Transit
Streetsblog California
Winning Arguments with Your Family: Don’t Fall for the Traffic Trap
Last week, the Los Angeles Times published a disastrously titled piece entitled "L.A. Expo Line hasn't reduced congestion as promised, a study finds." The article is based on a study by the University of California that used traffic monitors to gauge how many cars are driving on the freeway and arterial streets parallel to the Expo Line between Culver City and Downtown Los Angeles.
November 25, 2015
Will the Bay Area Continue to Reduce Driving With Improved Transit?
Commuters in the Bay Area ditched cars faster than in any other major metropolitan area between 2006 and 2013, according to a new U.S. Census report. With studies showing that car traffic in San Francisco is declining, the report is one more sign that efforts in SF and the region to attract commuters to transit, walking, and biking may be working.
August 18, 2015
Transit Union Slams DRIVE Act
Yesterday, the Senate passed both a three-month transportation extension and a six-year reauthorization bill (albeit with three years of funding), which the Senate hopes to workshop with the House in the fall. The bill’s name itself -- the DRIVE Act -- raised the hackles of transit advocates. Looking deeper, it seems those advocates have more to worry about than just semantics.
August 3, 2015
Deadbeat Chris Christie Sticks It to New Jersey Transit Riders, Again
As expected, the New Jersey Transit board of directors has approved a 9 percent fare hike and service cuts, again making transit riders the victims of Governor Chris Christie's budget shell games.
July 16, 2015
How to Undermine Transit: Surround it with Sprawl
New Jersey is the most population-dense state in the country, and many residents get to work via one of its several transit systems. But too many of New Jersey’s transit stations are surrounded by single-family housing, severely limiting the number of people -- especially low-income people -- with convenient, walkable access to transit. Some entire transit lines are out of reach for people of modest means.
July 10, 2015
When Transit Goes Down at the Polls, Here’s Some Advice on How to Regroup
Last week, voters in the Vancouver region rejected a half-cent sales tax to pay for a package of transit infrastructure and service expansions necessary to handle growing demand. Even in the city of Vancouver, the measure fell shy of a majority. Polling revealed that most "No" voters didn’t trust the regional transit agency, TransLink, to make good use of the additional revenue.
July 6, 2015
Killing a Transit Project Isn’t Going to Fix Your City’s Parking Crunch
Yesterday Streetsblog USA ran a post from Michael Andersen about how Newark fixed the glut of parked cars on Mount Prospect Avenue, the first street in New Jersey to get a protected bike lane: Instead of letting people park in the bikeway, the city started charging for parking. With a price on parking, people stopped storing their cars on the street all day long, and there was finally some turnover. Problem solved.
July 2, 2015
Washington State’s Faustian Bargain to Fund Transit
Washington Governor Jay Inslee and state legislators have agreed to enable funding for a major Seattle transit expansion, but the deal comes with drawbacks.
June 30, 2015
Minneapolis May Drop Parking Minimums Near Transit
Whether you own a car or not, if you live in a city, there's a good chance you pay for parking. Building parking spots is expensive, but most cities require developers to build a certain amount of parking per residence, driving up the cost of housing.
June 12, 2015
Mayor, Eight Supervisors Promise to Ride Muni Every Day Until June 22
The SF Transit Riders Union's challenge to ride Muni for 22 days kicked off yesterday with late sign-ons from Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisors London Breed and Mark Farrell, who had initially declined to commit. Supervisors Katy Tang and Malia Cohen still declined, and Supervisor Norman Yee has not confirmed a pledge since he tweeted a selfie on Muni after the challenge was announced in April.
June 3, 2015