For regular work days, I think 10 minutes is awesome:
Trains will arrive every 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.; all other hours, every 20 minutes.
I actually don’t think it should be any less than that. I think I’d be happy with 15 minute intervals - maybe run more during rush hours and fewer in between.
Of course, the headway on your bike is about zero minutes - you can leave whenever you want, and whatever moment you want, at whatever time of day or night, weekday or weekend, holiday or not.
I still think there’s a huge market for little books that are really good for carrying on the metro - things that fit in your coat or jeans pocket. I know some folks make certain little books, but I just feel like there’s a lot more to be done, there. That could increase the pleasurability of transiting that much more, which is why it’s important. With more people riding the rails, hopefully publishers will step up - including indy publishers.
Streetcars are not a big problem, relatively speaking, because cyclists and pedestrians have a pretty good idea of where streetcars are going to be - on the rails - so we just don’t have to worry about them as much as we have to worry about completely unpredictable, massive glass and metal objects - up to 60 feet long - hurtling through spacetime.
Some will want to talk about ‘reliability,’ and that’s fine - as far as reliability goes - but those us in the reality-based community know what buses do - they do what cars do - they speed - they break the law and make themselves even more dangerous to humans - and when they’re not compelled to slow down and stop by red lights - they speed even more. Red lights are great traffic-calming devices - we should not attempt to eliminate them as such until we’ve made cycling and walking in this town safer - ideally by replacing bus service with rail service. (Adding, we know that whole ‘Stop at the red light thing’ is not exactly Muni buses’ forte.)
Buses are a dead-end. No amount of money and marketing will ever change that.
It’s hard to see what’s going on. Forward to about 2:50 and hear a cop pull the trigger at about 2:55. Then see the victim laying limp on the ground, on his stomach. The victim is in the front part of the screen, to the left, not one of the guys all the way in the back. Well, I guess that demonstrates how useful the video is without someone explaining exactly what is going on. Apparently the victim was up against the wall, with a few cops holding him down or something. Maybe the lesson is to not say, “Don’t shoot me,” because it always seems like that’s when the cops shoot you.
The video is really bad. This BART cop will never be convicted in a court of law in this country.
It seems fashionable these days for the federal government to appoint ‘czars’ of various kinds - drugs, war, whatever. BikePortland mentions a so-called ‘river czar‘.
There is no more effective way for us citizens to relinquish control over public resources than to cede them to a ‘czar’ - a ruler, emperor, dictator, etc. As citizens, we get rights, but we also have duties and responsibilities - as JHK is fond of pointing out - so we should not be complicit in this shift to authoritarian titling.
I know someone will want to talk about a ‘bike czar’ or some other nonsense, and I figure that’s about the most direct way to absolve ourselves of our own duties and responsibilities, while giving too much power to a single person.
Someone will retort, “You don’t actually think that people will believe a czar is going to ‘rule us’ or something do you?”
Words have meaning. The democracy deficit in America is so strong that we don’t even object to titles like ‘czar’ any more — we have to start paying attention to this stuff, and challenge long-held conventions of all kinds, like the supremacy of the car. The process is as important as the end result, and a good process is the best way to get a good end result.
Mayor Boris says he is doing this to relieve congestion, and part of the reason London is still congested is because buses take up too much room, and they’re not being utilized. Would-be cyclists are also afraid of them, as they should be. If you put in some streetcars, you’ll immediately see some significant results in modal shift and decreasing congestion.
Motorbikes scare the living daylights out of cyclists, so they should not be tolerated anywhere near cyclists. If someone does something so plainly anti-cyclist, then that person is, in fact, ‘anti-cyclist’ in their policies - regardless of whether or not they call themselves a cyclist, regardless of whether or not they say they are actually seeking to increase cycling numbers. Don’t let cognitivie dissonance get the best of you - call it like you see it. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Building on a bunch of the previous posts, I wanted to offer what I think is one of the ways we can look at how to restore livability to our cities. It’s called The Double WhammyTM.
