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Rescue Muni's handy new blog reminds us that Tuesday's TA meeting will tackle the topic of dedicated bus lanes on Geary. That includes opportunities for public comments, which are always well-reasoned and insightful. Bus lanes (or Bus Rapid Transit, as nerds call them) would speed up everyone's commutes: no more pulling in and out of traffic means faster buses, faster cars, and a 25% rise in bus ridership according to a recent study. That means more people can get to and from the Richmond; a good thing for everyone.
As always, the project's being held up by a one or two critics who insist that nobody wants to move any faster on Geary than they already do, and that people who ride buses never buy things from merchants, and that the transit authority is secretly motivated by a desire to eliminate all local business. Ooookay. But aside from a kooky shampoo peddler, everyone else is pretty psyched about faster travel on Geary, especially since the plans could eventually one day morph from buses to light rail. Don't miss your chance to skip out of work Tuesday morning to give the city a piece of your mind: it's at Tuesday, May 8, at 10:30am in City Hall room 263.
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I hope to be there tomorrow to PLEAD for sanity and the most BRT Geary BRT possible. DAmn... if they water this down with some lame ass side-land BRT I will be really pissed. I mean, if you are going to go and spend the money and make such a change, why not make a real change that could really help folks get around town? Of course, a subway would be nicer....
A subway would be nice...and expensive. I'd rather spend my money on BART going up Geary rather than the Metro. However, know how long BART takes to build things. Money well spent on a well-designed BRT system would be fine with me.
I think you are being a little disingenuous with your characterization of the opposition of small business owners. There is a real fear that these sort of projects hurt business and after the T third debacle I don’t blame the more honest merchants.
Zig,
The BRT along Geary is far less invasive than the construction of rail. One of the Rescue MUNI members conducted a straw poll amongst a group of businesses on Geary. Most either didn't know about the BRT, or were in favour of it.
Honest or not, the status quo is not working, and David Heller is standing in the way. David Heller opposes public transit, and I'd say Matt's characterizations are pretty right on. You want a wild characterization? How about this: David Heller's genius plan to increase traffic to Geary businesses is simply to put up a bunch of "America, Open for Business" stickers.
www.sunsetbeacon.com/archives/richmondreview/2002editions/Feb02/hellerhtml.html
Like it or not, something needs to be done. I, for one, will not patronize any of the businesses (including Heller's) that pay dues to the Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association until Heller takes more constructive action. Well, okay, that's a bit of a red herring, as I don't patronize Geary businesses anyways because it's simply too difficult to get out there.
Nonetheless, Heller needs to do SOMETHING constructive. Even engaging in reasonable discourse would be a giant step in the right direction for Heller.