Urban Tech Links: UTL: Search results for SF Bay Area

For as long as the Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s trains have screeched across the region, a feeling has lingered among its loyal and would-be riders that the transit service could be so much more.

It was initially envisioned as a system that would reach across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Wine Country while also stretching into the western neighborhoods of San Francisco. BART, however, has never quite lived up to the designs of its original muses — despite being, perhaps, the most influential manufactured system in the region.

The pandemic didn’t help matters. BART ridership numbers dropped off a cliff after March 2020, and a prominent bond rating company recently warned that BART and other U.S. transit systems heavily reliant on fares are “expected to face sizable budget gaps” in years to come.

I’s not just the stuff of dreams. Numerous studies and reports published throughout its first 50 years tease at this potential idealistic future for BART and its riders. But even as BART continues to plan for future expansion, achieving some version of that vision has never felt more tenuous than it does on the 50th birthday of the region’s most popular rail system.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic spiraled BART toward an uncertain future on many fronts.

Today, roughly 38% of BART’s pre-pandemic ridership has returned since April 2020, when it cratered to just 6%. The historic drop in ridership brought more urgent questions to the forefront about how BART will financially recover from a pandemic that has severely undercut fares, BART’s main pre-COVID revenue source, and how the system will reinvent itself.

Then there’s the lesson of history that many plans for expansion and development of the BART system materialized in times of unprecedented growth in ridership.

It means forecasts about the future remain muddy, more than two years out from the pandemic, and a firm picture of what the region’s new transportation patterns will be in a post-pandemic world have yet to fully come into sharp relief.

“Our role in the region is evolving,” Val Menotti, BART’s chief planning and development officer, said. “On remote work, we know that will be part of our future. But at what level, to me, it’s not clear, and it may not be clear for a couple of years.”

Still, even in these trying times, the region’s planners and transportation leaders view BART as an important linchpin that better connects the Bay Area’s disconnected rail and bus transit networks together to build a future “world-class rail system.”

Once-in-a-generation expansion projects, such as BART’s extension to Silicon Valley, are under way. The four-station expansion will take riders deep underground to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, at an estimated cost of $9.8 billion, when it tentatively opens at the end of this decade.

The pandemic also hasn’t stopped BART from planning for its second Transbay Tube. The transformational project, if realized, could create a new BART line and boost its capacity to transport people across the bay while better connecting the fragmented rail networks in the Northern California “megaregion.” It’s an issue that reached a critical point in 2016 when ridership peaked at all-time highs...

e-in-a-generation expansion projects, such as BART’s extension to Silicon Valley, are under way. The four-station expansion will take riders deep underground to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, at an estimated cost of $9.8 billion, when it tentatively opens at the end of this decade.

But pandemic or no pandemic, the extraordinary costs of building rail expansions in the Bay Area and the region’s dismal track record in delivering on these sorts of massive projects on time and under budget is key to why many of these plans remain pie in the sky.

It will have taken almost half a century for BART’s Silicon Valley extension to reach conception to completion. The second Transbay Tube will have taken longer and will require BART and the Bay Area’s patchwork of local governments to raise the tens of billions in funding it needs to become reality. //www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/bart-future-17428345.php

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2022/09/28/eyes-on-the-future-of-caltrain/

Monday, June 28, 2021

bay-area-transit-projects

https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2019/bay-area-transit-projects/

https://burritojustice.com/tag/bart/

https://abc7news.com/hidden-freeways-san-francisco-that-were-never-built-bay-area/4680898/

https://burritojustice.com/2013/02/14/timerider-sf-bay-interstate-edition/

Monday, March 24, 2025

New-report-revealing-SF Bay-Area-bridges-are at risk

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/what-know-report-revealing-bay-area-bridges-risk-20234831.php

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Capstan Station on YVR-Canada Line in Richmond

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/capstan-canada-line-station-in-richmond-to-open-friday-9984359 Why design the old & new stations to eventually accomodate 8-10 car trains? The Catheter Line wasn't even designed to officially accommodate enough space for 5 car trains. Thus, in accordance with the BC antigrowth mentality or slow growth agenda, the stations were only designed to eventually just have 2.5 car trains. However, even in 2025, the Catheter Line will still only be using 2 car trains. All the SkyTrain stations should have been designed to eventually be 150.5 meters long, just like the Montreal Metro stations, with even more long-term provisions. Unfortunatly, the first 2 lines only have 80m stations & the C+Line only has a clearance for 50m stations.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-capstan-station-canada-line-opening-date

The Vancouver_City_Centre_station is diagonally across the street from The+Bay+Building+in+Vancouver. However, despite being what is supposed to be a major underground station, its noticeably smaller than the underground train stations in Edmonton & Seattle.

