1.
Bay Area Rapid Transit
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Bay Area Rapid Transit is a public transportation system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The rapid transit elevated and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in Alameda, Contra Costa, BART operates 5 routes on 104 miles of track connecting 45 stations, plus a 3. 2-mile automated guideway transit line to the Oakland International Airport which adds an additional station. A spur line in eastern Contra Costa County will utilize other rail technologies, with an average of 433,000 weekday passengers and 128.5 million annual passengers in fiscal year 2016, BART is the fifth-busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the United States. The systems acronym is pronounced Bart, like the name, BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, formed in 1957. As of 2017, it is being expanded to San Jose with the consecutive Warm Springs, some of the Bay Area Rapid Transit Systems current coverage area was once served by an electrified streetcar and suburban train system called the Key System. This early 20th-century system once had regular trans-bay traffic across the deck of the Bay Bridge. By the mid-1950s, that system had been dismantled in favor of highway travel, a new rapid-transit system was proposed to take the place of the Key System during the late 1940s, and formal planning for it began in the 1950s. Some funding was secured for the BART system in 1959, passenger service began on September 11,1972, initially just between MacArthur and Fremont. All nine Bay Area counties were involved in the planning and envisioned to be connected by BART, before the system began revenue service, serious problems in the design and operation of the Automatic Train Control system were observed. Three engineers working for BART, Max Blankenzee, Robert Bruder, BART management was dismissive of their concerns, so the three took the issue to the board of directors. All but two of the directors voted in February 1972 to support management and reject the safety concerns, management retaliated against the engineers, firing them in March 1972. The IEEE later filed the first amicus brief in its history to support the engineers. The California Society of Professional Engineers reported to the California State Senate in June 1972 that there were serious safety risks with the ATC. Legislative analyst A. Alan Post, opened an investigation immediately, an ATC failure caused the train to run off the end of the elevated track and crash to the ground, injuring four people on-board, and drawing national and international attention. The “Fremont Flyer” led to a redesign of the train controls. The California State Public Utilities Commission imposed stringent oversight over train operations, the legislative analyst issued the first of three “Post Reports” in November 1972. The report was “sharply critical” of BART, finding that the ATC system was unreliable, the ATC program was mismanaged, and “no solution was in sight. ”The report accused BART of paying excessive fees for engineering services. BART’s general manager called the indictment of safety in the Post Report “not only disappointing, telephone calls were placed manually between stations, instead
2.
Walnut Creek, California
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Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located 16 miles east of the city of Oakland in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its active downtown neighborhood features hundred-year-old buildings and extensive high-end retail establishments, restaurants, as of 2014, the citys total estimated population is 67,673. Diablo, and the Tactan at Danville and Walnut Creek, on San Ramon Creek, todays Walnut Creek is located amidst the earlier site of four Mexican land grants. One of these land grants – measuring 18,000 acres – belonged to Juana Sanchez de Pacheco, Ygnacio Sibrian, one of the grandsons, created the first roofed home in the valley in about 1850. The grant was called Rancho Arroyo de Las Nueces y Bolbones, named after the principal waterway, the Arroyo de las Nueces was named for the occurrence in the valley of the native species of walnut tree, the California Walnut. With the coming of American settlers following the Mexican-American War, a settlement called The Corners emerged, named because it was the place where roads from Pacheco. The site of this first American settlement is today at the intersection of Mt. Diablo Boulevard. The first town settler was William Slusher, who built a dwelling on the bank of Walnut Creek, in the year 1855, Milo Hough of Lafayette built the hotel named Walnut Creek House in the corners. A blacksmith shop and a store soon joined the hotel, two decades later, the community changed its name from The Corners to Walnut Creek. In December 1862 a United States Post Office was established, the downtown street patterns laid out in 1871–1872 by pioneer Homer Shuey on a portion of one of his familys large cattle ranches are still present today. Walnut Creek began to grow with the arrival of Southern Pacific Railroad service in 1891, on October 21,1914, the town and the surrounding area of 500 acres ), were incorporated as the 8th city in Contra Costa County. A branch line of the Southern Pacific railroad ran through Walnut Creek until the late 1970s, the East Bay Regional Park Districts Iron Horse Trail, used by walkers, runners and bikers, runs over what were portions of that branch line. The mainline of the Sacramento Northern Railway passed through Walnut Creek, today, the Pittsburg/Bay Point – SFO Line line of the Bay Area Rapid Transit serves Walnut Creek with a station adjacent to Highway 680. Walnut Creek is located at 37°54′23″N 122°03′54″W, portions lie in both the San Ramon Valley and the Ygnacio Valley below the western slopes of Mount Diablo. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 19.8 sq mi,0.06 percent of which is water. Walnut Creek owns more open space per capita than any community in the state of California. In 1974, Walnut Creek voters approved a $6.7 million bond measure that allowed the city to purchase 1,800 acres of undeveloped hillsides, ridge lines, and park sites. Walnut Creek owns parts of Lime Ridge Open Space, Shell Ridge Open Space, Acalanes Ridge Open Space, the East Bay Regional Park District operates Diablo Foothills Regional Park and Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area, both in Walnut Creek
3.
