Who Knew...

bricks were so much trouble? A lot of what I have seen in this area is concrete that is pressed to look like bricks. Is it also possible that there is a spray that could keep the friction coefficient higher on these bricks while also allowing them to look the same? Here are a few of my own pictures of good looking but perhaps troublesome brick streets.

Prague:







Vienna Woonerf







Budapest Pavers





Why does this matter for transit? Well transit users are pedestrians before and after they use the train. It's important to focus on the complete movement from place to place.

IBM Congestion Pricing Commercial

Has anyone seen this? I saw it this morning during the Miami/Baltimore game but wasn't able to find anything on youtube yet. Here's a link to the IBM ad campaign. There's even a podcast about the Stockholm pricing scheme that IBM implemented, which I haven't been able to watch yet. But if anyone finds the commercial let me know and I'll post it.

Design Matters

Interior design of buses matters as we found out with the Van Hool debacle in Oakland. But let's not forget that the exterior matters as well. I'll be interested to see how the Roadmaster double deckers will be replaced in London with a sleeker Aston Martin version. James Bond on the bus? Maybe. If people see buses as dirty old carbon spewers they won't even think to take them. It's hard now to get people to take the bus in places where the culture of bus riding is absent, but design can help change the image, and things like this are a step in the right direction.

Dumb Criminals

Don't step on the streetcar if you just robbed a bank. I'm pretty sure they'll find you. Either that or this...

Metro Madrid Subway Commercial

Why can't we have more commercials about transit like this? I posted this a few years ago after Metro Rider LA found it, but its worth seeing again.

Do You Have Friends in Cul De Sacs?

They probably have lots of friends! According to a study in the UK, the less traffic you have, the more friends you have.

Inernational Rail Updates

Wow lots going on in the world. We have updates from China, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia.

Lagos is one of the world's densest cities. They plan to float a bond to pay for two new rail lines. I'm not sure where this relates to the BRT lines they have been planning, but part of this project concerns value capture schemes for the land around the transit stations. I wonder if they'll have to change their Euclidian zoning. Sure.

“The Lagos State Government intends to finance the infrastructure for both rail lines through the capital market by floating an estimated N275bn worth of rail infrastructure bonds.”

He also gave the details of the capital cost of project as Okokomaiko-Iddo ($582m), Iddo-Marina ($215m), and Agbado-Iddo ($402m). He stressed that the project would assist in traffic decongestion and landmark public/private partnership and opportunities for real estate development near the rail stations.

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Mecca plans on building a light rail line as well. Seems silly in a place where oil is king no?

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And we've seen the numbers before, but here is an article in another format on China. Business Week:

China is now undertaking the world's biggest railway expansion since the U.S. laid its transcontinental line in the 1860s. Beijing plans to spend $248 billion through 2020 on 75,000 miles of new track, for both freight and high-speed passenger lines. At that point, China's high-speed passenger network will likely be the biggest on earth.

H/T Orphan Road

Streetcar & LRV Poll

Seems as if the international streetcar article has garnered some interest. Let's see where folks stand on Tram and Light Rail design from around the world. At the right under the pantograph photo the there is a poll. I was going to put pictures up but it was hard to control sizes, so you'll have to click through. Here are your contestants with their country of origin:

Ansaldo Breda Italy: MUNI, MBTA, LACMTA, Sirio Series

Kinky Sharyo Japan: Seattle, Phoenix, Hudson Bergen

Siemens Germany: San Diego, Charlotte, Houston, Combino Series

CAF Spain: Pittsburgh, Sacramento

Bombardier Canada: Minneapolis, Flexity Series

Skoda Czech Republic: T14, T10, Portland, Seattle

Alstom France: Paris, Bordeaux, Citadis Series

Boris the Ripper?

Seems like London might soon regret tossing out Red Ken. £3.5 Billion of transit expansion projects have been scrapped. The New Mayor says that this is funding needed for Crossrail, a huge cross city subway line, but many aren't happy with the loss of local projects and say he is just encouraging autocentricity.

