Matthew Roth
Recent Posts
Meeting to Certify Bike Plan EIR Tonight, Red Tape Likely to Follow
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Photo: SFBC The meeting San Francisco bicycle advocates and commuters have been waiting three years for, the first of several steps required to lift the bike injunction, will take take place at City Hall Room 400 at 6:30 pm tonight. SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum said, “This will be a win-win for San Francisco. Improving […]
London Campaign to Slow Cyclists on Shared Path Gets Creative
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Courtesy: Daily Mail UK This artwork along Regent’s Canal in North London goes to interesting depths to get cyclists to slow down while using the bike and pedestrian path. Given the sentiment among commenters to our post about bike and pedestrian conflicts on the Golden Gate Bridge paths, particularly that there are a few too […]
One Week Left in Contract, BART Management and Labor Trade Barbs
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With BART contracts expiring next Tuesday night and regional planning organizations urging Bay Area residents to create a contingency plan for getting to work if there is a strike or labor slowdown, BART management and labor representatives are accusing each other of bad-faith negotiations. Though they are bargaining around the clock and both sides insist […]
Your Thoughts Please on Examiner’s Bike Plan Hit-Piece?
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One of the tasks our New York City executive editor put to us at Streetsblog San Francisco when we started was to hold "mainstream" journalists’ feet to the fire when they write stories about transit, bikes, and pedestrians from a windshield perspective. You know, pieces like Mike Aldax’s story in the Examiner today, which goes […]
Mayor Newsom Shows Strong Support for Bike Plan
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Just over the transom, Mayor Gavin Newsom last month sent letters to the Planning Commission, MTA Chief Nat Ford, and the MTA Board of Directors showing strong support for the bike plan, which he urges them to move forward post-haste [respectively, PDF, PDF, PDF]. In all three letters he reiterates the role of bicycles in […]
MTC Asks: Are You Prepared If BART Workers Strike Next Week?
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Will this resemble your commute on Wednesday, July 1st? Photo: a7an The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) just sent over a press advisory suggesting that Bay Area residents prepare their contingency plans for getting to work starting next Wednesday, July 1st, in case BART workers don’t get the contract they want and go on strike. Such […]
Advocates Say MTC Proposal Short-Changes Regional Bike Network
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Photo: Michael Patrick Bicycle advocates are upset that the first draft of a spending plan to come out of the Metropolitan Transportation Agency’s (MTC) 25-year Change in Motion regional transportation blueprint falls far short on proposed funding for the regional bicycle network. They say the MTC is failing to demonstrate a commitment to bicycles. According […]
Bicycle Music Festival: Pedal Powered Tunes and Some Exercise, Too
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With everyone under the sun boasting their carbon reduction initiatives, including laughable entries by oil giants like Chevron and ExxonMobile, it’s nice to see an event that walks the walk, or pedals the pedals, as it were. The Bicycle Music Festival is an all-day musical event tomorrow that runs entirely on human power. The sound […]
BART Sees Huge Revenue Decline As Ridership and Sales Taxes Plummet
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BART’s revenue picture didn’t get any better today with the release of fourth-quarter FY2008 ridership and sales tax numbers, down 10 percent and 20 percent from the same period one year ago, respectively. BART’s ridership has dropped to an average of 335,500 riders per day, a 10 percent decline in the number of riders using […]
Car-Free Challenge Participants Buck Stereotypes
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Throughout June, scores of participants in TransForm’s first Car-Free Challenge have set goals for themselves to reduce or completely eliminate the use of cars, from those living in bike and transit-friendly Berkeley to far flung and auto-dominated suburban enclaves like Castro Valley. In addition to opening eyes about those who live normal and productive lives […]
New SF Police Chief Has Uncertain Livable Streets Credentials
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Courtesy: East Valley Tribune Mayor Gavin Newsom, in a press conference today with most of the elected and appointed political class, named former Mesa Arizona Police Chief George Gascón to the top job in the SFPD. The mayor said the police commission had conducted 49 public outreach sessions and reviewed 88 total candidates for the […]
BART Unions Accuse Management of Contract Delays and Costly Perks
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Photo: jritz In a teleconference with reporters today, the presidents of three of BART’s five unions accused BART management of not showing good faith in efforts to complete negotiations on a new 4-year contract by June 30th, the day the current contract expires. The unions claim that management talks a good game in public, assuring […]