This is a builder's remedy project, so the city council has much less sway here than normal. That said, there is absolutely the ability of both sides to make a deal, but it'll be more in the developer's favor than normal.
Yeah, as hilarious as it is to see cities that try to plug their ears about housing get some comeuppance, the full "no holds barred" approach that the current rendition of the Builder's Remedy is probably not great, both from the problem of removing actually useful requirements and from a political perspective -- this is a great way to piss off everyone on the peninsula a little too much.
The legislature is planning to reign in the law in the current session: https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/04/builders-remedy-bills/
Francisco between the bike overpass and central San Rafael is super sketchy feeling. They're widening the sidewalk to form a "bike path" (it's just a normal wide concrete sidewalk, but it'll be bike-legal) from the bridge to the overpass, so (finally) there'll be a safe route into downtown.
To get to Mike's Bikes, I'd take the overpass up to Anderson Dr, a left on Jacoby to access the SMART path, and follow that right into downtown. (The path does pretty soon after cross Anderson again at a shallow angle, so you could also just skip that first section and just join the path just after Francisco W.) The connection through downtown isn't built yet, since they're planning to redo the whole transit center, but I usually take Tamalpais up to 4th, and then take a left through the crosswalk gap in the median.
To China Camp, for a northerly approach, you could take the SMART path up to Los Ranchitos, hop on the path when it starts again, then head through Civic Center up to N San Pedro Rd. I would guess most people actually just take a right from Los Ranchitos onto N San Pedro directly, but the route I described skips a freeway interchange.
From the south side, in downtown San Rafael, take a right on 4th, then a right on Union and a left onto 3rd. Then just stay on that road til you get to China Camp -- it turns into Pedro Point Rd, then N San Pedro Rd, and then you're up at Civic Center if you keep going.
Hah, they actually were planning on rebuilding large parts. But it was going to require some heinous closures during the process.
Self promo, but there are still plenty of (far less convenient) the transit routes that head out into nature in the Bay Area! Though I absolutely agree that the loss of the headlands route is an absolute travesty.
You can get a free lead test from EBMUD, which is specifically for testing all of the pipes between theirs and your tap (their lines are lead free now): https://www.ebmud.com/water/about-your-water/water-quality/lead-information
Sweet, I look forward to catching a fast train to Leeds or Manchester any time then.
Yeah, I'm not in the area but it even made Berkeleyside/Oaklandside Nosh (their food section) that it reopened! It was quite recently.
BART can also study future Santa Clara Co service expansion which, ultimately, is what Silicon Valley wants but is not covered under current public plans.
They literally cannot, as VTA, the agency blowing this whole thing up, is fiercely protective of doing all South Bay work themselves, despite a proven track record of fucking up project delivery.
How quickly can they repair smashed signs? And are you familiar with them pulling out of any markets due to vandalism?
They installed one down the street from me in Berkeley a year or two ago and it's seemingly untouched. It's far less of a vandalism magnet that I expected, they're pretty benign. Also pretty useless haha.
For my personal bike: I own an Evoc Bike Bag Pro, which has wheels. It's actually quite manageable on escalators, and fits into elevators. American elevators are larger than those elsewhere; the requirements here are that they fit a gourney, so a bike bag isn't a problem.
Taking it down staircases is ok, but slow; just rolling it down one step at a time pushing it against the back so it doesn't fall hard. I don't recall having to take it up a staircase but that'd be quite annoying.
For cardboard boxes: I just dragged it along the floor. I've gotten dropped off at the airport both times I've traveled with a bike in a cardboard box. On the other side, for the Philly trip, I had my friend whose bike I was moving meet me at the Philly Amtrak station, so all I had to do was drag it through the airport and through Airtrain -> NJT -> SEPTA transfers. Walking it to or from a station alone would be a hassle, but picking it up by the handles and putting it down every hundred feet or so does work (transferring at Trenton was a slow process). The other trip I did I stayed at an airport hotel, so I only had to take my fully assembled bike on the Paris RER, and I was able to store all my assembly/disassembly tools at the hotel.
I took my boxed bike on the subway into Brooklyn no problem when flying into JFK for an Empire Trail tour, fwiw. Also had no problem when helping a friend move his bike across the country when he moved, taking his boxed bike on NJT/SEPTA down to Philly from EWR. Don't go during peak, but otherwise it's fine.
I also routinely take my bike on BART, including when going to OAK/SFO with it boxed.
I had a station agent complain in Taipei but only once, out of the six or eight times me and my friend I was traveling there, and I was able to enter at the opposite end of the station just fine. There was plenty of room on the trains.
how do you get discounted fares?
It's an "online" fare payment system. For discounts, the state transportation authority has a unified portal for existing contactless credit card fare payment systems that lets you register with your qualifications in one place (disability, age, income, whatever), and then the discount is registered to your credit card.
The people implementing these systems have thought them through. You're not coming up with new problems to solve here.
That's... literally the point of this funding.
And it definitely has a better claim to being a major transfer station between all sorts of modes.
Grand Central is actually a stub end terminal station with (until recently) only one commuter railroad serving it, so SFTC being the Grand Central of the West is actually a great description, if a little misleading for people who've only been to NY as tourists.
They'll be getting an AC Transit line as part of the network refresh they're launching at some point, fwiw.
I mean, that's what this article is about -- they were hoping to launch that in the summer, but their contractor Cubic (who was recently acquired by a private equity firm) is failing to deliver and so it's being delayed.
For anyone interested in exploring the area, Middle Mountain runs docent-led hikes on some of the lands in the buttes, including summits: https://www.middlemountainhikes.org/
If you catch a train that starts in Oakland you won't have any issues, I would think. I'd start the trip at Jack London to be sure.
Gets caught in all the auto traffic too. And it only runs weekdays at peak. Not very useful except as a commute bus, but a good commute bus shouldn't get caught in traffic.
Not public ones haha, try to find an option across the San Mateo bridge.
...and directly led to an increase in pedestrian deaths, which non-Americans do not envy us for.
Yeah, definitely. https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/s/ldmtLqzkKI
If you write enough of it it's not too hard to use sound/letter frequency to figure out what represents what, tbh.
I've only done it counter clockwise, which just feels right. Puts you on the water.
China Camp loop from the Richmond bridge?
BAbike