The following thoughts about AC Transit are based upon a letter sent to AC Transit on November 15, 2017
AC Transit vehicles should get transit-first priority treatment wherever and whenever needed to ensure that bus loads of riders don’t get bogged down in traffic congestion. In addition, certain other changes must be made to bring AC’s transbay ridership and total ridership up to par. Continue reading
The Core Capacity Transit Study was conducted under MTC auspices. The main purpose of the Study was to identify potential travel improvements on the Bay Bridge and in the San Francisco transit corridors leading to the Bridge.
BART is projected to run out of transbay carrying capacity between 2025 and 2030. There is talk of getting another transbay subaqueous rail system into commercial operation by 2040. Unless the Bay Area transportation development is radically speeded up, make that 2065 or later. So what happens during the intervening 40 to 50 years? There is as yet still no credible answer to that question.
See the rest of SaveMuni’s Response to the the Core Capacity Study.
Excerpts from BATWG’s August 31, 2017 letter to the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission:
“…BATWG has long advocated a major upgrade to the ACE service between Stockton and San Jose. For this reason we support the SJRRC’s decision to examine ways of accomplishing this objective. “However, in our view, the ACE Forward DEIR fails to adequately address this vital issue. Here five ways of bringing ACE up to its full potential:
As currently planned all of AC Transit’s transbay buses are scheduled to terminate at San Francisco’s new Transbay Transit Center. Why? Is that the only possibility? This is causing a horrendous bus storage problem. Storing buses in downtown San Francisco is expensive. So why not “thru-route” some of the AC bus lines; that is, combine some of them with a corresponding Muni, SanTrans or Golden Gate line? This would both reduce the need for downtown storage and provide new transit connections for riders. The idea is not new. In fact it’s been talked about at MTC for over 40 years.
To attract the needed 60,000 to 100,000 riders a day, AC Transit’s transbay bus service would have to get better all along parts of all lines, some of which run to as much as 30 miles from start to finish. To make the transbay bus service attractive to people who can afford to drive and park would require at least the following:
A relatively small number of high frequency transbay “trunk lines” say, 6 to 8, instead of today’s 29 separate lines emanating from 29 separate parts of the East Bay.
When Caltrain is finally extended into downtown San Francisco, it will attract enough new Caltrain riders to take tens of thousands of automobiles off the highways and city streets. Even so, there will still be a need for beefed up bus services including a contingent of privately-operated buses. However, an ever-growing number of these over-sized vehicles are crowding and congesting San Francisco’s neighborhoods and interfering with San Francisco’s Muni bus operations. We had previously suggested that there be satellite transfer points between the big long-distance buses operating on the highways and Muni buses ready to convey them along city streets. It now appears that this proposal may not be practical. BATWG continues to urge San Francisco’s government, the County of San Mateo and MTC to take whatever steps are necessary to minimize the damage caused by privately-operated buses, including in particular the consistent and vigorous enforcement of all safety and other shuttle bus regulations.
Bay Area Transportation Working Group 