Two Coasts and No Car

Today was the most amazing day of transit and flight ever. Here is a review, wake up at 4:30 am ET and walk to Suburban station in Philadelphia. Take the R1 commuter train (electric of course) to the Airport. I hop on an airplane and fly to Atlanta then San Francisco. Since I wanted to be back in time for my friend's graduation, i needed to be in Berkeley by 2:00 and my plane was to land at 12. In between, i needed to go home and drop my stuff, eat, and get to the other side of the bay. So I had to choose between my car and BART. I chose BART. I rode BART to 24th and mission and walked the half mile to my place. After taking a shower I ran out the door and back to the BART station. As I got to the station the Dublin-Pleasanton train was pulling in. I took it to the Lake Merrit station and transferred to the Richmond train that came 3 minutes later. I got to Berkeley at 1:45 and got to the Greek Theater at the top of the hill for the graduation 5 minutes before 2pm and about 12 hours after I woke up. What is most amazing about this is that i didn't need a car. Because of the amazing mobility options in the city in which i live and which i visited. If we are to become a country that is mobile, there need to be transportation systems that even on a Sunday schedule will allow us to get where we want to go. In order to get there in most places things need to change. Obviously.

The Lines I Tried

So i took a ride yesterday on the 36 Trolley. Got off at UPenn and walked to the Subway. From the Subway I took the 100 out to the Suburb of Bryn Mawr (sp) Out there it's the suburbs. It's a lot different and lower density than your typical Texas suburbs even. Pretty crazy.

What struck me however is the amount of blight on some of the subway stops. Philly is a cool city but there is definitely a lot more they can do to fix up some of the neighborhoods. That is if they want to be fixed.

Time Changing R1

It's 5am California time. Time changes, specifically east coast to west coast always rock me. It's like I am in a different world.

Yesterday I took the R1 train from the airport and walked around Philly. It's an electrified commuter line into the central city. The seats are nice and big and there is a ticket man who actually punches your ticket. Never had that done before. It was a pretty fast trip too.

Also when walking around Philly I noticed there are lots of tracks still in the ground. They are definitely not new and sometimes look like they need some work but it's amazing they are still around which kind of speaks to the permanence of the lines and why developers are hopping at the chance to build near new ones.

Here I Come Girard Avenue

I'm off on the red eye to Philly tonight. Should be a fun week at the Congress for the New Urbanism. I'm sure I'll see lots of friendly and perhaps some unfriendly faces there. Always love a good debate as well. I'm most interested to see the Girard Avenue Trolley. After years on hiatus, the cars have been rehabilitated as has the track in some spots. I'll take some pictures of this as well as other lines in Philly. I hope to blog every day, but it might be short.

A Huge TOD

Pentagon City is about to get a huge TOD. 3,200 Units is a lot so it might take a while to build. But this will give a huge ridership boost to the two metro lines.

Kettler, one of the Washington area’s leading diversified real estate development and property management companies, announced today that it has purchased 19.6 acres in Pentagon City from affiliates of Vornado Realty Trust for approximately $220.4 million. Kettler closed on the initial 11 acres today for $104.3 million, and plans to purchase the remaining acreage over the next year.

BRT Lobby Lobs Accusations

An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer states that BRT is better than rail for addressing a number of urban ills. However this misinformation attempt by the BRT Lobby led by Bill Vincent is starting to get scared by the rapid expansion of rail. I imagine they feel like they have to turn up the talk since they are getting pushed back into a corner by actual riders and citizens who don't want more buses.

The first whopper comes from Vincent himself, vehemently explaining that BRT can bring the same amount of riders as rail, however as proven in Los Angeles, the Orange Line only attracts half of the riders it should when compared with the population living around the Gold Line LRT. Also, his claim that you can cut greenhouse gases with diesel buses versus electric railcars is laughable at best. In San Francisco where the Muni is run at least partly by renewable energy, this argument falls on deaf ears. In Oakland its another story as the local folks think that a network of BRT will bring people out of their cars, however the first rapid line on San Pablo is just a bus with a red paintjob.

He also compares a number of rapid transit projects with each other and compares cost per passenger in operating cost. But what he doesn't say is the cost of replacing buses every 12 years versus double that for rail, the costs of replacing pavement torn up by heavy vehicles, and the type of BRT project that he is comparing to a type of rail project. Comparing the New York Second Avenue Subway to the Silver Line is hardly an accurate apples to apples comparison given the capacity constraints of 60 foot buses versus multi car trains and cost sharing with the Big Dig. In the past, BRT projects like the Pittsburgh Busways and the Los Angeles Harbor Freeway busway have failed to garner the passengers that were promised. In fact, the LA Harbor Busway has now been changed into an HOV lane instead of a dedicated bus only lane due to low ridership. In an interesting 2003 transit comparison, Houston's 6 HOV busways carried 43,225 transit passengers, but Portland's Max System with 3 corridors carried 79,600. While the HOV lane carried almost 75,000 people in individual vehicles, that increased auto use also contributed to sprawl and arterial congestion when they got off the freeway. On the other hand, Portland's light rail system has aided a massive downtown revitalization and led to lower congestion costs to each person that costs in Houston.

