Weekend Reads from The Direct Transfer

Some recommended reads for the weekend or those with a reading budget. ;)

Politico Magazine dives into the topic of TOD and Evanston Illinois. It's long form so make sure to leave some reading time.

Governor Hogan has proposed a frequent bus network in Baltimore to replace the Red Line, but not everyone is happy, especially the mayor which you can see in the Quote of the Day.

And finally, if you were wondering what all the fuss is about for the Paris climate talks, Good Magazine has a short primer.  I'm sure we'll be hearing more about COP21 as it gets closer.

Most Read from October 12th

Here are Yesterday's Top Stories from The Direct Transfer Daily

Img via Kotaku

- A History of City Building Games: Sim City and Beyond | Ars Technica
 

- Better Buses Make a Better City | David Alpert in the Washington Post
 

- Nashville's Mayor Tried to Build a BRT Line, Didn't Expect the Extraordinary Opposition
 
 

Bonus Quote - Oh That Pesky Traffic

"The main problem Plano Tomorrow’s opponents keep coming back to is that it could technically allow high-density apartments to be built almost anywhere in the city. They say apartments are associated with a host of social ills like poorer school quality, stunted home values and more traffic." 

The Direct Transfer's Most Read for September 29

Quote of the Day

On USC's cancelling of thier successful transit pass program

" ...this is just a pay cut for anybody at USC who has a disability that prevents them from driving and the university’s lowest wage workers." - USC Professor Lisa Schweitzer

Most Read #1

Yesterday San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee sent a letter to the board of supervisors saying that he would veto an Idaho Stop law that had enough votes to pass.  His reasoning?  He "will not trade away public safety for convenience"  You mean like the five times he's been caught doing it himself with his city funded car?

Most Read #2

Adam Gopnick writes in the New Yorker that cities just can't win.  In their lowest times they are horrific places to be and on high they are unaffordable and unjust.  But his main point is to review a book on the New York City grid.  He notes "The grid, useful as an accelerant for pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles, ended up being unintentionally well-adapted to the imperialism of the car." 

Most Read #3

Kevin DeGood of the Center for American Progress writes about three white elephant transportation projects and how they are making a mockery of the federal process.  He argues for a competitive process, I'm not sure I can argue against him. 

Bonus Read

Telecommuting works best in moderation.  Too bad we can't say that work itself is best in moderation.

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Thanks for keeping up with The Overhead Wire and The Direct Transfer in your RSS feeds or by checking back in to the website. Many of you are using the RSS instead of getting the daily email and that's awesome. As many of you know, for nine years I've put together The Direct Transfer Daily (formerly The Other Side of the Tracks) and for the last few months (and a year+ with Tanya Snyder) have been doing the Talking Headways Podcast at StreetsblogUSA. In my previous job there was a bit of support for these projects however now that I'm working on my own as a consultant that isn't as sustainable. It probably wasn't sustainable before but I love doing it and still do.

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Thursday Night Notes: Fake Trolleys and Blown Up Ridership Estimates

These articles are from a few days ago but I wanted to clear my tabs and get some opinions.

Ogden is going to spend some money on buses that they hope will stimulate streetcar ridership. While I've been impressed with the Broadway Shuttle in Oakland that recently started running given the short headways and fast access to Specialties bakery and Bakesale Betty from City Center, I have to wonder if people honestly think they are going to get a real estimate from these faux trolleys. (Calling them trolleys is a whole other can of worms I could get into in another post) It's understandable to want to know what is going to happen and spending less money to do it. But I'm convinced that given the completely different experience, you're almost dooming any streetcar to death by running the fake trolleys, especially if the headways are limited. Would like to hear more on this from others though.
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I know we have to make ridership estimates for capital projects. Until recently ridership estimates made or broke your ability to build projects. So color me annoyed that Denver finally gets around to updating the regional land use estimates that boost ridership for the Fastracks plan. Should we think this estimate is correct? No. Ridership estimates will always be horrific when done using software built for estimating auto trips. Should Denver have gotten more federal money for the program? Yes. Given they are already underwater paying for it, why didn't they try to fix this earlier and get more than 20% from the Feds? Were they just lazy?

Regions that are doing these massive projects like LA, Seattle, Denver, Houston, and Salt Lake City should get more help from the feds. They have a plan and are moving forward with it. It's likely that these types of network expansions that make up the Transit Space Race will give more bang for the buck than one off single line expansions.
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Here's an interesting article sent in by reader David. I'm always amazed at the different issues that places like Vancouver are dealing with than the majority of the United States in terms of ridership and development pressure along transit lines.
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Finally, there are tons of academic journals out there. They make you pay for their products and don't really care if only a few academics read them. But there's always interesting things to be found. Here are some links to Elsivier journals with a barrel of research on transport issues you all might care about. If you're RSS junkies like me, put them in your reader.

