Caltrain

Caltrain has dropped an idea to make bicyclists pay a $1 surcharge to help solve its budget deficit. In an email this afternoon, Mark Simon, the special assistant to the Caltrain CEO, wrote "a bicycle surcharge will not be part of the budget proposals for the coming fiscal year." He also updated efforts to create more bicycle capacity on the system:

It's bad enough Caltrain already has an image of being unfriendly to bicyclists, despite its efforts to prevent bumps on the system by boosting bicycle capacity on its trains, now comes this word: Staff is toying with the idea of making bicyclists pay a $1 surcharge that would raise an estimated $800,000.

Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday announced one of his most ambitious plans for re-shaping San Francisco, telling reporters at a press conference with Caltrans Director Will Kemption and Caltrain Director Michael Scanlan that the city would move forward with plans to tear down sections of I-280 through San Francisco.  

It's been one month since the Caltrain Board of Directors approved a plan to increase bicycle capacity on its trains, a move advocates welcomed but felt didn't go far enough because it won't entirely prevent bicyclists from getting bumped.

Though David Brooks might argue in his New York Times column that Americans want to live in small towns and suburban dreamscapes, the fact is more and more of us live in metropolitan areas, and discussions about what we want should have to do more with the context of those metropolitan areas.  Brooks should be looking at the quality of the public spaces where people live, and the walkability and ease of transit in those neighborhoods.

Transportation and social justice advocates packed the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) board meeting today to demand that the agency not spend a proposed $70 million of federal stimulus money on the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project.  MTC commissioners heard testimony for over two hours from some of the more than one hundred members of the public who were mostly opposed to the OAC, claiming it would take money from the operations of AC Transit and other transit operators. 

Transit advocates around the state are trying to grapple with the new reality that the budget compromise worked out between Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature completely abolishes the State Transit Assistance (STA) and the $536 million that it dedicated to subsidizing transit operations.

Caltrain claims it "values bicycle commuters." In its goals and objectives the agency says "Caltrain must be a competitive alternative to traveling by automobile." That goal will be tested tomorrow when the agency presents its final plan to increase bicycle capacity on Caltrain to the Board of Directors. Advocates are frustrated it isn't being made public before it's presented and voted on.