Information Underload 101

This is about the 100th article by Ben Wear about the cost of the Capital Metro Commuter Rail Line. Sure it's something citizens want to hear about, but in a more intelligent world, he would be asking questions about how the system is only going to have a few runs a day and the technical details of what would fix that or how it got to this point that anything even needed to be fixed. You know, information that would keep something disappointing like that from happening again. Or possibly how light rail downtown could possibly realign development in Austin or even how there are a billion different ways to fund transit lines with innovative ideas. But no, Austin is stuck with yet another article about the cost of the line.

As you all know, I'm not a reporter. But if I were to write a column on transportation, I would probably educate myself about what the best practices are around the country and fill my feed reader with every single piece of transportation information I can to inform my writing. I try to do that anyway but I don't get paid to write and I don't have a whole city to inform. But newspapers wonder why they are losing readers and market share to other sources and I would say its because the information they give is just too basic, especially on issues such as transportation.

While blog commentary will never take the place of reporting, they are creating an elevated discussion about niche issues such as transit and development. As I was discussing with a colleague the other day, if we were relating blogs to college courses, newspapers are often the intro courses and blogs the upper level electives. Feel free to look at the course schedule.

Update 1.30.09: David has more on newspaper issues including simple things they can do like linking out.

Change in Overhead Wire Comments Policy

Hey all, its not a big change but I got 100 spam comments last night and I think my laptop got taken over by a virus. I'll probably have to wipe it clean and start over but for now any comment on a post older than 5 days will be moderated. That still means recent hot topics will show up right when you post. I don't want to moderate really, but this is the best way I could under blogger without reverting to open access that seemed to not let certain folks post before. Hope this works for everyone.

Streetsblog SF

Check it out. They're up and running.

Before Transit

In my previous life I was a runner. Many people that didn't know me before I moved to California ask what I was like before transit took over as my thing, since I spend so much time blogging about it and thinking about it. Well, there are a few descriptions I could use to explain, but to the non-runner its hard to understand or perhaps even believe. I often get confused looks.

The word "Monk" comes to mind, with a secluded life and permanently focused mental state. The best way that I could explain to people what it was like was to send them to read Once a Runner. It's a fictional tale of how one runner lived and is used as the basic template for telling the story of one's running life. Though I tried to write down what it was like to run and live the life of a runner, it never quite filled everything in the way this book does. According to Slate, it's getting a reprint. Good. Because like so many other runners, I lent my copy to a girl (or friend) at one point to explain my lifestyle.

...but a part of me wishes the novel had stayed out-of-print. Not everyone is up for the running life, and not everyone should be able to get their hands on this book. It should take effort, whether that means borrowing (or stealing) it from someone or saving up $77.98. Once a Runner's portrait of running may smack of elitism, but it is a democratic elitism: Not everyone can be a runner, but a runner can come from anywhere.

Though I will warn you as the article explains:

It aggrandizes the insular world of running in a way that, with due respect to its new publisher, no nonrunner could possibly relate to. It is written for runners—and to keep nonrunners out. But it also nails the running life like no other novel ever has.

Perhaps that is the point of the book, it allowed running to be kind of a fight club. You were a member or you weren't. You showed up to class Monday with spike marks in your shin or calf and mud washed away from the race last weekend that tore up a University Golf Course in such a manner that you weren't allowed back again in the near future.

I don't miss waking up at 6am to run 10 miles for an easy day. I don't really miss being 25 pounds under weight, or having to watch exactly what i eat. And I certainly don't miss having to go to bed when everyone else is out having a beer. But I do miss Sundays. 18 mile runs through the woods with no destination and no sound but the pitter patter of feet and your own breath for an hour and 45 minutes. If we could stay at the fitness level we achieved forever, that's where I would be. But at some point running 90 miles a week wears on your body and mind. But like life there is no secret to running. Some might think they have the answer, but the answer like the article states, is just patience and a lot of hard work.

