Monday, April 30, 2007
Seattle on a Space Race Rocket
Sunday, April 29, 2007
The Buses Role and Roll
While staying in the valley of the sun for a wedding, I needed to get a haircut before the ceremony. Of course where we were staying was not very walkable. The city is sprawl with the exception of the north south light rail corridor that is under construction and even that is a stretch. I looked up a haircut place on Yelp and CitySearch and then decided that I would walk. It was on a main corridor road and it was 101 degrees outside. When I got to the haircut place I was red and needed to cool down a bit. I saw a number of bus stops on my way there but figured it wasn’t really far enough. Well, it was far enough and I decided to take the bus back to the hotel. There were no schedules on the post. There were no route maps and a next bus indicator would have been helpful to know that I would have had to wait 40 minutes for it.
Overall it was a disappointing look into why people don’t take transit. This isn’t a bus versus rail thing but rather a convenience thing. I’m sure that this corridor I was on will be turned into Light Rail when they extend the initial line to the
Friday, April 27, 2007
On An Airplane
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
People on BART
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
When Is a Streetcar a Streetcar?
Monday, April 23, 2007
Anachronism...
In future years, as the public highways become more and more improved, the automobile is destined to compete seriously for much of the short haul traffic that is being taken care of at present by the interurban. The greater comfort and convenience of the automobile make it a very attractive mode of transportation. However, for the longer rides, the automobile can scarcely compete on a strictly economic basis with the electric interurban railway. The initial investment is high and the rate of depreciation rapid, and the mileage covered per day is not large...automobiles that do a regular transportation business should be taxed additionally to defray the expense incurred in the extra maintenance of the highways used, and such taxation would add to the cost of this mode of transportation.A user fee??? Never!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Air Rights and Development
Another idea I had to fund streetcar or light rail lines was for a private company to buy underutilized large parcels along a corridor they want to develop and redevelop them to create a fund for building transit. If this corporation or development partnership were to fund most of the line, perhaps it would be much more transit oriented and built right given they have a higher stake in its success.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Salt Lake City and The Space Race
Murray City and Hamlet Homes are taking advantage of growing buyer interest in living and working near the regional TRAX light rail system, which has operated in the Salt Lake Valley since 1999. The Murray North station, one of three TRAX stops in Murray City — population 50,000 — serves as the centerpiece of Birkhill at Fireclay.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
St. Louis and The Space Race
The first light rail line opened up in 1993 and fortunately was able to take advantage of an abandoned freight subway. An expansion opened up in 2001 into Illinois. In 2003 the Illinois line was expanded further and surpassed 2015 ridership projections upon opening.
An interesting thing about the Metro-Link is that it is a true light metro. It operates with very few grade crossings and has a subway segment through the city.
Now expansion plans are slated for a north south line that would bisect the existing east west axis. Studied in 2006 this line is supposed to receive funding for further study. Officials are also considering a tax hike in order to pay for expansion to the system.
The timing of any tax proposal will depend on whether Metro gets $20 million this year from the state. When the time comes to go before voters, officials believe more MetroLink — not just maintaining current operations — needs to be included. "We don't think you can talk in the county about support without talking about expansion," said Jones. "The opportunity to expand is critical to the support of the existing system."While not as high profile as some of the other Transit Space Race entrants, St. Louis has quietly and methodically expanded its transit network. Some might have the glory, but this system has guts, pulling the system ridership out from the gutter and bringing new people to transit. If you get a chance, check out the expansion advocacy page of Citizens for Modern Transit.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Did You Know?
Mayor Cassio Taniguchi announced, in the tuesday, that Curitiba will implant a system of light subway in the narrow channels of the axle North-South highway. For the proposal, the passage of the subway will have 19,5 kilometers and will be same praticamento of the current biarticulated buses.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Cargo Trams
Zurich - Kind of a Good Will Trailer on rails. People drop off disposable items and electronics and it's taken to the recycling center to be disposed of properly. English Translations can be done here.
Amsterdam - City Cargo will use trams and electric vehicles to distribute goods in the city. This is a really promising idea for the United States if we ever rebuild some of our interurban lines. No more big delivery trucks with diesel emissions...
Dresden - Volkswagen built a spur off of the city tram line to transport car parts across the city. The tram line takes 3 trucks off the road per trip. Fascinating Stuff.
A Discussion at Portland Transport about Cargo Trams...and a Swiss Blog is following the trend.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Still No Computer
Also, i attended a webinar on google transit. It's a really cool program that i recommend to everyone. Hopefully at some point we can merge it with something like Zillow to see true affordability and the connections to work from home through transit. Keep your fingers crossed.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Federal Gravy Train
So yesterday two bay area congressional members, one of them is my Gramma's congresswoman, asked the congressional transportation overlord for more money back. I think its great but I'm wondering what types of projects it would go to. Freeway expansion? I don't care about that since i don't use the freeway often, and if i do, it's on Wednesday night when no one is on it and I still pay the bridge toll, which brings me to my next point...freeway o holics love to say that highways are paid for by user fees. But what about those of us who pay gas taxes but don't drive on the freeway, or drive on the freeway that doesn't get any of that money. I hardly call that a user fee. It sounds like subsidy to me given that none of my gas tax money goes to my street.
I think M1ek touched on this at one point but when are suburbanites gonna realize they are just freeloading off the people who use surface streets? I'm all for tolls and perhaps if people had to pay the true cost of suburbanization, they might realize, well of course we should build more transit and collectively ride it, it would save us a ton of money. I know i know, wishful thinking.
Anyways, perhaps we shouldn't have a federal gravy train at all. Transportation monies should go to regional entities rather than national ones. Then we'll get the money the region needs and it will be spent on regional problems. I dunno. Thoughts?
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Border Towns Looking at Light Rail
Monday, April 9, 2007
Did You Know?
Friday, April 6, 2007
A Good Charlotte Kick in the....
From the AJC...
Moreover, as Atlanta ignores mass transit planning, it will be outpaced by other urban areas that have the foresight to put a brake on road-driven growth. Charlotte, with its ambitious inter-modal transit planning, stands poised to seize business opportunities from us, its chief rival as the Southeast's principal business and banking center. Even the Denver region, itself no model of sound mass-transit planning, last year demonstrated its commitment to pursue a new path when voters approved a bond issue for an innovative light rail system.And the Transit Space Race moves along.