • Re: Twitterbus, we need direct bike link to Market from Caltrain/4th&King — none of this “one block over” drama.

  • ???

    If you are going to Twitter, it doesn’t really matter if you do down 4th or 5th to Market… The only person who needs 4th to go to Market is someone who needs to to to 4th and Market.

  • it does actually matter.

    first, if you are going to Market and ‘something’, you probably want to get to Market first — it’s probably the main thoroughfare of/at/near your destination.

    Market is also where all the action is – it’s interesting to be there — people want to be there. And there are tons of things to see/do there — there are destinations there — lots of them.

    Nobody wants to schlep across some side street, first. and they sure as heck don’t want to be forced to schlep in only one direction — which limits your mobility/efficiency, especially if there is some place on the way to work along 4th/Market that you actually want to get to — you know, it’s probably that place that you see on your way _back_ to Caltrain in the evening.

    Sometimes people want variety — control one thing in their lives — but transportation planners had other ideas. “Should i go this way or that way? Well, I’m on bike/bus/etc., so I guess I’ll go this weird way. What genius designed this one-way street stuff again?”
    we need direct access, and that means we need to be able to salmon up 4th — walking, biking, busing, training, driving, pedicabbing, skating, scooting, shuffling, etc.

  • (Assuming no one-way streets; Assuming equal safety) I’d choose which street to ride based on whether I wanted to end up heading inbound or outbound on Market.  If the building is on the southside, I’d prefer to be heading inbound when I got there.
    But you’re obviously looking for something bigger.

  • Anonymous

     Really? This is more than a tad hyperbolic in my experience. I generally can plan trips using 511.org route planning and make it to my destination on time the overwhelming majority of the time. During the rainy season, I rely almost exclusively on MUNI. MUNI is not anywhere near perfect, but, this type of critique is so patently false as to undercut reasonable arguments for what needs to improve.

    That the tenant pushed for a shuttle more likely meant either their HR department wanted a recruiting bullet point that matched all the other tech companies with their shuttle services (Google, Yahoo, Genentech, etc.); or to assuage the fears of their more timid, suburban peninsula dwelling staff of interactions with some of the more colorful characters, such as the fellow lying in the street with his pants around his ankles as I rode past yesterday, on Market Street.

    As the article stated, the city pursued this line without consultation with Shorenstein. That SFMTA and the tenants and landlords of an area the city has been working to revitalize, for years now, are not in conversation regularly seems more the distinct failure here.

  • Anonymous

    If you’re a commuter, you figure out your route and memorize it. So no, it doesn’t matter which combination of roads you take to get to your office providing there is a safe route that is reasonably direct.

    If I was cycling from Caltrain to Twitter I would take Townsend/Division/11th/Market in the morning, and Market/8th/Townsend in the evening. Bike lanes all the way both ways and you never have to cross Market or turn left onto Market. The inbound route could be shortened by about 200 meters if there were bike lanes on 9th.

  • the route to Twitter could also be shortened by making 10th two-way again.
    http://goo.gl/maps/Mh4Bv

    Roy’s opinion makes sense, of course, adding that ‘bike lanes’ and ‘directness’ are but two of many variables people consider when traveling by bike.

    i don’t think there’s any real disagreement here, unless anyone here believes that bikes should not now or ever be allowed to travel directly from 4th/King Caltrain to Market along 4th.

    other than that, it’s pretty awesome that the rich kids are getting public and private monies thrown at them while everyone else is having service cut. and the rich kids didn’t get just regular bus service — they got an express line. that’s some serious swagger. maybe next Caltrans will lobby for extending the 280 right to the Twitter doorstep. or maybe we can get a helipad installed on the roof.

  • Abe

    Which 280? Oh THE 280