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California’s really got ‘IT’ goin’ on
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Negotiating car and camera to freeze coming and going S.F. MUNI trolleys
If you can’t find IT (Intelligent Transportation) in California, then obviously you haven’t looked in the right places.
On a recent trip to San Francisco, I saw several fine examples of IT. In a span of about 15 minutes, I witnessed no fewer than five.
Starting from a reference point of Ocean Ave. and California Highway 280, I spotted a conventional Municipal Railway of San Francisco (MUNI) bus, and trolleys and electric buses whose power was fed to each through overhead catenary distribution. That’s three examples of Intelligent Transportation right there. Following MUNI’s tracks east in that area, which duck under the 280 freeway, I saw more of the electric trolleys and one orange-colored historic trolley or streetcar thrown in for good measure.
Venturing south on 101 to South San Francisco, a north- or S.F.-bound Caltrain commuter train was breezing through the South San Francisco rail yard, which parallels and is adjacent to the Bay Shore Freeway in that location. And upon arriving at S.F.O., the area’s int’l airport, the silver-blue airport people mover came into full view and was in full swing. Intelligent Transportation was almost everywhere I looked and, believe me, I was looking!
California isn’t particularly well-known for its IT systems as far as I know. If it ain’t, it’s high time it should be.
My first introduction to the Golden State and IT was in 1972. I flew into LAX in Sept., paid a visit to Disneyland at the ripe age of 19 and, you guessed it. I got my first taste of IT: Monorail. Then it was off to S.F.O. and a stay in the City by the Bay. My dad was there on business and mom, well, she and I winged it sightseeing-wise. If you’ve been around that long or longer, that was the exact time of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s (BART’s) unveiling. It was a huge event, had a huge draw and there was no shortage of media coverage to be sure. This was the biggest thing to hit the Bay Area since, well, for lack of a better comparison, the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. But, BART’s introduction, unlike the earthquake, was revolutionary. Believe it or not, that’s almost four decades ago. For those keeping tabs, at least one of us is showing our age and I don’t have to say which one.
Long story short, Intelligent Transportation in California is here for the long haul. Make no mistake. If BART, the San Francisco Municipal Railway, Caltrain (successor to Southern Pacific’s Peninsula commute trains before that), the San Diego Trolley, Sacramento Regional Transit, the quaint S.F. cable cars even, and other California-based IT enterprises ain’t proof of that, I’ll eat my words. What did you think I was going to say, that I'd eat my hat? Ha! Had I said “hat,” I’d really be showing my age. I’ll go so far as to say: “I'll eat my words,” and we’ll just leave it at that.
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