It's been very difficult to get urban planners in BC to properly plan for future transportation demands. The main excuse is governmental budgetary constraints. Even if that's usually the case, at least build half the length of a proper size urban station, with a provision to eventually double or triple its length, for future demand. However, that would go against the Greater Vancouver congestion planning mentality. Thus, even if you have the skills, once you get to BC, you realize that several things are watered down & you must think small or backwards.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/video/c3050886-metro-vancouver-facing-population-boom With the Metro-Vancouver-population-expected-to-reach-4-million-by-2045, BC is so unprepared & inept, as usual. https://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/metro-vancouver-expected-to-push-past-4-million-by-2045-as-growth-accelerates-7717888

There seems to be an outright refusal in the Metro Vancouver Region to avoid building up to the same level of infrastructure as when Greater Toronto, Greater Montreal, Greater Seattle, Greater Sydney, Greater Melbourn & the SF Bay Area, all exceeded 4 million people.

Going into 2025, the SkyTran will still only have 2-4 car trains, not counting the old Mark 1 rolling stock. By 2025, every SkyTrain should have consisted of 6-8 car trains, not the two-car & four car congested joke that it is.

There is no valid reason as to why the Greater_Vancouver Region can't eventually have an urban train system on par with the Montreal Metro & a regional train system that's as good & frequent as the GO Trains or the Caltrain.

The refusal to build proper bus & truck bridges to help the mostly narrow bridges, still seems to be a half-assed pipedream. Yet, the GV Region pretends that it will eventually have a good Rapid Bus Network without bus-bridges.

While the GV Region is supposed to be a major seaport, there is still a false_front approach to things. How can this false-front & half-ass approach still be the norm in backwater BC? Not only should all the freight-train bridges be at least double tracked, there should also be truck port bridges.

The Oak_Street_Bridge, Knight_Street_Bridge & the Queensborough_Bridge are all so narrow, there is no room for truck & bus lanes. Therefore, a truck & bus bridge should be built next to all of them. Otherwise, everything can just continue to be funneled into only 2 lanes each way.

Of course the Arthur_Laing_Bridge wasn't designed to have 2 bus lanes & 2 truck lanes. Yet, a lot of trucks have to be able to get in & out of YVR. Why have any bus lanes when busses & trucks can all be funneled into only 2 lanes each way? Even though the C-Line doesn't run 24hr a day, the North_Arm_Bridge should have had two 24hr bus lanes & 2 bike lanes & a provision for a middle track. Instead, the narrow North-Arm-Bridge only has 2 tracks & just 1 bike lane.

Fortunately, watered down Greater Vancouver & backwards BC hasn't been able to get most place around the world to adopt such a ridiculously reduced infrastructure approach to things.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Canada+Line

Officially, there is no A Line, B Line or C+Line, but that seems OK for backwards BC.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Hullo Ferries celebrates a busy first year, and looks ahead to growth and expansion

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/hullo-ferries-vancouver-nanaimo-high-speed-ferry-service-statistics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Ferries NSW can do so much, because it was never under anything like the Vancouver restrictions & the backward BC mentality in general.

https://transportnsw.info/travel-info/ways-to-get-around/ferry#/

https://www.myfastferry.com.au/destinations/circular-quay/

https://www.sydney.com/articles/best-ferry-trips-in-sydney

https://www.transdev.com.au/solutions/sydney-ferries/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Ferries#Network

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferries_of_San_Francisco_Bay How can the SF+Bay+Area do so much? That's because it never had anything like the backward BC mentality to thwart it.

https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Ferries_on_the_Bay

https://sfport.com/ferry

https://sanfranciscobayferry.com/

http://calurbanist.com/san-francisco-bay-ferries/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferries_of_San_Francisco_Bay#Current_ferry_routes

Monday, January 20, 2025

An ‘arctic intrusion’ that has brought temperatures will feel as cold as -26C to the GTA

https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/2025/01/20/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-arctic-intrusion-that-has-brought-temperatures-that-will-as-cold-as-26-to-the-gta/

Fortunately, no one from backwards Vancouver or backwater BC was ever able to thwart or stunt the progress of Montreal & especially Toronto from becoming real mighty cities. Calgary & Edmonton have also benefited by not being under anything like the backwater BC mentality.

Unfortunatly, most of Canada gets crappy cold winter weather & before things got ridiculously expensive in BC, people would increasingly move to Victoria & Vancouver to escape the harsh winters.

Greater Victoria hasn't been allowed to become a mighty city like Sydney, Australia or Montreal. Thus, it remains as a quintessential provincial backwater. Watered-down Vancouver hasn't been allowed to become a major city like Seattle. Indeed, Greater Vancouver's urban planning agenda has done almost everything possible to make sure that nothing on the scale of the GTA, the SF Bay Area or Melbourne, Australia exists in backwater BC. All one has to do is look at how small & inept most of the infrastructure is.

