Report: Report: California’s drivers are the nation’s most stressed

By Gary Richards : contracostatimes – excerpt

California’s improved economy has brought commutes to an unprecedented slowdown from one end of the state to the other, making drivers here the most stressed out in the nation.

A nationwide report released late Tuesday found that motorists in California’s congested population centers spend nearly two work weeks a year stuck in creep-and-crawl traffic — nearly double the national average.

According to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and a West Coast traffic organization called Inrix, which surveyed traffic on 471 urban streets and highways across the country, an estimated $160 billion is lost annually in wasted fuel, lost income and lost time across the country while motorists cling to a steering wheel instead of a computer mouse.

The worst area is Washington, D.C., at 82 hours of lost time, but the top 10 is a roadmap from Northern California to Southern California: Los Angeles comes in No. 2 with 80 hours of delays, followed by San Francisco-Oakland with 78, New York at 74 and the San Jose area at 67. Riverside rounds out the top 10 at 59. Compare that to the national average of a measly 42 hours.

The California numbers have jumped five hours since 2010 and are expected to steadily creep higher over the next several years.

A number of solutions are in the works to ease some of the gridlock and encourage solo commuters to carpool or take public transit to work: Later this year BART will open a new line to the Santa Clara County border, a “Smart Highway” project on Interstate 80 from Richmond to the Bay Bridge will offer route alternatives, and the Interstate 880 carpool lane will be extended south of Oakland. Double carpool lanes are planned for Highways 85 and 101, and Interstate 580 in the Tri-Valley will get those plus express lanes… (more)

The three pronged approach sounds like what got us where we are. The only new idea is to stagger the work hours. At the rate we are robotizing jobs there won’t be many left soon anyway. All we will do is sit at home and wait for delivery. Stop removing traffic lanes and eliminating parking and you can clean up the traffic much faster. In fact, just replace all the lanes you removed and all the parking you took out and we would be much better off.

You can start spending the money on maintaining the fleet of municipal vehicles you have and quit hiring managers to clog things up. Fire the entire complete streets crew that is moving mature trees from the side of the street on Van Ness to the middle of the street, and putting in a BRT in the middle of the street. That little project is designed to make a lot of wealthy contractors more wealthy and cost the taxpayer billions of dollars while clogging the major North South state highway that connect s the Federal Freeways through San Francisco for years. Nothing they are planning will relieve the traffic.

Taxi Drivers Say SFO Lets Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar Break Airport Rules

By Jeremy Lybarger : sfweekly – excerpt
At a press conference on the steps of City Hall yesterday, The San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance (SFTWA), SF Yellow Cab, and Luxor Cab came out swinging against ride-hail apps at SFO.

“Cab companies are not against innovation. We love innovation. What [ride-hail companies] brought to the table is great. What they’re trying to attempt to do is good. We’ve learned from it, too. We have apps,” said Jim Gillespie, President and General Manager of Yellow Cab.

The issue, Gillespie said, is public safety.

Taxis in San Francisco undergo annual vehicle inspections by licensed mechanics, and cab drivers must pass Live Scan background checks and complete taxi and sensitivity training courses.

Ride-hail companies, by contrast, inspect their own vehicles, and the background checks their drivers receive are reportedly so perfunctory that last week San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon filed an amended complaint against Uber, alleging, “We learned of systemic failures in Uber’s background checks. They have drivers who are convicted sex offenders, identity thieves, burglars, kidnappers and a convicted murderer.”

Also at issue, according to taxi drivers, are rampant violations on the part of ride-hail drivers at SFO.

Ride-hail drivers are supposed to wait in the airport’s cell phone lot until a passenger pings them for pick-up, but according to taxi drivers, Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hail companies “troll” the terminal loops and idle curbside, waiting to be hailed. And although SFO claims to have issued $200,000 in citations against ride-hail violators, taxi drivers say the rules are loosely enforced.

To support their point, taxi drivers filmed ride-hail violators at SFO in June. Their video shows apparently empty Uber and Lyft drivers circling the terminals and parking curbside. (The video suggests that while Uber has since updated its app to default to drivers legally parked in the cell phone lot, Lyft and Sidecar have not.)

