Shopping Late? Parked in the dark?

Attention West Oakland BART patrons:

Get an escort to your car!

On Thursday, December 17th and Friday, 18th from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. the Oakland Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association (CPAAA) will escort you to your car.

On an average weekday, there are 4,800 riders exiting the West Oakland BART Station. Now that the sunsets around 5:00 p.m. and BART has reduced the number of on-site parking spaces due to the Earthquake safety work currently underway, BART patrons are parking further away.

The CPAAA working in collaboration with the Oakland Police Department (OPD) and BART Police Department (BART PD) have developed a program which will increase the number of OPD officers and BART PD officers in the West Oakland BART area this Thursday and Friday.

There will be an OPD van taking BART patrons to the perimeter parking lots as well as OPD officers on foot patrol, escorting BART patrons side-by-side with volunteers from the CPAAA.

This Wednesday, December 16th at 6:00 p.m. in the Board of Directors room, 1600 Franklin Street, Oakland, please attend the AC Transit Board of Directors meeting and speak in favor of the adoption of the Revised Service Adjustments Plan. I previously wrote about this item Nov. 30th titled Every 15 minutes… Can be a reality.

Our Bus Route 26 (which replaces the current Bus Route 13) will provide access to the East Bay Bridge Shopping Center at 40th Street west of San Pablo Ave, Downtown Oakland, Old Town, China Town and most of the West Oakland neighborhoods including the Oak Center Clawson, Ralp Bunche, McClymonds within minutes. See route map here.

The route of the former 19 Line now the Bus Route 31 provide access to locations stated in previous post as well as Marina Village shopping center in Alameda, whose tenants include banks, a pharmacy, restaurants and grocery store in one location. See route map here.

More route information and why this item is important can be found at AC Transit and the previous post “Every 15 minutes… Can be a reality” here on the POPna site.

AC Transit News

Transbay passengers are making the move to TransLink to reduce boarding times during the construction of a new San Francisco Transbay Terminal, AC Transit agreed to discontinue the use of transbay magnetic-strip (paper) tickets on all transbay lines. AC Transit stopped selling transbay magnetic-strip tickets on all transbay lines on June 19, 2009. Buses will stop accepting these tickets on all transbay lines as of September 30, 2009. This means that starting October 1, 2009, passengers will no longer be able to use the 10-Ride and 31-Day transbay tickets for rides across the Bay.

Instead, passengers will use TransLink cards or pay their fares in cash. Former 10-Ride ticket users will be able to load any amount of cash ("e-cash") -- up to $100 at one time -- onto a TransLink card, which then deducts the fare each time it is tagged on the bus. 31-Day ticket customers will be able to load the equivalent of a 31-Day ticket onto their TransLink card.

The elimination of transbay magnetic-strip tickets includes AC Transit lines operating over the Dumbarton and San Mateo bridges. Likewise, passengers on these lines will also pay fares with TransLink, cash, or other accepted fare media from connecting operators. The new fare plan only applies to transbay fares and does not affect either local 10-Ride and 31-Day tickets or UC Berkeley students with ID cards and valid Class Pass stickers. Passengers are encouraged to use up their existing tickets as soon as possible and make their next fare purchase ("e-cash" if you currently use 10-Ride tickets, or a 31-Day pass) on a free TransLink card available at AC Transit's ticket offices in downtown Oakland and at the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco.

The ticket office at the existing Terminal will close permanently at day's end Friday, September 18. There will be details available at the Terminal, as well as on online, about how to load TransLink cards or exchange unused transbay tickets after that date. Since June 22, passengers have had the opportunity to exchange their unused tickets for the equivalent value on a TransLink card. Exchanges can be made currently at the two ticket offices.