Free Republic

An amendment introduced to the Oregon legislature Thursday would criminalize drug use on public transit. The Oregon Transit Association and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 are seeking to amend Senate Bill 1553 to create a misdemeanor charge for people who use illicit drugs while riding public transit. The charge of interfering with public transportation would apply to a person who “while in or on a public transit vehicle or public transit station, knowingly ingests, inhales, injects, or otherwise consumes a controlled substance that is not lawfully possessed by the person,” the amendment reads.

BART’s board of directors voted Thursday to formally oppose a bill in the California Legislature that would decriminalize fare evasion in the state’s public transit systems. The board’s 5-3 vote came after a heated debate among members. Under state law, those who are caught evading a fare three or more times may face a misdemeanor charge, which could result in a fine of up to $400 and a sentence of up to 90 days in jail. If Assembly Bill 819 — introduced by Assembly Majority Leader Isaac Bryan — were to pass, the third violation would no longer be classified...

President Joe Biden on Wednesday again promoted his infrastructure dreams of taking people out of their gas-powered vehicles and putting them on trains and other forms of public transit. “We’re investing almost $100 billion in public transit and rail, for all the studies show that it will take millions of cars off the road and significantly reduce pollution if there’s a serious transportation system available,” he said. The president spoke about public transit during his speech on high gas prices Wednesday, promoting it as a potential solution. Biden frequently talks about trains, since he has a deep love for them...

WALNUT CREEK — BART police arrested a man on a no-bail theft warrant Monday night following a major delay aboard the system, officials said. Officers initially responded about 5:15 p.m. for a report that a male was holding a female hostage on board a train at the Walnut Creek station and that he had a gun. BART said Tuesday that that report was discovered to be unfounded. The police response and subsequent investigation led to trains being shut down for about an hour, according to the agency. The suspect was taken to the Martinez Detention Facility.

Despite the troubling and ever-increasing number of COVID-19 cases in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams is urging corporations and financial institutions to end their reliance on telecommuting and bring their employees back to work. He says the city’s economic health depends on it,

DENVER — Trash, drug use and violence out in the open at Union Station’s RTD train and bus stops have employees demanding something be done about it. The union representing 2,000 workers for RTD and First Transit, RTD’s largest fixed-route contractor, alerted the community of the conditions in a Wednesday press release, calling Union Station a “lawless hellhole.” “It’s not safe to come to work when you have to inhale smoke from drug pipes,” the union said. They join riders and even some who are homeless in calling for action. ‘They have no respect’.. Union Station is a staple of...

Picture Pittsburgh 50 years from now with these transportation changes: a terminal in a central location to handle a hyperloop system, vehicles for vertical takeoffs and landings, and high-speed trains; aerial trams linking neighborhoods; and new bridges crossing the Monongahela River at Hazelwood for motorized vehicles and at the former Wabash rail bridge piers for bikes and pedestrians. Those might sound like something from a science fiction novel, but they are among the ideas the city says it must consider in a 50-year Mobility Vision Plan released Thursday by Mayor Bill Peduto and Karina Ricks, director of the city’s Department...

The use of Germany’s buses, trains and trams has plummeted during the COVID pandemic, with many opting to go by car instead — and according to a new study, the trend shows no sign of reversing any time soon. The previously unpublished study, which was carried out by Berlin’s Social Science Research Center (WZB) and the social research institute Infas, shows that people are continuing to choose car travel over trains and buses in spite of the easing of many COVID restrictions and a return to public life. In Spring 2021, almost half of all public transport users were instead...

It's time to stop throwing money at an obsolete form of travel and focus on the transportation system that is already moving more than 80 percent of passenger travel in the U.S. When most of the nation’s governors shut down nonessential businesses and directed people to stay at home, they made the mistake of keeping urban transit systems running despite a 2018 study showing that mass public transportation systems expedite the spread of infectious diseases in communities. Further, a 2011 study found that people who ride urban transit are nearly six times more likely to suffer from upper respiratory infections...

London Mayor Sadiq Khan was challenged on live TV as he claimed there is “no risk” of catching the deadly coronavirus from joining the millions who ride the city’s packed trains and buses. “It’s very important that we don’t spread panic or alarm based on misinformation,” Khan said on “Good Morning Britain” Tuesday when asked about the assumed “obvious risk factor” of public transport. “There is no risk in using the Tube or buses or other forms of public transport,” he said, noting there are 5 million journeys each day on the underground system along with 6 million on buses....

