Senator Boxer-

Thank you so much for taking the time to contact me regarding mass transit and the many benefits it provides.

I would say mass transit in the San Francisco Bay Area is fairly decent, but there are so many poorly served areas beyond SF MUNI that really need to be brought up to par. An example that is close to my heart is Marin County, which is where I commute 4-5 days a week for work.

For reference, the 27 mile trip by car takes about 40 minutes, there is a one-way toll at the Golden Gate bridge for $5 with FasTrak, and the cost of gas, which in my case is about $6 (2 gallons at $3/gal). So total cost of the trip by car per day would be $11 and about 1 hour 20 minutes of my time.

Right now, the cheapest way for me to get to work in Novato (according to 511.org), from San Francisco, is an itinerary that includes a 28 minute walk (which sounds great actually) and three different buses. It would cost $7.85 one-way, and 2 hours and 20 minutes of my time (again, one way).

So the grand total, for me to get to and from work in Novato by public transportation, is $15.70 a day and 4 hours and 40 minutes of my time. This is absolutely absurd and is only a single example. I am sure there are many others out there who have to commute much farther at a much higher monetary and time cost.

I would like nothing more than to be able to work in the same city in which I live, but not all of us have that luxury. If you are really interested in mass transit, I urge you to focus on closing the gap with the costs of driving, for the whole Bay Area, not just San Francisco. Otherwise you’ll have a system that no one can afford the time or the money to use.

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Chris  Rosa

So, in frustration, I shot off an email this past Saturday to the contact address I found on the Golden Gate Bridge website, and just received the following response. Kudos to them for getting back to me so quickly, even though it wasn’t really with the response I was hoping for.

Since 2002, in response to increased southbound traffic and decreased northbound traffic during the evening hours, the Golden Gate Bridge roadway has been routinely configured with three (3) lanes north out of the City and three (3) lanes south.

Beginning Monday, November 2, 2009, in response to changing traffic patterns, a new lane configuration was implemented for the weekday evening commute periods: the Golden Gate Bridge roadway proper will now be routinely configured with four (4) northbound lanes out of the City and two (2) southbound lanes into the City starting about 5 pm to 5:30 pm each weekday evening.

Golden Gate Bridge lane configurations are based on real-time traffic demand and to accommodate extenuating circumstances such as accidents or special events, with the underlying goal of providing reasonable mobility for everyone without causing undue hardship to anyone.

Over the past several months, northbound congestion during the evening commute period has increased dramatically to the point that the inconvenience to our northbound customers has become unreasonable. Therefore, a decision was made by Bridge Management to reinstitute four (4) northbound and two (2) southbound lanes during the weekday evening commute period. While this configuration may introduce some delays for southbound traffic, it will provide significant relief to our northbound motorists.

So there you have it. I guess we’re stuck with the setup unless a significant number of Southbound commuters start to complain. It’s the reverse commute, so it’s doubtful it will change anytime soon.

Street View Sub-Contractor?, originally uploaded by chrisr.

Spotted this vehicle today on the way to Molly Stones. I’m guessing it’s for creating the pano photos for Google’s Street View, but perhaps someone else is deploying something similar. Earthmine.com has nothing beyond login and email links. The domain is registered to some dude in San Francisco at a company called SurfaceWise.

Some decent signage, finally., originally uploaded by chrisr.

It looks like with the addition of the new (and now infamous) T Line, SFMTA has actually hired a graphic designer! /boggle