6 ms·

Is there any plan to improve the public transport? In a large city in the Midlands UK we have new 'platinum' express buses with larger seats, wifi and rather sw

Is there any plan to improve the public transport? In a large city in the Midlands UK we have new 'platinum' express buses with larger seats, wifi and rather swish branding. Same price as standard if you have a travel pass but more if you pay for an individual journey. Getting closer to the train service slowly. Metro coming on line soon as well.

thrownaway2424 11y ago
Regionally? Not really. The only thing coming is electrification of Caltrain, which has been under design for close to 20 years at this point and all they have to show for it is an environmental impact report. They haven't even put out the project for bidding yet. Even with electric Caltrain getting from San Francisco to places like Facebook, Apple, and Google will be a pain. Their major campuses are not well-sited for transit service. It's 3.5 miles from Palo Alto Caltrain to Facebook, and not a very nice walk at all.
- sjg007 11y ago
  There will be self driving cars by then.
pjlegato 11y ago
There's always lots of talk from the politicians about plans to improve it, but so far few concrete results. Within the city, the only thing that's actually under construction is a very expensive new subway to ferry tourists from the city center to Chinatown and back. There is also a segment of a high speed train intended to run from San Francisco through Silicon Valley and to Los Angeles, but much of that has been tied up in court by the many Silicon Valley municipal governments, who imagine that it will ruin the (non-existent for 60 years) quaint small town semi-rural character of the area.
bradleyjg 11y ago
A major problem is that there's no political unit of the correct size: San Francisco is too small and California is too big.
- pjlegato 11y ago
  Exactly. The local economy long ago outgrew the municipal structures. The state should do what New York City did a century ago and merge all of the tiny local governments into a single unified entity. San Francisco is a big city that hasn't yet realized it's not a small city anymore.
- HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
  Hmmm. Well, we managed to do it in the Minneapolis metro area. I live on a farm (obviously in a rural area) and I work in downtown Minneapolis about 40 miles and two counties away. I take an express bus to work every day after driving about 15 miles to a Park & Ride (free parking). Since it can use the HOV lanes or drive on the shoulder when necessary, the bus consistently gets me there in less than half the time of driving and I don't need to pay for downtown parking or deal with the stress of bumper to bumper traffic. The actual bus ride costs a little less than I would have to spend on gas to drive there. Minneapolis has made some streets in downtown bus-only in one direction so there is little intermingling of bus & automobile traffic. I have to say it works very well.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > A major problem is that there's no political unit of the correct size: San Francisco is too small and California is too big. If only there was a political unit -- say, maybe, a "district" -- of larger geographical scope than San Francisco, but smaller than California, focused on providing rapid transit for the San Francisco Bay Area...
  - pjlegato 11y ago
    The BART system you refer to was gutted. It met with heavy resistance from the local governments in the Marin and Peninsula suburbs who feared it would "alter the character" of their quaint semi-rural villages (which haven't been that for a very long time.) They got away with it and effectively blocked most of the planned system from ever being completed. Original plan: http://www.jakecoolidgecartography.com/regional-rapid-transit-bay-area.html http://www.jakecoolidgecartography.com/regional-rapid-transi...
dragonwriter 11y ago
> Is there any plan to improve the public transport? Yes, including, among others, the Silicon Valley BART Extension (which will provide a BART/Caltrain/Amtrak connection), and the Transbay Transit Center development (which ultimately is planned to provide a BART/Caltrain/Cal High Speed Rail/Many Bus systems connection in downtown SF.
- pjlegato 11y ago
  Yes, they are now, in 2015, talking about completing part of the southern loop of the system that was planned in 1956: http://www.jakecoolidgecartography.com/regional-rapid-transit-bay-area.html http://www.jakecoolidgecartography.com/regional-rapid-transi...

thrownaway2424 11y ago

Regionally? Not really. The only thing coming is electrification of Caltrain, which has been under design for close to 20 years at this point and all they have to show for it is an environmental impact report. They haven't even put out the project for bidding yet. Even with electric Caltrain getting from San Francisco to places like Facebook, Apple, and Google will be a pain. Their major campuses are not well-sited for transit service. It's 3.5 miles from Palo Alto Caltrain to Facebook, and not a very nice walk at all.

sjg007 11y ago
There will be self driving cars by then.

pjlegato 11y ago

There's always lots of talk from the politicians about plans to improve it, but so far few concrete results. Within the city, the only thing that's actually under construction is a very expensive new subway to ferry tourists from the city center to Chinatown and back. There is also a segment of a high speed train intended to run from San Francisco through Silicon Valley and to Los Angeles, but much of that has been tied up in court by the many Silicon Valley municipal governments, who imagine that it will ruin the (non-existent for 60 years) quaint small town semi-rural character of the area.

bradleyjg 11y ago

A major problem is that there's no political unit of the correct size: San Francisco is too small and California is too big.

pjlegato 11y ago
Exactly. The local economy long ago outgrew the municipal structures. The state should do what New York City did a century ago and merge all of the tiny local governments into a single unified entity. San Francisco is a big city that hasn't yet realized it's not a small city anymore.
HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
Hmmm. Well, we managed to do it in the Minneapolis metro area. I live on a farm (obviously in a rural area) and I work in downtown Minneapolis about 40 miles and two counties away. I take an express bus to work every day after driving about 15 miles to a Park & Ride (free parking). Since it can use the HOV lanes or drive on the shoulder when necessary, the bus consistently gets me there in less than half the time of driving and I don't need to pay for downtown parking or deal with the stress of bumper to bumper traffic. The actual bus ride costs a little less than I would have to spend on gas to drive there. Minneapolis has made some streets in downtown bus-only in one direction so there is little intermingling of bus & automobile traffic. I have to say it works very well.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> A major problem is that there's no political unit of the correct size: San Francisco is too small and California is too big. If only there was a political unit -- say, maybe, a "district" -- of larger geographical scope than San Francisco, but smaller than California, focused on providing rapid transit for the San Francisco Bay Area...
- pjlegato 11y ago
  The BART system you refer to was gutted. It met with heavy resistance from the local governments in the Marin and Peninsula suburbs who feared it would "alter the character" of their quaint semi-rural villages (which haven't been that for a very long time.) They got away with it and effectively blocked most of the planned system from ever being completed. Original plan: http://www.jakecoolidgecartography.com/regional-rapid-transit-bay-area.html http://www.jakecoolidgecartography.com/regional-rapid-transi...

dragonwriter 11y ago

> Is there any plan to improve the public transport? Yes, including, among others, the Silicon Valley BART Extension (which will provide a BART/Caltrain/Amtrak connection), and the Transbay Transit Center development (which ultimately is planned to provide a BART/Caltrain/Cal High Speed Rail/Many Bus systems connection in downtown SF.

pjlegato 11y ago
Yes, they are now, in 2015, talking about completing part of the southern loop of the system that was planned in 1956: http://www.jakecoolidgecartography.com/regional-rapid-transit-bay-area.html http://www.jakecoolidgecartography.com/regional-rapid-transi...