Millbrae station
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The Millbrae Intermodal Terminal is an at-grade Bay Area Rapid Transit and Caltrain station located in suburban Millbrae, California, in northern San Mateo County. It was expected to support over 30,000 BART trips per day, Millbrae Station is the largest intermodal terminal in the United States west of the Mississippi. It has three tracks for BART and two for Caltrain. An island platform allows a connection between the two systems. A concourse mezzanine is above the platforms, currently two BART tracks and one island platform usually are kept out of regular service, used instead to hold train sets that are also out of service. The station is also a bus transit hub with multiple bus bays served by several SamTrans lines. Millbrae Station has about 2,900 parking spaces, including a parking garage. The Reserved Parking areas cost $2/day from 10am-3pm on weekdays, a free Library-a-Go-Go Peninsula Library System library book vending machine was added in May 2011. The station has daily Caltrain commuter rail service along the line between San Jose and San Francisco. Midday trains are hourly each way, service is frequent during commute hours. Service south of San Jose to Gilroy is limited to three weekday round trips. Passengers who board the train without a ticket are subject to fines of up to $250 plus court fees. Passengers who use the electronic Clipper card to ride the Caltrain must remember to tag on their card prior to boarding, if they board the train without tagging on, they will be subject to the same fines. In addition, Caltrain passengers are charged the maximum one way fare when they tag on prior to boarding the train, if passengers who use the Clipper card forget to tag off when they exit the train, they will be charged the highest cash fare from point of origin. In 2015, construction began on the rail system. If completed as planned, Millbrae would serve as one of one or two stations between San Francisco and San Jose, and would allow high-speed rail passengers to reach SFO via BART. $290 million has been allocated to lengthen the platforms for connection to High Speed Rail, before the Millbrae Intermodal Terminal was built for the BART San Mateo Extension terminus Millbrae had a free Caltrain shuttle bus between the station and San Francisco International Airport. The former Southern Pacific Depot has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since September 1,1978, in 1985 Caltrain service began at the original Millbrae depot, replacing Southern Pacific trains that had operated along the San Francisco Peninsula since the early 20th century
4.
Metro station
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A metro station or subway station is a railway station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a Metro or Subway. The station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, access trains stopping at its platforms, the location of a metro station is carefully planned to provide easy access to important urban facilities such as roads, commercial centers, major buildings and other transport nodes. Most stations are located underground, with entrances/exits leading up to ground or street level, the bulk of the station typically positioned under land reserved for public thoroughfares or parks. This is especially important where the station is serving high-density urban precincts, in other cases, a station may be elevated above a road, or at ground level depending on the level of the train tracks. The physical, visual and economic impact of the station and its operations will be greater, planners will often take metro lines or parts of lines at or above ground where urban density decreases, extending the system further for less cost. Metros are most commonly used in cities, with great populations. Alternatively, a railway land corridor is re-purposed for rapid transit. At street level the logo of the company marks the entrances/exits of the station. Usually, signage shows the name of the station and describes the facilities of the station, often there are several entrances for one station, saving pedestrians from needing to cross a street and reducing crowding. A metro station typically provides ticket vending and ticket validating systems, the station is divided into an unpaid zone connected to the street, and a paid zone connected to the train platforms. The ticket barrier allows passengers with tickets to pass between these zones. The barrier may operated by staff or more typically with automated turnstiles or gates that open when a pass is scanned or detected. Some small metro systems dispense with paid zones and validate tickets with staff in the train carriages, access from the street to ticketing and the train platform is provided by stairs, concourses, escalators, elevators and tunnels. The station will be designed to minimise overcrowding and improve flow, permanent or temporary barriers may be used to manage crowds. Some metro stations have connections to important nearby buildings. Most jurisdictions mandate that people with disabilities must have unassisted use of the station and this is resolved with elevators, taking a number of people from street level to the unpaid ticketing area, and then from the paid area to the platform. In addition, there will be stringent requirements for emergencies, with lighting, emergency exits. Stations are a part of the evacuation route for passengers escaping from a disabled or troubled train
5.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
6.
