Along with big trucks, traffic snarls and talk radio, toll collectors are a staple of the highway commute. But they might soon disappear from Bay Area roads, starting with the Golden Gate Bridge.On Thursday, a subcommittee of the bridge district will vote on a proposal to lay off the 32 toll workers and embrace all-electronic payments. If approved, the system would debut by February 2012 and be fully implemented by the end of that year.
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After a dangerous 2009, traffic accidents dropped dramatically last year in four double-fine zones in San Francisco, including a 35 percent decrease on 19th Avenue. The decline seems to spell success for this form of accident deterrence.For years, local state Sen. Leland Yee tried to pass a law that would double the cost of traffic fines on 19th Avenue, a busy thoroughfare that doubles as state Highway 1.
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An inbound Van Ness Muni bus plowed into a bus shelter Sunday morning, avoiding injuries but causing major damage.The incident occurred around 9:30 a.m. at the corner of 24th Street and Mission Street, according to San Francisco MTA spokesman Paul Rose.Though no one was injured on the bus or on the side walk, major damage was sustained by the 49-Van Ness bus after it struck the shelter on the corner.The shelter was completely destroyed.
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Reports of a gun sighting delayed BART trains by more than 15 minutes Friday morning at San Francisco’s Civic Center station, a BART spokesman said.BART police responded to reports of a gun sighting at about 8:30 a.m. at the Civic Center station, but officers were unable to find a firearm, spokesman Linton Johnson said.The police activity caused delays of between 13 and 18 minutes for trains leaving from the station in the Millbrae, East Bay and San Francisco International Airport directions, Johnson said.
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A 19-year-old man was likely committing suicide when a southbound Caltrain struck and killed him in Palo Alto early Thursday morning, the transit agency said.The Palo Alto resident, who has not yet been identified, was struck by the last southbound train of the night around 1:20 a.m. , Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said. He was hit about a half-mile north of the California Avenue station, she said.
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Muni employs about 2,100 vehicle operators — but on any given day, only about 1,225 are available to work.
The agency has lived with a hiring freeze for the past year or so, which has become expensive because the agency has lost employees to retirement and pays other drivers overtime to fill in for them.
Muni Chief Operations Officer John Haley said management expects to hire 120 new operators during the next four to six months.
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The woman who was tossed into a psyche ward on Christmas Eve after a violent tirade at San Francisco International Airport is a former Los Angeles deputy city attorney who convinced a judge to lower her bail Tuesday.Angela Kay West, 50, a Harvard Law School graduate who hasn’t practiced law since 1997, allegedly swung a dustpan at people and threatened officers with a bottle in the Mezzanine Level Food Court in Terminal 3, authorities said.
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Having $829,000 in your pocket will buy a lot of things on your wish list: A three-bedroom home in San Francisco, some flashy cars, maybe even a new yacht.
In Muni’s case, that total will get a couple of ticket kiosks.
Last month, Muni unveiled its newest outlet — a sleek edifice where passengers can purchase all forms of transit fares — located on the corner of Geary Boulevard and Presidio Avenue. A second one is slated to be built at Powell and Market streets later this month.
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A truck plunged off the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge on Tuesday morning a quarter of a mile past the toll plaza on the eastern side of the span.The white Ford F-250, which was driving west on the bridge, landed on its roof in about four feet of water just after 10:45 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.The driver, a man in his 20s, was taken to a hospital with abrasions on his arms and head and is expected to survive, said CHP spokesman Officer Art Montiel.
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At its current pace, Muni is projected to end the fiscal year in June with a $21.2 million budget deficit — and that does not include the $22 million still needed to restore its recent service reductions.
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