Matthew Roth

Climate change is a national security risk that will be exacerbated if Californians pass Proposition 23, the voter initiative on the ballot this November that would suspend California's AB 32 climate change law, say opponents of the measure, such as former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz.

The fatigue is palpable, but the battle over BART''s Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) is nowhere near its conclusion. That's the message coming out of yet another marathon hearing today at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the region's transportation planning body, over the merits of the airport connector, which I would argue has now become the second most controversial regional transit proposal behind the California High Speed Rail Peninsula alignment.

When a group of Bernal Heights and Glen Park neighbors began discussing the need for traffic calming last year on San Jose Avenue between Interstate 280 and Randall Street, a one mile segment known as the Bernal Cut, they had no idea it would take so long to get the attention of city and state traffic engineers. Many of the neighbors in the fledgling Bernal Glen Neighborhood Organization also didn't realize other residents on San Jose Avenue just to the north had been lobbying both the SFMTA and Caltrans for traffic calming along the length of the corridor from I-280 to Cesar Chavez since 1994, with mixed success.

The long-term impacts to transportation funding as a result of the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) civil rights compliance probe of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) won't be clear for some time, but the action by the federal administration has transportation policy circles buzzing. Experts in civil rights and regional planning policy couldn't point to another instance of a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) like the MTC being required to submit to similar scrutiny from the FTA, while social justice advocates felt vindicated for their longstanding contention of discrimination in transportation funding.

The incredible design and data teams at SimpleGeo and Stamen, known among other things for Polymaps and Cabspotting, recently teamed up to tackle a data set only the wonkiest of us could love: San Francisco's Pavement Condition Index. I assume Neal and Michael at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalitions's Good Roads pothole fixin' Superhero HQ have already checked this out and gushed over the results. 

Caltrain Passengers Voice Opinion on Cuts (KCBS) Appeal Filed Against City Place Mall on Market St. (Examiner, SocketSite) More on Lawsuit Against NE Embarcadero Study (SF Gate) Penguin Theme for this Weekend’s Sunday Streets (Examiner) SF’s Top Development Official, Michael Cohen, to Retire (Examiner) Supervisor Elsbernd Scoring Political Victories Against Unions (WSJ) Majority of Californians … Continued

Though San Francisco has been getting a lot of attention recently for its trial pedestrian plazas and "parklet" sidewalk extensions in former parking spaces, which has drawn interest from cities around the country and even spawned a copycat in New York City, the Big Apple has raised the bar considerably on improving pedestrian safety with the release this week of the NYCDOT's groundbreaking Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan.

On the same day San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced yet another intervention along central Market Street aimed at rejuvenating the beleaguered section between 5th and Van Ness, the Department of Public Works (DPW) announced it was convening a citizens advisory committee (CAC) to help steer the long-term vision for remaking the city's most iconic street.

The Federal Transit Administration has increased the likelihood the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area's regional transportation planning and funding body, will undergo a full civil rights investigation after it sent a letter last week [PDF] insisting the MTC turn over documents detailing its protocols for monitoring civil rights practices of the government agencies and private groups it gives federal money. Civil rights and transportation advocates are confident the MTC doesn't have those protocols in place and argue the FTA investigation will show a pattern of discriminatory funding of transportation projects in the Bay Area that dates back decades.