BART’s board of directors agreed last week to ease restrictions for bikes on trains but was not willing to make the changes permanent.The agency’s current policy bans bikes from trains during commute hours and at some stations. But on Thursday, BART’s nine directors elected to lift that ban for a five-month test period. The agency’s staff had recommended a permanent end to the restrictions.Starting July 1, bikes will be allowed on board at all times, although they will still be barred from the first three cars of a train. They also will be off-limits on crowded trains.
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A bicyclist was killed in the Mission district Thursday after colliding with a Recology garbage truck during the morning commute.
The accident occurred at 16th Street and South Van Ness Avenue at roughly 6:45 a.m., and the bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said the Recology driver is cooperating with investigators and drugs and alcohol do not appear to have played a role in the collision.
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San Francisco is poised to pay up to $4 million in damage claims related to the Feb. 27 water main rupture that damaged 25 homes and several cars in the West Portal neighborhood.
Meanwhile, city repairs to the neighborhood’s infrastructure remain ongoing following the break at 15th Avenue and Wawona Street.
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With employees logging an average of 40 unscheduled absences annually, reforming work rules will be a key focus for BART during ongoing labor negotiations.
BART management and its five unions, which collectively represent 3,200 workers, are engaged in contentious contract talks, with the current pact expiring June 30. However, talks so far have yielded little progress, and union groups say they are further apart now than in 2009, when a strike nearly occurred.
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A man was rescued by a sailing crew after jumping off the Golden Gate
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An $840 million contract for Muni’s Central Subway project — a pact that accounts for more than half the total cost of the undertaking — is up for approval Tuesday.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s board of directors is expected to vote on the contract, which includes the construction of three underground stations, an elevated platform and 1.5 miles of light-rail tracks. The stations are slated to be built underneath the Moscone Center, Union Square and Chinatown, and the platform will be located at Fourth and Brannan streets.
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A recent report by a federally placed overseer monitoring the $1.6 billion Central Subway project laments that the controversial line is at risk of falling significantly below Federal Transportation Administration minimums for both time and money contingencies.
The subway’s current project schedule “reflects 4.7 months of buffer float,” according to the project oversight management contractor’s most recent monthly report to the FTA. That’s down precipitously from a 14.8-month contingency as of August 2012.
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Downtown San Francisco will be mired in gridlock unless changes are made soon to alleviate automobile traffic — and the most effective method could be a long-discussed and controversial congestion-pricing scheme.
Unless private automobile traffic is reduced by 27 percent over the next three decades, congestion levels in The City will be unmanageable, with vehicles stuck at a standstill and pedestrians and cyclists prone to increasingly dangerous conditions, according to a new report by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, a local planning agency.
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Under a new proposal backed by city leaders, motorists with disabled placards would have to pay for parking and be subject to time limits at meters.
Drivers with a blue placard can park for free at any space in The City and they are not subject to any time limits. But since 2001 there has been a 100 percent increase of the placards in the Bay Area, leading some disabled advocates to question whether the permits are being abused. Every year, about 1,800 placards are confiscated in The City for fraudulent use, but permits continue to be issued out.
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Hundreds of on-street parking spaces will be set aside for car-sharing vehicles this fall as part of a city-led effort to reduce private-car ownership in San Francisco.
Companies like Zipcar and City CarShare will be allowed to reserve up to 150 spaces apiece, with another 150 potentially available next year. Wheelz, which specializes in peer-to-peer transactions involving personal vehicles, and Car2Go, a startup that features one-way car trips, could be included later.
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