Matthew Roth
Recent Posts
California Cities Need A Predictable Fund For Transit Operations
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Photo by George Donnelly, via Flickr When the State Transit Assistance (STA) fund was zeroed out to pass the budget a couple of months ago, the already dire situation for transit operators in California became much worse. In the Bay Area, AC Transit raised fares, the MTA has been considering budget cuts and fare hikes, […]
BART Releases 2010 Budget, But Board Doesn’t Debate Its Merits
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Photo by dav id from East Bay Indymedia Despite meeting for more than seven hours yesterday, the BART Board of Directors never managed to discuss the budget, in no small part because of the drama and theatrics of a public enraged about the shooting of Oscar Grant on January 1st and the release of an […]
Calls For Greater 311, MTA Efficiency
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From rick via Flickr While the list of budget problems facing the MTA is long, Supervisor Bevan Dufty believes he can save them a few million just by changing the way they do customer service. In a special hearing on work orders to the MTA yesterday, Dufty proposed that the MTA come up with a […]
BART Board Will Consider Increased Parking Fees to Address Budget Woes
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From enjoycarrotjuice on Flickr At its monthly board meeting today, BART staff will present a number of options for closing its budget deficit, including a proposal to extend parking fees to stations that don’t already have them. BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger will present the board with a preliminary operating budget for FY 2010, which […]
Caption Contest: Riding the Historic Streetcar
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From goodpotatoes, via our Flickr pool
MTC to Award $1.3 Million for Bay Bridge West Span Bike Path Study
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A simulation of a pedestrian and bicycle path on the Bay Bridge, from a 2001 Caltrans study The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA), a division of the MTC, is expected to approve a $1.3 million contract with TY Lin International consulting to prepare a Project Study Report (PSR) that would analyze the feasibility of adding […]
GM and Segway Unveil La-Z-Boy on Wheels
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A revolutionary personal mobility device. Hint: it’s NOT the couple in the foreground I’d be laughing right now if I could just stop crying. I thought billions in taxpayer money and Wagoner’s presidential dismissal were supposed to mark the end of General Motors’ bad plans, and I naively hoped the company would replace Dummers with […]
What’s in a Neighborhood
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A Sunday Stroll on International Boulevard, Flickr photo by madpai How would you define the boundaries of your neighborhood? Is it the streets that describe it? Is it the people who live in it, a cultural or demographic group that you belong to, or that excludes you? Do you think your neighbors would describe your […]
You Don’t Have To Be A Genius To Know Bike Registration Is Dumb
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Hey Freakonomics, how could you get so much so wrong in five short sentences? A blog post this week highlights Oregon Representative Wayne Krieger’s proposal to charge cyclists a biannual registration fee and parrots his assertion that cyclists don’t contribute to the roads they ride and do similar damage to roads as vehicles. In an […]
Today’s Headlines
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MTA Board Will Consider Fare Hikes, Line Cuts, Furloughs, Downsizing, Crying (SF Gate) Lowes Eyes Bayshore Blvd Location Formerly Sought by Home Depot (Examiner) (SF Gate) More on Street Repair Bond, KFC Marketers Said to Be Dismayed (Examiner) Caltrain Agrees to Share ROW With HSR for Electrification Deal (CBS 5) Planetizen Asks If High-Speed Rail […]
News From New York: The ABC’s of Trial Plazas and Complete Streets
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The trial plaza at Madison Square When we wrote about the trial pedestrian plaza on 17th Street and Market Street that DPW expects to start this May, the story generated numerous doubts about how the city would create a successful public space out of a busy street abutting a gas station. As commenter Josh said, […]