Bridges being built or rebuilt using state or federal money should consider adding suicide prevention systems, according to new legislation introduced by State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.
Ammiano has long been an advocate for a suicide prevention system on the Golden Gate Bridge, where over 1,400 have jumped off to their death.
Golden Gate Bridge officials have approved plans to build a $50 million barrier on the span, but have been unable to identify funding for the project.
wreisman@sfexaminer.com
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Despite incentives meant to encourage purchases of plug-in hybrid vehicles, the clean technology is still being underused in California, even in environmentally friendly San Francisco.
Owners of plug-in hybrids are given special green stickers to display on their vehicles that allow them to drive solo in carpool lanes on highways. State Sen. Leland Yee, who introduced the legislation that created the carpool privilege, set aside 40,000 green stickers for plug-in hybrid owners. Since Jan. 1, 2012, only 10,335 of the decals have been distributed.
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Despite improvements in recent years, the maintenance of parks in the historically underserved southeastern San Francisco neighborhoods still lags other areas.
The City Controller’s Office released its annual report on maintenance performance at San Francisco’s 220 public open spaces, and the parks in supervisorial districts 10 and 11 — broadly encompassing the Excelsior district, Visitacion Valley, the Bayview and Hunters Point — were among the lowest-rated.
Click on the photo to see the park scores.
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A plan to bring up Muni’s Central Subway machinery at an abandoned theater in North Beach was approved Tuesday by the agency’s board of directors.
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By land or by sea, it’s going to cost baseball fans a little bit more to get to the ballpark to watch the world champion Giants this season.
The rates for parking meters near the ballpark will become more expensive and have longer enforcement hours, and fares for special event ferry service to the park are poised to increase by $2.
Starting March 4, meters within walking distance of the park will have their operating hours extended until 10 p.m., according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which manages traffic policies in The City.
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A new transportation task force being convened by Mayor Ed Lee will focus on fixing Muni’s woes while also seeking to address larger transit issues facing the Bay Area, according to the mayor and people expected to serve on the panel.
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An Oregon man aboard a motorboat that collided with a ferry on San Francisco Bay over the weekend died as a result of the accident, which is currently under investigation, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday.
Harry Holzhauer, a 68-year-old from Tigard, Ore., was one of two men traveling in a 22-foot motorboat that struck the MS San Francisco, a Golden Gate Transit ferry carrying 500 people Saturday.
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BART’s station agents and train operators have a troubling history of not showing up for work — and it’s costing the agency significantly in a tough financial time.
On any given day, the rate of unscheduled absences for BART train operators is 11.86 percent, and 12.77 percent for the agency’s station agents, according to information obtained through a public records request. The absences translate to roughly one in eight workers missing their scheduled shifts each day.
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San Francisco plans to shift its traffic-calming strategies this year to focus on larger thoroughfares.
Traditionally, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency spends $2.5 million a year of The City’s transportation tax funds on measures to slow down traffic and make walking safer for pedestrians. Last year, nearly all of those funds — $2.2 million — were dedicated for projects on smaller, residential streets.
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For the second time, BART will experiment with easing bike restrictions on trains during rush hours.
From March 18 – 22, the agency will allow bikes on board during the morning and evening commutes, times that are normally off-limits to cyclists due to overcrowding.
The test in March follows a similar initiative from last August, when bikes were allowed on board at all times during each Friday of the month. Unlike last time, however, bikes will be banned from the first three train cars.
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A $7 million initiative to outfit San Francisco with an electric vehicle network and add 61 new clean-energy taxis has collapsed, forcing The City’s transportation agency to reconsider whether to pursue the ambitious plan.
But for the company set to receive the 61 new cabs, the development comes as no surprise.
“We were never really overhyped about this, we just wanted to show our public support for the plan,” said Jim Gillespie, a manager at Yellow Cab.
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A deal has been reached to bring up Muni’s Central Subway machinery at an abandoned theater in North Beach.
The transit agency, along with Board of Supervisors President David Chiu and the Mayor’s Office, had been locked in talks to lease out the Pagoda Palace as a way to store equipment and extract tunnel-boring machines needed for the 1.7-mile transit extension project.
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BART officials will discuss a plan today to increase fares regularly through 2020 and make parking more expensive at station lots.
Since 2003, the regional rail operator has used an inflation-based formula to increase its transit fares every two years. The last scheduled fare increase was in 2012, but the agency wants to extend the program, with rate hikes proposed for 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.
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Repeated construction delays, shifting visions and the departure of the plan’s manager have many advocates wary about the future of San Francisco’s Better Market Street project.
The undertaking, a multiagency project headed by the Department of Public Works, was established in 2009 to reinvent San Francisco’s central artery, with construction initially scheduled to begin this year.
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Painted transit-only lanes, more travel-prediction signs and changes to traffic signals to prioritize trains are part of a series of improvements planned for Muni’s N-Judah line.
With 12.8 million passengers annually, the N-Judah is the transit agency’s busiest light-rail line, but it frequently gets bogged down in automobile traffic while making the long journey between downtown and Ocean Beach in the Sunset district.
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