Stanley Roberts also got in on exposing Uber “cheats” during a “People Behaving Badly” segment last month… (more)

“There just doesn’t seem to be balance in enforcement,” said an independent consultant who works with Yellow Cab… (more)

The Teamsters Take on Tech Shuttle Unions

By Julia Carrie Wong : sfweekly – excerpt

When the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s controversial pilot program to allow Google buses (and Yahoo buses and Apple buses and Facebook buses) to use Muni stops for a small fee went before the SFMTA board in January 2014, neither Google, Yahoo, Apple, nor Facebook showed up to speak in defense of their commuter programs. The titans of Silicon Valley rarely stoop to conquer local regulatory bodies. Instead, the strongest voice in favor of tech shuttles that day came from Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation, the luxury bus and limousine company founded by Novato-born Gary Bauer in 1989. Over the course of the contentious hearing, representatives from Bauer’s touted their company as an important job provider to working class San Franciscans.

Bauer’s enjoys a cozy relationship with San Francisco’s political establishment. A Bauer’s VP stood behind Mayor Ed Lee when Lee announced the shuttle program in 2014, emails later revealed that Bauer’s believed it had a “handshake agreement” with the SFMTA to use Muni stops free of charge for the 10 years prior to the Google bus backlash, and Bauer’s buses ferried attendees at this year’s US Conference of Mayors from the Hilton to a tour of Uber’s headquarters. (Bauer’s did not respond to inquiries for this story.)

But that relationship is about to be tested by the Teamsters union, which is determined to ensure that the jobs created by tech shuttle companies are union jobs…

It’s a major vindication for the Teamster’s that on Aug. 21, the NLRB filed a petition for a 10(j) against Bauer’s, alleging that the company was guilty of the “unlawful foisting upon its employees of a textbook, sham ‘company union.'” The NLRB’s petition accuses Bauer’s of “making a mockery” of workers’ rights, describes the PCDU as a “charade,” and criticizes Bauer’s “carefully orchestrated scheme to prevent unionization.”

According to the petition, Bauer’s acted on the advice of its legal counsel, which explained to Bauer’s how to go about forming a company union. A Bauer’s supervisor, Clarence Murdock, persuaded employees to sign a blank piece of paper, “not disclosing that their signatures would be used to furnish a veneer of legitimacy to Bauer’s recognition” of the faux-union. Bauer’s then recognized the union and imposed a collective bargaining agreement — without any input from the workers supposedly being represented.

These charges come, not from the union, but from a federal agency, which states that “the facts overwhelmingly demonstrate” violations of the law by Bauer’s.

“Bauer knew a union campaign was inevitable, and sought an alternative he could control,” the petition states.

That may sound like John D. Rockefeller, but Gary Bauer is no John D. Rockefeller.

As for the Teamsters, at the SFMTA meeting, Doug Bloch warned the board members: “This fight is coming to Muni stops. It doesn’t look like it’s going away, and we’re not going away.”… (more)

Smart parking systems market is expected to reach US$ 177.10 million by 2022 globally according to new research report

whatech – excerpt

Smart parking system provides real-time information about the availability of parking space in a particular location, thereby enabling hassle-free vehicle parking while saving on time, cost, and fuel. It consists of low-cost sensors, real-time data collection and analytics, and automated payment systems that allow people to find parking in desired locations and pay for it in advance. the global smart parking systems market is expected to reach a value of US$ 177.10 Mn by 2022. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 20.2% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2022… (more)

This is the corporatization and creation of a new brand of industries that will charge us for everything that used to be free. Of course if the self-parking cars become a reality, it could be a short-lived industry. Who cars when it is all a hoax anyway, created scarcity aided by fear.

SFMTA Proposes a Car-Free Powell Street in Union Square

by Aaron Bialick : sf.streetsblog – excerpt

The SFMTA has proposed making crowded, traffic-clogged Powell Street in Union Square a car-free street on a trial basis. Removing cars from the equation would make the street function better for pedestrians and cable cars on the blocks between Ellis and Geary Streets.

