511 Contra Costa

Parking this way! Photo credit: S Jones
These days, chances are you’ve heard of peer-to-peer car-sharing a concept that continues to grow in  Contra Costa and allows people to borrow an available car from neighbors on an as-need basis.  The Walnut Creek based firm, Park Circa has developed an app that facilitates shared parking.
A new tool, Park Circa, brings the peer-to-peer concept to parking and lets people use parking spaces when private citizens don’t need theirs…. Read the rest

Are you curious to know how weather affects the number of people that use the new bike lane in the neighborhood? Or how traffic patterns change during summer break? Anecdotal observations are useful in finding the answer to these questions but sometimes nothing compares to having data at hand.Getting the data just got a little easier with the arrival of TrafficCOM – a device available to the public that counts and monitors the speed and rate of traffic…. Read the rest

A look at the interior of AC Transit’s new Gillg buses. Click the image for additional photos of the new buses Photo credit: AC Transit
Some good news for AC Transit riders– the transit agency recently acquired 65 new buses from Hayward based Gillig! The buses started being phased in March and will be replacing some of the agency’s older buses.
What makes these buses so great? Well, a number of things, including:

Low-floor accessibility

Stroller and wheel-chair areas
Catalytic reduction and gas recirculation system that makes the engines of these new buses 90-percent cleaner than the buses being replaced
Low-maintenance seating
Digital display of next stops

See the below video for other improvements are on the way for AC Transit and to see some views of what these new buses look like

Video credit: AC Transit… Read the rest

Going Car Lite, Bay Bridge bike path opening, bikes on BART
Our weekly news & events roundup for Contra Costa County, East Bay & Bay Area for transit, biking and transportation

View the story “511CC Week in Review: May 11- May 17, 2013″ on Storify

[View the story "511CC Week in Review: May 11- May 17, 2013" on Storify]… Read the rest

Chances are you have probably glanced at  BART’s schedule, which looks like this…

Pittsburg/Bay Point Schedule. Screen grab via: BART
But what would you saw a BART schedule that looked like this?…

This is the Pittsburg/Bay Point Schedule, but in a different perspective– click image to interact with it. Screen grab via: http://andrusia.com/visualtrains/
The above series of red lines, looked at in conjunction with the X and Y axis, actually correspond with where the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART train will be at a given time…. Read the rest

Cycling in the snow. Photo credit: Amsterdamize
When a quarter of all trips within the entire country are done by bicycle it’s difficult to imagine much could be done to make cycling more attractive in the Netherlands. Then the municipality of Eindhoven unveiled it’s spectacular aerial roundabout for bikes that lets cyclists fly over motorized traffic.
More recently the city of Groningen – where almost 60% of all trips are by bicycle – yet another innovation has come about to make cycling even more attractive and convenient…. Read the rest

Construction on the Buskirk Avenue Widening Project in Pleasant Hill is scheduled to begin next week, May 20, 2013.  
What is it?
The project is to imrpove, reconstruct and widen Buskirk Avenue in Pleasant Hill, CA. In addition, drainage improvements, new pedestrian and bike facilities, new pavement and striping will be added to the Avenue.
Read more more on our blog post covering the Buskirk Avenue Project or the Stage 1 Notification PDF…. Read the rest

Standing room only on BART. Photo credit: Michael Patrick 
In response to record levels of ridership, BART has unveiled a new feature to its online trip planning – information on the estimated levels of crowding on a train. Now when you use the BART QuickPlanner (also accessible in mobile form) it will show an icon with three heads, two heads or one head indicating “heavy crowding expected,” “moderate crowding expected,” or “light crowding expected,” respectively.

Note the icon with three heads indicating a crowded train…. Read the rest

Know your Contra Costa Mayors? No worries, we included their photos and how they are participating in Bike to Work Day – maybe you’ll spot a few tomorrow ;)

Mayor Daniel Helix of Concord will be at the Downtown Concord BART energizer station greeting bike commuters.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond will be at San Pablo Ave/Richmond Greenway (at 6th St. and Ohio Ave), then at Richmond City Hall.

Mayor Cindy Silva of Walnut Creek will be biking to a TRANSPAC meeting at 9am…. Read the rest

Send your best photos and videos from Bike to Work Day for a chance to win one of these great t-shirts!
Submissions must be sent by May 17, 2013 by 5 pm PST to be eligible for the prize drawing.
Participants must commute through Contra Costa County. Entries will be accepted via Twitter (@511CC) and email (submissions@511contracosta.org)…. Read the rest