To some degree, Ms. Bent and Mr. Cleaveland both live in their own respective fantasy lands. Mr. Cleaveland is in car fantasy land. He believes we can continue adding cars ad infinitum to City streets. Whereas, Ms. Bent is in SF Transportation Authority fantasy land as she believes Muni is a world-class public transit system. Despite these extreme views, or perhaps because of them, this is a great discussion.
Ms. Bent doesn’t do a great job explaining why the City needs congestion pricing. Indeed, the City DOES need congestion pricing. Here’s why:
Fridays are usually busy, and this Friday was no different. Even though I didn’t get out until an hour later than usual I was still able to make almost $200. This Sunday, however, was very quiet. I didn’t even make $100.
I was lucky and got an unusually large number of airports on Friday. I must have gone to SFO about 4 times.
I took a SF resident and her friend from Italy to Church downtown. They were talking about dinner and the host said that they were planning to go to an Italian restaurant later that night. The Italian lady pitched quite a fit. She made it pretty clear that any Italian food outside of Italy is crap.
I took a guy to the Eagle. I learned they are home to an infamous Sunday all-you-can-drink party from 3pm to 6pm on Sundays. If I ever get the day off this sounds like a fun thing to check out.
I took a young couple from the Lower Haight to the Inner Sunset to look at another apartment. They had looked at 6 or 7 places the day before and were on their 3rd of the day. They had only been looking for a week. I didn’t bore them with my rant about rent control causing all these problems, but I did console them that if their search only takes a week they’ve set a new record for shortest housing search in the City.
Sunday was a very, very quiet day, but for some reason everyone tipped really, really well. I’m not sure if they realized it was a tough day to work in the City, or if I paid extra attention and made an extra effort to converse since passengers were few and far between. Perhaps both.
Friday I drove a spare car, one of the fleet’s two Chrysler Sebrings. I’m not a superstitious person, but I get a good feeling when I start off with a ‘good car’. A car qualifies as a ‘good car’ if it has less than 200,000 miles, all lights work (headlights, turn signals, top light and brake lights) work, the heating/ventilation system works, and the brakes aren’t worn down. Spare cars, like the Sebring, are usually pretty crappy, but this one was okay. Thanks, Sebring.
The kicker is that there is almost no correlation between whether or not I’m driving a ‘good car’ and how much I earn. Only if the top light is out can that really impact earnings. The rest is up to the chaotic chance of demand for taxis during a given shift.
I tried to brainstorm which Muni lines (warning — large .gif) are best to find stranded passengers. After some brief thought, it turns out almost all of them are good. The 1-California and 47/49 (along Union) are great on weekday mornings, as their passengers are anxious to get to work on time to impress their bosses and they have excessive disposable income. The 38-Geary is one of the busiest lines west of the Mississippi so there are always people waiting, but the buses are pretty frequent so stragglers hail only when things get really bad. The 24-Divisadero (along Divis) is great because its frequency is inadequate for its ridership and at peak times can get caught up in traffic. The 14 and 49 (along Mission) are best early in the morning when frequency is low and the BART does not run. 22, 33, 71, N, J, F and cable cars are other good lines to poach. The 19-Polk is a notable exception. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Muni exile from the 19-Polk.
Today I let a few buses merge into my lane. Usually I’ll blow past them even if they have their left turn signals on, indicating passenger pickup is over and they’re ready to merge with traffic. Sometimes I feel bad for the old beasts, especially the articulated rolling stock. I have a hard enough time not hitting the idiots that jaywalk without looking. I couldn’t imagine what it’d be like with a vehicle 4 times the size of my car.
The National Association of Broadcasters has commissioned 30 second advertisements meant to warn consumers about the impending shift from analog to digital only television transmissions.
This DTV transition will render analog TV over-the-air broadcasts — those received by TVs connected to antennas — dark when the switch takes place in February 2009, a little more than a year away.
