Today’s Headlines

Assemblymembers Propose Ban on Bike/Ped Tolls on GG Bridge (Biz, Examiner, SFGate, NBC, MIJ)
Chronicle Columnist John King Warns Annie Street Plaza Could Go Neglected Like Other City Plazas
Alta Bike Share’s Mia Birk: Bay Area “May Be First Out of the Gate” With Clipper Card Integration (HuffPo)
SPUR Explains How the Bay Area’s New Commuter Benefits Program Will Get People Out of Cars
Revived Plans for 35 Condos at Franklin and Page Include Parking for Bikes Instead of Cars (SocketSite)
Survey: Half of Uber Drivers Will Drive for App Less After Reports About Smearing Journalists (Forbes)
SF Weekly‘s Joe Eskenazi: Uber Doesn’t Get as Much Backlash Over Actions Like Surge Pricing
Two People Found Separately on Tracks at Berkeley and Embarcadero BART Stations (KTVU, ABC)
SF Examiner Provides a Detailed History on BART’s Oakland Airport Connector
Oakland Protesters Briefly Take Over I-980 on Second Night of Solidarity With Ferguson (SFGate)
Drunk Driver Who Killed Family in Daly City Car Crash Found Guilty of Murder (Daily Journal)
Mountain View May Study Caltrain Grade Separation at Downtown Transit Center (Peninsula)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

Mario Tanev

All-door boarding evaluation is ready:
http://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/agendaitems/2014/12-2-14%20Item%2014%20All-Door%20Boarding%20presentation.pdf
http://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/agendaitems/2014/12-2-14%20Item%2014%20All%20Door%20Boarding.pdf

Highlights:

– It has decreased boarding times by 38%, and cut the variability of boarding times by a similar amount. The latter makes an impact on reliability – it reduces bunching/gaps and makes it more likely to make it through a transit priority signal.
– It has increased Muni’s speed, despite overall increase in population, ridership and traffic. Previously, boarding accounted for a larger share of transit trip time, but now it’s mostly time between stops. What will help there is stop optimization, transit only lanes and transit priority.
– It has decreased fare evasion (because of more fare inspectors and because managing to board without paying is not sufficient to continue to ride free). This all despite the very minimal (relative to industry standards) fare enforcement unit. Those who said that fare evasion will go through the roof were and are absolutely wrong.

One thing they haven’t touched on is the impact on capacity. Muni is able to handle higher ridership with an ever decreasing fleet because riders don’t have to all cram at the front.

So a clear, albeit modest win for riders and the agency. It was pushed hard by SFTRU, which also has also pushed hard for BRT, Muni Forward and the recent funding measures. To the cynics, you can see that hard work and dedication, bit by bit can show results. Make sure to support the work of SFTRU by becoming a member at http://www.sftru.org/join.
jonobate

Also in that meeting packet is the T-Third Phase 3 study, exploring a possible extension to Fisherman’s Wharf:

http://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/agendaitems/2014/12-2-14%20Item%2015%20T-Third%20Phase%203%20presentation.pdf
http://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/agendaitems/2014/12-2-14%20Item%2015%20T-Third%20Phase%203%20Concept%20Study.pdf
murphstahoe

Le sigh.

all the drivers are speeding, so we will remedy this situation by increasing the speed limit.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3175923-181/cloverdale-set-to-increase-speed?page=1