Weekend Roundup: Transit Month, AC Transit Ghost Buses…
Here are three quick Streetsblog news nuggets to start your weekend.
Get pumped for transit month
Advocates are getting fired up for September, which is transit month. From the San Francisco Transit Riders:
We’re continuing our annual tradition of celebrating the buses, trains, operators, and riders that make the wonderful Bay Area transit system we all know and ride. Public transit is essential to thriving cities and the people who make those cities special. It is more important than ever before that we show our elected leaders how important transit is to our riders and that we need to continue funding it. Let’s prove that to them this Transit Month by getting out and taking transit!
Play “Bus Bingo,” enter the ride contest, or just enjoy a beery event with other transit nerds. Check out the full list of events here, some of which start in late August.
Let AC Transit know about your experiences with ghost buses
Advocate Bryan Culbertson has a thread on Bluesky documenting a disturbing trend at AC Transit. More and more buses are turning out to be “ghost buses,” meaning they appear on the schedule but just don’t show up, leaving riders waiting for inordinate amounts of time. “AC Transit riders are arriving for their scheduled bus and over 10,000 times a month the bus does not come!” he writes. “The Tempo bus, which is the East Bay’s premier BRT, is supposed to have a median wait of 5 mins. But riders are actually waiting on average for 13 mins for a bus, and 5% of the time there is a 53 minute wait, which means ZERO buses running on the entire line!”
It’s unclear what’s going on, but he urges AC Transit riders who are having these experiences to write to their AC Transit board representatives here.
Emeryville says ‘slow down’
Emeryville, that little city of 13,000 nestled between Oakland and Berkeley, is lowering speed limits. The city council approved the slower limits last April and started posting the new signs last week.
The new streets with updated speed limits include:
- 15 mph on portions of 45th St., 47th St./Steve Dain Dr., 59th St., 61st St., 62nd St., Doyle St., Overland Ave. and Stanford Ave.
- 20 mph on portions of 66th St., 67th St., Adeline St., Beaudry St., Halleck St., Hollis St., Peladeau St., Shellmound St. and Vallejo St.
- 25 mph on Powell St. from Emery Cove Yacht Harbor to Frontage Rd.
As many readers are aware, Emeryville has spent years calming streets and adding protected bike lanes and paths.
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