It means, in effect, doing exactly the opposite of what the auto industry, and GM in particular, did so many years ago - but we will do it without breaking the law.
The car people did two things:
Flooded cities and towns with cars.
Took away transit.
The car people accomplished 1. in any number of ways — by selling junky, low-quality cars that were dangerous not only to streetcars and horses and walkers and bikers, but even to the car drivers themselves, by buying city councils to make sure anti-human, car-friendly city laws were passed, by buying off regional and national politicians to gain their support for subsidizing the building of local, regional, and national highways, by buying off regulators, by illegally monopolizing the market, you name it — they did it all.
The car people accomplished 2. by buying up and then dismantling the streetcar operators, tearing up all the tracks and destroying most of the railcars in the process.
So, here’s how we will reverse the destruction of our cities:
Greatly restrict the number of cars in the city.
Provide transit.
To accomplish 1., we can use decongestion pricing to start, but also increase tolls, increase parking costs, etc. — essentially, start charging cars for the true value of the goods and services and humans they are using and destroying, to continually reduce the harm we allow cars to do to the city and its residents. We will continue to improve the city gradually, step by step, until all of its cancers have been removed, including all cars.
To accomplish 2., we can continue to build more and better walk, bike, and rail infrastructure (buses are not transit). To achieve success in the shortest amount of time possible, we need to think politically, which means we need to provide real transit to people, and buses are not real transit. By the time we’re done, every person in San Francisco should live within a mile of a streetcar/light rail/metro line. We will continue to take space dedicated to automobiles and hand it over to pedestrians, bicycles, and rail - in that order. Will will continue to build more and better rail solutions. We will look at decongestion pricing for transit to make sure that transit is super-high quality and always improving. Human-powered transport should be given very high priority over motorized transport. We will look at instituting more real transit from every direction headed into San Francisco, including and especially North Bay. We’ll remove traffic lanes from the Bay Bridge and replace them with rail. We’ll look at doing the same on the Golden Gate Bridge, else we’ll hand over more space to walkers and bikers, and we’ll look at running the SMART train down from Larkspur all the way to the Transbay Terminal.
The end goal is to remove most automobiles from most cities - to make room for humans, just like GM and crew removed most streetcars from most cities - to make room for cars. We are going to carry out the same exact process GM did, but in reverse, and at every step of progress towards this goal, we will be achieving a healthier, safer, more vibrant, exciting, fun, and livable city.
It has to be both whammies at the same time — it can’t be only one of them: 1) Restrict cars and 2) Build more and better transit.
That’s what this blog says. If that’s true - and I’ve no idea - we could roll out streetcars on Geary, keep running the regular buses, then grow from there however we wanted. Maybe get some big, nice-looking trams. That increases the capacity of the corridor dramatically, gives us bikers and walkers a lot more room to take away from cars, and everyone is safe from hulking, twisting, sliding, crashing, and burning bendy buses.
Here are some notes from the London episode of this great series. The episode title is ‘London: The Price of Traffic’ - it’s definitely worth your time. My own thoughts are in red:
London learned how to do decongestion pricing from Trondheim
Decongestion charge worked initially….then congestion went back up
why? well, lots of space was reallocated back to pedestrians and bikers and buses - and lots of road construction work [construction? bogus. why not just raise the fees? and why not start introducing real street-level transit, like trams and light rail? why fill the streets with underutilized buses? at least someone be brave enough to pitch the idea of real transit.]
5% modal shift from cars to public transport (unique in any world city) [let's see how other cities with real transit systems, like NYC, compare]
Taxi driver says way too many buses in the central area….that adds to congestion…. central buses running at ‘20%’ capacity…mayor says stats stack up his claim that buses and bus-only lanes are working…. but he’s given free transport to everyone under 18 who is in full-time education [this is why you need real street-level transit - throwing more and bigger buses and bus-only lanes at the problem won't help -- there's nothing for free in this world except advice from yours truly]
“Transport for London” - unified transportation agency to do planning for all modes - walk, bike, train, car, etc.
