Passenger Transportation

Chopped Livery: Start-Ups Revolutionize the Cab Industry

Pilots Say Flying United Airlines Isn't That Safe

A flock of United Airlines pilots will stand post at the doors of San Francisco International Airport this weekend, but not to greet frequent flyers or to help you with your carry-on. They will be there to rail on the airlines, like every other frustrated flyer. Pilots have been in contract negoti ... More >>

S.F. Ferry Ticketers to Strike Today to Protest Automation

Matt SmithMr. Ferry Boat doesn't like to get angry.​UPDATE: Media outlets are reporting that the planned strike has been called off. Original story 7:25 a.m.:Ticket taking on the Golden Gate ferry system has been one of the last manual labor jobs kept safe from automation. But that may change with ... More >>

NYC's Metropolitian Transporation Authority Threatens Man Marketing S.F. Muni T-Shirts

Joseph Moore is K-onfused​ A few weeks back, San Francisco resident Joseph Moore got so fed up with Muni that he decided to express his disdain via custom-made clothing. The resultant T-shirts utilize various San Francisco Metropolitian Transportation Agency line names, which appear in black block ... More >>

Noe Valley and Mission residents say Google shuttles are evil

Muni Tax Shelter Deal Could Lead to More S.F. Rail Carnage

Jim HerdDid promised millions froma shady tax shelter deal blur Muni's judgment?​A month before investigators began to sift through train wreckage to determine the cause of last week's Muni light rail crash, officials examining deadly transit accident in Washington D.C. discovered a defect th ... More >>

In the Nick of Time: One Week After Horrific Muni Crash, Trial Lawyers' Convention Hits San Francisco

'A barrister, my dear sir, is a taxi plying for hire. That is the fine tradition of our trade.'If you've got some loose carpeting, creaky staircases, or, say, have been allegedly flouting safety rules to pad your public transit agency's on-time performance -- this would be a good time to tidy up.&nb ... More >>

Muni Union Head: Early Switch to Manual Power In Train Tunnel, Fingered for Weekend Crash, an 'Understood Practice' Among Drivers, Management

Jim HerdA pair of culprits have emerged as the potential causes for the weekend's nasty Muni crash at West Portal station: Sources within Muni have told the media that the veteran driver reported he blacked out -- which wouldn't have been a problem if the driver didn't shift his train from automatic ... More >>

Bicyclists Pack City Hall -- No Spandex in Sight

Anna McCarthyValet?Bike parking was scarce at a City Hall hearing this morning as bike advocates arrived downtown in droves donning helmets and fluorescent pink identification stickers reading, "Double the number of bike lanes." Although helmets, U-locks, and other bicycling accessories abounded, ma ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: These Are Not the Budget Numbers You're Looking For

The excitement stops here. I know ... I know ... that today's the day Gubernatorial Candidate Gavin Newsom releases his budget for San Francisco (a California city he occasionally resides in for campaign purposes). And I know that, when he does, we're all going to die a little. I know. But ... More >>

Terminus: Progressives Stymied as Supes Can't Muter Votes to Reject Muni Budget

Today's very special noontime Board of Supervisors meeting clocked in at an extremely svelte 50-odd minutes. But, as was always the case in the ongoing wrangle over the Municipal Transportation Agency's budget, you could have boiled the whole thing down to a momentary exercise: Clerk: What'ya think, ... More >>

Supes Punt MTA Budget Imbroglio To Special Meeting Next Wednesday

Oh, they're dragging this out...The ongoing rancor over the Municipal Transportation Agency's woeful budget has transformed into quite a cliff-hanger: First Board President David Chiu fired a shot across MTA and the mayor's bow by crafting legislation allowing the supes to scuttle the budget. Then, ... More >>

S.F. Inquiry Regarding Disability Placards May Miss the (Disabled) Elephant In the Room: It's Just Too Damn Easy To Get a Disability Placard

Who wants some?Supervisor Eric Mar was on the side of the angels yesterday when he convened a hearing looking into the Municipal Transportation Authority's enforcement of potential disability placard fraud; if Mar can help bring the legal hammer down on able-bodied folks who fraudulently represent t ... More >>

Bus-ted: David Chiu Triggers Supes-Mayor Showdown Over Muni Budget

Supervisor David Chiu gives Muni budget the whammy...Whatever David Chiu needs in life -- a faster bike, a more stylish helmet -- he doesn't require assertiveness training. The rookie supervisor and president of the board last month audaciously engineered a motion that would allow the supes to shoot ... More >>

Someone's Getting Thrown Under the Bus on MTA Budget Battle. Who Will It Be?

