Posts Tagged ‘cultureBus’
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Market Street Railway President President Rick Laubscher has some thoughts this morning about MUNI’s proposal to raise the cash fare for the F-Market historic streetcar line.
Will the F-Line turn into another fiasco like we just had with the $7 CultureBus 74X? And how will MUNI leader Nat Ford manage to get by making an annual salary that’s merely $308,000 more per year than our Governor’s?
We should get some answers today at City Hall. Stay tuned.
Here are Rick’s Eight Points:
1. The F-line is a core Muni service and should be treated as such.
2. Muni should collect the fares it’s already charging.
3. The F-line is cost-effective at its current fares.
4. Staff’s revenue assumptions from the fare increase are dubious
5. Different fares at the same Muni stops will slow down operations.
6. “Let ‘em buy a Fast Pass” is not an acceptable response.
7. Exceptionally high fares on the F-line hurt the city’s economic vitality.
8. Muni wants to penalize a line that “people want.”
And here’s Rick missive to MUNI riders:
$5 for an F-line Ride? An Open Letter to Nat Ford January 19, 2010 by Rick Laubscher, Market Street Railway
On behalf of Market Street Railway, I have sent the email excerpted below to SFMTA Executive Director/CEO Nathaniel P. Ford, Sr. All are welcome to borrow and elaborate on any of these arguments in your own communications with decision-makers on this matter.
Remember, the SFMTA Board gives initial considerations to its staff’s 2010 budget recommendations, including the proposal to raise F-line fares from $2 to $5, Tuesday, January 19 at 2 p.m., Room 400, City Hall.
You can reach Mr. Ford at 415-701-4720 or by email here. You can register your opinion with the SFMTA Board members by emailing this address. You can also reach Mayor Newsom at 415-554-6141 or by email here. Your opinion counts.
Read the whole thing, after the jump.
Tags: 2, 2010, 5, budget, bus, City Hall, civic center, cultureBus, CultureBus II, F, f market, fare, historic, increase, Line, market, market street railway, mta, Muni, nat ford, proposal, SFMTA, streetcar, trolley
Posted in transit | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Well there I was looking for four Norwegian gals, trying to find Dow Alley without Google Maps (not functioning due to its monomaniacal obsession with upgrading the software on my so-called smart phone) and I stumbled upon the biggest motorcycle free parking lot that’s anywhere close to Union Square. I’m all like, why aren’t there meters for all the bikes here?
Anywho, take a gander, on the MapJack (as the view from Google StreetView was just too hard to figure out). It’s like a motorcycle showroom just out the back door of the ThirstyBear Restaurant and Brewery (ask about their Great Recesssion lunch specials).
See? On the sidewalk, in marked spaces, unmarked spaces, both sides of the street, not a ticket in sight (uh oh, see the comments, but still…) - it’s Biker’s Heaven. Click to expand:
How on Earth did the City neglect to meterize this lane when rates have gone up 180% (that’s $100 extra per month for a typical biker, and the SFMTA wanted to raise rates higher) so far this year?
Leave us travel back to 2004, when the towaway signs got took down and unmetered parking began:
“TOW-AWAY, NO STOPPING ANYTIME – RESCIND
UNMETERED MOTORCYCLE PARKING – ESTABLISH
Kaplan Lane, east side, from Clementina Street to the northern terminus.”
See that? The MUNI people, the people so rich they could afford to run CultureBuses all over town pretty much completely empty for months and months just for their own pride, actually turned down a chance to raise revenue. It’s amazing. It’s like a trip back in time when you take Clementina off of third to encounter The Alley of Free Parking.
So spread the word to all your two-wheeled buddies. Hurray!
Oh, wait a second, some of the hundreds of riders who regularly use Kaplan to Stick It To The Man want to keep things a secret. For example, Mark W. says:
Shhhhhh!!! 
So let’s keep things on the low down. This is a secret worth keeping, despite the occasional hit-and-run chain reaction accident. Of course, there are other places to park for free in San Francisco, but they’re not all hidden away like Kaplan.
So, this is how it’ll be. When I see you carrying your helmet at the Gold Club or the Metreon, I’ll just offer my knuckles for your knocking and we’ll both say, in unison: “Kaplan, baby!”
