Results tagged “actransit”

Today, the Obama Administration announced plans to fork over $6-plus million to AC Transit of Hayward, "to help reduce global warming, lessen America’s dependence on oil and create green jobs." The funds come from the Economic Recovery Act, and will be yet another boon to the growing eco-industry in the Bay Area.

A new piece in the East Bay Express tells the tale of AC Transit's decision to move forward with a $28 million purchase of 12 zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell buses -- that's just over $2M per bus, and the same total price tag of 55 hybrid buses. Robert Gammon in the Express calls this a "boondoggle," and points to President Obama all but eradicating the federal fuel cell program due to costs.

Demian Bulwa at the Chronicle reports on some depressing info found in the search warrant affidavits filed in court by police in the Halloween murder of Ichinkhorloo "Iko" Bayarsaikhan. The teenagers who supposedly gunned down "Iko" bragged about shooting her soon after they fled the scene on an AC Transit bus back to Oakland. According to the story: As the youths rode an AC Transit bus back to Oakland afterward, one of the suspects...

Three boys -- possibly ruining their lives at the wee ages of 15, 16, and 17 -- were arrested yesterday, all of then booked on suspicion of murder. The fuzz believes that the three of them were among the five boys who tried robbing a group of friends hanging out at Washington Park in Alameda, killing one of them. "One of the assailants fired several shots in the air and then shot Ichinkhorloo in...

Bad day on the transportation front yesterday: so someone got stabbed on a MUNI bus yesterday afternoon around 1 p.m. at 16th Street and Mission, and on the morning commute, southbound 880 near Hayward was completely snarled after people discovered body parts all over the highway. Turns out a person walking on the highway was hit by several cars early in the morning. And on Wednesday night, an AC Transit bus was in a seven-car pileup.

We've ridden Muni's new hybrids along both the 27 and 48 routes for a couple of weeks now, and our experience has been slightly mixed. The good aspects are that the buses are sleek and extremely quiet, and their layout seems more ergonomic and conducive to large amounts of people getting on and off on a frequent basis. There are many more straps for standing passengers to grab onto, and every vertical pole has a "next stop" button. The buses are also lower to the ground, eliminating the need for steps, and they appear to be more wheelchair-friendly, although we haven't observed the boarding of any yet. The seats are arranged in a way that makes each one desirable to sit in, and we love that there are now three single-seats as opposed to the old diesels that had only two. The back of the bus is now on a platform -- much like AC Transit's buses, which almost feels theater-like.

Sigh. For those of us for whom a MUNI FastPass is not enough (i.e., with commutes outside the SF city limits), we really have been eagerly awaiting The One Card To Rule Them All Translink system, which promised to let you buy one magnetic card that would give you access to all Bay Area public transportation systems. No more fumbling around for BART tickets, or waiting in line by the cable car to buy MUNI passbooks, or frantically flipping around your credit card so the stripe faces the right way in the ticket-buying machine right as the Baby Bullet starts ominously clang-clang-clanging an imminent departure to the South Bay!

Here you see an image of construction on Stillman and Third Streets that started a few weeks ago, more or less. (What was a precocious orphanage was violently burned to the ground to make space for a much-anticipated Bed, Bad, and Beyond! No, not really. We kid you.) A new overpass is going up in place of the old one, and we’re dying to know what it will look like. (Rumor has it that...

Route Pier, the ferryboat fleet, and lastly the Bridge Railway into downtown San Francisco. The Key System initially was part of businessman “Borax” Smith’s method to attract San Francisco workers to live in the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and Piedmont, where he dealt in real estate. ... Key System’s bridge rail would be converted to bus (1958). Key itself would be taken over by AC Transit (1960).

And how is the commute going after yesterday's maze meltdown? So far, so good. Reports are that traffic into the maze was light, as probably everyone who commutes over the Bay Bridge, their dogs, and their fish knows what happened. It's still early yet so we'll see what happens tonight and until the overpass gets fixed.

ith fare evasion and it's effect on MUNI's budget being one of last week's big stories, we thought we'd ask our MUNI driver what the what is about all things MUNI fares. And remember, if you have any questions you'd like answered, send them to editor@sfist.com

Yes, New Year's Eve is considered amateur hour. Which is never really our problem with it. Like Halloween, New Year's Eve is one of those holidays where you feel like a loser if you don't have like at least three or four things to go to. Or if you don't go out. It might be better in the long run to avoid going out but for those few moments when the ball drops and everybody's popping champagne and a whole bunch of people are kissing people they shouldn't necessarily be kissing, staying at home by yourself and watching it on TV ain't that much fun. That's why we like wearing headphones when we're home on this night-- that way you can pretend nothing is going on around you.

An AC Transit bus was involved in an accident this morning, injuring three. The whole thing happened right around 8 in the morning at the intersection of Seminary Avenue and International Boulevard. What happened was a pickup truck ran a red light and slammed into the AC Transit bus. Damn red light runners. The bus then hit two parked cars and slammed into a building. The injured included the bus driver, a passenger, and the driver of the pick up truck. No word yet on how serious the injuries are.

You know that totally obvious idea of creating some sort of general pass that works on the plethora of public transportation options? And you know how it's so obvious that you want to bang your head against the table that it hasn't happened yet. Well, it's happening, finally. Or at least a trial run of it.

We continue our conversation with Nathaniel Ford, Muni's executive director. If you need to catch up, here are parts one,two, three, and four and five.

