Rescue Muni

Wondering what’s happening with the bus rapid transit projects we’ve been advocating for a decade? Come to our General Meeting on Monday, February 28, at 6:30 pm to find out. Rachel Hiatt of the SF County Transportation Authority has been invited to present the latest on the Van Ness project, and we also expect to have a presentation on Geary.

Date/Time: Monday, February 28, 2011, 6:30 pm
Location: County Fair Building, at Ninth and Lincoln in Golden Gate Park
Transit: 6, 44, 71, N

The SFMTA voted unanimously yesterday to take an important transit-first step: to end free parking for most employees, instead requiring an $80 monthly charge to park at SFMTA lots. This is something we have encouraged for a long time – not only does it encourage workers to use the system they run, it also sets a good example for the rest of San Francisco, and it will raise a little bit of money (about $1M/year) for the agency. The SF Weekly also covered this.

However, the agency board also took a step to open yet another loophole in parking regulations, this time for nannies and other “child care providers”: it approved a pilot program to let them get residential parking permits, potentially crowding out residents for all-day street parking and certainly providing an incentive to drive instead of taking mass transit. Others pay for their parking or mass transit – why should this one class of workers, who happen to have wealthy and well-connected employers who can attend meetings during business hours, get a break?

If you’re a mass transit rider in San Francisco, you probably also use Caltrain to get to the Peninsula. Unfortunately, Caltrain is facing a severe deficit ($30 million per year) that may lead to painful service cuts, and more traffic as a result, unless permanent funding sources are found.

If you’d like to help save Caltrain, please attend the Save Our Caltrain Summit. This is organized by the Friends of Caltrain (thank you BayRail Alliance for the announcement).

Details from Friends of Caltrain:
You are invited to participate in a Summit to Save Caltrain
Location: SamTrans Auditorium,
1250 San Carlos Avenue, San Carlos (near Caltrain)
Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011 Time: 8:30 am to 2:30 pm.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier and Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune will be kicking off the morning at 9:15am, so come early: registration, hot coffee and bagels will be waiting for you at 8:30 am at the Caltrain/Samtrans headquarters, 1250 San Carlos Avenue in San Carlos. Check out our website for the latest press and agenda.

It’s very close to the San Carlos train station or you can park in the Samtrans lot behind the building or any of the public parking structures in the area.

Come with your questions, ideas, and enthusiasm on how to Save Our Caltrain! And spread the word — we need many voices, many hands, so register and attend!

Thanks to the N Judah Chronicles for this notice: Supervisor Chu has called a hearing on the annoying, inconvenient, and often unannounced short turns that plague LRV service in the Sunset. Unfortunately it’s during business hours, but if you can attend on short notice please do. The hearing is at 10:30 am TODAY, City Hall, Room 250.
Also please congratulate RM endorsed Supervisors Carmen Chu, Scott Wiener, and Mark Farrell on their first day in office after being elected last fall!

No more need to go all the way down to Van Ness to buy passes. According to the Chronicle, passes will also be available for sale at a new booth at Geary and Masonic starting Dec. 27th. The Powell Cable Car sales booth will also get an overhaul.

The new sales center will be open 7 days a week, 8am to 8pm and offer all pass types, including life line passes. The total cost of both booths, including art depicting the city’s iconic cable cars, was $829,000.