GJEL

San Francisco is quickly adding residents, but very few cars.

Bay Area Bike Share fans created some pretty dazzling images and videos to visualize the system's first six months of data, showing how this transportation system connects commuters' dots in SF and four other cities down the Peninsula. BABS' first birthday is approaching on August 29, and while the system isn't growing as fast as many would like, it has certainly matured into a normal part of downtown streets. The system has seen over 250,000 trips so far, most of them in SF.

City planners are shaping up plans for Ocean Avenue, following public workshops that will help develop a vision for both near-term and long-term improvements. The near-term plans, for the commercial stretch of Ocean west of Phelan Avenue and the City College campus, are far along in their development. Meanwhile, a long-term plan for the remainder of the avenue, stretching eastward to the Balboa Park BART Station, is still in its earlier stages.

The SFMTA plans to install a contra-flow transit lane for three blocks of Sansome Street near the Financial District, providing a faster and more direct route for Muni's 10-Townsend and 12-Folsom bus routes.

Muni still hasn't launched double loading of trains in its metro stations, a.k.a. "double berthing," but says it could finally happen in October -- a full year after the original launch date.

At its first community meeting, a proposed protected bikeway on the Embarcadero seemed popular with just about everyone, though accommodating port deliveries could pose a challenge for its design.

The Board of Supervisors voted 6-4 today to put on November's ballot a charter amendment that would increase the share of general funds devoted to transportation, based on population growth.

The SFMTA says it's impossible for stations on the coming Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit route to have one of the key recommended features of BRT: High platforms, at the same level as bus floors, that allow passengers to quickly step onto the bus. SFMTA planners say that complications with the design of Muni's buses mean there's no practical way to make high platforms work, at least without adding high costs associated with new equipment.

The purchase of Muni's next metro train fleet took a major step forward today as the SFMTA Board of Directors unanimously approved a manufacturing contract with Siemens.