Let’s let Yelp’s Rachel S. make the final pitch:
“*a*b*u*n*d*a*n*t* motorcycle parking that’s strides away from Moscone center, Yerba Beuna Gardens and SFMOMA. Tiny note that’s, y’know, likely of little interest… it’s free. Gratis. No cuesta nada. Really. And what’s more, it’s safe at most all hours in my experience. Which sort’ve stands to reason given the surrounding businesses: the early-morning dark is monitored by the Starbucks’ clientele, the late-evening hours are overseen by Thirsty Bear’s patrons. Plus, the walk from your parked bike back to the real world is through either an architecturally rich alleyway or a sculpture garden, depending on which direction you’re headed. Win all around.”
See you there!
Kaplan Lane is in my ears and in my eyes/
There beneath the gray-ish urban skies
Tags: 2nd, 3rd, alley, area, bike, bmr, clementina, cultureBus, folsom, free, howard, kaplan, kaplan lane, lane, meters, meuseum of modern art, mission, moma, motorcycle, mta, Muni, ninja, park, parking, rates, scooter, SFMTA, soma, south of market, street
Posted in motorcycles | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Yes. Mayor Gavin Newsom’s official vehicle (or one of the official vehicles, anyway) has an engine with a larger displacement and more power than those in the 40-foot-long Culturebuses that used to roam the City.
Here’s the famous SUV, recently seen parked in a bike lane near Golden Gate Park. Note the T.V. antenna (maybe it’s used for other things, but fundamentally, it’s a TV antenna) on top:
And here’s one of the huge CultureBuses, from a time before the whole program got cancelled:
Does the mayor of San Jose, a nearby town with (unlike S.F.) more than a million people, have a “Mobile Command Vehicle” too? Mmmm.
Oh well.
Tags: 2007, 2008, 2009, 3 tons, 40 feet, 5.9, 6.0, biodiesel, car, Chevrolet, chevy, command, culture bus, cultureBus, diesel, displacement, engine, gavin newsom, hybrid, liter, litre, Mayor, mobile, orion, suv, tahoe, two-mode, vehicle, vii
Posted in cars | 2 Comments »
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
A kind of black celebration was held in Golden Gate Park this afternoon to mark the end of the MUNI’s San Francisco CultureBus.
See the death throes of CB via Steve Rhodes, Whole Wheat Toast, Plug1, Octoferret, MattyMatt, SftaJan, AgentAkit, and Jamison
Who showed up? Transit fans and local online royalty. Click to expand:
This 74-X couldn’t leave without baffling its last pair of tourists. They didn’t get on. Surprised?
All that was left was the filled-in pole hole that used to mark the CB bus stop:
Yes, the 74X is terminal. It’s dead, Jim
Here’s one last glimpse through the famous see-through bus:
Perhaps these brand new buses and their friendly drivers will soon be put to better use, just in time for the possible BART strike.
We Can Only Hope.
Tags: (BART), 15, 15th, 2008, 2009, 500, 74, 74x, august, bus, cal academy, calacademy, california, California Academy of Sciences, celebration, culture, culture bus, cultureBus, de Young, dead, failure, final, finished, gavin newsom, Governor, king, last, mta, Muni, municipal transit agency, museum, museums, nat ford, party, PM, race, San Francisco, SFMTA, strike, tep, tourists, transit effectiveness project, tut
Posted in transit | 2 Comments »
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Today will see the last run of the San Francisco CultureBus (or “Culture Bus,” some people call it that). Yes, they’re “taking Old Yeller out back to shoot it and put it out of its misery.” But once you have a carcass, you need to find someone to take the blame for the FAIL. So, around whose neck should this screaming yellow albatross go?
The answer in MUNI chief Nat Ford. But not for the reason you might think.
“Is it he?” quoth one, “Is this the man?”
by him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless CultureBus.
Nat Ford is the Ancient Mariner:
Watchet, Somerset, England. Via Adrian Pingstone
Is the source of the idea of the CultureBus documented anywhere? Not that I’m aware of. Obviously, the whole program was highly redolent of the New York City “Culture Bus” that ran from 1973 to 1982, but who had the idea to revive CB here in San Francisco? Perhaps it doesn’t really matter.
Whether or not the CultureBus concept was forced upon MUNI, doesn’t MUNI have the right and obligation to tinker with the idea? Did MUNI do anything to alter the CultureBus program once it became obvious (I’d peg it at early October 2008) that the daily ridership was turning out to be extremely low? I mean something other than spewing the stereotypical platitudes you’d expect them to spew?
Here’s what MUNI did – it cut back service 66% in January and raised prices 43% in July. That’s it. Just how airtight were these unseen agreements made amongst the stakeholders? Nothing could be done? Srsly?