Transit-oriented development
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In urban planning, a transit-oriented development is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. A TOD typically includes a transit stop surrounded by a high-density mixed-use area. A TOD is also designed to be more walkable than other built-up areas, through using smaller block sizes. Many of the new towns created after World War II in Japan, Sweden, in the United States, a half-mile-radius circle has become the de facto standard for rail-transit catchment areas for TODs. A half mile corresponds to the distance someone can walk in 10 minutes at 3 mph and is an estimate for the distance people will walk to get to a rail station. The half-mile ring is a more than 500 acres in size. Another key feature of transit-oriented development that differentiates it from transit-proximate development is reduced amounts of parking for personal vehicles, many cities throughout the world are developing TOD policy. One of the earliest and most successful examples of TOD is Curitiba, Curitiba was organized into transport corridors very early on in its history. Over the years, it has integrated its zoning laws and transportation planning to place high-density development adjacent to high-capacity transportation systems, the source of innovation in Curitiba has been a unique form of participatory city planning that emphasizes public education, discussion and agreement. This is simultaneously being implemented along with a bus transit system called Transmetro. Calgary is home to a very successful TOD community called The Bridges, the Bridges is home to a diverse range of condos, shops, services, and parks. Some other TODs currently being constructed are London and Westbrook, both high rise condo and retail communities in areas of the City. The City continues to create TOD policy for other Calgary communities, Calgary City Council has allocated funding for the creation of six Station Area Plans around the city, to guide increasing development pressure around some of the light rail transit stations. On June 9,2008, Calgary City Council approved the first station area plan in Calgarys history, most of the suburban high rises were not along major rail lines like other cities until recently, when there has been incentive to do so. Century Park is a growing community in southern Edmonton at the south end of Edmontons LRT. It will include low to high rise condos, recreational services, shops, restaurants, Edmonton is also looking into some new TODs in various parts of the city. In the northeast, there are plans to redevelop underutilized land at two sites around existing LRT, Fort Road and Stadium Station, according to the Metropolitan Development and Planning Regulation of late 2011, 40% of new households will be built as TOD neighbourhoods. Toronto has a policy of encouraging new construction along the route of its primary Yonge Street subway line
7.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems
8.
Light rail
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Light rail, light rail transit or fast tram is urban public transport using rolling stock similar to a tramway, but operating at a higher capacity, and often on an exclusive right-of-way. A few light rail networks tend to have closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail. Other light rail networks are tram-like in nature and partially operate on streets, Light rail systems are found throughout the world, on all inhabited continents. They have been popular in recent years due to their lower capital costs. The term light rail was coined in 1972 by the U. S, Urban Mass Transportation Administration to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany the term Stadtbahn was used to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt the direct translation, however, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of intended for light loads and fast movement, the infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system. The Transportation Research Board defined light rail in 1977 as a mode of urban transportation utilizing predominantly reserved, electrically propelled rail vehicles operate singly or in trains. LRT provides a range of passenger capabilities and performance characteristics at moderate costs. Light rail is a generic international English phrase for these types of rail systems, the use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities between British and American English. The word trolley is used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States. A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams except Blackpool after World War II, when these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both the old and new systems. Conventional rail technologies including high-speed, freight, commuter/regional, and metro/subway/elevated urban transit systems are considered heavy rail, people movers and personal rapid transit are even lighter, at least in terms of capacity. Monorail is a technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role. Due to varying definitions, it is hard to distinguish between what is called light rail, and other forms of urban and commuter rail, a system described as light rail in one city may be considered to be a streetcar or tram system in another. Conversely, some lines that are called light rail are in very similar to rapid transit, in recent years. Some light rail systems, such as Sprinter, bear little similarity to urban rail, in the United States, light rail has become a catch-all term to describe a wide variety of passenger rail systems. There is a significant difference in cost between these different classes of light rail transit, tram-like systems are often less expensive than metro-like systems by a factor of two or more
9.
