Transportation

Private University students ride SAM for free

l3wis September 10, 2014 37Comments

Just for clarification, Augustana is paying $1000 up front for the service;

The college has agreed to spend up to $1,000 this semester, which equates to 1,000 individual bus rides.

The irony is that our mayor has pushed for higher rates on paratransit and fixed routes. These higher rates affect the working poor mostly. Yet the city decides to team up with Mike’s best buddy, Rob Oliver, to give free rides to private university students. Why not include the University Center and SE Tech?

First we give Augustana a cut rate on using the Arena for basketball and now we are giving the students free rides. Even with the $1000 buy in, taxpayers will still be subsidizing these rides.

I wonder if the bus stop in front of Augie will be next to the Huether Tennis Courts?

How did Scheels get it’s own traffic light?

l3wis December 5, 2013 33Comments

Not sure if this is precedence or not, but I am trying to recall any individual business that has gotten it’s own traffic light entrance or a similar traffic advantage paid for by taxpayers?

The last I can recall is the McDonalds at 41^st & Minnesota getting their own turn lane off of Minnesota Ave.

I wonder what the rule/law is with spacing between controlled intersections? Is there enough space between 41^st and 49^th to justify another traffic light?

The irony in all this is how the city has actually harmed a lot of private retail businesses throughout the city by putting in mediums so you can’t make a left turn into them from the right side of the street.

I wonder if a sizable donation to the Ice Plex may have something to do with it. Just curious.

Sioux Falls should try this to reduce DUI’s (H/T – AG)

l3wis April 25, 2011 0Comments

I have often felt that SF needs to get more progressive with transportation. If I were mayor, it would be on my top ten list. We also must realize that transportation also relates to public safety, the fewer drunk drivers, the safer our roads. Seattle is trying this out;

Today, the city is launching a program that allows people driving to concerts, bars, clubs, or other late-night social activities in Seattle to pre-pay for up to two hours of parking for the following morning—essentially giving drivers a grace period until 10:00 a.m. to pick up find their cars after a night of drinking

The parking program, which is part of Mayor Mike McGinn’s Nightlife Initiative to bolster safety and access to Seattle’s nightlife scene, is being rolled out along the Pike-Pine corridor and Capitol Hill (eventually it’ll apply to all pay stations). Blue and yellow informational stickers on parking pay stations explain that after 10:00 p.m., drivers can purchase two hours of parking for the following morning (from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m.). This will hopefully encourage social drinkers to find another way home and retrieve their cars the next day.

“I’m about to hand you a ticket”

Also read the Nightlife Initiative, some very interesting ideas;

Of the nightlife initiative’s eight points, a so-called meat-head ordinance is getting both bar owners and residents excited. The ordinance, which is currently sponsored by city council member Nick Licata, would allow police to issue tickets for some public nuisance behaviors—such as fighting and drunk and disorderly conduct—between the hours of midnight and 5:00 a.m. in targeted nightlife areas. “Currently, we have limited means for dealing with these people,” says SPD spokeswoman Det. Reneé Witt. “If they create enough of a disturbance, say if they’re fighting, we can take them off the street.” Obviously, the benefit of such an ordinance is that there’s an immediate penalty for wasted yahoos, it might dissuade these people from being drunk, public messes in the future, and itkeeps officers on the streets instead of having to process and book them.

If we gave tickets for people being drunk meat-heads in SF, we could raise money for a new Events Center in a couple of years.