The MTA's subway map can be intimidating. "It's quite complicated," said Sebastian Gutmann, a tourist. "Because you see so many street names, so many station names, and you have to figure out where you are. It wasn't much help to Jake Berman when he first moved to New York from San Francisco 12 years ago. So he decided to make his own version. Jake Berman's subway map. Courtesy Jake Berman "Frustration is a great source of creativity," Berman said. But when he began selling his creation, the MTA threatened legal action, and got the website Etsy to temporarily take it...

There are only a few sure things we can count on in this crazy, ever-changing world: The moon's regal orbit around the earth. The gentle change of the seasons. And the fact that, on any given subway car, there will be at least one man with his legs spread across multiple seats. A problem as frustrating as it is mysterious, the man who takes up multiple seats on public transit with his splayed-out legs inspires all sorts of questions among his fellow riders: Is the leg-spreader exercising his male privilege, or, as some defenders would have you believe, merely attending...

Miami-Dade’s beleaguered transit system took its worst plunge in use ever in the past fiscal year, new figures reveal. Ridership among all four transit modes declined a combined 9.6% as almost one in every 10 riders disappeared. ....just as the county is promoting plans for six new legs of mass transit in its multi-billion-dollar Smart plan....

The fumblewear bomber may have experienced one of the classic fails in terrorist society, but he’s clearly having an impact nonetheless. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is pushing a sense of urgency in getting some sort of bomb detection system in place in the nation’s mass transit hubs such as bus and rail stations. This is an understandable, if reflexive response to an attempted terror attack and if it could be implemented both safely and effectively I’m guessing most of us would be willing to at least give it a look. But can it be done? (Associated Press) Screening...

“Die Kitties Die!” screamed the headline in the New York Daily News when, in 2013, former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Joe Lhota criticized a decision to pause trains in a Brooklyn subway station to rescue a pair of kittens lost on the tracks. These days, New York so badly needs to get the trains to run on time that Lhota, whose unfortunate anti-cat comments caused a minor scandal, has been brought back as chairman of the transit agency.

Motorists in the Île-de-France will be hit by a tax rise in order to finance the region's public transport, the government has confirmed. France’s finance bill, presented on Wednesday, authorizes the region to increase the regional fuel tax (TICPE) to up to 1.65 cents per liter on diesel, and 1.77 cents per liter on gas. This will make fuel taxes in Île-de-France the highest in the country. […] “We have no choice,” said a spokesperson for Valérie Pécresse, president of the region. “We have to do it; the accounts of the regional transport authority cannot be unbalanced.” …

Looking for ways to save money, SEPTA has paid about $2.8 million to a Boston-based consulting firm, including payments of more than $500 an hour to some specialists. In the process, FTI Consulting Inc. has used 24 of its staffers, some of whom have collected more from SEPTA than the transit agency’s highest-paid official, general manager Joseph Casey, who makes $273,000 a year. The meter is still running, with additional payments expected to continue through the end of the year. SEPTA hired FTI in February 2013 through a no-bid contract to help the transit agency reduce legal costs arising from...

BOSTON (CBS) — Beverly Scott is resigning as MBTA general manager, the transportation agency said Wednesday afternoon. The MBTA had suspended rail service Monday night and Tuesday to clear snow from its tracks amid a record-setting period of snowfall in the Boston area. Gov. Charlie Baker and others had criticized the MBTA for its lackluster performance during the extreme snow and cold.

Owning a car should be “outlawed” to force people on to public transport, a senior Labour MP has suggested. Motorists who want to drive should instead be forced to join communal “car clubs” where the cars are shared by drivers and used only when needed. Dr. Alan Whitehead, a Labour MP for Southampton Test and a member of the Energy and Climate Change select committee, said the increase in car ownership would lead to “something approaching a national traffic jam before 2040”. He claimed that radical action would be needed to avoid national gridlock. …

Few onlookers would mistake a Maserati for a Muni -- and, for those experiencing difficulty making the distinction, here's a primer. When a hulking Muni bus parks itself over a mechanics' pit, much-needed maintenance ensues. When a minuscule Maserati attempts to do the same, it finds itself in need of maintenance of a different sort. SF Weekly obtained the above photo of the late May mishap. Bus operators on the scene at the Potrero Muni yard joke that the Maserati driver must have been hit with a sudden and overwhelming desire to work for Muni. That's one explanation for abruptly...