Transportation

Truce? BART Riders Starting to Warm Up to Cyclists on the Trains, Survey Shows

Commuters are not the most welcoming, friendly people around, so when they're willing to make room for you (and your bike) on the train, best you appreciate it. As BART slowly attempts to undo its strict rules against bikes on trains, the transit agency unveiled some new information that shows mor ... More >>

BART to Start Banning Peeing and Pooping Criminals From its Trains Today

Back in January, we warned you that BART would start coming down hard on those miscreants who think it's okay to pee, poop, and stab people on their way home. Four months should have given you plenty of time to potty train yourself. Let's just hope, because today, no more. BART is cutting the cord ... More >>

Here's Why You Should Love Having Bikes on BART

Heads up, BART riders: the cyclists are coming. Once again, BART has decided to temporarily drop its rush-hour bike blackouts and open its (often dysfunctional) doors to pedalers for the morning and evening crush. As seasoned BART riders already know, bikes of the ungainly, unfoldable variety are u ... More >>

BART to (Finally) Ban Peeing and Pooping Criminals From Riding its Trains

If you have had it with those miscreants who use BART trains as their own personal bar, you know the place where they drink, pee, and fight with strangers, well, there is some hope. BART informed its passengers that it will implement a new law that should finally give passengers a cleaner, safer, ... More >>

Beyond the BART Blackout

In full disclosure, let me be absolutely clear: I write this purely out of self-interest. Because sometime in the next few months, I'll be moving to Oakland. And in crossing the Bay, I will begrudgingly break from the ranks of the bike-to-work set and join the resourcefully bimodal commuters of the ... More >>

BART Idiot Hall of Fame Facebook Page Documents Badly Behaved Passengers

If you ever actually wanted to experience the demise of humanity, look no farther than the Bay Area's public transportation system, where you will find passengers who poop in their pants (and on the train seats, escalators, etc.), riders who dedicate that last seat for their luggage, and drunks who ... More >>

Here's How to Navigate the Transitpocalypse Coming This Weekend

San Francisco is expecting throngs of people to descend on the city this weekend, and when we say throngs, we mean tens of thousands of human beings milling around our compact city.While Mayor Ed Lee says there's no need to worry about traffic jams, we still think you have good reason to doubt him o ... More >>

Infested BART: Inspection Reports Reveal Serious Pest Problems

BART Turns 40 This Month -- And Looks Every Year of It

In this era, when modern humans can nip and tuck anything to make themselves look like ageless gods, it's hard to believe that anyone approaching 40 would choose to look so damn haggard. In case it slipped your mind, BART is having a birthday this month -- its 40th. If you find this news hard to bel ... More >>

BART Wants to Know If Bay Area Night Owls Would Use an After Hours Bus Service

Have you ever felt like Cinderella at the ball, or more like that drunk kid at the bar, bolting out of your shindig to make the last BART train home? Which always begs the question: Why doesn't BART run later if we don't want drunk people on the roads?Well, you can forget late-night trains for now, ... More >>

BART Says It's Cleaned Poop and Pee From Most Broken Escalators

It's been challenging to walk up and down the broken BART escalators as of late without thinking of how much poop and pee is caked inside the broken stairs. Fortunately, BART has been hard at work, cleaning up and fixing those public escalators that had become the dumping ground -- literally -- for ... More >>

BART to Give Away Free Rides on Dump the Pump Day

Park your car on Thursday because BART will be handing out free rides to commuters. And although we know that you're thinking this just has to be a PR ploy to make nice with passengers after last week's irritating commuting chaos -- it's not. BART's hoping to bribe some drivers this Thursday with a ... More >>

Muni: "Glad Bag Bus" Yanked Out of Service

Today's cover story is about Muni's broken vehicles and the broken system that leads mechanics to "fix" them with plastic bags, duct tape, and rubber bands. The rolling symbol of Muni's long-term neglect of maintenance needs is Coach No. 5427, which has been motoring through city streets since at le ... More >>

The Rock 'n' Sock Hop for Jonathan Toubin: Show Preview

American Airlines Flight Attendants Join Occupy SF Today

Today, the flight attendants would be serving coach first. ​With bongos sounding and dread-locked protesters fearing eviction from the Occupy SF encampment this morning, a group of well-coiffed adults in sharp uniforms converged at Justin Herman Plaza. Like the "Sesame Street" jingle, these p ... More >>

BART to Consider New Policy for Cutting Cellphone Service

This photo may have been taken and transmitted via cellphone ​Just as the weekly BART protests have become a faded memory, the transit agency released its  new proposed policy that would allow BART to temporarily cut cellphone service -- but only in extraordinary, 9/11-type scenarios.So if yo ... More >>

BART Protests: When Will They Stop?

