Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Free Muni: Scott Wiener Votes for the Free Rides He Opposes

Free Muni: Scott Wiener Was Against It Before He Voted for It -- and He's Still Against It

The plan to provide low-income kids with free Muni rides was dealt a possible death blow yesterday, when the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission declined to put up the necessary millions. Commissioners hailing from out of town were not enthused with the idea of ponying up $4 million to b ... More >>

Fare Hack: Exploiting a Clipper Card Flaw Is Easy

Caltrain's Draconian Clipper Enforcement Leaves Riders Stranded

Local Environmentalists Sue U.S. Government for "Failing to Protect" Manzanita Plant

A gem of a discovery ​The saga over the effort to protect the rare and precious Franciscan Manzanita plant escalated on Tuesday when the San Francisco Wild Equity Institute filed a lawsuit against U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The group claims his agency failed miserably in protecting the p ... More >>

Scott Wiener Stars in Muni Accident Video

A little while back, a prize was offered to anyone who could snap a photo of erstwhile Mayor Gavin Newsom on Muni. No winner ever stepped forward. A contest to catch Supervisor Scott Wiener on public conveyances would be short-lived, however. If a guy bangs his head on the roof of the train -- odds ... More >>

San Francycle: Crazy Chronicle and Crazy Bikesharing

​Oh my stars, what a crazy week for bicycles. Crazy good and crazy bad. Let's start with the bad first, because we predict that complaining will be HOT HOT HOT in 2011! A comedy magazine called The San Francisco Chronicle wrote a diary entry this week about bikes that is just absolutely bonke ... More >>

San Francisco's Year in Biking

Cyclists finally get a portion of their due.​Injunction Eased! Ridership Up! Is Tipping Point Near?On Aug. 6, 2010, a San Francisco judge lifted a ridiculous five-year court injunction that had prevented the city from making improvements to facilitate bicycle traffic. Soon thereafter, the city got ... More >>

How Can San Francisco Spend $829K on Two Kiosks? Here's How.

SFMTAIt's nice. But is it $415,000 worth of nice?​The other day, Muni announced it would build a pair of avant-garde new kiosks to hawk Clipper cards and transit passes. Almost as an afterthought, the price of these two booths was mentioned late in news articles: $829,000. For those of you who nev ... More >>

San Francycle: How SF's Impending Bikeshare Will Work

​Bikesharing: crazy, right? The expense, the hills, the repairs, the theft -- it seems like it would never, in a million years, work. Except it does, in plenty of cities from Montreal to Budapest to Washington, D.C. And it's getting a little embarrassing that San Francisco isn't one of them. ... More >>

Would Gas Have to Cost $9 a Gallon to Meet Emission Goals?

Fill 'er up -- for $135!​Those of us not named Rush Limbaugh know that in order to prevent the world from devolving into a giant Mad Max set, we've got to drive less. So as California's politicians and environmental regulators set ambitious emission reduction targets to combat global warming, the ... More >>

Oakland Airport Connector Project Wins Funding

BARTHere it comes, whether you like it or not...​The Oakland Airport Connector project is not unlike a zombie -- it's terrible and it stinks, but you just can't kill it. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission today approved applying $20 million in state funds toward the projected $484 million ... More >>

Phone Sex Line Greets FasTrak Callers

FasTrack? No, let's take it slow...​If someone asks you what you're wearing when you phone up FasTrak with queries about your bill -- there's a good reason for that. In perhaps the most fantastically entertaining transit-related story not involving blow-up dolls being used as carpool commuters, lo ... More >>

Franciscan Manzanita, Once Thought Extinct, On Way to Becoming 'Endangered'

© California Academy of SciencesThe Franciscan Manzanita: Once 'extinct,' now 'endangered'? ​Usually, a species has to be endangered before it goes extinct. Not the Franciscan Manzanita. It went extinct -- and now it may become endangered. Readers may recall the discovery last year of a Francisca ... More >>

Bay Bridge Plan to Prevent Cracks Smart -- But Expensive

A cracked eyebar -- and botched repair -- shut down the Bay Bridge last year​One of the Bay Area's foremost experts on bridges tells SF Weekly that the plan to stave off cracks on the eastern span of the Bay Bridge is both smart and prudent -- but he has nothing to say about its million-dollar pri ... More >>

Muni Finds Way To Halve Service Cuts -- Even Without Union Concessions

​The plan to soften the blow of Muni's 10-percent service cuts -- that last month appeared as hopeless as catching a timely late night bus after the drivers' union spurned give-backs -- has apparently been resurrected. In a deal brokered by the mayor's office with the San Francisco Municipal Trans ... More >>

Your TransLink Card is Today a Collectible

MTCOld​Today is the day when the Metropolitan Transportation Commission gets its $2.63 million worth. Today is the day when TransLink becomes a man the Clipper card, a rebranding meant to invoke the speed and grace of the tall-masted clipper ships, not beleaguered and broken-down public transporta ... More >>

City Didn't Pick Up Tab For Moving Rare Franciscan Manzanita

© California Academy of ScienceAin't our money...​Earlier this week, the Chronicle reported that the city paid the princely sum of $175,000 to transport the only known wild specimen of the Franciscan Manzanita out of the Doyle Drive highway project's path and to an undisclosed location. Yesterday ... More >>

Did Moving Rare Franciscan Manzanita Actually Cost City Any Money?