(So, it’s like the Great Helmsman, the Dear Leader appoints you manage the Yangtse River Watershed and then tells you to kill every damned songbird within a 500 mile radius - how would you respond? Here’s what you’d do, you’re a team player right? You’d execute the plan and then wait for millions to die, powerless to alter Fate. And then you’d say boy, that Great Leap Forward, boy, it just didn’t work out.)
Wouldn’t it have been interesting to try something different? Lower the price to $1.50 for the sole purpose of actually moving people about the City in light of the circumstances? Or just trying anything except the same old same old, month after month?
Oh well.
So there’s your albatross, Nat.
But that’s why you get paid the big bucks.
And as for you CultureBus, your pain is over, boy. Soon the Twitter birds will descend to lift you to Heaven.
Sleep! It is a gentle thing:
(In Elysium, there’ll be plenty of diesel and you’ll always be full of happy passengers.)
Good night, sweet CultureBus.
Tags: 15, 15th, 2008, 2009, 500, 74, 74x, august, bus, cal academy, calacademy, california, California Academy of Sciences, culture, culture bus, cultureBus, de Young, failure, final, gavin newsom, Governor, king, last, mta, Muni, municipal transit agency, museum, museums, nat ford, PM, race, San Francisco, SFMTA, tep, tourists, transit effectiveness project, tut
Posted in transit | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Here it is, the fullest CultureBus seen on the Streets of San Francisco since debut weekend back in September 2008.
Upwards of eight blond(e) Euro-types could be seen through the tinted windows.
Click to expand:
Perhaps its the Tut Effect.
Who knows?
Tags: 500, 74, 74x, bus, cal academy, calacademy, california, California Academy of Sciences, culture, culture bus, cultureBus, de Young, failure, gavin newsom, Governor, king, mta, Muni, municipal transit agency, museum, museums, nat ford, PM, race, San Francisco, SFMTA, tep, tourists, transit effectiveness project, tut
Posted in transit | Comments Off
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Who turned out to mark the fourth birthday of the famous N Judah Chronicles in the prideful Inner Sunset district last night? Well, how about Matt Baume of Curbed SF and Sweet Melissa Griffin and Beth Spotswood and the Heinekin Girls and even chief MUNI flack Judson True (hey, let’s all hope lying about CultureBus pays more than telling the truth about CultureBus, ’cause telling the truth about the CB don’t pay a whit) and a host of others too numerous to enumerate.
Here’s NJC’s grand poobah Greg Dewar addressing the crowd last night on Irving Street near 9th Avenue at the Blackthorn Tavern. Chanted the mob,“Four more years!”
Click to expand:
And here’s the NJ itself, just a stone’s throw away from the party, rolling along in the wind and fog.
Tags: 838, 8th, 9th, anniversary, ave, avenue, beer, Beth Spotswood, blackthorne tavern, Chronicles, cultureBus, district, fourth, Fourth Anniversary, girls, greg dewar, heinekin, inner, irving, judson true, Matt Baume, matty matt, Media Relations Manager, melissa griffin, mrm, mta, Muni, n judah, N Judah Chronicles, SFMTA, street, sunset, sweet melissa
Posted in transit | 2 Comments »
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
Look at this sad scene from Golden Gate Park yesterday. See all these people? They’ve been patiently waiting out in front of the California Academy of Sciences since just after the closing time of 5:00 P.M. The problem is that 5:00 P.M. is when the last Culturebus departs for the day.
However, los turistas don’t know that. I told some of them about the 44 O’Shaughnessy but that didn’t tempt them. They sort of knew about the 5 Fulton, but the closest stop is about 1000 feet away. The $7 fare - news of that is what it took to drive the bulk of them away from this bus stop.
The Euro-looking family held out hope as they could see a CB stopped at the other end of the Music Concourse but, for some odd reason, the schedule is set up to deliver people to the Cal Academy 40 minutes after closing time – it doesn’t accommodate anybody wanting to depart Golden Gate Park after 5:00 PM.
The poor devils, they’d be better off hailing a cab, if they could find one. Click to expand.
Now if I were a “courteous CultureBus operator” I’d feel obligated to take these people wherever they wanted to go in Union Square irregardless of the schedule. But that’s just me.
Could somebody put up “Fare: $7, last pickup at 5:00 PM” on this CultureBus bus stop sign?
Is that too much to ask?
Tags: 500, 74, 74x, bus, california, culture, culture bus, cultureBus, failure, gavin newsom, Governor, mta, Muni, municipal transit agency, museum, museums, nat ford, PM, race, San Francisco, SFMTA, tep, tourists, transit effectiveness project
Posted in transit | 4 Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Ah yes, Culturebus 74-X. First, the Proposal. Since it’s dying anyway come September, couldn’t the SFMTA just reduce the price down to $1.50 and have people actually ride the thing? Why not?