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Rising Seas in SF Bay Area

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jVj_PTFBlo

Thursday, October 16, 2025

The VTA BART extension to San Jose is a mess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZrrtF8Iy8k

Is San Francisco's New Transit Center a Waste? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o3YX9SS2MU

San Francisco's New 2 BILLION DOLLAR Subway! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zpRyg7zF10

How San Francisco's Hills Saved its Streetcars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QIR_QRv3OA

San Francisco's Muni Metro: Things You Didn't Need To Know https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S35ILOitdh4

SF Bay Area

Monday, May 25, 2020

SF BA regional-planning

https://www.spur.org/policy-area/regional-planning

https://www.spur.org/news/2020-05-13/spurs-covid-19-coverage-and-response

https://www.spur.org/publications/white-paper/2015-09-11/improving-regional-planning-bay-area

https://www.spur.org/about/our-mission-and-history

https://www.spur.org/sites/default/files/publications_pdfs/SPUR%27s_Agenda_for_Change_2016.pdf

Thursday, September 29, 2022

SF central-subway-project

https://www.sfmta.com/projects/central-subway-project

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/resources/transit/article/what-could-bay-area-transit-look-like-in-2040-15104867.php

https://www.streetcar.org/what-might-have-been-geary/

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

sf ba

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/07/10/immense-growth-makes-bay-area-worlds-19th-largest-economy-google-facebook-apple-adobe/

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/07/09/million-square-foot-office-complex-sprout-downtown-san-jose-google-village-site-apple-facebook-amazon-adobe/

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Bay Area high-speed rail

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-train-to-displace-hundreds-17468285.php

Monday, June 28, 2021

Southern (SF) Crossing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Crossing_(California)

https://www.sfgate.com/local-donotuse/article/Feinstein-Southern-Crossing-Bridge-MTC-DeSaulnier-14838437.php

In November 2019, it was reported that the Southern Crossing is still not dead. https://www.cahighways.org/ROUTE380.html

https://www.sfgate.com/local-donotuse/article/Feinstein-Southern-Crossing-Bridge-MTC-DeSaulnier-14838437.php

https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2019/bay-area-transit-projects/

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

The BC carbon tax and the lack of proper big city infrastructure

The British_Columbia_carbon_tax doesn't seem to have greatly improved the transportation infrastructure for Vancouver, as it's the largest city and urban area in BC. It's very strange that the Greater Vancouver Metropolitan Region is still so far behind with its infrastructure, when compared to several other urban areas around the world.

https://www.taxpayer.com/newsroom/b.c.-carbon-tax-not-reducing-emissions-as-promised

The first 2 Skytrain lines only have stations that are barely half the length of a Montreal Metro train. Indeed, the Montreal Metro & the Toronto Subway built most of their stations to be 152.5m or 500 ft long, not the 80m & 50m joke that is Skytrain. All of the Skytrain lines should have been designed to eventually accomodate 8-10 car trains. Despite Vancouver & backward BC not taking a big city planning approach, there is a potential remedy, in the form of Selective_door_operation technology. This would allow for the potential of 7 car trains with only the middle 5 cars accessing the short station platforms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_carbon_tax#Effects

The Canada embarrassment Line was only designed to ultimately just have 2.5 car trains, not 5 & certainly not 8-10 car trains. The first significant challenge would be to adapt the extremely short stations to accommodate 3 car trains. Then again with Selective_door_operation, the middle 3 cars of a 5 car train could access the station.

https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/content/just-facts-please-true-story-how-bc-s-carbon-tax-working

Most bridges in BC are so narrow that it's almost impossible to have a proper regional express bus network.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/clean-economy/carbon-tax

It's as if somehow not enough funds went towards The+Pattullo+Bridge+replacement. Despite having some good bike lanes & sidewalks on both sides of the bridge, when it opens it will be too narrow to accomodate 2 bus & HOV lanes. Thus, cars, trucks & busses will all have to squeeze into just 2 lanes each way. There didn't even seem to be any proper communication & planning to ensure that there would be 2 emergency lanes. So good luck in trying to get ambulances across what is supposed to be a major regional crossing. There is no provision for a lower deck, which could allow for rapid rail transit & extra truck & bus lanes. Thus, this new PB bridge is one of the best examples of the symbolic resistance in BC to build proper infrastructure that can accommodate future demand.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/sales-taxes/motor-fuel-carbon-tax

The 3 lane Lions+Gate+Bridge just might be the best example of congestive planning in modern human civilization. At least the Benjamin_Franklin_Bridge in Philadelphia has 7 lanes & 2 train tracks. The Sydney_Harbour_Bridge has 8 lanes & 2 train tracks. Homer_M._Hadley_Memorial_Bridge in Seattle is part of an 8 lane crossing with 2 LRT tracks. The 10 lane Narrows_Bridge_(Perth) also has 2 train tracks. The San_Francisco-Oakland_Bay_Bridge has 10 lanes with 10 car BART trains running under the SF Bay.

https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-carbon-tax-drama/

https://www.pembina.org/pub/bc-carbon-tax

https://cleanenergycanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Carbon-Tax-Fact-Sheet.pdf

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Pattullo+Bridge