Sunday Night Notes

Whew, it's been a little while. Still reading lots of news and tweeting nightly. Wanted to cover these few news articles in greater than 140 characters though:

Utah's possible new Senator is saying he's going to cut off the spigot for transit capital funding from the feds saying that he doesn't believe they should be spending money on state and regional priorities. I happen to disagree with this but its an interesting question of

A. what is a regional or state vs. a national priority
B. what would he stance be if it were regional freeway expansion instead of transit

Seems to me much of this debate seems to be framed by subsidization rather than investment. The language needs changing if the livable transportation movement is going to make any ground.
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The Green Line extension to Boston which is a Big Dig offset is delayed again. I'm not sure how anyone could speed it up, but it seems like the state can't really be punished in terms of money more than it already has.
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Transit Miami gets the scoop on the Heavy Rail plug being pulled in the Miami region. This will set Miami back a lot, though local officials say they will refocus on BRT. How much do you want to bet that BRT means limited stop buses only?
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I think this article about job incentives moving employers from state to state which means no new jobs are gained but tax gains for the region are less is replicated around the country when cities fight so hard for sales tax dollars that they lop off the benefits of those jobs. The one that always comes to mind is Emeryville and Oakland.

Wednesday Night Notes

Notes for folks:

China is seeking their own manifest destiny with trains. (Reuters)
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China's Urban property is going up in price. (Wall Street Journal)
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A new (to me) place to get all of your transport research needs!
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The most hilarious (unintended of course) trucks vs. trains conspiracy theory I've ever read. I probably shouldn't link to it, but I couldn't resist. (Examiner)
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The Pedestrianist discusses what should happen to San Francisco's Central Freeway.
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Why people underestimate the pain of their commute. (Frontal Cortex)
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Why the Expo Line goes where it goes... (via @thetransitfan)

Thursday Night Notes

Here's some news I wanted to share:

I did a report on aerial ropeways once. The City Fix shows they are used for transport around the world and even in their favorite place, South America.
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The Cotton Belt rail line in Dallas might have an interesting funding mechanism.

The plan would most likely include much steeper fares for the Cotton Belt, paid parking, and the creation of special tax districts that would capture property tax increases associated with private development along the rail line.

I'm always dubious of using value capture to pay for infrastructure. There's just not that much of an increment on commuter rail I think.
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DFLers are going to start playing hardball with U of Minn. I don't really see how a mitigated train is any different than a few thousand cars and huge buses on the same road.
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Are we really going to be spending $3.7 billion or more for a subway stop in Livermore and (an overestimated) 34,300 riders? Have we learned nothing from any of the other transit lines we've built (or didn't build) in this region? If Pleasanton has 7,400 exits (14,800) on a weekday, how is Livermore going to add 30K more riders???

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Baseball and Streetcars were bff back in the late 1800s.
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One of my favorite things about the internet is all that it can do to break down international barriers. For example, this hungarian transport blog translated discusses the Salt Lake BRT line.

Monday Night Notes

Ah it's been a while. Got a bit of a chance today to throw you some links

Anyone wonder if the PDC could redevelop the Post Office property in a more urban fashion and then lease a single urban building back to the Postal Service with 5 blocks for more urban development?
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San Jose could take back roads from Caltrans in order to do things that actually move more people. San Francisco should do this with Van Ness as well. We might have actually had BRT by now if we did...
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Innovative financing mechanism in Australia for infrastructure.

The deal will enable the government to charge developers $95,000 per hectare to fund infrastructure in new fringe suburbs instead of ordinary home buyers. And instead of paying the tax up front they will pay 30 per cent when they purchase the land and the remainder in stages as the land is subdivided.

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David Lazarus says it's hard to get around on transit in LA. I wonder how far people go in LA versus other regions that makes transit so hard for people to consider. In Europe, new cell phone studies say people don't stray more than 6 miles (via Planetizen)from their home. I'd be interested to see what LA's sphere is like.
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Aaron makes a really big point that I honestly never realized was missing in the news I consume.

Newspapers used to explain what national and international trends and events meant to us, to our towns. They put the major events of the day in a local context.

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CTOD releases it's TOD and GHG report.

Saturday Night Notes

Opening up cities to new media.
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Where there's a bad freeway, Norquist is trying to tear it down.
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The tension between growth and saving industrial land is at the leading edge in Oakland.
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Why the Lagos bashing asks Next?
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Bicycles are Hard to Draw

So says Stephen Pastis.

Sunday Night Notes

A few things to chomp on:

State lawmakers in California are understanding what parking is not. Free.
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MARTA is a big reason why UPS located its headquarters in northern Atlanta. It's pretty interesting how much development happened around the MARTA stations outside of downtown.
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Since High Speed Rail is such a newfangled thing to most people in the United States, many want to put it into the urban transit category when thinking about its mission. However this is not the case. In my opinion its intercity transport like airplanes. Often opposition to HSR brings out the density straw man to oppose expansion of intercity rail lines but then they would also have to argue that airports and greyhound bus stations need density to operate as well.

