HVAC

East Bay’s Transit Month, Progress on J.F.Ok. – Streetsblog San Francisco

Here are a few streetsblog news nuggets to start your weekend off.

Proponents of East Bay Transit are pushing for better transit.

About 50 transit advocates and elected officials attended an event in Latham Square, Oakland Friday to call for the restoration of service and priority for transit. “This is a critical moment for transit in the East Bay. It seems like the recession is forcing us to cut service every ten years. That forces drivers into cars. For our climate and social justice, we need to reinvest in our systems operations with new sources of income, ”said Darrell Owens, vice chairman of the East Bay Transit Riders Union and one of the speakers at the event.

The Latham Square meeting was part of the larger Transit Month celebrations across the Bay Area to bring service back to pre-pandemic and beyond. According to a press release from Seamless Bay Area, which aims to integrate timetables and tariffs among the Bay Area’s 30 or so transport companies, the event provided the opportunity to:

  • Show your support for public transport for its important role in our communities
  • Thank you to the operators and employees for their tireless work
  • Call everyone to make more use of local public transport
  • Support post-pandemic recovery and further expansion of local transport, including redesigning our roads to make local transport a priority.

For more information on the month of transit and how to get involved, please visit the website.

Supervisor Connie Chan is promoting a completely car-free JFK?

JFK booth

Supervisor Connie Chan hasn’t made many friends in the community for safe roads lately with her support for the closure of the Great Walkway (turning it back into a freeway for de facto exclusive use by motorists). But she posted a letter from JFK Drive this week that looks pretty promising. From lawyer Emily Huston on Twitter:

Hold your handlebars, looks like Connie Chan is promoting a truly car-free JFK!
The press release has laudatory quotes from two supporters (@JaniceForBART and @walksf) as well as all of the recent opponents … which makes me nervous. pic.twitter.com/NTrZZ2zued

– Emily Huston (@ ehuston101) September 9, 2021

Streetsblog will keep an eye on this. According to the Twitter thread, several supporters were skeptical of de Young Director Thomas Campbell’s call to ensure “safe access for people with disabilities” for those who “need to drive.” That doesn’t make sense as the museum has underground parking with its own underground street leading to Fulton Street. The garage has 800 parking spaces, including ADA spaces directly in front of the museum entrance. The ban on cars on JFK trips has nothing to do with museum access. But the “Legislative text includes access for motorists to JFK on 8th Ave for ADA parking * on the JFK drive *,” emphasized supporters of the Great Walkway in the thread.

Still, it is a very encouraging sign that the letter appears to be supported by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Walk San Francisco. Let’s hope all the harmful details can be corrected. Make sure to check out the thread.

BART scraps the last of his lemons

BART C2 train.  Image: Wikimedia CommonsBART C2 train. Image: Wikimedia Commons

BART trains are not all created equal.

BART is reaching certain milestones as it is slowly replacing its old fleet. Last week the agency scrapped the last of its C2 trains, see above. Of all the old BART trains, the C2 bought 30 years ago had a bad breakdown history. BART was happy to see her go.

From a BART version:

The last of BEARDThe troubled 1990s wagons known as C2 wagons have left the building. The C2’s had more than their share of driver and worker issues and were strategically intended as the first cars in the old fleet to be completely decommissioned. The last one was scrapped in August.

C2s were most likely to have had HVAC failures resulting in hot cars and driver ailments. The driver’s cab was cramped with sliding windows that were prone to failure. Engineers and mechanics had to find solutions to problems such as overshot windshield wipers and passenger doors jumping out of lane, car shutdowns and delays.

BART now has 23 new “Fleet of the Future” trains in operation. As Streetsblog reported in August, the agency is still working with the manufacturer to iron out teething problems with the new fleet.

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