BART

From nine to nearly noon today, at BART headquarters in Oakland, the agency's Board of Directors and staff had an impassioned discussion about raising fares and parking fees to close projected budget deficits. "Across the country, ridership is down, from four to five percent for rail, and ten percent for buses," explained Grace Crunican, BART's General Manager. "Gas prices are very low and ride shares may be having our lunch."

Uber, Waymo and others are in the process of developing driverless car technology, while transit systems in the Bay Area continue to rely on one operator in the front of every single train.

Want people to walk, bike and use transit? Then it's got to feel safe.

Yesterday evening, at the San Francisco Transit Rider's new digs on Folsom Street in downtown, Sara Barz of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Arielle Fleisher, with the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), gave presentations about the move to replace the Clipper fare-collection system with a new generation of technology and opportunities to create a more rational fare system for the 27 transit operators across the Bay Area. Some 30 people attended.

BART's recently adopted Station Access Policy states that even at “auto-dependent” stations like Dublin, parking should only be considered only after investments are made in walking, biking, and transit infrastructure.

Lateefah Simon was one of three new BART directors elected earlier this month. She will take over District 7 from outgoing director Zakhary Mallett. District 7 is unique in that it encompasses portions of San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa. That means balancing the requirements of the outlying suburban areas with those of West Oakland and dense parts of San Francisco.

Tom Radulovich, as most Streetsblog readers probably know, is retiring from BART at the end of the year. He was first elected to the BART Board of Directors in November 1996, to represent the 9th District, which includes portions of San Francisco. He serves on the board's Personnel Review Special Committee and on the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Board.

This afternoon, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), hosted a post-election analysis of local races and measures with political consultants David Latterman of Fall Line Analytics and Alex Clemens of Lighthouse Public Affairs.

Press, advocates and politician gathered at 8:30 this morning in front of Oakland City Hall for a final push for the $3.5 billion BART bond, Measure RR. As Streetsblog readers will recall, the bond is intended to rebuild and upgrade BART's aged infrastructure, focusing on the exiting tracks, trains, tunnels, signals and electrical systems.