Like many cults, distance running has its mysteries, and The Secret—how you become a real runner—is Once a Runner's chief concern. ("As Denton's reputation grew," Parker writes, "a number of undergraduate runners decided they would train with him, thinking to pick up on The Secret.") But it turns out that The Secret is that there is no secret. The runner must pound the mileage, as we say. It's a grueling, tedious, insane lifestyle. So why do we keep doing it?

To understand the answer, you have to understand a bit about distance running. For one thing, it helps to know that only nonrunners talk about a "runner's high." It's not that it doesn't exist, that weird feeling of euphoria you sometimes get briefly after a tough day at the track or a superlong run. But no one could possibly be a runner just for the highs, whether brought on by natural chemicals or by winning a race. The running life is mostly just lots and lots and lots of miles. Only a few competitions punctuate the grind of thankless workouts on anonymous tracks, and you literally need a very loud gun to snap you out of the training existence and tell you it's time to save nothing for later. There simply isn't enough in the way of traditional rewards as compared with hard labor to make it worthwhile—that is, if you're only after the traditional rewards.

I'm tied deeply to my past as a runner. It taught so many lessons that no school or teacher could ever go through. Patience, Integrity, Hard Work. As a poster that once hung in my room says:

There are clubs you can’t belong to, neighborhoods you can’t live in, schools you can’t get into, but the roads are always open.

So when someone asks me if I'm going to join the gym. I kind of laugh. The roads are free, at least for now.

Interview with Fred Camino

I too want to go where the seats are purple.

Streetsblog San Francisco

Coming soon to a browser near you.

Streetsblog.net Launches

For fans of our City Transit Advocates blog, you'll love Streetsblog.net.

Help Out Some Bike Advocates

This message came over the wire. Help some bikers out.

Let's Go KC is working with Kansas City, Missouri to fund a bicycle/pedestrian trail on the Paseo Bridge. We need to collect $100,000 in pledges by November 24, 2008 to get a trail by 2011, otherwise the trail will not be built for many years! MoDOT will build it if the local community provides the money, and it will be cheaper and easier to do it now.

To meet our goal we need 5000 people to pledge only $20! There is no cash needed now. The money will be collected only if needed to build the ramps to the bicycle/pedestrian trail on the bridge.

I pledged up $25. I think this is one of the things that the transport blogosphere could become really good at, raising money for local causes to drown out the opposition. This just happens to be a local project and a very inventive way to provide a local match. If so inclined, help out.

You Know You're a Transit Nerd When...

A top 10 list.

"3. You’ve had the yes, but the highway system was subsidized, too argument more times than you can count."

Blogger Solidarity

I don't wear PJ's, but perhaps I should start. Either that or ride the train in slippers.



Via Yglesias

Election Night Reminder

We're going to be liveblogging the national election. I encourage folks to come by election night to find out what is going on with transit issues around the country. Here's what we're covering.

St. Louis - An election is being held to give Metro a half cent more in order to keep up with operating expenses and expand Metrolink, the region's light rail system. It's called Proposition M.

Santa Fe - A Sales Tax to extend Rail Runner into the city from Albuquerque.

Oakland/Berkeley - AC Transit is looking to raise the parcel tax $48 annually to pay for operations. This measure is called VV. KK is also on the ballot and would allow AC Transit to build BRT on Berkeley streets.

Los Angeles - This would be a half cent sales tax for capital expansion. It's called Measure R.

Sonoma Marin - SMART will go back to the polls to ask for an 1/4th cent sales tax to build a commuter rail line. It is called Measure Q.

Honolulu - Island residents are being asked whether they approve of a steel on steel transit system.

Kansas City - A half cent sales tax is on the ballot to build a starter light rail line.

Seattle - Prop 1. I'm not going to be covering this as much except for some crucial updates. I'm sure the boys at STB got it covered.

High Speed Rail - $9.9 billion dollar bond for a statewide high speed rail line. This one is Prop 1a.

100,000!

We just crashed the 100,000 visit mark on the blog. Thanks to everyone who has come by over the last two years.