Decongestion charges raised the quality of life of the city…made the city more livable… not easy to quantify that value, but it’s very real…
“100 Public Spaces” - focus on what we’re trying to do as a city. A city growing as fast as London should be used to improve the quality of environment…[not sure if Boris canceled this or not]
Trafalgar Square got a lot of money for redesign…it used to be a highway….Taxi driver didn’t like result of redesign… too much congestion… 15-20 minute waits sometimes, now [sounds like cabbie is exaggerating. but, wow! so many cars, huge buses, etc. what a total *#**@*@* disaster London is.]
small investments can transform a city beyond recognition…
Parliament Square is different type of project from Trafalgar Square… Dope buildings all around area… Big Ben, etc. [highway-like...unreal.]
Shared space scene [hilarious. traffic is so loud when it comes crushing by that we can't hear the guy speaking. worst idea ever. 'fewer accidents' cited. 'pedestrians and cyclists more terrorized' not cited. he said something about pedestrians and cyclists and motorists and everyone having to come to 'an understanding' or something. how do they say in England? Brilliant! I have those 'understandings' with cars all the time right here in SF -- I understand that if I don't get out of their way, I'm going to be a wet spot on the pavement.]
Earlier scene had pedestrians *sprinting* out of way of onrushing motor traffic
London has an urban boundary, just like Portland
Stratford… poor area of town. 2012 Olympics preparations. Trams and bus infrastructure is going in.
Bendy buses cause more than twice as many injuries as any other bus, according to official figures seen by the Standard.
More than 90 pedestrians and cyclists were injured by the new vehicles last year.
Two people, including a 12-year-old girl, Blessing Olayiwola, have been killed by bendy buses in the last six months alone, even though there are only a few hundred of them.
The figures will be seized on by critics who want Transport for London to scrap the 60ft long vehicles. However, the Standard has learned that TfL may introduce them on even more routes. The statistics, released by the Mayor to London Assembly member Geoff Pope, show the new buses caused 115 per cent more pedestrian injuries than other types of buses per million miles operated.
Bendy buses were involved in 1,751 accidents over the year - 75 per cent more than other buses, the figures reveal.
This is an average of nearly five a day, and more than five accidents a year for every bus in the fleet. The vehicles caused 170 per cent more collisions with cyclists - nearly three times as many as conventional buses.
Mr Pope, chairman of the Assembly’s transport committee, said: “These figures are alarming and worryingly high.
“There appear to be defects in the design of the bendy bus, but there’s no sign these can be overcome. TfL should urgently review whether all the routes currently operated by bendy buses are suitable for them.”
Lynda Lynch, whose 79-year-old mother suffered “horrific” injuries after becoming trapped in the doors of a bendy bus, said: “How can TfL expect one person to drive two buses joined together and man three doors? They are a death trap.”
Charlie Lloyd, of the London Cycling Campaign, said: “We are very concerned to see this. Buses cutting into cyclists are one of our members’ biggest complaints.”
Blessing, 12, died instantly when she was struck by a No 12 bendy bus in Peckham Rye, near the junction with East Dulwich Road in December. Her father Jonathan, 50, was driving another No 12 that evening and heard about the accident, which happened close to the family home in Nunhead, over his vehicle’s radio.
Today’s figures show that bendy buses cause 5.6 pedestrian injuries per million miles operated, compared with 2.6 for all other buses.
They are involved in 2.62 collisions with cyclists per million miles, compared with 0.97 for other buses. And they have 153 accidents per million miles, compared with only 87 per million on non-bendy routes.
Bendy buses were introduced from 2002 onwards, often to replace London’s popular Routemasters.
Levels of fare-dodging on the new vehicles, which have unsupervised “open boarding,” are about three times higher than on conventional buses.
TfL claimed bendies had more accidents because they “encountered more road users” than non-bendy buses.
TfL is also pressing ahead with new purchases of bendy buses. Around 30 vehicles are being bought for the 453 service, raising the possibility that the route’s existing bendy buses will be redeployed on to other routes.
That’s the whole article, and it’s from about a year ago.
