Posts Tagged ‘blocking’
Wednesday, May 29th, 2013
[UPDATE: Kevin Montgomery of Uptown Almanac reacts.]
[UPDATE II: The Twitter-stream of one @kylekirchhoff just went private. C'mon, Bro! You gotta engage with the peeps. Today is your big day. It's not that incrimernating, is it? Bro discusses how much he doesn't like Twitter, McAfee Antivirus Inc, and how many people got shot on a MUNI #14 last year. You know, all the usual stuff. But I'll tell you, withdrawing from Web 2.0 is what criminales do, right? You're just a bro with a bus. Nothing wrong with that.]
[UPDATE III: Aaron Sankin of Huffington Post San Francisco weighs in.]
[UPDATE IV: And now Ellen Huet of the San Francisco Chronicle:
John Avalos, a supervisor who has fought against private companies use of Muni stops, called Kirchhoff’s comments “very disingenuous.”
“What a crock of s—,” Avalos said. “How does blocking a Muni stop make the city more efficient? You’re trying to make money, and you’re creating a two-tiered transportation system in San Francisco.”]
I’ll tell you, I’ve been waiting years for a MUNI alternative to pop up and look, it’s here.
Now I’m not talking about the corporate buses (like Google, Apple, FaceBook and so on) that have been around for a decade or so, and I’m not talking about Uber, Lyft, Sidecar and the like and I’m not even talking about the private version of the taxpayer-subsidized Twitter Express, the 83X.
No no. I’m talking about Leap Transit duplicating the unpopular MUNI Marina Express 30x with a private shuttle bus that costs $6 one-way.
It looks like this, as seen just yesterday:
Via Gregg Meyer
Here’s what the site looks like:
See that? The bus comes with WiFi and leather seats, but they cost three times as much as MUNI. And I’m supposing you and your wheelchair would be better off on MUNI, just a guess. And, oh yes, you pretty much need an Apple iPhone (or as close an iOS device as possible) to climb aboard.
Now you’d think the MSM would be all over this new company, but no. So far, Leap has escaped notice, except from this bloke called Stilgherrian from Down Under. (Uh, he’s _not_ a fan. I haven’t seen a booting like this since Bart vs. Australia)
“This little blue bus symbolises everything that is wrong with the current bubble and boom of internet startup culture. It’s in San Francisco. It belongs to Leap Transit. And, on May 13, this “better bus” — OMFG, it has leather seats and wi-fi! — began operating as part of what’s billed as a “shuttle service for San Francisco commuters.”
Bonus bon mot:
“This socialized [x] is slow and unprofitable. Let’s start a [x] for rich people that pays its employees less.”
Leave there be no doubt, Leap Transit is a wannabe MUNI disrupter. See?
So far, reaction around town has been mixed.
To wit:
“connie hwong @crh17h This has come to my attention: a $6 shuttle from the Marina to SOMA, with leather seats & wifi. Seriously, SF?”
Check it:
I don’t know, if the 30X just passed you by ’cause it’s raining and you see a Leap bus coming at you and you have an iPhone and you’re already signed up, well then Leap just might be worth the six bucks.
A 28-year-old white man wants you to ride his technicolor submarine.
Will you?
All the deets:
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Every time you ride with leap, your credit card will be charged $6.00 automatically upon entering the bus. You…
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Our shuttles flow downtown in the morning, and uptown in the evening. You can get on at any of the stops desig…
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We’d love to. We’re expanding as rapidly as possible. If you’d like us to add service to your area, please sug…
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Leap runs on weekdays during commuter hours. That’s from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM and from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
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We currently only support iPhone, but we will be supporting other platforms very soon.
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We do not currently have a way to have your employer cover the tab. But it is something we’re working on.
Tags: 6, 83x, Aaron Sankin, accidents, apple, bay area, blocking, Blue, bus, california, chestnut, chronicle, common carrier, commuters, Connie Galambos Malloy, cops, corporate, CPUC, crock of shit, crock of s___, device, DPT, driver, ellen huet, facebook, faq, fare, financial district, founder, google, huffington post, insurance, ios, ipad, iphone, iPod, john avalos, Kirchhoff, Kyle, Kyle Kirchhoff, leap, leap transit, marina, marina express, Muni, one way, police, private, privatise, privatize, PUC, San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle, selfish disruptor, SFMTA, SFPD, SFPUC, shuttle, Stilgherrian, stops, Supervisor, therefore I am, twitter, union, Writer
Posted in transit | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
I don’t know, seems like something that seemed a good idea at the time.
Oh well.
As seen on McAllister Street, home of the increasingly popular Snickerdoodle bike route, the one that’s faster, shorter, safer, better than the vaunted Wiggle* for getting to and from Market Street and the Panhandle area, for multiple reasons:
Click to expand
Anyway, for lots of reasons, this set up is a poor substitute for hauling your bike up and down stairs each and every day.
*Whenever the cops need to hand out a bunch of tickets to cyclists, they’ll hang out at Scott and Fell or Duboce and Steiner or Haight and Pierce – that’s all on the Wiggle of course. As for the Snick, sometimes you’ll get a moto cop hanging out near McAllister and Pierce, but that’s to give tickets to car drivers coming down Fulton.
Tags: bicycle, bike, bikes, block, blocking, cyclist, cyclists, fillmore, lock, mcallister, pierce, rack, sidewalk, steiner, stolen, street, Vandalized, Wheel
Posted in bikes | No Comments »
Sunday, June 13th, 2010
Well the “possible arrests” didn’t occur last Friday evening down at the famous Fell Street ARCO station near Divisidero, but lots of media vans showed for the “misdirected” protest, so that’s something. Read all about it here, here and here.
