The California High-Speed Rail Authority says it was caught by surprise this week with a letter from the Bay Area Council and regional transportation agencies calling for a revised high-speed rail plan on the Peninsula, including slowing down the speed of the high-speed trains and not building any new overpasses so that Peninsula communities won't feel so put out. more ›

As we've discussed earlier, wealthy Peninsula communities like Palo Alto and Menlo Park have been seething for years about the plan to bring the LA-SF high-speed rail line through their pristine environs. They've filed some lawsuits that would require the CA Rail Authority to rewrite their environmental impact studies, and brought a 1,000-year-old tree into the argument. The latest lawsuit contends that the authority "gamed" their computer models that predicted ridership demand for the train in order to prove that it was necessary to route the train south from S.F. to San Jose, over the Pacheco Pass to the Central Valley, rather than east and over the Altamont Pass, following the route of 580. You see, some people in Palo Alto would rather see them build another damn bridge over the Bay than have the train come anywhere near them. more ›

Opponents of the proposed high speed rail, which would extend from the Bay Area to Los Angeles have brandished their latest weapon: a tree. It seems that Stanford’s iconic Redwood, “El Palo Alto,” is directly along the route of the system. more ›

It's going to be a far busier-than-normal meeting of the SF County Transportation Authority tomorrow. There's huge stuff on the agenda: updates on the bike plan; millions of dollars being thrown around for the Transbay Terminal; $160,000 for reducing graffiti on street signs; potential changes for Geneva Ave and McAllister Street, including a possible permanent re-route of the 5-Fulton; safety upgrades at 9th and Irving; and some forward momentum for restoring mass transit on Geary to pre-WWII levels. Whew! more ›

Photo of the long wait for a 5 Fulton MUNI bus more ›

Get ready to go down a transit rabbit hole. more ›

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. more ›

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! more ›

Earlier this week kissy couples were wading through roses and red tissue paper deeper than an east coast snow dump and singles shook a tiny, lonely fist (no ring!) at it all. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Valentine's season is in the can, finally. more ›

Look at that. Apparantly paying a visit to the Michelin Man for some "better tires" is higher priority than rescuing Muni or Bart. Or maybe public transit made the very bottom of the list because she knows damn well that making Muni and Bart run on time is antithetical to everyone who works in those organizations. more ›

Yeah, San Francisco's nice, we guess. But you know what it REALLY needs? Parking garages. Yeah, get rid of that stupid Yerba Buena garden, and that useless Golden Gate Park, and that , smelly Mission. We're sick of coffee shops, park benches, covenience stores, murals, and jerks like Supervisor Daly (who's sponsoring legislation that would prevent construction of free-standing parking garages in SF, and limit apartment-building parking spots) who are blind to the unadorned beauty of a squat concrete bunker that reeks of gasoline and pigeon droppings. more ›

First MUNI announced they wanted to raise fares. Then Caltrain hopped on board the fare raising train (ha! we made a pun). And now BART. Why, raising fares is the new black. Thanks to the usual assortment of reasons- budget shortfalls, rising employee benefits, mismanagement- BART is now facing a budget deficit of $53 million dollars. Unlike MUNI, the BART Board doesn't want to cut service, but is proposing a combination fare hikes, cutting discounts to children and seniors, staff layoffs, and raising parking fees. Oh, and introducing valet service at some of the more popular parking lots. Yes, valet services and no, that doesn't sound elitist at all. At a meeting last week, BART directors heard from the horde of angry commuters who raised the fairly decent point that with gas prices so high, raising fares to make BART prohibitively more expensive might not be the smartest thing to do (maybe it's because we only got a C in economics, but if there's a belief that lowering prices can increase profits by making it cheaper for people to buy things and crack dealers often sell their crack at a low cost to get more people hooked, wouldn't that also be true of public transportation? Like if you lower fares, maybe more people would ride and more money would be brought in? But what do we know?) The Board of Directors pretty much shrugged their shoulders in response. more ›