Local ridesharing companies are again being hit with cease-and-desist orders, this time from San Francisco International Airport.
Businesses such as Lyft and Sidecar — which rely on smartphone applications and independent drivers, and were recently cleared by the California Public Utilities Commission to operate within the state — have become an increasingly large presence at SFO. Unlike registered cabs and limousines, the ridesharing companies have not engaged in the permitting process to operate at the hub.
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Service enhancements designed to boost ridership on the struggling South San Francisco ferry line were approved Thursday.
Launched last year amid much fanfare, the ferry system — which currently carries passengers between South City and the East Bay — only averaged 175 daily boardings last month, less than half the projected total. It has a farebox recovery rate of just 8.4 percent, meaning nearly 92 percent of its $3.4 million annual operating budget is subsidized by taxpayers who don’t use the system.
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Repeated setbacks to bike-related projects on Fell and Oak streets might delay the final completion of the plans until the end of this year, further angering cyclists and community groups.
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Five crossing zones along Caltrain tracks on the Peninsula are slated for infrastructure improvements as part of an effort to increase safety.
The intersections — where the tracks cross Brewster Avenue in Redwood City, at Churchill and East Meadow avenues in Palo Alto, and at Rengstorff Avenue and Castro Street in Mountain View — will each have additional time added to their gate-down intervals, meaning cars will have to wait a little longer for trains to pass through.
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Momentum is again picking up on a long-discussed proposal to transform a dilapidated water reservoir on Russian Hill into a new public open space.
Located on a hillside that overlooks Alcatraz Island and sits just a few blocks from Fisherman’s Wharf, the Francisco Reservoir is a wooden-roofed structure that hasn’t been used since the 1940s. Owned by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the reservoir is barely visible from the street, hidden by a tangle of overgrown trees and fencing.
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The next few months are sure to be tense at BART headquarters, with contract talks between management and the agency’s main union groups now under way.
The four-year contracts between BART and its two biggest unions — Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 — are set to expire June 30. Talks between the unions — which represent workers such as mechanics, station agents and train operators — and the agency about a new deal officially began Monday.
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A high school student struck and killed by an alleged drunken driver after celebrating her 17th birthday. A beloved teacher fatally hit while crossing Vicente Street. A young girl whose legs were crushed by a dump truck on The Embarcadero.
So far this year, five pedestrians have been killed by motorists on San Francisco streets, and pedestrian advocates are wondering why more isn’t being done to improve protections.
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Several of Muni’s historic streetcars are in line for a much-needed rehabilitation.
Sixteen of the vehicles, which make up Muni’s popular F-Market line, have been in service since 1993 and are nearing the end of their useful life. These particular vehicles are called Presidents Conference Committee streetcars and are in use 21 hours a day, 365 days a year, according to the agency.
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Last year, Bay Area motorists could glance up at huge billboards complaining, “Bay Bridge: 100% Foreign Steel” — part of a campaign launched by domestic manufacturers and union groups.
The messages were intended to shame Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the state agencies that own and operate the structure, for purchasing steel from China for the bridge’s new self-anchored suspension span.
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Bay Bridge officials conceded Wednesday that a lack of quality control led to the installation of at least 30 steel rods in the new eastern span that are now damaged and need to be repaired.
In total, 288 threaded steel rods were encased in concrete atop two towers rising out of the water. The roadway section of the new self-anchored suspension span is bolted to the rods to help stabilize the structure in the event of an earthquake.Of the 100 rods surveyed by Caltrans this month, nearly one-third have been found to be deficient.
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A project that repaired a beachfront pathway adjacent to the Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica has environmental groups once again concerned about the direction of the San Francisco-maintained property.
The Recreation and Park Department, which manages the Sharp Park open space and golf course, recently completed a small re-grading project on a levee that acts as a path along the beach. The department filled in some potholes and leveled off the berm in some places, but it also left behind a new pile of large boulders on the beach.
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Devil’s Slide, a coastal section of state Highway 1 in San Mateo County notorious for rock slides and traffic accidents, will finally be replaced with something a bit more angelic.
Decades in the making, two new tunnels are expected to officially open Tuesday as part of a $439 million transportation project to provide a more reliable link between the towns of Pacifica and Half Moon Bay.
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SAN JOSE — Disregarding Wichita State’s shellacking of Pittsburgh — No. 9 seeds actually have a better record all-time against 8 seeds — Oregon’s 68-55 dismantling of Oklahoma State at HP Pavilion marked the first true upset of the NCAA Tournament.
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With cash payments soon to be a thing of the past, motorists will be able to more quickly zip through the toll plaza at the Golden Gate Bridge.
All-electronic tolling is scheduled to begin Wednesday, which will make the bridge the only span in California to feature such technology. As a result, the bridge transit district is poised to rework the posted speed limits for southbound motorists passing through the plaza.
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Fewer than half of likely California voters support the state’s proposed high-speed rail project at its current price tag, according to a poll released Wednesday.
In 2008, 52 percent of voters backed a $9.95 billion bond measure for the high-speed rail network. However, the projected cost of the plan has gone from $34 billion to $68 billion since then.
The more expensive plan has residents wary, as only 43 percent of the 1,138 likely voters interviewed said they would support the project at its current cost, according to the Public Policy Institute of California poll.
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