Transit

Recently, Albuquerque has gotten a good look at the insanity that can grip people when confronted by the idea of reallocating street space from cars to transit. The city is planning to add center-running bus lanes along Central Avenue -- its main street -- and for months public meetings about the project featured people standing on chairs and shouting, actual fights, and the occasional police escort out of the building.

Earlier this week, the SFMTA sent out a release with a progress report on the "Red Lane" paint (actually, a thermoplastic adhesive) they are applying, clearly marking lanes for Muni Streetcars and buses (and taxis):

Supervisor John Avalos, backed by safe streets and transit advocates, and Supervisors David Campos and Jane Kim, made a push today to override Mayor Lee's veto of a proposed increase in the Transportation Sustainability Fee (TSF) on large commercial developments. But the override only got six votes rather than the eight required.

For years now, civil engineers have given America's aged infrastructure a "D" grade and warned that if we don't do something soon, it's simply going to fall apart.

There seem to be two points of view on San Francisco's frustrating housing situation: either the tech industry is to blame for increasing demand or it comes down to NIMBY homeowners hoarding housing stock and preventing new development. Or maybe it's some combination of the two?

Today's emergency 24-hour shutdown of the D.C. Metro system is a transit embarrassment of epic proportions. The shutdown follows an electrical fire in a subway tunnel Monday, and will allow for system-wide safety inspections. Metro has been under federal control following a smoke inhalation death caused by a similar problem last year.

As regular riders are aware, BART trains are quite old. Some have been running for more than 40 years, and date back to when the BART system first started operations in 1973. And although additional cars were purchased in the 1980s and 90s, the average age of a BART train is 30 years.

Over the weekend, San Francisco and six other finalists made it to the next round of the US Department of Transportation’s “Smart City Challenge” grant competition.

In a previous post, Streetsblog got caught up on the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) project. A week later Marin County transit fans got a treat, with the arrival of the first Diesel Multiple Unit train at the new San Rafael station. The public got to board the train and have a look around.