Support Caltrain's Weekend Baby Bullet Service - Ride It!

Caltrain is getting hit hard with some serious budget shortfalls since the agency depends on funding from SFMTA/Muni, Samtrans, and VTA. But while they had to cut a few trains here and there, the one cool bonus is the pilot program for weekend Baby Bullet train service.

If you have ever taken Caltrain on the weekends, all the trains are local, and it can take a long while to get to your destination. The popular Baby Bullet that provides express service on the weekdays are now on weekends for the next couple of months. I'd say, that's a great benefit, especially I'm not 100% comfortable driving my car on the 101 or 280 from SF to San Jose.

While it is great to get from SF to SJ in about an hour, one of the big problems is they are only running one bullet train set for the entire weekend service, and the timetable shows that it better benefits South Bay residents wanting to visit San Francisco because the schedules are in favor of them (e.g. mid-morning express, versus the early afternoon southbound express).

If Caltrain wants to be impressed that Baby Bullet weekend service should stay, we need to ride it to our favorite destinations. I plan to take it this gorgeous weekend down to San Jose for some of the best ramen at San Jose's Japantown and ride the light rail to Miliptas for some new shoes.

If Caltrain believes this is too popular, maybe they'll add on additional service for more flexibility. Keep on riding everyone!

All-Day Express Bus Service for the 38-Geary?

As I'm sitting here at home taking the day off work due to the cold, I spent time watching a bunch of YouTube videos about bus rapid transit (BRT) used in places like Bogota, Colombia. They spent a dozen years developing their transit system to allow people to travel long distances quickly with unique features including level platform boarding, free feeder buses to major stations where passengers pay only for the BRT ride, and a central control office that operates like an airport's traffic control tower.

While us San Franciscans can dream of the day when we can have bus rapid transit on corridors like Geary Boulevard, Van Ness Avenue, and 19th Avenue/Park Presidio, there are some serious issues when it comes to implementing BRT here in San Francisco:

• One of the reasons why a city would build BRT is due to severe traffic congestion. Sure, it would rip away a few lanes of traffic, but if the system works successfully, more would ride the bus instead of taking their cars. San Francisco does not have a huge traffic problem, even though we do get grumpy about how long it takes to drive along 19th Avenue.
• Another reason why a city would build BRT is because it either serves multiple cities/counties or the city is so large, it truly needs a transit service that is fast. San Francisco isn't that big and Muni only serves San Francisco (okay, part of Marin County on Sundays). AC Transit and VTA operates in a larger area, thereby the BRT service was a necessity to move people around.
• Lastly, BRT would be built in areas that are not highly developed, but having the line would actually help build development. If Muni targets Geary and Van Ness corridors, it's likely they'd face some heavy resistance from store owners and residents about the construction and/or loss of business and parking. Muni got lucky with 3rd Street, since it wasn't that much residential and was mostly industrial, it was an easy build to get the T-Third line running, and the new transit line helped build new housing projects and the UCSF Mission Bay campus.

I was thinking to myself, could Muni fix the 38-Geary to provide faster service to our city's residents without the huge expense of building BRT?

Sure, the 38L-Geary Limited was a smart idea to shave about 10 minutes from end to end, but it still has a reputation for being slow. The Geary express buses during peak morning and evening hours are fast and popular, but they don't run all day long to provide that great service to the public.

If the city can't build BRT service, why not modify the Geary bus line service? Instead of having a skip-stop service like the 38L, why not split the limited buses into three segments and have an all-stop local/feeder bus?

• The "A" line service provides skip-stop service (using existing 38L stops) from downtown to Presidio.
• The "B" line service provides skip-stop service from Park Presidio to Presidio, and expresses to downtown.
• The "C" line provides skip-stop service from 48th Avenue to Park Presidio, and expresses to downtown.
• The "local" line services all stops on existing 38-Geary bus stops for those who cannot walk from the skip stop to their final destination.

Presidio Avenue and Park Presidio Boulevard are the two main transfer points for the skip-stop buses. A passenger needing to go from 6th Avenue to 48th Avenue can ride the "B" bus to Park Presidio, and a timed transfer for the "C" bus is there to take the passenger to 48th.

The three lines is made for passengers to go to & from downtown with express service for those living far away from the downtown region, but it can still be treated like the 38L-Geary Limited because the transfer points still allow those to ride to their destination that's not in downtown.

I'm not exactly sure how faster the ride might be. For sure, the "B" and "C" lines would be quicker because it doesn't have to make additional stops between their region and downtown, and can utilize the Masonic tunnel and Fillmore underpass. If Muni also implements ticketing machines at stops, the buses don't have to idle at their designated stops that long.