Masthead Sept. 11 
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Clipper� Breaks Records, Spreads Its Sails

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A surge in back-to-school ridership pushed Clipper usage past the half-million daily rides mark.

September has been a banner month for the Clipper� card, with an announcement that daily usage is now topping 500,000, and an MTC committee voting to move forward with equipping the San Francisco Bay Ferry system (operated by the Water Emergency Transportation Authority, or WETA) with Clipper readers.

 

Clipper ridership is now eight times higher than it was when MTC's electronic transit fare payment system transitioned to Clipper in June of 2010. A surge in back-to-school ridership among Bay Area youths helped to push daily usage past the half-million mark in late August and early September. Among the seven transit operators currently collecting fares with Clipper, San Francisco Muni is in the lead, with more than 300,000 daily boardings using Clipper -- nearly half the agency's daily boardings. And regionwide, roughly one in three transit rides is now made with Clipper. Read more here.

 

Besides Muni, other charter Clipper systems are AC Transit, BART, Caltrain, SamTrans, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and Golden Gate Bus & Ferry. Because WETA is funding the acquisition of Clipper equipment and installation in full, it is stepping to the head of the line of transit operators waiting to join the seven that already are collecting fares with the all-in-one transit fare card. Strategies for expanding Clipper to the region's remaining 20 bus and rail operators were discussed at MTC's September 9 Operations Committee meeting.

 

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video

New Video Wall Keeps High-Tech Eye on Bay Area Traffic

 

TMC

Staff monitoring the bank of video screens at the TMC can tune

in to hundreds of video cameras watching Bay Area freeways.

Caltrans has modernized the Traffic Management Center in downtown Oakland, equipping it with state-of-the art video screens. Procured with the help of funding from MTC, the 35 screens constitute the largest LED video installation on the West Coast. Caltrans engineers and maintenance specialists monitor the wall 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to help clear incidents, coordinate construction activity, and keep drivers informed of delays and travel times, working in concert with the California Highway Patrol. The wall receives data on traffic flows from hundreds of cameras and thousands of roadway sensors buried in freeway pavement. Read the full story here.  

 

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Photo by Tom Paiva

Lights Illuminate Bay Bridge East Span Progress

   

The Bay Area's night-time skyline is sparkling a little brighter these days now that the catwalks are illuminated on the new Bay Bridge East Span's self-anchored suspension span, or SAS. Caltrans flipped the "on" switch for the first time on the evening of August 29, to cheers from a small crowd of media, bridge staff and other onlookers perched at Treasure Island. The catwalks were recently installed to facilitate the installation of the SAS' main cable, which will extend nearly a mile and suspend the side-by-side road decks from the tower. The catwalks will be lit when evening work is going on.  

 

Also under way is the installation of the last four deck pieces for the SAS and the closing of the gap between the SAS and the already completed East Span Skyway, providing a continuous roadway from the Oakland shore to just east of Yerba Buena Island.  

 

 East Span Links:  

  • Watch the construction action in real time at our Bay Area Toll Authority website.
  • Read more about the catwalk lighting here
  • Tune in to the August 29 East Span media tour (with footage of the first-ever lighting of the catwalks) here

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Happy 1st Birthday, I-680 Express Lane!  

 

The Interstate 680 Express Lane hit its one-year anniversary this month and there's lots to celebrate: Use has been climbing steadily, with weekly toll trips hitting a new peak of 9,757 (for the week ending September 16) and weekly revenues reaching $29,321.  

 

The 14-mile stretch of I-680 along the Sunol Grade (from Pleasanton to Milpitas) is the first Express Lane in Northern California. Carpools/vanpools (with two or more passengers) can use the lane free of charge during hours of operation, while solo drivers pay a toll for the convenience of bypassing traffic. In all, there were 482,552 toll trips on the Express Lane during the first year of operation, generating revenue of $858,328. Express Lane speeds are 9 or 10 mph faster than the speeds in the general purpose lanes during the morning commute.  

 

"The results show Express Lanes are an effective way to ensure there is an option for drivers who want a reliable commute," said Andrew Fremier, deputy executive director of operations for MTC/BATA. "The experience gained from the first year of operations on 680 is allowing us to develop a realistic long-term strategy for establishing a true regional network of Express Lanes in the years to come." A proposal for expanding the region's Express Lane network is up for review at the September 28 meeting of the full MTC Commission. 

 

Read the full story here.  

 

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SFpark 

Cool New Tool: SFpark Takes the Mystery Out of Parking

 

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Circling city streets in search of an open parking space is not only maddening, it's also bad for your carbon footprint. Enter SFpark, a pilot parking management program that tracks space availability and pricing information for 14 public garages in San Francisco. Initially accessible via an interactive web map and an iPhone app, the real-time parking info is now available via a texting service for drivers who prefer that mode or who don't have a smart phone or easy Internet access.  

 

At the same time as tracking the availability of spaces, SFpark is phasing in demand-responsive pricing in city garages, varying rates by time of day and demand.   

   

In addition to installing sensors in the city garages, SFpark has equipped 8,200 parking spaces across eight neighborhoods with sensors that can detect availability space by space in real time and with smart meters whose rates can be adjusted periodically to manage demand.    

  

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is spearheading the parking program with the help of an Urban Partnership Program grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). In a parallel effort, MTC also received grant funding from the DOT to expand the features of the 511 web- and phone-based traveler information system, and to incorporate SFpark data into the 511 system. See our web story for more details. 

  

To get started with the texting service, customers can text "SFpark" to 877-877, which will generate a reply text with a code for the garage in question. Detailed instructions are available at SFpark.org/garages.

 

enews

E-Newsletter Tracks Plan Bay Area  

 

Plan Bay Area Logo

The interagency effort to map the Bay Area's future -- known as Plan Bay Area -- continues to march forward, with one major round of outreach completed this past spring and another round anticipated in early 2012. A new e-mail newsletter tracks plan developments. To sign up, go here.  

 

Call

Call for Applications:

Pavement Technical Assistance Program
StreetSaver Logo 

Are potholes plaguing your city? MTC is soliciting projects for the Pavement Management Technical Assistance Program, or P-TAP. Only cities and counties can apply for the program, which provides Bay Area jurisdictions with consultant expertise in implementing MTC's StreetSaver� pavement management software. Applications are due by 4 p.m. on Friday, October 7, 2011. See the program guidelines.