InsideTransit

This is exciting except if you are one of the riders of the BART subway in San Francisco. As of Sunday night, the Amalgamated Transit Union has decided to strike. A strike would basically completely suspend service across the entire system.

The BART website has lots of suggestions on how to handle a strike if it happens. They include (sarcasm is mine):

• adjusting your hours – yeap that’s certainly possible for most
• telecommute – sure if you work a cash register or make coffee at a starbucks you can do that from home
• carpool – i wonder if those with vans will start gypsy service similar to that in some parts of nyc
• alternate routes – yep, you could walk all the way – wonder if they will let you walk through the bay tunnel
• ride a charter bus – this might be the best option but will still be massively overpacked with people
• bicycle – yep, another great option for 12-20 miles lol
• take other transportation

The San Francisco Chronicle has put together a forum where BART riders can express their thoughts and get help on how to commute in the event of a strike. Here’s their full post where they also note that over 340,000 daily riders use BART.

Best of luck to our bay area friends – just remember to breathe and don’t do anything that will put you on Alcatraz!

Yesterday we reported on a crash between two Muni cars in San Francisco. Today (via the AP) the Union President says, “a light-rail operator blacked out just before his train crashed into a parked train, injuring dozens of passengers”. Apparently the blackout had to do with a medical condition. Four passengers were seriously injured in Saturday’s crash, including the driver.

From the AP, “The crash on Saturday afternoon injured 48 people, four seriously, in the latest in a series of commuter train wrecks in recent months in the U.S. None of the injuries were life-threatening.” Neither Turpin nor local transit officials would identify the driver, but said he started as a San Francisco bus driver in 1979 and switched to light rail in 2007. He was hospitalized after the crash and a drug test had been administered, which was standard procedure for crashes.

Let’s get it together! Enough with the crashes – especially because we believe more public transit is needed across the U.S.