Wouldn’t you agree, Nat, that the CB’s $7 charge puts it on the right side of the Laffer Curve? Would lowering the price actually increase revenue? I say yes. Here I stand, I can do no other.
Are the relevant contracts and agreements etched in stone or something, forever unchangeable? What do we have to lose by lowering the price?
Second, come play CultureBus – Totally Empty or Not? Let’s get started.
Take a gander. It certainly looks pretty empty. How many souls aboard? Go ahead, click to expand.
Surprise! Kilroy is here. Part of what made CultureBus a laughingstock was all the reports of totally empty, see-through buses, but some of them might actually have had paying passengers. Riders generally tend to cluster in the same spot and it’s hard to see their heads popping up from the low-rise floor.
Still don’t know who was behind San Francisco CultureBus 2008-2009. Oh well.
Come sempre, la vittoria trova cento padri, e nessuno vuole riconoscere l’insuccesso.
Tags: 74, 74x, bus, california, culture, culture bus, cultureBus, mta, Muni, municipal transit agency, museum, museums, nat ford, San Francisco, SFMTA
Posted in transit | Comments Off
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
Work with me here. The Space Transportation System (aka the Space Shuttle) was started up with a push from sciencey-type people, but it’s never lived up to expectations. Six “vehicles” have been dedicated to the program with just three (Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour) available to work these days.
Similarly, San Francisco’s CultureBus program was started up with a push from sciencey-type people, but it’s never lived up to expectations. Six “vehicles” have been dedicated to the program with just three available these days. Mmmm. Let’s compare and contrast, shall we?
The women in the background wandered away from this dedicated CultureBus 74X bus stop after hearing about the “SPECIAL FARES” (a “thrifty” seven bones each) just for CB riders. The sole holdout, in denial, took some time to confirm her understanding with the driver before walking away in confusion as others have before her, and catching up with her friends:
The Space Shuttle program’s failure was ably predicted 29 years ago in this prescient article from smart-ass college-boy Gregg Easterbrook. On the other hand, the gestation period for the CultureBus was much shorter and less transparent so you couldn’t really assess how it was going to turn out, and really, things like this can be tough to predict.
No matter, it soon became clear shortly after the debuts of these programs that the amount of “cargo” moved around was going to end up being an something like an order of magnitude less than projected. But here’s where NASA and MUNI took different approaches.
NASA willed the Space Shuttle program to “work” by taking away all possible alternatives (like regular old rockets) and thereby forcing customers to use the shuttle. (That was foolish and inefficient and of course 14 people have died so far, but at least NASA didn’t fly the shuttle empty just to save face.) MUNI made a different choice - the powers that be simply cut service by 66% a couple of months back. That makes it tough to recommend CB to the average rich, naive, culture-seeking tourist.
This new once-an-hour service approach has certainly cut down on empty CultureBus sightings and now it certainly seems that the average number of people on any particular KulturBus has gone up. (We’re still talking about a 90%+ empty bus though.) An alternative would have been to reduce the fare to $1.50 just like most other MUNI rides, but that wouldn’t fit into the concept so it’s not going to get tried out. O.K. fine.
Look forward to seeing mostly empty CultureBuses for the next six months or so. After that, who knows. While we’re waiting for the next chapter in this saga, take solace in the fact that the #5 Fulton can handle a lot of the role of CB.
Oh look here, the San Francisco Examiner is weighing in on the issue right now. Taking the data given at face value, which is always dangerous to do, each individual “Culture_Bus” (in the vernacular of the ‘Xam) is now bringing in about $14 per hour, which is about what one would expect given recent anecdotal observations. Of course the trouble with CB isn’t that it “loses money” (pretty much every public transit system in the world outside of Japan loses money), the trouble is that it doesn’t move people around that much at all, the trouble is that the number of potential riders it pisses off and confuses is five times greater than the number of people who actually ride it.
This tiny blog is through with this issue. It’s through with the excuses forwarded for the shiny bright yellow-orange public policy failure known as CultureBus, because hearing the truth about this program is too vexing for some. Perhaps the spinners will turn spin into win, somehow, with the same old approach, with the same old song and dance.
¿Verdad baila? ¿Verdad canta?
Vaya con Dios, Autobús de la Cultura, Setenta y Cuatro Equis.
Tags: 74, 74x, bus, california, culture, culture bus, cultureBus, mta, Muni, museum, museums, San Francisco
Posted in transit | Comments Off