As we wrote last year, it makes little sense to have cars on Powell, which is seen as San Francisco’s gateway for visitors. On this two-block stretch, private car drivers routinely block bustling crosswalks, create stop-and-go traffic that damages Muni’s world-famous cable cars, and obstruct intersections in the path of the 38-Geary, Muni’s busiest bus line.

The car-free trial has already been delayed due to the Union Square Business Improvement District’s resistance to what it calls a “rushed” timeline and insistence on delivery vehicle access throughout the day.

The SFMTA’s goal “is to have these changes in place before the 2015 holiday shopping season,” with signs and paint installed in November, according to an agency flyer [PDF]. An engineering hearing is tentatively scheduled for October 2, and an SFMTA Board vote on October 20, but agency staff said the dates aren’t confirmed…

Under the proposal, during a 12-18 month trial phase, cars and delivery vehicles would not be allowed on Powell except between midnight and 5 a.m., when cable cars don’t operate. This aligns with how “most business who responded” to an SFMTA survey already handle their deliveries. According to the SFMTA flyer, these businesses “indicated that they conduct their loading on a side street or during late night hours when the cable cars are not running.”… (more)

When you see the term trial phase you know that the plan is to avoid an EIR since the SFMTA can do anything on a temporary basis. That is how they get away with it. That is way if you care about the city and the poor merchants who are leaving at a fast clip, you will start to complain and write letters of indignation about these “trial phases.”

If, on the other hand, you don’t care what happens, don’t bother to do anything and just let it happen. Who needs a car when you have everything delivered by Google, Amazon or Uber? Hope you like buying their goods as well because that is what you will be left with for choices soon.

When A Zipcar Hits His Bike, One Critical Mass Cyclist Attacks With A U-Lock

By Caleb Pershan : sfist – excerpt

“[Dont’] pick fights with motorists, even (especially) if they’re itching for one,” writes San Francisco’s chapter of the international cyclist advocacy group Critical Mass.

But apparently violating that dictum and others — such as ‘[don’t] ride into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road — on Friday’s group ride one cyclist ended up doing just that in the Marina District.

The above YouTube video titled “Road Rage Cyclist Breaks Car Window with U-Lock,” was flagged by Redditors and posted by the Chronicle. At around 20 seconds in, cyclists move into opposing traffic. One blocks a Zipcar, staring it down as if to dare it to proceed. This, I’m told, is a maneuver frequently used to keep cars from proceeding towards other cyclists to ensure their safety. But in this case, that car, inching closer, eventually collides with the bike.

“You fucking hit my bike!” shouts the cyclist in confronting the Zipcar driver. After some back-and-forth, the driver begins to (illegally) flee the (admittedly scary) scene of the initial accident. At 1:40 or so, the driver or perhaps a passenger yells that the cyclist is a “psycho.”

As the Zipcar passes by, the cyclist uses his U-lock to smash at it, attempting (but failing) to break the driver’s side window…

In the 2013 words of SF Weekly, Critical Mass is an “anarchic, ostensibly leaderless movement” that served as the San Francisco Bike Coalition’s “battering ram.”…

Supervisor Farrell has released the following statement:

Violence is and will never be acceptable here in San Francisco. The actions by the cyclists caught on video this past Friday evening participating in Critical Mass are disturbing and should never be tolerated in our City – especially the one cyclist seen attacking the vehicle with a bicycle lock repeated times. I understand the history that Critical Mass has in San Francisco as a protest movement, and respect that a majority of the participants are peaceful and respectful of others while participating. But, the participants in Critical Mass must understand that actions like the ones this past Friday reflect poorly on the entire group and hurt the group’s overall message and movement. I have already been in contact with our police department to evaluate how best to prevent similar future incidents from happening. And, I expect and hope that other Critical Mass participants will condemn the behavior seen this past Friday and actively encourage their participants to respect everyone and all the applicable traffic laws while participating…  (more)

The cyclists are not stopping one car. They are stopping all the cars coming off the Golden Gate Bridge by driving against the traffic on the wrong side of the street. Whoever is in the car is swarmed by the cyclists. Can’t feel very safe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYAapAQ1urI&feature=share