October in San Francisco

Another weekend, another Muni Fail to the game. I got passed by three 22 Fillmore buses before I could get on one. I'm even more convinced now that more buses on routes are not the answer with the constant special events on the weekend. It's a North South subway. Even if the J just went underground at Market Street and continued North to the Marina it would be worth it. In any event, I had another exciting Saturday watching the Texas game and went to the Red Bull Soap Box Derby which was only a few blocks from my house.

Muni LRV at Dolores Park


The Derby had an attendance of 75,000.


People were hanging from windows and fire escapes


Lots of trespassers on the private ROW


Soap Box Vehicles. A hamster wheel that spun and a baseball


Here are a few Videos from the Derby. My favorite was the Death Star, but the fastest I saw was the fire truck....woosh.

Fire Truck



Death Star



Rubicks Cube

Want to Live the Pajama Life?

Streetsblog SF is looking for an editor. SF Bike Blog has more.

Off Topic: A Book Called 'Post'

My buddy Eric Grubbs has written a book from the inside about some of my favorite bands called Post: An Anthology of American Post-Hardcore /Whatever-You-Call-It-Core: 1985-2005. I just ordered it so I can't tell you how great it is, but I can tell you he worked for many years and really hard interviewing the bands in the book and really cares about the subject.

Back in 2005 he came and stayed at my place in Austin in order to go to SXSW and talk to some folks in his book that covers some of the best Post Hardcore (Usually called Emocore or Emo) bands that existed back when I was in school. It even includes the precursor to my all time favorite Hey Mercedes, Braid. So if you want to learn more about Jimmy Eat World, At the Drive In, Promise Ring, Sunny Day Real Estate and others...I encourage you to check it out.

Black Background and White Text

I know that the white text is a bit hard for some to read and have thought about how to fix it without changing the look of the site. For those of you who like to read lots of blogs and want black text on white background, you can subscribe to the blog in your reader. Also, i put a link to my feed at the top right so people can read recent posts from the feed in black and white.

I'll think of other ways to help folks out in this way. I'm sympathetic. But I also like the black and red.

Blog Credentials Available at Rail~Volution Conference

Hey Transit, TOD, and Livability Bloggers. We've arranged to have bloggers get press credentials at Rail~Volution this year to cover the event. It's in San Francisco so it should be a good time had by all and very informative. Take a look at this years info.

Here is what Rail~Volution is all about...

Rail~Volution is, first and foremost, a conference for passionate practitioners - people from all perspectives who believe strongly in the role of land use and transit as equal partners in the quest for greater livability and greater communities.

So if you want to blog on the conference you can apply here.

If you're not a blogger, but a transit or community activist, there are scholarships available for folks in the Bay Area and outside of the Bay Area. You'll have to apply soon but if you're interested in coming please fill one out.

Spread the word...

The Bears are Moving In

Yosemite's Relation to Transit

This weekend I was in Yosemite camping with my siblings. There always seems to be a transit twist with my trips and this one was no different, even in the wilderness where there was no cell phone reception or access to technology but there were buses.

On the first day we went to Yosemite Valley. If you haven't been I certainly recommend it. It's stunningly beautiful and made me wish that I could still run twenty miles at a time, specifically during this picture...



After the meadow, we drove to a parking lot and left our car. We hopped on the bus and it took us to a trail head for mirror lake. It was amazing and we got a good view of the lake's reflection of the mountains.







The next day we went to Hetch Hetchy, where San Francisco gets its water. Down stream that water gets turned into hydroelectric power for Muni Metro and trolleybuses. You'll have to turn your screen sideways for the video of Wampama falls.








All in all it was a fun trip.

Technology Sabbatical - Open Thread

I'm taking a few days off and I'll be nowhere near a computer. I think it'll be nice, until I come back to 1000 blog posts and articles in google reader. I'm going to play some of my favorite old posts though, timing them for each day I'm gone.

But I'd also like to make this an open thread. What's going on out there in the space race? What's going on in your city?