Matthew Roth
Recent Posts
NY MTA Opens Data, General Transit Feed Specification Formalized
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In a big turnaround, the MTA now touts third-party transit applications on its website. As we’ve reported, the last bastion of closed transit data had been the New York Metropolitan region, served by the nation’s largest transit operator, the NYMTA, which is comprised of the Long Island Railroad, Metro North Railroad, and the NYC subways […]
Eyes on the Street: The Quickly Fading Market Street Safety Zones
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Photos: Matthew Roth Remember the beautiful new Calm the Safety Zone trial that we raved about in late November, with a liberal application of "frappuccino" colored paint to the pavement on Market Street? Yeah, well, now not so much. In only a month and a half, vehicular traffic on Market Street (greatly reduced, mind you, […]
San Francisco Converts Some Bus Zones on Terminated Lines to Parking
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Photos: Matthew Roth The San Francisco MTA has an interesting decision to make with bus zones throughout the city now that a number of bus routes were changed or terminated with the service reductions that went into effect on December 5th, 2009. Will the city open the curb space up to cars, potentially adding meters […]
SF Concrete Commissioner: Stop Parking on the Sidewalk!
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Photos: San Francisco Department of Sidewalk Parking Parking a car on the sidewalk is illegal and unsightly, as many San Franciscans know too well, but it also causes a hazard for those with visual impairments, as Lighthouse for the Blind illustrated when they began their campaign to eliminate the practice in the Sunset. And while […]
Facebook Refuses to Remove Group Promoting Anti-Cyclist Violence
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Screenshot from the Facebook group promoting dooring, among other acts that injure cyclists. A number of Streetsblog readers have noticed a particularly loathsome group that has sprouted up on Facebook and has a legion of fans. As of this writing, more than 32,000 people are fans of "There’s a perfectly good bike path right next […]
eBART Extension Nears Bid, Rep Garamendi Tours Station Sites
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Images: BART With bids for the eBART extension project expected in early February, newly elected Congressman John Garamendi from California’s 10th District conducted a tour of the planned station sites of BART’s 10-mile extension from Pittsburg Bay Point to Antioch. Garamendi joined BART Director Joel Keller, Brentwood Mayor Robert Taylor, and representatives from the Contra […]
Troubling Silence on Transit in Gov’s State of the State Address
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Photo: Justin Short, Office of the Governor Despite continued cash flow crunches facing nearly every transit operator in the state, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said absolutely nothing about transportation or fixing transit’s woes in his State of the State address today. Transit operators are still bracing for the expected budget proposal this Friday that would thwart […]
How Google and Portland’s TriMet Set the Standard for Open Transit Data
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Photo: Steve Rhodes With national data transparency efforts like President Obama’s Open Data Initiative and municipal projects like New York City’s Big Apps or San Francisco’s Data SF, government agencies across the country have been opening their raw data sets, some more reluctantly than others. With the debut of City-Go-Round and media coverage generated about […]
Transit Agencies Upset by Governor Schwarzenegger’s Plan to Divert Funds
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Photo: mark & his nikon Despite California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pledge to be a good steward of his state’s environment, the governor is expected to release a budget proposal this week that would gut transit funding and contravene both a state Supreme Court ruling and numerous public referendums mandating secure transit funding, a slap in […]
Bay Area Advocates Unveil New VMT Reduction Incentive for Developers
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Photo: Michael Patrick Among the many strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and attendant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from private vehicles, Bay Area smart growth advocate TransForm has developed a new certification called GreenTRIP to encourage architects, developers, and municipal officials to build transit-oriented development and implement transportation demand management (TDM) solutions for future […]
Bay Area Transportation Commission Starts Climate Sustainability Fund
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Transportation advocates were thrilled last week when the nine-county Bay Area regional transportation planning and funding body, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), established a fluid pot of money for innovative transportation projects, from Safe Routes to School programs and bicycle educational campaigns, to parking policies and demand management strategies meant to reduce the over-reliance on […]
Dates and Locations For 2010 San Francisco Sunday Streets Announced
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Photos: Matthew Roth San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced the dates and locations for nine Sunday Streets events for 2010, starting on March 14th along the Embarcadero and finishing October 24th around Civic Center. Building off the tremendous success of the events in 2009, Mayor Newsom announced the events will expand to new communities […]