There is nothing about how the Mayor will encourage people onto public transport, but plenty about giving back road space and speeding up traffic lights in favour of the 'oppressed' motorist," said Labour's transport spokeswoman Val Shawcross

DC's Dead

Some of these ended up in Sarajevo. The rest were scrapped.

HT ASD

China Rail Stimulus Package: $445 Billion

Update: I should note that this is $445 Billion Australian or $272 Billion. That is still a lot of money.

Reuters is reporting that with factory workers in China losing jobs, the government will pump $445 Billion dollars into their rail system and economy.

CHINA will invest nearly $A445 billion in its overburdened rail system as a stimulus measure aimed at blunting the impact of the global financial crisis. The investment is part of plans to extend the country's railway network from the current roughly 125,502km to nearly 160,900km by 2010, Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post reported. The Beijing News quoted a rail official as saying that, while the network needed extending, the massive investment was also intended to help lift the nation's economy as it suffers amid the global woes.

I don't know about you all, but I can't even imagine a scenario where we pump that much money into freight and passenger rail lines because our politics would get in the way. That is almost double the demand that exists in the United States for new transit lines and certainly an investment like that in the United States would be an enormous benefit for our future ancestors. Are we going to see the light? Or fall further behind?

HT ASD

Mapping the Tube

From The Bellows. It's a 25 minute documentary from the BBC. If you have the time, take a look. Steve B, I thought you would enjoy this one.

Could Be Worse

Regular reader and commenter Stephen sent in this story about the last train in Cambodia. It goes about 17km/h (10mph) and transports goods and people. It goes slow enough that riding on the roof doesn't seem that dangerous, even though it still is.

Sprawl Spreads in Switzerland

It's not just here. And it's not just auto dependent. But it's just as expensive.

"In 1935, city limits were clearly identifiable," wrote the Science Foundation. This is no longer the case, and many urban areas snake into valleys and along transit routes.

I also imagine a 20 year moratorium on growth would not go over so well here. Though I think here it's called a growth boundary.

Researchers are proposing benchmarks to limit urban sprawl. In August 2008, a coalition of environmental organisations submitted more than 110,000 signatures to the government in support of a 20-year moratorium on new growth.

New Skoda T15 LRV

As you all know, I'm a fan of light rail vehicles. So much so that I went running down an ally in Prague leaving my family wondering what the heck I was doing. Well I was chasing a tram I never quite saw up close but my dad was lucky enough to snap a photo after I had left to go home of the T14.

Looks like a nice tram no? Maybe a bit like a caterpillar or worm. Well Skoda has come out with a T15. Not to be confused with Luke Skywalker's T16 which bullseyed womprats, I'm not a huge fan of this new offering. At first look, it reminds me of the Peugeot my parents had when I was a kid and looks kind of like a bus rather than a train. Obviously with all the "bus that looks like a train" comments on BRT going on out there I'd like for trams and LRVs to be destinctive. But decide for yourselves. What do you all think?

$200 Billion Dollars

What is the amount of money China spent on rail infrastructure Alex. Not just that, but in a 4 year period!!!!!!

Gotta Have More Cowbell

or in Ottawa, Rail.

Mr. Galipeau said the city has been fixated on short-term bus solutions for years, when the long-term answer is to build rail to major population centres. "Buses are a Band-Aid solution. I think they're dead-set on buses. I don't think they really believe in light rail," Mr. Galipeau said.

Greek Man in Chinese Daily Complains About American Transit

That's a lot of places intertwined.

Air France Gets into HSR

Air France is getting into the High Speed Rail biz. If you can't beat em, join em. When do we get to code share here in California?

First Ever Elevated BRT in China

Wonder how much this cost them.

Brian in the comments links to the webpage for this new line. Tons of pictures there like this one...