June 2, 20106 Comments on California State Parks with bike camping
Several state parks in California have hike-in, and bike-in site at designated camping areas. Unlike dispersed camping, this often means developed campgrounds with fire rings, a picnic table, toilets and sometimes even running water and showers. Most developed drive-in campgrounds in California charge from $20 to $35 per night, but the walk / bike sites range from free to $7 per night.
March 11, 20109 Comments on California Driver Manual and bicyclists
The California DMV recently published a new, 2010 edition of the California Driver Handbook. A change over previous editions is additional information about how motorists should behave around cyclists.
March 10, 20102 Comments on Caltrans adopts Complete Streets action plan
Caltrans Director Randell Iwasaki approved a Complete Streets Action Plan on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, directing state transportation agency employees to “view all transportation improvements as opportunities to improve safety, access, and mobility for all travelers in Calfornia and recognizes bicycle, pedestrian, and transit modes as integral elements of the transportation system.”
February 12, 20095 Comments on California budget agreement eliminates transit funds
If the new proposal to bridge the state budget gap is adopted, public transit providers will be finished commiserating over ongoing state budget cuts.
That’s because the latest plan to emanate from the “Big 5” budget negotiators doesn’t just cut public transportation funding – it eliminates it.
In the Bay Area, State Transit Assistance (STA) funds provide operational expenses for The Altamont Commuter Express Train. Santa Clara County VTA uses almost $10 million in STA funds to fund paratransit and other operations. Santa Cruz Metro receives about $2 million from the STA program. Monterey-Salinas Transit depends on STA for about 10% of their operating funds. San Benito County Transit will lose $200,000 of funding.
Already saddled with an 85 percent raid on available state funding sources via the budget adopted in September, transit operators throughout the state are now bracing for what has long been considered the “Armageddon” scenario – the abolition of the State Transit Assistance (STA) program, the only ongoing source of state funding for day-to-day transit operations. STA accounts for as much as 70 percent of the operating budgets of transit agencies in California.
Expected to be taken up during legislative floor sessions on Friday or over the weekend, the plan calls for $536 million in transit cuts, achieved through the cancellation of the remaining $230 million due to transit agencies from the September budget’s STA allotment of $306 million and the eradication of the entire $306 million in fiscal year 2009-10. The $306 million was established as a baseline figure after $1.8 billion in current-year transit-dedicated funds were diverted to fill non-transit holes in the General Fund.
Democratic leaders had originally sought to preserve the STA at a bare bones $150 million level, as contained in their December version of the budget. But the most recent reported agreement reveals an apparent capitulation to demands by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican leaders to completely eliminate the program.
“Are Republicans and the Governor that bent on destroying public transit that this one last crumb of funding is really seen as making a significant difference in the budget crisis?” wondered Joshua Shaw, Executive Director of the California Transit Association. “And why after indicating all along that they understand the dire circumstances faced by transit providers throughout the state did the Democratic leadership ultimately cave?”
Shaw noted that transit agencies throughout the state have already enacted or contemplated combination of fare increases and service reductions to cope with the $3 billion in state funding that has been raided in just the last two years alone, and warned that more such drastic measures are on the way. “We will see fare increases. We will see service cuts. We will see layoffs,” he predicted. “I can say that with certainty simply because we’ve already seen those things happening even before the state apparently decided to abandon its responsibility to fund public transportation.”
January 17, 20094 Comments on Cyclists to ride in budget protest
From the Mountain View Voice:
. . . local leaders are planning a community bike ride to protest any slashes that would affect children.
The ride will start at the El Camino YMCA on Grant Road on Sunday, May 3, and cover 27 miles through Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Los Altos — all in an effort to bring light to children’s rights, including the need for health and educational initiatives.
October 6, 20084 Comments on Caltrain hits truck in Burlingame
Southbound Baby Bullet train number 312 struck a big rig near the Broadway station in Burlingame this morning, delaying up to 15,000 commuters as Caltrain singletracked around the mess.
The tail of the big rig was reportedly hanging over the tracks when the express train screamed through the intersection. Witnesses say the gate crossing and signals were all working when the idiot truck driver, who suffered minor injuries, tried to beat the train through the crossing.
Photo by “AlienVenom“.