FASTER Announcement Re: 2020

via email

Greetings BATWG friends,

I hope you are all healthy and safe.

I wanted you to know about a change in the timeline for FASTER Bay Area. As you know June 24 was already an incredibly tight deadline for state legislation, especially as FASTER is proposing a wide variety of transformative policy changes. With COVID-19 that timeline is no longer feasible. FASTER will continue to work towards passing legislation to authorize a Bay Area ballot initiative but we will no longer be proposing that it be eligible for the November 2020 ballot.  Please see the attached FASTER statement for more details.

FASTER has developed a framework and a proposal for a regional transit network plan that we believe can be truly transformative and will form the foundation for our work moving forward. . We are releasing these in the attached documents   Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Best wishes to you, your families and your communities as this crisis unfolds.

Stuart

FASTER Framework March 17, 2020

Transit Network Planner Proposal March 17, 2020

FASTER Bay Area Statement – March 17, 2020

Stay safe and know that we need to continue to watch this program.

SAVE MUNI PARTY – February 18

SAVE THE DATE –  Tuesday, February 18, 2020
SAVE MUNI PARTY  – 111 Minna Street
(between First and Second Streets; Minna runs parallel to Mission Street)SUPPORT BETTER TRANSIT IN SAN FRANCIISCO
Learn more about Save Muni at www.savemuni.org

New state bill aims to integrate Bay Area transit into one ‘seamless’ system

By Bay City News Service : mvvoice – excerpt

Assemblyman David Chiu proposes unified fares, transfers and maps for Bay Area’s tangle of mass transit systems…

A newly introduced piece of state legislation seeks to integrate the more than two dozen separate and independent Bay Area transit agencies into one “seamless” system.

Assembly Bill 2057 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, seeks to eliminate the barriers to ridership created by things like the differences in fare structures between systems, the uncoordinated schedules that can make transferring from one system to another an unreliable exercise in frustration, and the confusing muddle of transit maps that don’t allow passengers to easily plan their trips when using multiple systems… (more)

SF County Transportation Authority and Parking Authority Commission

Tuesday, January 28, 9 AM – ppt presentation on Workshop.
1455 Market Street, 22nd Floor SFCTA Conference Room
Special SFMTA Board and Parking Authority Commission
Presentations and discussions on future priorities and goals.
“State of San Francisco” Discussion Panel discussion with Sean Elsbernd, John Rahaim, Ben Rosenfield & Jeff Tumlin

1 killed by Muni train at bus stop in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley

abc7news – excerpt (includes video)

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Police and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) are investigating a deadly accident involving a Muni train in San Francisco.

The incident happened around 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning on Bayshore Boulevard and Sunnydale Avenue and a man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials say while the train was stopped and waiting for the light at the last stop, a man on the platform approached the train and tried to open the doors.

“Preliminary information indicates that the deceased sat on the couplers between two LRV cars while the train was stopped,” police said in a news release. “He fell underneath the second car of the train once it started moving again.”

When the operator started to turn the train around, the man fell off the platform and the second car of the train hit him… (more)

Newsom taps Bay Area Council CEO for Water Emergency Transportation Authority

By Brian Rinker : bizjournals – excerpt

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed a long-time political mover-and-shaker, Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman, to chair the agency that oversees Bay Area ferry services known as the Water Emergency Transportation Authority, or WETA.

Wunderman will move from his previous position as vice chair, a role he held since 2015, into the top seat, replacing Vice Admiral Jody Breckenridge, who had served as chair since 2014. The board is comprised of five members serving six-year terms, with the governor appointing the chair and vice chair. The governor has yet to announce a vice chair.

Wunderman will be taking over WETA during a time of great expansion. Transit advocates have hung their hats on ferry services as the great hope for easing the Bay Area’s road congestion, which steals an average 116 hours a year from the typical commuter, according to traffic research firm INRIX… (more)

 

Proposed Regional Transportation Sales Tax for the November 2020 Election

Details on the Sales taxes we are already paying as of:
SALES TAX LIST – Bay Area Trans Taxes 10 19 19

Watch for Future Community Meetings discussing further sales tax increases:

SFCTA: Potential Regional Transportation Measure Community Meeting: https://www.sfcta.org/events/potential-regional-transportation-measure-san-francisco-forum

 

Debate on SF Measure D

This debate was filmed by Regional Video and posted for public viewing on youtube.

Dedicated tax needs 2/3rds to pass. Guess what they will do with the money.

Early voting starts soon. Do your independent investigations now.

Safety Expert Says Muni Dragging Incident is About More than Faulty Doors

By Roger Rudick : streetblog – excerpt

The operator’s main job in the Market Street tunnel is to make sure it is safe to proceed. Either the new trains have serious blind spots or the operator didn’t do that.

Earlier this month, a woman whose finger was caught in the door of a new Muni train was dragged and badly injured at the Embarcadero Station. Recriminations are focusing on the doors, which apparently don’t always properly reset when a small object obstructs them from fully closing.

The city has responded by delaying funds for additional car purchases. According to a statement from SFMTA, they will be locking the rear doors on the new Muni trains so that “…operators can focus on seeing passengers entering and exiting the single doors nearest to them which adds a level of safety vigilance.” The agency also wrote that they “…want to remind customers to avoid holding the doors open in any way.”

But focusing solely on the doors, according to a safety expert and others familiar with transit operations, misses a larger issue…

 “Muni has a broken safety and operational culture if it allows a train operator to drag a woman who has her hand stuck in the door.”…

“Riders deserve to understand what went wrong and what’s being done to prevent it from ever happening again,” said Hyden. “We need Muni to take responsibility and be clear about any changes needed in management, oversight, training, maintenance, procedures, or testing.”… (more)

 

APTA: Public transit ridership down in 2018

By Katie Pyzyk : smartcitiesdive – excerpt

Dive Brief:

• Americans took 9.9 billion public transit trips in 2018, a 2% decrease from 2017, according to a report from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
• Bus ridership fell 1.84%, light rail (streetcars, modern trolleys, heritage trolleys) fell 2.98% and heavy rail (subways and elevated trains) fell 2.6%. Commuter rail was the only mode with a ridership increase at 0.41%.
• Of the 31 large and small city transit systems included in APTA’s data, 20 experienced year-over-year ridership losses, nine experienced gains and two did not have data available.

Dive Insight:

APTA’s data mirrors other associations’ and federal data that indicate overall decreases in transit ridership the past several years. Data released in the fall from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey showed that citizens’ commutes became longer and in 2017, nearly 12,000 fewer commuters used public transportation.

A recent KPMG report suggests that transit agencies embrace industry disruptions and cater to customers’ changing tastes — namely, by moving away from fixed-route buses and toward new mobility options, or partnering with private companies who offer such services. It also suggested that transit agencies become more savvy with using rider data to determine where and when people need to travel to devise viable microtransit solutions… (more)