© California Academy of SciencesWho picked up the check? ​Yesterday we noted that the $175,000 cost cited by the Chronicle for moving the only known wild Franciscan Manzanita out of the path of the Doyle Drive highway project was more than twice the price tag we were told in January. Our numerous ... More >>

Muni Fail

Federal scrutiny could threaten funding for the Central Subway boondoggle.

Feds Imperil Central Subway Funding, Demand Proof it's No Boondoggle

Jim HerdWoosh -- gone?​Mayor Gavin Newsom and his public transit chief Nat Ford had the chance to hold an elaborate groundbreaking earlier this month for the $1.6 billion Central Subway light rail project. But a letter from a  top federal transportation bureaucrat suggests the festivities may ... More >>

BART Board Member Describes BART as 'Pyramid Scheme'

...Step three: Profit!​Like many transit advocates SF Weekly contacted this week, BART board member Tom Radulovich was relieved that the feds yanked $70 million from the controversial Oakland Airport Connector project, with the funds instead heading to Muni, BART and the Bay Area's other cash-stra ... More >>

Transit Advocates Rejoice as $70M Shunted From Airport Connector to Muni, BART, Others

Celebrate good times -- BART and Muni won the lottery!​Public transit advocates are all but dancing in the aisles of public transit following a ruling that yanked $70 million in federal funding away from the controversial Oakland Airport Connector and led to moribund local transit agencies being s ... More >>

Board Members Predict Even Feds' Threats Can't Derail Oakland Airport Connector

​What will it take to derail BART's half-billion dillar planned extension to Oakland Airport? How about the price quadrupling while the anticipated ridership dropped by two-thirds? Nope. How about the predicted commute time actually being slower than the existing shuttle system? Nope. Well, how ab ... More >>

Oakland Airport Connector Lives to Be Controversial For Another Day

​The regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission moments ago voted to stay the course, applying $70 million in endangered federal funds not to the Bay Area's moribund transit agencies but a controversial, half-billion dollar proposed BART extension to Oakland Airport. "Closer than I thought, b ... More >>

Civil Rights, Transit Advocates Urge BART to Abandon Half-Billion Dollar Airport Connector

The community groups whose advocacy led to the federal government threatening to withhold $70 million from a planned BART connector to Oakland Airport moments ago made their case that the project is a costly boondoggle that does nothing for the poor and minority communities living near the airport ... More >>

Obama's stimulus money will increase traffic, but not bridge safety

They Takin' My Mini-Plaza! Bay Bridge Authorities Really Planning Big Changes.

The Bay Bridge is ready to undergo 'them changes'​So, by now you know that engineers are planning to give the Bay Bridge a makeover between Thursday and Tuesday, namely instituting an "S-curve" approaching the tunnel. The "Speed Limit 40" signs are already up, albeit with rags covering them until ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Mandatory Composting Gets Some New Sponsors. Which Bin Do We Put 'Futility' In?

I hope you'll forgive me if I keep this week's Gov InAction curt: I told WAY too many David Chiu jokes over the weekend, and now I'm worn out. I've got to remember to pace myself. However, in case you're wondering, here's how many David Chius it takes to change a light bulb: • None: Aaro ... More >>

Transit Spotting

A transportation activist points to inefficient and costly projects like the Central Subway.

Bridge tolls will add stress to casual carpool

SF Gov InAction: San Francisco Holds Its Breath for Budget Magic While Supes Correct Basic Math Errors

Sorry this is late, folks -- all of a sudden I came down with a mean cough that just won't quit. I blame Neo-conservatives. Monday, Jan 26 10 a.m. - Public Safety Committee I have a confession to make. Today's hearing of the Public Safety Committee will be a little sad for me. Oh sure, I ... More >>

Shaky bond insurers cost taxpayers money

You're Not There

Spinning Our Wheels

The summer has brought a bevy of frustrations, delays, and smoggy afternoons to Bay Area drivers. Do you manage to look the other way?

Clang, Clang, Clang Went the New Subway

The billion-dollar Central Subway transportation plan may collapse under its own expanding weight

Pig Government

The politics of pork has real victims. Just look at New Orleans, or commuters on the Bay Bridge.

A Bridge Too Far

Is it your fault that the seismic retrofit of the Bay Bridge will be years late, billions over budget, and uglier than ever? Maybe.

A Bridge Too Weak?

A UC Berkeley professor believes the unique new Bay Bridge design is fatally flawed

Unnatural Gas

"Environmentalists" make bad transit worse by insisting Muni buy alt-fuel buses

Letters to the Editor

Week of November 13, 2002

Life Is Change

Even a headstrong columnist can meet his match -- and have to move on

Cothran

Rewarding Failure

What's really wrong with Muni? For starters, one third of its employees don't show up to work, causing systemwide delays and costing the agency more that $20 million a year in overtime. First in a two-part special report

Dog Bites

Dog Bites