The NY Times reports on the sad news that the New York State Assembly vetoed New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to charge drivers to enter Manhattan during peak times.
While I do not understand the legal wrangling between agencies such that state representatives vetoed a local city measure, I do understand the underlying strong fear [...]

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is a bureaucratic whale, containing, in separate stomachs, the Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) and the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) public transit system.
Recently, the SFMTA crunched some numbers and said, “Uh oh, we won’t have enough money to cover our costs over the next two years.” [...]

While driving Sun-Mon (1am-12pm)

These few days were slow, slow, slow. I find it funny that I have such a hard time estimating how much I’ll make beforehand. It’s almost like gambling. The only ’sure-fire’ well-paying weekends are those with big street fairs or festivals, or huge conferences at Moscone Center.
I get a bit more stressed [...]

My shift starts around midnight. I usually eat ‘breakfast’ around 1 or 2am if it’s slow. I’ll sit in line at the 18/Castro unofficial taxi stand, at the 24-Divisadero bus stop, and eat a slice of pizza for my first meal. This time an Indian guy came up to my cab, completely drunk, and demanded [...]

(Photo Credit)
On a recent episode of KQED’s Forum, Dave Iverson discusses the possibility of congestion pricing in the City with two main guests: Ken Cleaveland, director of government and public affairs with the Building Owners and Managers Association and Zabe Bent, senior transportation planner with the San Francisco Transportation Authority.
To some degree, Ms. Bent and [...]

This excellent article in Slate discusses the hidden costs of parking. I won’t attempt to summarize, it’s worth reading in its entirety.
Link
It got me thinking about the cost of parking in the City, especially residential parking permits. Is $60 per year a market price? Or, is the City government subsidizing the cost of owning a [...]

San Francisco 1900: Average speed of public transit 8.0 mph*
San Francisco 2007: Average speed of public transit 8.1 mph (SF Gate)

What went wrong in the past 107 years? How has the San Francisco City and County increased average transit speeds by only 0.1 mph in a century?
The photo comparison above shows a central travel corridor [...]

The Examiner reported two pedestrians were killed this weekend. One death may have been a suicide, but the other was a direct result of the City’s continued negligence to provide a safer mix of transport modes on our streets.
A woman was struck and killed at Pine and Fillmore. Pine street is a timed signal one-way westbound parkway. [...]