Matthew Roth
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BART Transit Blogger Roundtable, Part II
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Flickr Photo: pbo31 Last week regional transit bloggers sat down with BART management and asked questions of General Manager Dorothy Dugger about her transit operation. This is part two of that roundtable: Impact of economy on operating budget The biggest challenge that I’m focused on right now is certainly the effects of the economic reality […]
Would Chron Find Walking and Chewing Gum “Argh” Hard, Too?
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The biggest menace to motoring since pedestrians. Photo: Matthew Roth Dear San Francisco Chronicle: Your story today on SFPark is a new low, infantilizing a parking management pilot that is the envy of municipalities across the country and has the attention of cities as far-flung as Tokyo, Japan. For an agency that is getting more […]
BART Invites Transit Bloggers to Query GM Dugger, Part I
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Greg Dewar of N-Judah Chronicles, BART GM Dorothy Dugger, BART Spokesperson Linton Johnson. Photo: Matthew Roth Last week, BART hosted a brunch meeting for Bay Area transit bloggers, explicitly acknowledging that journalism is trending away from traditional media to online and niche outlets. Organized by BART spokesperson Linton Johnson, writers from Streetsblog, The SF Appeal, […]
Bye-Bye General Motors, Hello (Again) General Locomotives?
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The V-8 P.J. O’Rourke put a bullet in this morning after writing his Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal. This morning much of the nation’s news outlets are devoted to the demise of General Motors, which represents the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and the largest of any industrial titan. Perhaps most entertaining of […]
Mayor Newsom and MTA Cut Ribbon on New Solar Bus Shelters
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Clear Channel’s Bill Hooper, MTA Chief Nat Ford, and Mayor Newsom in front of the new bus shelter. Photos: Matthew Roth At a ribbon cutting ceremony on Geary and Arguello Boulevards in the Richmond District yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom, MTA Chief Nat Ford and representatives from Clear Channel presented the next iteration of the city’s […]
First Bike to School Day in San Francisco a Success
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A very happy bike-riding student at Monroe Elementary School in the Excelsior. Flickr photo: Marc Caswell All morning I’ve been asking myself (and some others) why kids riding bicycles to school is a pressworthy event. Don’t kids always ride bikes to school or have we become so car-dependent that even this sancrosanct part of being […]
Proposal to Limit Vehicles on University Ave in Palo Alto Gains Support
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University Avenue in Palo Alto. Flickr photo: richardmasoner In the past few weeks, Stanford University students have built support for a proposal to reduce parking, widen sidewalks, and eventually close eight blocks of University Avenue in Palo Alto to motor vehicles. The Palo Alto Pedestrian Mall (PAPM) started out as an assignment in a "Creating […]
Only 17 Percent Drive to Downtown SF to Shop, Study Finds
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There’s gold in them thar shoes. Flickr photo: Billy Quach The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (TA) has released a survey of nearly 1400 shoppers in downtown San Francisco that found less than one-fifth drive to shop, and that they spend less money in aggregate than shoppers using other transportation modes (PDF). The study indicates […]
Finding Unused Pavement for Parks and Plazas in Lower Potrero
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Axis Cafe and Wolfe’s Lunch across 8th Street, which could be closed for a pilot pedestrian plaza. Photo: Matthew Roth When Mayor Gavin Newsom dedicated the trial pedestrian plaza at 17th Street and Castro last week, he took a significant stride toward improving his record on livable streets issues. He demonstrated engagement with local community […]
SFPark: “It’s Really an Exciting Time in the Meter World”
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Signs for the new SFPark pilot. Photos: Matthew Roth The Port of San Francisco last week installed the first 8 of more than 100 new multi-space meters along the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building south to AT&T Park in what will become San Francisco’s new pilot in dynamic parking management, SFPark. The Port meters are […]
Mission Sunday Streets Expected to Draw Largest Crowds Yet
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Flickr Photo: nocturalperambulations When tens of thousands of people come out to the first of two Sunday Streets in the Mission on June 7th, they will find a route that winds through some of the densest pedestrian streets in San Francisco, a route that at just over two miles is half as long as previous […]
Advocates Upset By Prospect of Further Bike Lane Delays
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Advocates are not ready to compromise a single bike lane in the big 56. Photo: Matthew Roth SFBC Program Manager Andy Thornley had the sinking feeling, following an MTA Traffic Engineering meeting last Friday, that the agency was not serious about its commitment to moving as many of the priority 56 bicycle projects forward as […]