Monday, August 25, 2008

Monday Night Can't Watch the DNC Because I Don't Have Cable Linkage

Augusta is looking at streetcars. One of the points that Streetcar Salesman Charlie Hales talks about in this article that I don't see in too many of them is the difference in pedestrian traffic before and after the streetcar. This is one of the things I think Jan Gehl talks about that I just love, prove things with data. Data data data. Jan is all about doing ped counts to tell shop keepers that their shop isn't suffering because they don't have parking if they have 1,000 people walking by per hour.

The Albany Times Union has an article stressing something that should be adopted as one of our memes. Public transit is an investment, not an expense. Ed Tennyson says this all the time and it certainly makes a lot of sense. Since it is an investment, we need to amortize over the life of the transit to get its true benefits and operational costs.

Finally, Dave Reid at Urban Milwaukee has an awesome post on drinking and not driving.
As a society we say “don’t drink and drive” but in this case actions speak louder than words. Zoning and land use policies have an impact on the built environment that often promotes driving and limits other transportation options. These regulations to some extent mandate how we get home from work and unfortunately how we get from the tavern, home. Many regulations are involved in this problem but with adjustments to the three below a real reduction in drunk driving can be promoted.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link and kind words. And you summed it up exactly. The key isn't to end all drinking. The key is to when drinking never have any need to drive. Live where you can walk or take mass transit... Thanks Again.

Anonymous said...

btw, the convention is being webcast @ demconvention.com, if you've got internet...

Pantograph Trolleypole said...

Heh. Those are your words Dave! They are block quoted :)

Anonymous said...

I was saying thanks for these words "Finally, Dave Reid at Urban Milwaukee has an awesome post on drinking and not driving."

Pantograph Trolleypole said...

:) Not a problem.

Richard Layman said...

wow, the Augusta Chronicle story and the quote from Charlie is very misleading. Before the Pearl District was the Pearl District it was a railyard. Then it wasn't. And developers wanted to develop it. (I don't have a problem with that.) So they started to do so, and also figured a streetcar would help increase demand and make the area more accessible and valuable. So of course pedestrian activity would increase as the area was developed.

Likely it is more successful with a streetcar, and development is likely occuring faster.

But to weave the story the way the first paragraph does is very misleading.