Where Kriss and I agree

I'm with Kriss Worthington on at least two issues: No on KK, and Yes on Proposition 1.

Climate Action Plan needs congestion pricing policy

Berkeley's Climate Action Plan (CAP) needs a congestion pricing policy. I will be submitting comments about this before the March 7 comment deadline. Meanwhile, Bern Grush's Grush Hour blog has some good background on arguments to add congestion pricing to Toronto's CAP.

Flagspotting

Bicycling my daughter to school yesterday, I told her to watch for an American flag, as it would indicate a polling place. Although we passed several likely locations, we saw no flags, until, just before we arrived at her school, she pointed out a flag on a city garbage truck! Fortunately I was able to convince her that ballots weren't being deposited there.

Let's follow Sweden's example

Expanding bus service won't take nearly as many cars off the road as congestion pricing will. Sweden is the latest example.

Audio of Transportation Commission workshop, 7/24/07

Audio of Berkeley Transportation Commission Bus Rapid Transit Working Group public workshop to discuss impact of BRT on southside of UC Berkeley campus. Audio edited to remove inaudible portion when small groups were meeting. 1 hour, 47 minutes, a 51.4MB MP3 download. Listen.

Audio of Transportation Commission meeting, 6/21/07

Audio from last night's Transportation Commission meeting, 3 hours and 12 minutes, a 92.5MB MP3 download. Listen.

Bus Rapid Transit EIR meets the Berkeley public

EIR, meet Berkeley. Berkeley, meet EIR. Audio from last night's Planning Commission/Transportation Commission/Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee meeting, about 2 hours, a 57.5MB MP3 download. Listen.

Revenge of the bollards

Jeremy Wagstaff: "The UK city of Manchester has introduced something called 'retractable bollards' (non UK folk may call them posts) that sink into the ground when an approved vehicle approaches...the only problem is other drivers." Great video.

Cool site shows next BART trains overlaid on Google Maps

I study Web site "mashups" but I don't know exactly how this site was created, or how it's maintained. But it's COOL! It overlays the BART stations on Google Maps and then pops up a list of the next trains coming to each station, and where they're headed. I'm sure this is based on BART's printed schedules and not real-time information. But wouldn't it be cool if BART created something just like this where the info was updated every few minutes?

Casual carpool attempted carjacking

A guy in a casual carpool from Hercules to San Francisco tries to carjack the car. This story may drive a few people back to public transit.

AC Transit introduces TransLink

AC Transit introduces TransLink to Transbay Riders. Speakers: Victoria Wake (AC Transit marketing and community relations manager), Lisa Fine (AC Transit senior marketing representative), and Ken Rhodes (AC Transit customer services manager and TransLink project manager). Recorded November 14, 2006. Listen. (51:29)

Berkeley Candidates: District 8

Broadcast-quality audio from Tuesday night's Willard Neighborhood Association Candidates' Forum. District 8 pits incumbent Gordon Wozniak versus challenger Jason Overman. Listen.

Berkeley Candidates: Mayor

Broadcast-quality audio from Tuesday night's Willard Neighborhood Association Candidates' Forum. The Mayor's race pits incumbent Tom Bates versus challengers Zelda Bronstein and Zachary Running Wolf. (Another mayoral candidate, Christian Pecaut, did not participate in the forum.) Listen.

Berkeley Candidates: District 7

Broadcast-quality audio from Tuesday night's Willard Neighborhood Association Candidates' Forum. District 7 pits incumbent Kriss Worthington versus challenger George Beier. Listen.

Parking should cost more in Berkeley

I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Welcome to Berkeley: We're full

...of cars. that is. But there are more on the way, courtesy of an expanding Caldecott Tunnel. What's wrong with this picture?

Podcast: NextBus meets AC Transit riders

Last month, NextBus briefed the AC Transit Task Force and Transbay riders at their monthly lunchtime meeting in San Francisco. NextBus is a service that provides information about future bus arrivals. I made an audio podcast of the meeting, available in two parts, here and here. Recorded Feb. 14, 2006.

Berkeley red light camera warning phase begins

Those new digital cameras going in all over Berkeley are being turned on this Friday, May 27. For the first 30 days, the city will send out warning letters. After that, red-light runners can expect to receive minimum $331 penalties in the mail.

These cameras are not perfect, and it'll be interesting to see how long it takes for the first court challenge to occur -- either on the accuracy of the cameras, or (especially in Berkeley) on privacy grounds (this is a town where putting RFID chips in library books has ignited a firestorm). There are also lots of email spammers out there offering to sell folks something to put over their motor vehicle's license plates to thwart cameras from getting a clear image of the plate.

Is public safety worth it? I think so. It might also keep intersections clearer and thus facilitate the movement of buses around town. We'll see.

BART moves toward daily parking charges in the East Bay

A welcome development: BART will hold a public hearing Thursday on implementing daily parking charges in some or all of its East Bay stations. Too bad it took a fiscal crisis.

More details here.

BART plans fare increase, may add more parking charges

Yesterday BART posted a preliminary budget for 2006. The budget proposes an expected 3.7% fare increase. The current proposal does not include any new charges to park at BART parking lots, but at a public hearing on April 28, the BART board will consider adding such charges at six unnamed stations. The preliminary budget states: "New Paid Parking Programs under consideration include: Single Day Reserved and Reserved Parking Area Expansion/Daily Paid Parking at six stations/West Bay Long Term/Airport Parking."

BART staff is projecting the system will run a deficit of $30.4 million in Fiscal Year 2006. Currently, to close that gap, staff is proposing eliminating 115 positions, half of which are currently vacant. No reduction in train frequency is proposed except perhaps in the West Bay "depending upon the outcome of discussions with SamTrans," but train lengths may be shortened according to BART load factor policies.

In addition to the public hearing April 28, BART will discuss the budget during its administrative committee meeting on April 14. It will consider approving revenue enhancements, such as parking charges, on May 12. Finally, on June 9, the board will adopt the final budget.

More information available at http://www.bart.gov/news/press/news20050401b.asp. The preliminary budget document is downloadable as a PDF at the bottom of this page.