Cities, Counties, and Countries

Facing a continuing surge of nearly 5,000 additional weekday passengers each year, Caltrain is looking into better bike parking to alleviate overcrowding on the trains while improving access to its stations. The agency was awarded a $150,000 state grant in early April to write a bicycle parking management plan that aims to prioritize the next phase of bike improvements at stations.

Bay Area Bike Share's ten-fold expansion announced last Thursday will vastly increase the usefulness of bike-share in SF, the East Bay, and San Jose at no cost to the public. Peninsula cities, however, won't be sharing in the bounty unless they chip in some of their own funds. Without public support, the 20 existing stations in Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Redwood City are in jeopardy of being relocated.

In 2014, I got the chance to visit Stockholm near the end of an incredibly hot summer. It's a charming and walkable place with a downtown buzzing with people. There's an easygoing rhythm to the city. After dark the pedestrian streets fill with both residents and tourists out for a walk, even after most stores and restaurants close.

Long-delayed efforts to restore train service on the Dumbarton Rail Corridor, which links the mid-Peninsula to the East Bay, could get a boost as Facebook looks to add housing and offices along the tracks in Menlo Park.

Add street safety to the list of benefits from congestion pricing. That’s the takeaway from a new “working paper” analyzing traffic crash rates in and around the London congestion charging zone by three economists associated with the Management School at Lancaster University.

The Sunnyvale City Council voted 4-3 last month to oppose dedicated bus lanes that could cut transit riders' trips nearly in half along the length of El Camino Real, making bus trips almost as quick as driving. More than one council member said the city shouldn't invest in transit because self-driving cars are going to make it irrelevant.

Redesigning El Camino Real to squeeze in more cars will cause more cars to squeeze into El Camino Real, warned the consultant working on a redesign of the street in downtown Menlo Park last week. But creating a safe street for people to get around without a car can actually cut traffic.

With the adoption of its Sustainable Streets Plan on Tuesday, San Mateo's City Council has embraced several major transportation policy reforms, including Vision Zero and reforming car-oriented street design and development practices.

Daly City’s City Council shot down a proposal last month to charge $40 a year for residential parking permits near the city's BART station. The permits, which give resident car owners privileged access to on-street parking, are currently free.