Transportation

Prepare to Pay More to Ride an Already Miserably Crowded BART Train

It seems that last year's record ridership on BART didn't do much for us passengers: Not only are the trains still unbearably crowded, but those additional bodies haven't staved off fare increases. BART informed the public that it's now proposing a 5.2 percent fare increase for 2014, raising the a ... More >>

Here's What BART Is Doing About Those Miserably Crowded Trains

This probably isn't news to you, but your BART ride to and fro is becoming increasingly uncomfortable. That's because too many of you are relying on BART to get around; the agency is reporting record ridership that just keeps growing, particularly during peak commute hours (7 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 ... More >>

BART Art: Agency Bypasses Locals in Renovation Plans

BART Riders Seem "Optimistic" About Bike Fridays

BART took its first stab at journalism today with this man-on-the-street report detailing how riders felt about today's first Bike Friday, where cyclists were allowed to bring bikes on board BART trains during rush hour. We know as BART riders there's a lot of mixed feelings about whether bikes shou ... More >>

Muni: Our Transit Agency Has Neglected Maintenance for Years

BART Gets New Seats That Won't Soak Up Bodily Fluids as Easily

Some of you might have already noticed that your BART ride seemed a little less like a trip to a porta-potti. That's because BART so proudly announced today that it has started to rip out the nasty, fecal-soaked wool seating on some train cars and replace it with easier-to-clean vinyl seats. The tra ... More >>

Suicide Halts BART Trains

Suicide at BART ​The evening commute will be sad and slow. A woman apparently committed suicide this afternoon at the Ashby BART station in Berkeley, bringing trains to a screeching halt. Jim Allison, spokesman for BART, told SF Weekly that the northbound train was coming into the station at about ... More >>

BART GM Dorothy Dugger's $1M Payout: What Could That Buy?

BART's lost $958,000 isn't in the lost and found​Nothing is more awkward than a breakup taking place on public transportation. Except, of course, a public transportation breakup. Earlier this year, BART's board voted, behind closed doors, to dump high-priced general manager Dorothy Dugger. It turn ... More >>

BART GM Dorothy Dugger Resigns with $1M Severance Package

Dorothy Dugger​BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger announced her resignation from the transit agency today, and will leave with close to $1 million in pay as part of a severance agreement, BART officials said.Dugger's resignation comes after BART's board of directors voted to fire her in February. ... More >>

Congestion Pricing Showdown: Assemblyman Jerry Hill To Address San Francisco Supes

Seriously, take Caltrain. You're allowed to drink coffee and everything. ​San Francisco's idea to charge motorists $6 a day to enter or exit the city's southern border has spurred what could only be labeled a congestion pricing pissing contest. Peninsula officials are huffing that they'll impose a ... More >>

Party Time on BART! Cheaper Fares, Cleaner Cars in July

We're rich! But only in July​ BART is magic: just a year after threatening to throw the Bay Area into transit gridlock with a workers' strike, the transit agency is thinking up ways to share an unexpected shower of riches with the huddled masses crammed onto trains, also known as customers. That' ... More >>

Muni Budget Leaves Board Prez David Chiu Mystified

N-Judah Chronicles/Lauren Oliver -- Used with PermissionBoard President David Chiu to Muni: Show me the money! ​Board of Supervisors President David Chiu likes to remind people that he's a Muni rider. Come May 8, with 10 percent service cuts taking effect, he'll be a Muni waiter, just like everyon ... More >>

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 >>

For contract talks, BART and its unions take the information superhighway

New Year's Eve BART Running Till 3 a.m. for $6 R-T

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

24 Hour BART Means Vomit, Systemic Hangover

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

Porkmistress Pelosi

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

BART’s Radar Dreams

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?

Missed Connection

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

Best Scrolling View

Gridlock

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

Bus Stopped

How an attempt to make the 38 Geary bus work became another senseless San Francisco social cause

The Tax Man Cometh

The federal government looks to eliminate abusive tax shelters, and it may cost San Francisco tens of millions of dollars

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

Best Driving School for Transplanted New Yorkers

Apex Driving School

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

Visionary Thinking

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

Pop Philosophy

BART considers late-night trains, DNA reopens, Napster smooches Metallica

Letters

No More Free Ride?

Sierra Club wants BART parkers to pay

Letters

Letters

Mecklin

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

A Million Here, a Million There ...

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

Take BART, Please

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

The Grid

Letters

The Grid

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