I also believe that HSR is a one way train. It's not necessary to have density to operate between cities but it starts the conversation on increased density and transit service once it gets there. And I feel that the comparisons to Europe and density are really mischaracterized discussions about connectivity and service levels. Ultimately the reason why HSR is fairly useful in Europe is because you can get a train to everywhere. Much like the Hub and Spoke airport system in the United States.
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Wendell Cox is always a fun comic relief.

Wednesday Night Notes

A quick post because today was a blockbuster for articles:

Core Vitality Imperative - The Urbanophile - Aaron is really rocking these posts and is always thoughtful. If you're not reading you should start now.
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"I will walk, I will ride a bike, I'll even crawl to get the debt load off our children,"

This quote was an angry response to raising taxes for transit. These tea-baggers are too much.
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Who knew? Walking briskly makes you healthy. In cities you walk more.
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Ryan has two papers of interest. Paper 1 - Paper 2

According to the authors, it does seem that in polycentric regions, small cities can enjoy some of the labour productivity gains from a large market without having all of the disadvantages of a single large city (including high costs and congestion).

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Yonah asks how you connect a multi-polar region like the Triangle.
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From Switchboard:

Today NRDC released Location Efficiency and Mortgage Default, a study that shows a direct, statistically significant link between the high costs of personal transportation imposed by poor location efficiency and a much higher risk of default.

Sunday Night Notes

I realize there has been much less posting here, but if you still want links you can follow me on twitter which seems to be more regular. @theoverheadwire

There are some interesting links today however:

I don't really think cities should compete to land new jobs. Especially for government funded jobs such as Northrup Grumman.
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Wal Mart doesn't create new jobs. Tell us something we don't know.
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So does this mean Smart Cars are PRT?

“Smart’s not a car in the traditional sense, it’s a high- style alternative to public transportation,”

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What does urban authenticity mean?

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone is having a good Christmas. Here are some fun links for you:

Census shows slow in sunbelt burst.
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Holland looks at per KM pricing.
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Intercity trains in Germany beating the pants off of planes.
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I WISH buses all had 5 minute headways.
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Is China building HSR too fast? Like Robert, I feel like someone is trying to affect the US debate.

Thursday Night Notes

Should companies buy naming rights to stations in order to help pay for them?
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America's greenest Mayor moving on.
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Should Mayor's act more like CEO's and push their city's "brand"?
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Wednesday Night Notes

Steve Patterson discusses the passing of an influential figure in city planning's past who often advocated for widening streets and euclidean zoning.
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There's been an interesting discussion going on about industry clusters. I wish I had more time to write about them. The interesting thing is that these clusters don't necessarily have to be urban. Rural clusters such as wind farms in Texas and wine making in Sonoma show lots of promise in raising wages while other clusters such as Tech are looking to intensify to provide amenities on par with what urban workers are looking for. I hope others tackle this subject because I'd like to see some opinions on the cluster's effect on urbanism and urbanization in these rural areas.
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A pretty cool spread on the future of Denver. via Denver Infill Blog
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Happy Birthday Streetsblog.net. Here's to next year!
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I've also started tweeting more article links. Follow @theoverheadwire or visit the bottom right of the blog for more links.

Monday Night Notes

Hartford has been brutalized by parking. The loss of tax base to the virus of surface parking is staggering.
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Can you reduce GHGs and still grow?
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Is Paris more accessible than London? Some physicists say yes because the ants told them. Via Price Tags
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Can space be found for affordable housing in New York City?
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An interesting thought, the city as a living machine. How can we bring cities back to a pre-city natural state while still growing? This is an idea that is being explored in many places. A variant on this was discussed last year when discussing plans for the Lloyd district in Portland. It opened up some interesting discussion in the comments.

Sunday Night Notes

I wish there were more time in the day. I have some land value and transportation reading to catch up on.
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Senators driving buses? Electric ones?
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If the Corridor Cities high ridership route is so circuitous, then why does the model say it will get more riders? When do we get to blow up the new starts process? And when do we get to stop wasting money on sprawling development that creates these situations?
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It's quite an intense process to secure rights of way especially in Dallas on the way to the airport.
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Richard Layman posted this about innovators. I thought it was worth the read.

Monday Night Notes

Chris Leinberger tells us that "value capture" is the term of the next year. Though I wish he would dig a bit deeper.
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Izmir imports trams from China.
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Is McCrory for transit or against it? He likes the train when he's in Tampa, but doesn't want to spend money for the streetcars or an extension of light rail. Kay Hagen understands.

Hagan rode to her new Charlotte office – a symbolic short hop – on the Lynx light rail line, a reminder that earlier this year, she secured $24 million for the Charlotte Area Transit System

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Edmonton will levy a fee on suburban developers to pay for new transit.