California Transit Nerd

I know no Governor candidate wants this question but we need to have a discussion about continued highway expansion in the face of climate change and the fact we can’t build our way out of congestion but we spend billions a year trying.
It’s likely going to have to be forced on counties by the state

Yeah between 1-2 months for the entire network

Would be helpful to get some of the worlds single largest users to reduce their consumption

How about the next lane goes though your bedroom

StreetSmart 14.1 - What to look for from the 2026 Legislature - Streetsblog California Our first nearly-comprehensive look at what is, and isn't, moving.

Leaders with @calelectricrail.org, @calbike.bsky.social and @movecalifornia.bsky.social talk with Streetsblog about what to expect...and not expect...from the legislature in 2026 in part 1 of this week's StreetSmart podcast.

cal.streetsblog.org/2026/03/04/s...

I really want to restrict what projects can call themselves multi modal and use even a penny of state funds. At least half should be going into non car/truck/motorcycle improvements

If we wanted high speed rail even with our inability to do things cheaply 4-5 route miles a day or 1.5-2k route miles a year

45.6K Single track miles a year
India at its peak in the early 2020s hit 4.5K STM a year

Using an absolutely insane 8M (Caltrain modernization costs which had so much go wrong) a single track mile we could be electrifying 125 track miles a day.

Seattle's code limits midrise single-stair apartment buildings to 4 apartments per floor.

The International Building Code (which, despite the name, is rarely used outside the US) allows two-stair apartment buildings more than 600' long, with dozens of apartments per floor.

That’s of course only the state money. Most counties have a tax going towards highway expansions be they GP, HOV or HOT lanes, “safety” improvements of interchanges and more questionable value at best projects

Even moving half of the 20B we spend on car infrastructure to transit and active mobility would be transformative
1B on complete streets
2B on regional/intercity rail
2B on HSR
5B on operating subsidies for local transit

I know no Governor candidate wants this question but we need to have a discussion about continued highway expansion in the face of climate change and the fact we can’t build our way out of congestion but we spend billions a year trying.
It’s likely going to have to be forced on counties by the state

Yeah. I don’t have a decent diagram I can find.
Most people would probably like 2 bathrooms for 3 bedroom

You have 800 sqft to add 6 bedrooms. That should be enough space. Are they going to be massive no.

This is on a 50x105ft lot with ~70% coverage so 3700sqft.

www.bchousing.org/sites/defaul...

They could have put 32 people a floor and I would be fine with that as long as they simulate that against the largest code compliant double stairwell setup.

They made a lot of poor choices to justify something minor rather than what they seem to have wanted to say which is no change.

Yeah unless they assumed every unit was a 3 bedroom setup in which case 5-6 per unit wouldn’t be crazy

A broom attachment on a skid steer if cities have one is the cheapest option they generally look to start at 5ft wide.

That won’t pickup debris but can at least get them out of the bike lane

Would this be that exciting no but its a simple order that gets us desperately needed trainsets. I suspect the cost to be around 700-800M or 28-32M per trainset.
If the midwest would buy our ventures and some chargers I'd say add on another 15 sets for Gold Runner and North Valley rail.

Hearing that Oakland City Council reversed planning staff recommendations to delay from SB 79 upzoning implementation for Rockridge, Lake Merritt and Coliseum BART station areas on a 6-0-2 vote.

Plan Highlights FY 25 Metrolink Reimagined: strategies applied to weekdays FY 28: strategies applied to weekends FY 29: Half-hourly SBL, Hourly VCL, AVL, OCL and other improvements systemwide, including weekends FY 32: Completion of further SCORE project segments FY35: LinkUS project completion FY35: New VCOC line FY 37 Southside island platform project completion, half hourly: OCL (part of VCOCL)

New information on Metrolink SCORE is out:
- SCORE Phase 1 not complete until after Olympics
- Half-hour service on SBL, AVL, VCL by 2032 - but not on OCL until 2037
- LinkUS will combine VC and OC lines, delivering the Tripper service we modeled in #Electrolink!

Good projects, slow timeline.

We don’t know when the last departure will be so might be relying on a sleeper train to get home

They are not going to exceed 125 anywhere north of Gilroy. It’s a mixed traffic railway with Caltrain, Amtrak and freight. I doubt we see NEC wavers for 160

bsky.app/profile/catr...

It’s just upgraded Metrolink tracks which shouldn’t be a problem.

SF to Gilroy to help cut 30 mins is going to require a massive amounts of grade separations to permit quad tracking and possibly raise speeds above 110

Red is the currently proposed option it’s ~12.5 miles. Yellow is the other which is ~13mi plus the ~1.5 mile Newhall tunnel

This option would be capacity limited and there’s another 30 mins of time savings
I and some others also aren’t entirely convinced on this tunnel over the eastern most plus Newhall tunnel which likely provides the same benefit for HSR and significantly more for Metrolink at roughly the same cost

Yeah that’s about where I’m at
~45 mins SF-SJ
~25-30 mins SJ Gilroy
~1:40 Gilroy to Palmdale
~1:00 Palmdale to LA
~3:50-3:55 end to end