Here is one of the ads:
Note: I couldn’t embed the national spot. It’s available here. (It’s just as bad.)
Awareness ads are necessary as most people don’t understand the DTV conversion and how it affects them. But, these particular ads don’t help. They are confusing and ineffective for two reasons:
The call to action is indirect. You don’t want people to visit a website, you want them to buy $50 converter boxes. This is not clearly explained in the ad.
The target audience for these ads are older, old-fashioned consumers that will not connect with these ads. These are the majority of people that still use over-the-air (OTA) TV. They are likely not to have Internet access or be moved by flashy graphics.
Instead, these ads should say: “Your television will stop working February 2009 if you receive TV signals over-the-air. TVs with rabbit-ears type antennas or TVs connected to an antenna on your roof are types of TVs that will stop working February 2009. You need to purchase a $50 DTV converter box available at local electronics retailers before February 2009. If you pay to receive television over cable or satellite, you do not need to purchase this converter box. If you are confused by this message, call this number or visit this website for clarification.” They should have CLEAR, NON-MOTION visuals that are easily processed by the elderly that still receive OTA broadcasts.
It’s odd. You’d think that the NAB with all its elderly staff would be able to understand this. (That was intended as a sarcastic jibe against NAB’s antiquated ways and opinions.)
PS. Here’s the punch-line: I first saw one of the NAB DTV transition ads on CNN — a cable network! I understand the NAB is happy to get as much free exposure it can, but people that can receive CNN telecasts do NOT NEED A CONVERTER BOX! Talk about adding to the confusion.
First, a nicely written commentary on Wired suggests that you should unlock your wireless router! It’s not as crazy as it sounds.
Second, a well funded startup called Meraki claims it will create a free wireless network across San Francisco. A bit of digging reveals that Meraki manufactures inexpensive mesh networking devices. They usually charge for the devices, about 50 bucks each.
This time they’re giving them away for free in San Francisco if you live in an area where they need additional mesh coverage. All you have to do it plug it in or put it on your roof (it evidently works with solar power).
But here’s what I don’t understand:
Where is the backbone connection to the Internet? They’re building up a mesh network at no cost to the users, but who is willing to share their DSL or Cable Internet connection for free? Not nearly as many as are wiling to plug in a little box. But, maybe enough to get basic Internet coverage.
How will they make money? My guess: the basic Meraki service will be free. It is served by the backbone of volunteers that let people suckle on their DSL or Cable ISPs. But, Meraki will offer a higher-tier service with guaranteed faster throughput and greater reliability serviced directly by connections to a backbone that Meraki pays for. Just a guess.
UPDATE:
Here’s the answer to question 2. It looks like Meraki will monetize this free Internet access with a toolbar:
Hmm, I wonder how people will like that. I guess they’ll deal if it’s free.
I condensed my usual rant about peak medallions down to a 2 minute piece for a KQED‘s Perspective. It’s a quick op-ed that airs during the morning drive time. It will air again on Saturday morning.
It sounds a bit odd to hear my own voice, but it was a fun process to write for the spoken word and record it at the station.
In some ways, blogs are great. They present frequently updated writing with a nice user interface that emphasizes recent postings first. But, most blog interfaces (including this one) bury old postings even if new, interesting and worthy comments are posted. I did my best to address this by adding some of the widgets you now see on the right that show recent comments and top viewed posts regardless of recency of writing.
Porter Bibb, the head of an investment company that tried to purchase The Weather Channel a few years back, gushed about TWC as did a few other interviewees.
Why? What makes The Weather Channel such a great deal?
I drove late in the night on New Year’s Eve. As a recent beginner in the world of cab driving, I am a ‘day driver’, low on the taxi company totem pole. I cannot drive during the lucrative hours of 5 pm to 12 am.
As such, I was very lucky to get a cab at 1 am. I waited in the garage for about an hour before my name came up.
kfarr 
