Matthew Roth at Streetsblog discusses San Jose’s Transportation Impact Policy 5-3, which identifies intersections in infill areas where the city has chosen to let level-of-service (LOS) levels drop (and traffic increase). For these ‘protected intersections’, the impact fees from new development will go towards bike/ped/transit improvements rather than wider streets and expanded intersections.
Streetsblog San Francisco » San Jose Provides Model for Bay Area Growth and Transportation Needs.
Alice Lai-Bitker, Alameda County Supervisor and chair of the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority Board, discusses safe routes to school and transportation funding for walking, biking, and access to transit.
My Word: Walking to school can help society as a whole – Inside Bay Area.
Matthew Roth at Streetsblog discusses the latest on proposed changes to the State’s CEQA guidelines, with revisions by the Natural Resources Agency.
The article also discusses responses from Bay Area cities and local and state advocates.
Streetsblog San Francisco » CA Poised to Reform Auto-Centric Level of Service Environmental Rules.
Transportation officials are revisiting the issue of consolidating the Bay Area’s numerous, sometimes overlapping transit systems. There are currently 28 transit operators in the Bay Area, all now suffering fiscal strain during the economic crisis.
Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area’s transportation planning and financing agency, said the region needs to look at how to streamline not just the administration and oversight of transit agencies but also the services they offer and the fares they charge. Instead of having to transfer between multiple systems, paying a different fare each time, passengers should be able to take a single service in many cases, and pay a single fare.
David Owen, author of Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability, discusses congestion pricing and sustainability in the Wall Street Journal.
He argues:
There’s nothing green about fighting congestion if, by distributing traffic more efficiently, it results in an overall increase in traffic volume and extra miles driven by vehicles avoiding the fee areas.
From his perspective, programs like metering and congestion pricing do not work to promote energy or carbon emission reduction goals, since they make the car infrastructure more efficient and convenient, which works similarly to expanding highways to induce additional car travel.
He goes on to propose that:
A truly effective traffic program for any dense city would impose high fees for all automobile access and public parking while also gradually eliminating automobile lanes (thereby reducing total car traffic volume without eliminating the environmentally beneficial burden of driver frustration and inefficiency) and increasing the capacity and efficiency of public transit.
Congestion Pricing and Its Effects on the Environment – WSJ.com.
City of Berkeley staff have developed a draft locally preferred alternative (LPA) for AC Transit’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route through Berkeley, Oakland, and San Leandro.
The LPA document gives a comprehensive look at the proposed route design, the options considered in developing the LPA, the implications of the design, and strategies to address impacts.
Yestereday we posted a link to a report that says that making a neighborhood more walkable increases property values. As a reflection of this, popular real estate website ZipRealty has added Walk Scores and distances to transit to its web listings. It turns out one of the most common home search questions is, “How long does it take me to get to work?’
You can read about walkable neighborhoods and rate your own home at Walk Score.
Like many Bay Area transit operators, SamTrans has proposed service cuts in response to reduced funding. To minimize impacts, the agency has focused on lines where there are other service options. Officials estimate that more than 1,300 of the district’s 56,000 average weekday riders will be displaced as a result of the service cuts; most of the affected passengers will be able to switch to BART or Caltrain.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_13303409
More than one Bay Area county is looking into bicycle-sharing facilities, which are starting to pop up around the globe. The latest North American city to announce a new Bicycle Sharing System is Boston, Massachusetts.
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010366.html
To see how many other cities have adopted bicycle sharing, visit the Bike-Sharing World Map.
Would you ride one of these bicycles if it was parked at your transit stop?
Streetsblog reviews a CALPIRG and Smart Growth America report on how California is spending its transportation stimulus money. California is spending a larger percent of stimulus on new highway capacity than 41 other states.
Streetsblog San Francisco » CALPIRG, Smart Growth America Slam State Stimulus Spending.