Perhaps this graffiti artist was displeased with Muni's budget as well...When Supervisor David Chiu last month placed an item in the Budget and Finance committee's Wednesday agenda rejecting the Municipal Transportation Authority's controversial budget, he wasn't doing it to merely test out the butt ... More >>

Transit Spotting

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

Hope, Change, and Parking

How support for a modest condo project should give us all hope for the city's future.

"19th Avenue: I Know, I Know, I Know." - Gavin Newsom's Message on Transit

By Benjamin Wachs I have to admit something before I begin: Gavin's ability to be boring is stronger than my ability to be funny. I'm slipping. I think I can hold the line for seven-and-a-half hours, but if he posts a sequel (perhaps "State of the City: Revolutions," or "State of the City: Attac ... More >>

The Clickable Clit: "Working in a Real Office Makes Cybersex Difficult"

Controversial police ticketing program gets makeover

Subway Daze

BART fears city subway project poses danger to busy downtown S.F. station.

Cost of Muni FastPasses Probably Won't Go Up

Killer MUNI Ignored for Carbon Crusade

Newsom’s Muni Budget Shell-Game Not New

MTA War Is Brewing on MLK Day as Archduke Gavin Newsom Inspects His Troops. It's ...

Sucky MUNI Probably As Good As It'll Get — an SF Weekly analysis

The Muni Paradox

A new ballot measure could change this absurd concept: less management for more money

MUNI To Run Faster, Cheaper and On-Time Under New Act

Who do you trust less to run your transit system? MUNI, or the City?

Baby you can drive my TAXI

Taxi Commission officials say hundreds of medallion holders aren’t driving cabs, and that’s against the law

Porkmistress Pelosi

Madam Speaker says she wants to tame pork-barrel spenders. Takes one to know one.

Missed Connection

The multiuse Transbay Terminal project may have shrunk into a really expensive bus station

Clang, Clang, Clang Went the New Subway

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

Best Scrolling View

Gridlock

Bill Lieberman, new planning director for the Municipal Transportation Agency, wades into the swamp of San Francisco transit politics

Subwaylaid

Why the new mayor should spend his political honeymoon taking the doggle out of a boondoggle known as the Central Subway

Gimme Shelters

After mortgaging our future in an orgy of budget-related borrowing, the Legislature hatches new orgiastic plans: sleazy tax shelters

Death, Maiming, Money, and Muni

The enormous costs -- human and financial -- of bad drivers and lax discipline at the San Francisco Municipal Railway

Unnatural Gas

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

Training Daze

In the absurdist musical The Transit Rider, public transportation becomes a metaphor for life

Letters to the Editor

Week of April 24, 2002

Visionary Thinking

The "X Plan," a draft of Muni's hopes for the future, offers a glimpse of transit utopia

Death and Taxis

Why can't Hattie Neelon get to a funeral? Well, have you ever tried to get a cab in S.F.?

Letters

Letters

Rewarding Failure

Streetcars that are too wide, long, and heavy (136 @ $3.5 million per). Bus engines that don't fit and are scrapped (20 @ $116,000 a pop). Manhole covers that take 10 engineers and three months to design (cost: $243,000). Muni's management has produced su

Take BART, Please

We make Henny Youngman answer hard questions about regional transit and his mother-in-law

The Grid

Letters

Willie's Wild Ride

The Transport Workers Union contract with Muni is up for renewal, and TWU boss Larry Martin says that anybody who wants to roll back the union's cush work rules, lucrative salary structure, and handsome trust fund is a "racist" and can go to hell. Meet t