Regional Measure 3 Would Slip a $3 + Bridge Toll Hike Past the Voters

admin 2018, Regional and Local Governments

Dick Spotswood, Marin Independent Journal, May 27, 2018 How to vote on Regional Measure 3 is an easy call. That’s the proposition on the June 5 ballot to raise tolls on all seven Caltrans-operated Bay Area bridges by $3. The independently managed Golden Gate Bridge isn’t affected by the measure.

If you trust the Metropolitan Transportation Commission – the indirectly appointed regional agency behind the proposition – to spend the money wisely, then vote yes. If not, vote no. It’s as simple as that.

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Bay Area Transportation Working Group (BATWG): An Open Letter to Silicon Valley

admin 2018, Transit Systems

Bay Area hi-technology companies are being panned in the New York Times and elsewhere for failing to apply their high tech and management skills to benefit the areas in the proximity of their campuses. Nowhere is this more evident than in the traffic agonies surrounding Silicon Valley. In fact, Southbay and Peninsula cities are now talking of imposing payroll and gross receipt taxes on hi-tech companies to help pay for public sector efforts to alleviate Southbay transportation problems…..the very same problems that the public sector has failed to address effectively for decades.
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TAOSF Examines San Francisco’s Basic Transportation Problems

admin 2018, Regional and Local Governments

ABOUT TAOSF

The Transportation Alliance of San Francisco (TAOSF) was  founded on  April  8, 2017.  The group is committed to the idea that to bring about needed transportation improvements it will be necessary to make fundamental changes in the way traffic congestion is handled in San Francisco and in how public transit services are dispensed in San Francisco.  There have been some improvements in some areas but much more needs to be done and the taxpayers and transit riding public of San Francisco deserve better than they’re currently receiving.

The TAOSF program (below) is reflective of much deliberation as well as feedback from numerous groups, Muni riders and other interested San Franciscans.  It was put together during the Summer and early Fall of 2017 and since updated several times.

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Save Muni calls on SF Board of Supervisors to hold the SFMTA to Account

admin 2018, Regional and Local Governments

May 4, 2018

Mayor Farrell and Supervisors,

Save Muni urges the Board of Supervisors to take the unprecedented step of rejecting the MTA’s 2019-2020 budget and returning it to the MTA for adjustment.

We believe that staffing and budget increases for this one department are not warranted given the limits placed on other city department…    Continue reading →

Improving AC Transit’s Overall Bus Operation

admin 2018, Transit Systems

Improving AC Transit’s Overall Bus Operation: Since 2000 AC Transit’s ridership has declined substantially and remains under 200,000 riders a day (about a fourth of Muni’s ridership) when it should be attracting at least 325,000 riders a day. Is this possible? Yes, but it will take some changes at AC. Some of the routes are fine; others are unnecessarily meandering and hard to use. AC’s maps are notoriously hard to read and AC’s PR program leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, instead of focusing on how its buses are fueled, AC Transit should be helping its riders and would-be riders to use its system efficiently and it should be singing the praises of its “Next Bus” ap, which is making bus travel much easier and more convenient. See BATWG’s Proposed Improvements for AC Transit.