More than 100 feet below the roiling waters of the Bay lies BART’s Transbay Tube, one of the region’s most impressive engineering feats — a path that acts as a portal for nearly 200,000 passengers travelling each day between the East Bay and San Francisco.
Tucked neatly into a protective trench on the floor of the Bay, the tube is nonetheless exposed to the elements of corrosive saltwater, and, more troubling, an occasional misplaced ship anchor.
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The new painted transit-only lane on Church Street — designed to keep private vehicles out of the way of Muni vehicles — appears to be paying dividends for the agency.
Since a layer of red paint was laid down on a three-block stretch of the street, the 22-Fillmore has had a 5 percent reduction in travel time and a 20 percent increase in reliability along that stretch, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which manages Muni.
The red paint was put down in March between Duboce Avenue and 16th Street — the most congested stretch of Church Street.
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Seemingly every motorist in San Francisco has a tale of being unfairly ticketed by an overzealous parking control officer.
Fewer drivers though have as much exonerating evidence available as Beth Chen, a Forest Hill resident who was recently hit with a $62 ticket that accuses her of overstaying a two-hour time limit near the Stonestown YMCA.
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Cleaner train cars, fewer transients sleeping in stations and more investment in an overworked maintenance yard are all part of BART’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
For the first time, BART is combining its capital budget, which covers long-term improvement projects, with its operating budget, which details day-to-day expenses. The $1.6 billion plan is projected to be balanced for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
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Bikes could be allowed on BART trains at all times of the day — minus a few restrictions — as part of an initiative that will be voted on by the agency’s board of directors later this month.
Under the current policy, bikes are banned from certain trains during peak travel times, a measure aimed at easing overcrowding. However, after two recent pilot projects during which those restrictions were relaxed, BART is now considering a permanent change.
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Bayview-Hunters Point residents expressed frustration Tuesday about Muni’s practice of turning around T-Third Street trains before they reach scheduled stops.
Muni officials say rerouting trains and buses prematurely, called switchbacks, is necessary to deal with service shortages and delays in other parts of the system.
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Fixing a batch of broken bolts on the new Bay Bridge could cost up to $10 million, but it’s still unknown if that work will affect the opening date — and it’s likely Gov. Jerry Brown will make the call on when the structure is ready for traffic.
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Faced with a $29 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, the Golden Gate Bridge district is considering toll increases on the span.
In the midst of a significant financial crisis in 2009, the bridge district approved a long-term plan that called for toll hikes on the span every five years. The last time tolls were increased on the bridge was in September 2008, when cash fares rose from $5 to $6 and FasTrak costs went from $4 to $5.
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For Muni to be a reliable transit system consistently used by commuters, travel times need to be significantly reduced -- a point emphasized by the agency’s executive director.
Detailing the cure is the easy part; figuring out how to accomplish that task is something else.
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Fewer passengers oppose the presence of bikes on BART, according to feedback collected by the transit agency.
The survey followed BART’s latest experiment with allowing bicycles aboard trains during commute hours.
Normally, bikes are barred from certain trains during peak travel times due to issues with overcrowding. For a one-week span in March, however, restrictions were eased to allow cyclists on board during all times of service, except in the first train car.
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After initial reports that work might not be done until the end of this year, crews have now started adding a bike lane to a stretch of Oak Street as part of a project approved last October.
On Thursday, workers began adjusting traffic lanes on Oak Street to allow for the creation of a bike lane on a three-block stretch between Scott and Baker streets, according to Paul Rose, a spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the project coordinator.
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Several portions of legislation passed by voters to give The City more bargaining leverage with Muni operators have been overturned by the California Public Employment Relations Board.
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Greater frequency on busy lines, elimination or reduction of routes with low ridership and new vehicle models in outlying areas are all part of a major service overhaul approved by SamTrans this week.
Fleshed out over a two-year outreach period, the new service realignment approved by SamTrans’ board of directors Wednesday aims to increase ridership and make service more financially efficient for the San Mateo County bus operator.
Major corridors such as El Camino Real are set to benefit from transit improvements, as are hubs in Daly City, San Mateo and East Palo Alto.
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The plan to add more parking meters to several San Francisco neighborhoods will receive scrutiny today from a Board of Supervisors committee.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which manages traffic policies in The City, is looking into the possibility of adding more parking meters in neighborhoods that include the Mission District, Potrero Hill and South of Market. The agency originally proposed to add around 5,000 meters to those neighborhoods, but balked on that project after backlash from local residents.
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The overextended bike parking facility at Caltrain’s Fourth and King station is poised to receive an array of improvements, including new security features and expansion work that will nearly double the capacity at the site.
The storage facility at the Caltrain station, which offers valet parking services, is outfitted to hold 100 bikes. But the popular center regularly exceeds that number on busy weekdays.
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