Broadway Shuttle on NextBus

Via ABO's twitter feed, I learned that finally the Broadway Shuttle is on NextBus. In a test run yesterday, I noticed similar problems with timing I found when NextBus first arrived, but those seem to have since worked themselves out, so I'm hopeful.

I'm amazed this service didn't launch with NextBus. A good deal of the FreeB's utility derives from the fact that one can take it on short hops during a lunch hour to save time and increase the range of accessible places. It helps not to have to wait 10 minutes on the front end of the trip.

Overall I love the Broadway Shuttle, and think it is a great addition to both AC Transit and downtown Oakland. I've been taking it once or twice a week since service began, and it appears to be well used. I have further thoughts that I've been meaning to write for months, which I hope to get to soon. Stay tuned.

Seeing Orange

Across the Bay this week is Dutch Design Week SF, which "presents the best of the Dutch creative industries in all areas of design." As you can see from a few of my previous posts, I'm a bit of a Dutch designphile. The image above is of Wilo by Benthem Crouwel Architects, which was Daily Dose of Architecture #457.

Tonight is a lecture by Karen Van Den Brandt and Alex Clay of Lesley Moore. Afterwards, the results of a weekend workshop they held at the CCA will be presented. I'm hoping the workshop perhaps addressed the awful graphics of AC Transit.

On Wednesday will be a lecture by Caroline Bos on the Deep Planning of UNStudio. I'm a bit skeptical that there is all that much to it, so I'm looking forward to learning more. Regardless, from what I've seen their architectural and graphic work is beautiful, so if nothing else it should be a visually interesting lecture. See you in Orange!

Filming in Old Oakland

This is way too late for a blog that is posted to so infrequently these days, so this is mostly for posterity, but I wanted to point out that tonight (all night) is the last day of shooting for a Lincoln car holiday commercial in Old Oakland. Like most movies and commercials, this is facilitated by the Oakland Film Office, who have a great name and a really cool logo - they really should be selling their t-shirts to the public, rather than only giving them away as a thank you to crews that film in Oakland.

Anyways, it is worth heading down to Old Oakland tonight, if only to see some vacant storefronts filled in with fake holiday window displays. It suggests an interesting strategy for down on their luck retail nodes to present a better face, at least until Oakland facilitates new establishments by deregulating the retail sector.

2010 Bike to Work Day

Today is Bike to Work Day!