Apparently, London’s bendy buses have been very good at catching on fire - first four years ago - and then at least once more recently - I’m having trouble keeping track.
I’m telling you - that English sense of humor - killing me. The 14-year old kid, James Galbraith, had that great quote, with a smirk on his face:
The bendy bus safety record does leave a lot to be desired. They do keep bursting out in flames.
I read a comment somewhere that said our bendy bus BRT routes would not use overhead wires. That’s cool. At least I’ll be able to hear those killers coming up behind me. And I think that whole ‘global warming’ thing is a bit overrated anways.
I’m not exactly sure what it will take for people to start getting indignant about having these killers roaming our streets - maybe you just have to witness horror:
A woman who saw the lifeless body of a man dragged a mile by a bendy bus today told of her horror.
Lee Beckwith, 21, fell as he got off a bus in Ilford High Road and became trapped beneath the wheels of the Number 25. His body became dislodged a mile away in Romford Road, Manor Park, and passers-by alerted police.
Mr Beckwith, a tiler who lived with his partner in Brentwood, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Krisztina Keresztes, 26, was on the Number 25 bus behind the one that killed Mr Beckwith when it was stopped by police. The waitress of Ilford, who was on her way to work in Hackney, stepped off the bus and saw the aftermath.
She said: “Police stopped us and said we had to get off because someone had been hurt. When I got off I could see a man’s body lying in the road and a trail of blood behind it.
“The trail went up the street where he had been dragged and there was also blood on the road that had been left by the wheels.” She added: “I don’t understand how he could have been dragged so far without anyone knowing he was there or stopping the bus. It’s so terrible and I only hope he didn’t know too much about it.”
We can’t expect bus drivers to stop being human just because they get behind the wheel of a bus — they’re going to make mistakes — lots of them — especially if they work for Muni.
This article has some interesting takes on everyone’s favorite BRT, Transmilenio!
Anyone who has visited Bogotá in recent years will have seen them, those big red articulated buses that seem to dominate the streets. At first, this public transport system may be a little intimidating so here are a few tips to get you started.
Funny you mention that, Jonathan, that’s exactly the case I’ve been trying to make — that even if our BRT bendy buses don’t run us cyclists over, they’ll do a good job of scaring us off the streets, and preventing new folks from taking up cycling.
But there’s more:
Once the bus arrives, make sure that no one can get past you because there will certainly be people trying to do so.
…
4. Getting into the bus can be a minor war. Do not think about others, just about yourself. Remember that everybody else is doing the same and nobody is going to offer you a seat. Be fast, try to get a seat, and try not to hurt anyone in the process.
6. Be very careful. While Transmilenio is relatively save, there will always be people trying to take advantage of travelers not paying attention and pickpocketing unfortunately still occurs. Keep your hands on your pockets or better, make sure that your possessions are well covered and hard to reach.
7. While some rules should be followed, one that really doesn’t need following is the ‘don’t stand near the doors’ rule. When the bus is very full and you’re trying to get in, you just have no choice. The doors turn inwards and as long as you turn along with the door (keep your back towards the door), nothing bad can happen.
Basically, a substantial part of the article is about how packed the buses are — one of the major criticisms of BRT systems — they just can’t handle heavy loads without passengers being subjected to extreme conditions, like being packed in like sardines. This, of course, is uncomfortable, it has writers telling you to only look out for yourself, pickpockets have a field day, etc.
Pedicabs are great for a whole bunch of reasons, but institutional bias against them will remain strong - and taxis won’t like the idea of competition.
The main reason I dig pedicabs is because they’re a direct replacement for motorized traffic. But I’m also happy because they do real work - they highlight utility cycling - that will help change perceptions. I’m also excited about the idea of making tourists happier by giving them what they want - the best experience San Francisco has to offer. I’m also excited about pedicabs becoming popular enough where we have to build real bike infrastructure — forcing cars to give up some of the space they now occupy in order to accomodate more suitable transport - human-powered transport.
Building on a bunch of the previous posts, I wanted to offer what I think is one of the ways we can look at how to restore livability to our cities. It’s called The Double WhammyTM.