The subject says it all....how breathtakingly stupid is that?

Grumble.

BART just announced their new GM. See http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2011/news20110831.aspx.

I don't know anything more than the press release about Ms. Crunican, but I do remember being favorably impressed with the public transportation system in Portland when I visited there a few years back. One of the coolest things was that they had managed to make the trains completely free within the downtown area. You only had to pay if you were going to the more outlying areas. Really convenient...

Does anyone know why ZipCar and City Car Share don't have any cars at the end of the lines (I'm thinking especially Millbrae and Fremont). It'd be incredibly convenient to have them there for meetings in the South Bay or Peninsula.

Yes, I know there is (was??) a Hertz at Fremont, but that's a huge amount more cumbersome than ZipCar.

A bunch of old BART photos (with the promise of more to come) were posted to the SF Comical's (I mean Chronicle's) site today-see:

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/parenting/detail?entry_id=89149

They mention that they may post a few more later today or tomorrow.....neat stuff.

(Yes, I am a geek. Why do you ask? :-D )

I just got off from a ride on car 365x, and the seat pitch on that car seems to be quite a lot less (2-3" less?) than on almost all the other cars on the system. I'm tall enough that I'm just barely comfortable--knees brushing the seat in front--on the regular seats, so that 2-3" made a very noticeable difference.

Anyone know anything? Is this some new design that they're testing out? (I hope not!)

I was just thinking that a flash-mob-ish sort of thing on BART would be fun when I ran across:

No Pants! Subway Ride 2011 : San Francisco bay area BART/Muni
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=156182521089838

Anyone here gonna go?

Thanks to some excellent work by the Berkeley Police, the person who's been committing the armed robberies in North Berkeley has been caught and charged with the crimes.

See http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16874278 for details.

Apparently, while they were at it, the Berkeley PD also arrested 8 other people for various crimes. Apparently more details will be forthcoming in the next several days. They're being a bit vague about things because some of the investigations are still in process.

Bravo!

Just saw the post at http://sfbart.posterous.com/public-meeting-dec-15-on-hayward-yard-initial , and it brought to mind the second post I ever made here. Anyone know if this expansion of the Hayward Yard will finally use that ramp? It's a bit unclear in the pictures posted on the SFBART blog.

(Just curious.)

For any of you who are users of the North Berkeley BART station, there has been a recent rash of armed robberies of pedestrians and break-ins to cars on the street in the neighborhood surrounding the station.

The armed robberies have been happening at gunpoint every few days since late October, and have been occurring both during the day and after dark. The text of the flyer being distributed in the neighborhood is below, and the full flyer is attached.

Please spread the word, and be careful out there!

NEIGHBORHOOD SAFETY ALERT

I was at Lake Merritt this afternoon (coming back from the Pixar exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California--highly recommended) and noticed a door at the north end of the station, across the northbound tracks from the platform. It looks like the only way to get to it would be to pull a train into the station and cross over. It says something about high voltage/stay clear on it. Just curious: anyone know what's back there? I've never noticed anything like that before.

The NTSB just came out with their report about the June 2009 Washington DC Metro crash. The Washington Post has details.

I wonder if any of the issues identified or changes required will affect BART, given how similar the systems are. Anyone know?

Whatever you think of the Mehserle verdict (I've heard involuntary manslaughter, plus a gun enhancement, resulting in a sentence that could range from 2-14 years.), please be safe out there everyone!

The feds just signed off on the environmental report to bring BART to the Berryessa area of San Jose. Apparently this is a good sign for the project getting $900M from the federal government towards its $2.1B construction cost. The Mercury News has more details.

The expected opening date for that extension is 2018.

They rolled out the new "Clipper" card, really just a rebranding of the Translink card, today. The Comicle has details.

Now if WageWorks would just get their act together and make it simple to put my pre-tax BART tickets onto one of them. Sigh.

Don't know if this has been posted here or not, but I just found a couple of fun films about the constuction of BART on their website. Worth checking out....