Matthew Roth

Bay Bridge Construction Timeline Moved Up a Few Months (SF Gate, CBS) Parking Citations Dipped Before Prop B Vote, Cops Feared Angering Voters (SF Examiner) Uncertainty Whether Caltrain Fatality in San Mateo a Suicide (Oak Trib, CBS) MTC Tightens Security Controls on FastTrak (SF Examiner) SFO Commission Says Short Run Cab Incentive Unsafe (CBS) CA … Continued

There is a strange world where up is down, in is out, right is wrong, and black is white. I'm not just talking about the San Francisco Planning Department's indefensible trip-generation analysis for new parking spaces.

Balance bikes are getting ever more popular and from most accounts they are an excellent way to help kids learn to be comfortable and get them riding bikes faster than with training wheels. So when we got a press release recently announcing a promotional gimmick between a company called Balance Bikes 4 Tots and Picturoo.com that paired balance bikes with licenses aimed at kids 1-5 years old, you could forgive me for blanching.

Chronicle Editorial Board Comes Out Swinging For High Speed Rail SFMTA Board Vote Kills Fix for Broken Meter Scam (SF Examiner) Matier and Ross Note HSR Connectivity Money for Central Subway Won’t Connect Projects SF Weekly Complains About BART Ad it Doesn’t Understand Complaining About Protected Bike Lanes, Willie Brown Endorses Bike-Only Streets (SF Gate) … Continued

You'd think the Tea Party had descended on San Mateo County, what with the piqued rhetoric in the media over San Francisco's congestion pricing study. I don't like to invoke Sarah Palin's jargon, but I keep coming back to her horrible phrase "lamestream media" when I see yet another story that paints San Francisco transportation planners as greedy car-hating vampires and gets the facts on the pricing study so terribly wrong.

In its annual Smart Growth awards ceremony, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded San Francisco's Mint Plaza with its "Civic Spaces" prize, honoring the City and County of San Francisco, as well as developers and architects that transformed the former Jesse Street alley into a busy public realm. The award was announced yesterday in Washington DC, in coordination with the EPAs 40th anniversary festivities, where San Francisco joined New York City and Portland among others receiving commendations.

In the spirit of the holidays, BART will be handing out 120,000 free tickets to commuters tomorrow morning from 6 am to 9 am, what BART calls "an early holiday gift." Each ticket will be valid for one ride anywhere in the system during the next three weekends, December 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th, 18th and 19th. BART will give pairs of free tickets to 60,000 commuters at the Downtown Berkeley, 12th St./Oakland City Center, Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell and Civic Center stations, while supplies last.

According to the new San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency 2010 Transportation Fact Sheet, the number of car-free households increased. Last year [pdf], data show that 29.8 percent of households had no car, a number than climbed to 30.3 percent this year [pdf]. Oddly, it seems the shift came mostly from households with one car, as some migrated to car-lessness, while others increased the numbers of cars in their households. In real numbers, there was only a slight uptick in households with no cars, or nearly 2,000. About 1,000 more households had two cars or more, while 4,000 more had at least three cars.

Chinatown's crowded sidewalks, unsafe crosswalks and poor pedestrian signage are not likely to be among the endearing physical characteristic featured in any tourist brochure. Yet in a recent study -- the San Francisco Chinatown Pedestrian Safety Needs Assessment [pdf] and Safety Plan [pdf] conducted by the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) -- those issues were identified as several of the highest priority concerns for tenants, merchants and visitors to the popular area.

I often write stories for Streetsblog as objectively as I can, but after talking with the SFMTA about their pedestrian safety report, I got a little too upset to write dispassionately. Therefore, I'll call this a "commentary" and you can take it for what it's worth.