That's one way to stop the protests​While protesters plan to gather again tonight and attempt to disrupt the evening commute (there's word they will be riding on the trains) -- BART is hoping new legislation wending its way through Sacramento will criminalize some protesters' actions. Tonight will ... More >>

An Open Letter to Anonymous ... From Anonymous

It's that guy again ​Dear Anonymous:We bow to your power and wisdom. You have the technical prowess to bring down the mighty. You are the true leaders of the world.You have been running a campaign against our public transportation system, BART, for weeks now, asking for some of its leaders to be f ... More >>

BART Protest Planned Tonight, But Don't Expect a Free Ride Home

This is what your commute will look like tonight ​BART protesters are prepping for another night of commuter grief, with plans to block the fare gates at the Powell Street station starting at 4:30 p.m.The goal is to get the transit agency to open the swing gates, which means commuters would be abl ... More >>

Anonymous Hacks BART Police Website, Releases Personal Information of 100 Officers

Anonymous​Update (2:50 p.m.): BART removed the police website that was hacked this morning, and issued the following statement:"We condemn this latest attack on the working men and women of BART. We are deeply concerned about the safety and security of our employees and their families. We stand be ... More >>

BART Jams Cell Phone Service to Shut Down Protests

No-speech zone?​This might just be a first in the annals of Bay Area transit agencies' political suppression (such as those annals are). BART has fessed up to jamming cell-phone signals yesterday at downtown stations in San Francisco in order to disrupt protests over the death of Charles Hill, who ... More >>

NAACP Calls U.S. Airways Racist for Kicking Man with Saggy Pants Off Plane

They must have toured by bus​U.S. Airways' decision to kick a football player wearing sagging pants off one of its planes in San Francisco is provoking the ire of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which says that the move was racist.Deshon Marman, a black college foot ... More >>

What Do You Want in a BART Seat?

You are supposed to sit, not shit on the seat​We didn't need The Bay Citizen's commissioned scientist to tell us that there is fecal matter and mold in the BART seats -- just look at them. After foolishly installing carpet and cloth seats some 40 years ago, BART is dropping $2 million to replace t ... More >>

BART Puts More Police On Trains

You want it, you got it ​Two years ago you more likely to see a BART cop on YouTube than you were to find them on a train. Even after scuffles between BART cops and passengers were caught on video and the emotionally-charged trial of Oscar Grant, riders still said they wanted to see more police on ... More >>

BART Eyes Later Hours

Will delightful behavior be taking place on BART at later hours? ​Any East or South Bay tippler who misses the last BART train is familiar with the drill: Pay heavily for a cab; attempt to navigate the transbay bus system; or find a Denny's to sleep and order coffee in until 4 a.m. That all may ch ... More >>

Muni's Forcing You to Get a Clipper Card. Get One Tomorrow For Free.

​With the curtailment of the paper Fast Pass the day after Halloween, Muni is prodding its frequent riders into the 21st century. They haven't yet perfected the George Jetson flying car that transforms into a briefcase -- but they have created Clipper, the expensively rebranded TransLink card that ... More >>

Willie Speights, 60, Killed Hobbling on Crutches Up 101 Off-Ramp

Jim HerdState Troopers on the scene yesterday following the death of Willie Speights ​Willie Speights, a 60-year-old San Franciscan, was the man on crutches who was struck and killed by an exiting car as he wandered onto a highway off-ramp near Cesar Chavez, according to the city's Medical Examine ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

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 >>

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 >>

Supe Hopes Audit of Muni Management Will Be Factor in Budget Battle

Jim Herd​With the Municipal Transportation Agency preparing to send hundreds of workers packing and MTA staff advocating for fare hikes and service cuts, Supervisor David Campos has a different idea. Earlier this week, he requested the city's budget analyst undertake a full audit of the city's tra ... More >>

Line Dance

All Town, No Gown

BART Union Approves Contract; Workers, Management Go Back To Talking Trash *Without* Specter of Crippling Strike

​The union for BART's drivers and station agents blamed the system's financial woes on George W. Bush and greedy management while the system pointed the finger at well-compensated, overtime-hoarding employees. And the riding public can offer a Mercutio-like pox on both their houses while dozing of ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

Bay Area Flush With Exciting Plans to Blow Money on Useless Transit Projects

The ongoing slow motion debacle that is San Francisco's Central Subway just got a little competition from across the Bay -- last night the BART board approved a $550 million version of the Disney monorail to connect the Coliseum station and airport. While we're outspending our East Bay neighbors by ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

BART Erases Graffiti About Oscar Grant's Killing

By Lauren SmileyIt seems riders' camera phones are BART's second worst nightmare these days. Second, of course, to Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop involved in the shooting death of Oscar Grant III on New Year's Day. BART officials bemoaned in the Chron that the footage captured by passengers of the ... More >>

Take the Rude Train

BART riders won't give up their seats for a pregnant woman.

Killer MUNI Ignored for Carbon Crusade

Critical Mass Today at 6 p.m. -- Hide Your Car!

BART’s ‘SCREEECH’ Problem: Dustin Diamond Must Be Stopped

Water World -- San Francisco Style

Big BART Brother

The transit system's bosses know when you're sleeping, know if you're awake ... or singing Christmas carols

Governor Newsom?

Not likely, given his lack of spine in opposing the initiative promoting more parking

Clang, Clang, Clang Went the New Subway

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

Come Fly With Us

Ogling airline collectibles with Kelly Kelly, and reintroducing cougars into S.F. parks

Runaway Train

Why is Muni in such a hurry to win approval for a blindingly complex, potentially risky, $1 billion plan to privatize the city's rail fleet?

Checchi's Checkered Record

Megamillionaire Al Checchi thinks he piloted Northwest Airlines so well that you should elect him governor. Actually, he sucked in public subsidies, strong-armed unions, reneged on promises -- and still almost flew the firm into the ground.