Automated guideway transit
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Automated guideway transit is a fully automated, driverless, grade-separated transit system in which vehicles are automatically guided along a guideway. The vehicles are often rubber tired, but other systems including steel wheels, air cushion, the guideway normally provides both physical support, like a road, as well as the guidance. In the case of systems, the two are often the same in the same way that a rail line provides both support and guidance for a train. For systems with multiple routes, most AGT systems use smaller wheels riding on the guideway to steer the vehicle using conventional steering arrangements like those on a car. AGT covers a variety of systems, from limited people mover systems, like those commonly found at airports. In the people mover role the term automated people mover is sometimes used, between the two are larger vehicles sized for around 20 passengers, sometimes known as group rapid transit, which blend features of the PRTs and larger systems. Subways were too expensive to install in areas of lower density - smaller cities or the suburbs of larger ones - which often suffer the same problems as larger cities. Buses could be introduced in these areas, but did not offer the capacities or speeds that made them an attractive alternative to car ownership. Cars drive directly from origin to destination, while buses generally work on a model that can up to double trip length. Stops along the route increase this even more, AGT offered a solution that fit between these extremes. Much of the cost of a system is due to the large vehicle sizes. The large vehicles are a side-effect of the need to have space between the vehicles, known as headway, for safety reasons due to the limited sightlines in tunnels. Given large headways and limited speed due to stops, the only way to increase passenger capacity is to increase the size of the vehicle. Headway can be reduced via automation, a technique that was becoming feasible in the 1960s, everything from track supports to station size can be reduced, with similar reductions in capital costs. Additionally, the vehicles allow for a wider variety of suspension methods, from conventional steel wheels, to rubber tires, air cushion vehicles. Since the system has to be automated in order to reduce the headways enough to be worthwhile, one key problem in an automated system is the negotiation of turns in the right-of-way - the steering system. The simplest solution is to use a rigid guideway, like conventional rails or steel rollercoasters, for lighter AGTs, these solutions were over-specified given the size of the vehicle, so the guideway was often separate from the running surface. A suspension-like system is needed to out the imperfections in the guideway
10.
Alameda County, California
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Alameda County is a county in the state of California in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,510,271, Alameda County is included in the San Francisco Bay Area, occupying much of the East Bay region. The county was formed on March 25,1853, from a portion of Contra Costa County. The Spanish word alameda means a place where trees grow. The willow and sycamore trees along the banks of the river reminded the early explorers of a road lined with trees, the county seat at the time it was formed was located at Alvarado, now part of Union City. In 1856 it was moved to San Leandro, where the county courthouse was destroyed by the devastating 1868 quake on the Hayward Fault, the county seat was then re-established in the town of Brooklyn from 1872-1875. Brooklyn is now part of Oakland, which has been the county seat since 1873, much of what is now considered an intensively urban region, with major cities, was developed as a trolley car suburb of San Francisco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The annual county fair is held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, the fair runs for three weekends from June to July. Attractions include horse racing, carnival rides, 4-H exhibits, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 821 square miles, of which 739 square miles is land and 82 square miles is water. The San Francisco Bay borders the county on the west, the crest of the Berkeley Hills form part of the northeastern boundary, and reach into the center of the county. A coastal plain several miles wide lines the bay, and is Oaklands most populous region, Livermore Valley lies in the eastern part of the county. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge A2014 analysis found Alameda County to be the 4th most racially diverse county in the United States, the 2010 United States Census reported that Alameda County had a population of 1,510,271. The population density was 2,047.6 people per square mile, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 339,889 persons,16. 4% Mexican,0. 8% Puerto Rican,0. 2% Cuban,5. 1% Other Hispanic. 26. 0% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.31. In the county, the population was out with 24. 6% under the age of 18,9. 6% from 18 to 24,33. 9% from 25 to 44,21. 7% from 45 to 64. The median age was 34 years, for every 100 females there were 96.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.00 males, the median income for a household in the county was $55,946, and the median income for a family was $65,857. Males had an income of $47,425 versus $36,921 for females
County Connection: 1, 1M, 2, 4, 5, 9, 15, 21, 25, 93X, 95X, 96X, 98X, 301, 311, 321, 601, 602, 609,_April_2018.jpg)