Let the ambulance-chasing jokes begin! A Stanford law student has pled no contest to charges that she stole an ambulance and drunk-drove it around town last October. Julia Powell, through her lawyer, claims it was an unfortunate combination of alcohol and the painkillers she was taking for shin splints. Shin splints? Are they giving people Ambien for that these days?

Well, now we feel guilty for taking BART to get to Oakland: the good drivers of the AC Transit won first place at the American Public Transportation Association "Bus Roadeo" event. AC Transit has won the roadeo six times in the last nine years. The event, considered the Super Bowl for bus drivers, tests customer service, auto mechanics, and driving skill (here's the handbook if you're interested; in .pdf) -- so drivers were tested on tight turns, narrow lanes, backing up and driving to the left, and professional appearance, while mechanics were given a variety of broken-down buses and busted diesel engines to inspect and fix. Meanwhile, customer service reps were given a variety of "scenarios" and evaluated for their creativity in handling them. This would be so excellent to watch on ESPN 2.

We at SFist are constantly on the search to make life better for you, and what could be better than flying like a superhero through our fave city via Google Earth, or racing around in a totally rad Pole Position car? When that gets old, here's a few more ways to use maps with an API interface that actually are helpful.

Hang up those K signs -- looks like we might be having a BART strike next week. Hey, at least it's not happening the Friday before July 4. So how you getting to work? For those of you in the East Bay, everyone says the Transbay AC Transit bus is remarkably easy, a beautiful ride over the Bay Bridge, and even more conveniently located near University Avenue than, say, the Ashby BART. And, as SFist Jackson noted yesterday, there's always casual commute, though we can't imagine it's going to be pleasant in any kind of car in the middle of the maze that day. Don't forget the ferries either! For those of you who BART within San Francisco, you probably live somewhere near the 14 Mission or 26 Valencia MUNI buses, or can trudge up- or downhill to a J (steep!). And for those of you who take BART to the Millbrae Caltrain, you can take the N, the 10, the 15, the 30, the 45, or the 47 bus to the 4th Street station, or, for those of you near 24th Street, you can take the 48 to the 22nd Street stop. Did we miss anything? Is anyone hitchhiking?

While stuck on BART for it's weekly hairball cough up, we couldn't but help enjoy the latest column by the Chron's Glimmer Twins, Matier & Ross, about the new head of BART (memo to BART-- maybe more people would take the train to the airport if you didn't break down at least once a week. After all, being late for work isn't nearly as bad as being late for a flight. And speaking of being late for work, when you hold a train at SFO for ten minutes before heading off to Millbrae, would it kill you to at least pretend that you are aware of the fact that some of us have connections to make?). Seems that the new head of BART, Zoyd (Zoyd!) Luce, a retired ex-mid-level flunkey, got just one whiff of power and has gone all Col. Kurtz over there. Get this-- he sent out a memo to BART General Manager Tom Margro proposing management cuts, eliminating "stipends" to top level executives, laying off an army of consultants, wage freezes for both employees and management, and taking away BART passes from everyone but employees. And wait, there's more! He even called for the laying off of BART police and the cutting back of employee pensions. We know! That's crazy talk.

You know how on Murder She Wrote, you were always like, why does anyone ever invite Jessica Fletcher anywhere, because someone always gets murdered when she's around? Well, Jessica Fletcher must be in San Francisco, because there's been four separate murders this week. On Thursday, two people were killed in the Alamo Square area (one at McAllister and Lyon, and another at Eddy and Scott), and over the weekend, two people were killed in the Potrero Hill area (one at 20th and Tennessee, another at 22nd and Vermont). In our own Casuistry incident, three teens in Pleasanton have been arrested for murdering a cat and hanging its body from a noose over a train trestle for passersby to see. Who comes up with ideas like this? And Oakland's going with humili-tainment as its latest get-tough-on-prostitution tactic. The Oakland PD will be installing cameras in areas known for prostitution and johns who are arrested for solicitation may have their pictures put up on billboards and bus stops. Dang! Adding insult to injury, they'll also take your car ("Come to Oakland in a Porsche, leave on AC Transit"), so there's that additional risk of waiting for a bus stop that has your picture on it. Oakland's not messing around.

Well, we're damn glad this season is over. Best performance of the year goes to Cal, even if they did get upset by Texas Tech in San Diego last week. Fact is, this is Cal we're talking about here. Why is nobody accusing them of choking, of not being able to handle the pressure of big games? Because they have no history of big games to compare with! The fact that Cal got to the Holiday Bowl, even if they were then somewhat embarrassed by the Red Raider's run-and-gun attack, means that the program is twenty times better than it has been for the last thirty years. What SFist finds ironic is that this season for Cal has been nearly a mirror image of the Texas Longhorns' season last year -- snubbed by a bigger bowl, Texas went to the Holiday Bowl only to lose to the underdog -- and since we're superstitious to the extreme, we're willing to bet all comers one expired AC Transit transfer that Cal wins the Rose Bowl next year. Stanford, well...good luck, boys!

BART will offer a $5 “flash-pass” which upon flashing, will let the rider travel anywhere. This offer is good from 6 PM til 3 in the morning and yes, that’s right, BART will run til 3 that morning. SamTrans will be free starting 11 that night and runs regular service and as for AC Transit and Golden Gate Transit, they'll be operating normal weekday schedules too. No free rides, but AC Transit will be offering a discount.