Environmental Quality and Existing Infrastructure

The Maze situation in California has brought up an interesting situation. In their attempt to get it done quickly, it seems as if they will waive the CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) requirement in order to get the freeway rebuilt faster. It makes me wonder, why do we need to do laborious EI statements with light rail and streetcars that will be using existing roadways. It's not as if you're going to increase impervious cover or cause more pollution. Yes there are certain situations where extensive EIS should be performed but if a downtown circulator system is to be built in existing streets, why would we need a piece of paper to tell us what we already know? Am I way off base in thinking this?

Team Transitman

Be a part of the revolution, join TRANSiTMAN on his quest to change the world by riding the bus! I think this is great. This could be a way of pulling adults and kids alike who might not be into transit, but would like to learn more.

Governor Gets Behind High Speed Rail

The Governor of California finally throws some support behind high speed rail. Geez it took him long enough. All we needed was a tanker truck to blow up and a bunch of people to get on BART for the Governor to see how important this is. All I have to say is stay out of this fight Southwest. Those guys kept good city connecting rail out of Texas, so they better not try it here...however i'm sure they will.

Phoenix Ups the Ante

Drawing on an opportunity to expand a freeway and light rail at the same time, the City of Phoenix has decided to chip in funds to fund a study of light rail on the I-10 Corridor. I often wonder the effects of running rail in the center of the freeway. It should really be on an arterial, however depending on the design it might work, i repeat might.

BART Absorbs Riders

Because of the freeway connector that was destroyed by a tanker truck explosion, commuters have been flocking to BART. Monday was the highest ridership ever on BART. Imagine what would have happened if there were no transit. A similar situation in Chicago occurred when freeway repairs were being made parallel to the brown line.

Trains carried an estimated 375,200 riders on Tuesday, eclipsing the previous record of 374, 900 passengers set in 2000, according to a BART news release.

Transit Space Race Commentary

Bus Chick notes a picture that was taken at a Seattle Truck Dealer. The sign reads "Headed to Portland, Check out Their light rail, 25 years ahead of ours, what's up with that?"

Yeah, what is up with that?

Minnesota Legislature Turning Up the Heat

Using Union Depot as a hub, the state legislature passed a bill that would fund $334 million dollars worth of projects. However the governor doesn't want to have any of it, asking for only $81 million. Funding will go to the Central Corridor, High Speed Rail to Chicago, the Rush Line Commuter Rail, the Red Rock Corridor and the redesign of Union Depot as a hub of all this activity. It's getting exciting in the land of 1000 lakes.

Seattle on a Space Race Rocket

Seattle is set to vote for 50 miles in extensions to their light rail line already under construction. All while trying to add more commuter rail lines, streetcar lines in adjacent cities, and an in town streetcar network. Soon they will be up with Portland, and sky's to the limit as to whether these systems can match Chicago or DC.

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 Metro Center, and that will allow a service improvement, but what about all of those other places that aren’t going to get light rail. What are cities going to do about bus service? Are they going to be like Portland and use all the money they saved from operating costs to increase bus service? That should be the main goal of cities building new rail starts, improve the bus system as well, which seems to be the goal of transit agencies who are doing this, specifically in Houston and Seattle. Without it, the only people riding the bus will continue to be the poor and the advocates.

**** The Tram

The Urban Planning Overlord has some info on free speech and transit at its best.