This Toyota driver got hectored so much other drivers were able to jump the queue. Pwned:
Click to expand
This driver waiting for gas also got hectored for talking a on a cell phone the wrong way:
“ARCO – part of BP” - this slogan could use a rethink:
Most cyclists in the evening drive managed to get by and on into the Panhandle:
Everything got back to normal by today, anyway.
They say a fix is coming (and what about the route from the Panhandle to Scott Street and the start of the Wiggle Bike Path? Who will protest that?)…
Tags: 1775, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 76, arco, area, Assistant, association, automobiles, autos, bicycle, bike, BIKE NOPA, bikes, block, blocking, BP, cars, cyclists, divisadero, divisidero, EaPA, east of panhandle, engineer, fell, fulton, gas, gasloline, golden gate park, gulf, intersection, James Shahamiri, jannah, lane, Line, media, meeting, metropolitan transportation agency, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, mexico, mta, Muni, neighborhood, nimby, NOPA, nopna, north of panhandle, oak, oil, panhandle, parking, prtest, queue, San Francisco, SF, sfist, SFMTA, spill, Station, street, traffic, union, vehicles, wait, Waiting
Posted in bikes, streets | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Things were worse back in aught-seven, back when drivers waiting to fill up at the always-cheap ARCO station on Fell Street in the EaPA would queue up big in the bike lane. But it’s no picnic these days neither, as you can see in this shot from a few days ago:
Well, comes now award-winning Michael Helquist of BIKE NOPA to learn us about planned changes:
“‘We have a design hashed out to take out parking on the south side of Fell Street,’ James Shahamiri, MTA Assistant Traffic Engineer, told BIKE NOPA. The new design would designate the former parking spaces as a curbside queue for motorists awaiting entry to the gas station.”
(IMO, that’s a painfully obvious solution that any other town in ‘Merica would have implemented years ago when the issue first cropped up. But oh well.)
So, you see them cars parked on the left side? You know, the Porsche 944 (or 968?), the Saturn S-Series, and the Honda CR-V cute-ute SUV? They’re parked in spaces that could soon be the ARCO queue.
What’s that, NIMBY? Over your dead body you say? O.K., well, I think this cake is already baked, but maybe you’ll be able to hear more about all the deets at this meeting:
Thursday, March 18th
7:00 pm, visit with neighbors
7:30 pm, meeting begins
9:00 pm , meeting ends
Change is Good, huh?
Tags: 1775, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 76, arco, area, Assistant, association, automobiles, autos, bicycle, bike, BIKE NOPA, block, blocking, BP, cars, cyclists, divisadero, divisidero, EaPA, east of panhandle, engineer, fell, fulton, gas, gasloline, golden gate park, intersection, James Shahamiri, jannah, lane, Line, meeting, metropolitan transportation agency, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, michael helquist, mta, Muni, neighborhood, nimby, NOPA, nopna, north of panhandle, oak, panhandle, parking, queue, San Francisco, SF, sfist, SFMTA, Station, street, traffic, union, vehicles, wait, Waiting
Posted in bikes, cars | 8 Comments »
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Of course you all already know about the 1994-1996 Chevrolet Impala SS General Monkeybusiness B-Body. This one here impresses not with the size of the wheels fitted underneath, but with the sheer parking audacity of completely blocking a fairly wide sidewalk in broad daylight.
What’s stopping somebody from calling 415-553-1200 (dispatch - blocked driveways, sidewalks, etc.) or 311? Nothing, that’s why this parking strategy isn’t sustainable, that’s why drivers generally don’t make a habit of doing this kind of thing. (Personally, it’s not my style to dial, but for some people, it is - see below)
Click to expand
I would agree that it’s probably no picnic trying to park an 18-foot-long vehicle at night on the Streets of San Francisco, but your ride will eventaully get vandalized, ticketed, towed, whatever, depending on the neighborhood. For example, the evening dog walkers of Specific Whites Pacific Heights all have DPT’s phone numbers preprogrammed into their cellies. They’re simply waiting to see something like this blocking their path.
Just saying.
Tags: (415), 311, 415-553-1200, 553-1200, b car, B., block, blocked, blocking, body, california, call, car, cell, cellular, Chevrolet, chevy, citation, department, dial, dispatch, DPT, driveways, enforcement, general monkeybusiness, general motors, gm, impala, meter maid, mta, number, pacific heights, parking, parking control officer, pco, phone, San Francisco, SFPD, sidewalk, specific whites, ss, ticket, towed, transit
Posted in cars | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 9th, 2009
Remember back in the day, when the “rage-inducing” ARCO gas station at 1175 Fell was making the news for blocking traffic, particularly bikes on Fell Street? Take a gander all the way back to 2007:
The 76 you can see on the right became a Spirit gas station and that basically solved the bulk of the traffic problem because Spirit, unlike pricey 76, had copycat pricing and would generally match the ARCO within a penny or so. The salutary effect was no more lines of idling cars on the dedicated bike lane.
But the Spirit stopped selling gas a few days ago so we’re back to “normal.” See?
Click to expand
Such are the travails of the purveyors of the cheapest gas in San Francisco – too many customers. This will all get solved if and when the Spirit starts selling gas again.
Tags: 1175, arco, bicycles, bike, blocking, cars, cyclists, divisidero, fell, gas, gasoline, idling, lane, scott, spirit, Station, street, traffic
Posted in bikes | 1 Comment »