In addition, from 1990 to 2005, 73% of the ridership increases have come from increased rail usage. Even with the consent decree in LA and much investment in buses around the country, bus ridership has stayed flat while rail ridership has soared.

While some of those who promote BRT mean well, most of them believe transit is for the poor are out to kill good rapid transit. The citizens of this country as evidenced by the transit space race have shown their preference, its up to us to make sure those investments get the best possible return.

A Tourist in Your Own City

At my office in Oakland my coworker and I enjoy a show called Battlestar Gallactica. I'm trying to catch up with the season 3 and at lunch we discuss what happened but the main character (Edward James Olmos or Admiral Adama) was interviewed in the LA Weekly about his role after the 1992 riots in Los Angeles.

One of the most curious sights captured by TV news cameras during the 1992 Los Angeles riots was that of actor Edward James Olmos standing on West Adams Boulevard, near the First AME Church, holding a broom. It was Friday morning, the day that Governor Pete Wilson would ask for federal assistance to help restore order and Rodney King would ask if we all could get along. Olmos had spent much of the preceding 36 hours on the go, shuttling between TV and radio appearances, imploring listeners to stay in their homes. “If you’re going to go out and get something because you can,” he remembers saying, “at least come back to your house once you’ve got what you want.” Then, as the sun rose on day three of the violence, he started sweeping.

He also made some comments about the old pacific electric lines that used to criss cross the region. He seems to sum up the streetcar experience quite well. So Olmos/Adama has today's quote of the day regarding his trips on the Red Car. "You were like a tourist in your own city". I know that's what i feel like when I ride the J-Church next to my home in San Francisco, I just couldn't put it into words.

Steny Hoyer: Transit and Energy

Today house majority leader Steny Hoyer wrote an article for The Hill which set forth a new program for transit and energy independence. My reaction: it's a start but it isn't worth anything really. I like the fact that there will be $2 billion dollars for transit. But its just a one time infusion. It should be an annual infusion, not just a one time push. We aren't going to be able to turn the tide on over 50 years in billion dollar highway investments with just one little measly $2 billion dollars. There needs to be a fundamental shift to allow regions to build meaningful transit systems or expand existing systems. I'm amazed at the transit space race right now at how aggressive cities like Denver, Portland and Seattle are at building out their networks. The larger the network, the more people will ride. But it's not just people riding, it's connecting these investments to land use. That is also a place where the federal government can step in.

From the Hill...

On this point, let me be specific: We must find ways to encourage Americans to park their automobiles and take advantage of public transportation, where possible and when feasible. That’s why the PROGRESS Act adds a special, one-time $2 billion stimulus grant for the expansion of public transit services through the existing urban grant program.

In addition, the bill includes an incentive for commuters to choose transit by boosting the current transit benefit to match the federal parking benefit exclusion, which is currently $205. Furthermore, it supports the growth of commuter rail by including a process for resolving rail use agreements when access to rail lines becomes an impediment to establishing local commuter rail systems or routes.

And finally, on the issue of public transportation, the PROGRESS Act promotes the development of new and expanded intercity rail passenger service through the use of guaranteed loans and rail bonds to help state and local governments that want to expand rail service as an alternative to vehicle travel.

Public transit must play a central role if America is going to declare its energy independence. Increasingly, we are seeing more Americans relying on the public transportation options that help them to work, play and participate fully in the American experience.

Dream Crushers and Traffic

So a big pet peave of mine is when people tell you that something isn't possible when it more than likely is when you work at it. For example, if you tell a nation that there is no way they can rebuild their transit infrastructure in a meaningful way, what hope is there to do it. In the United States today people are too concerned with the short term fix rather than the long term goal and that really annoys me. In my former running life, years upon years of miles are built up on your legs to be able to run fast. Those guys at the olympics in the marathon train their whole lives to be there and no one ever told them to stop or that the road was too long. And if they were told that they simply ignored the naysayers. I'm not sure if i'm butchering this quote but a friend of mine has it up in his house. "Those who will try to convince you to abandon your dreams have already abandoned theirs."

On another note, I drove to work today. On Wednesdays I go visit my grandmother in suburbia and sometimes i take my car. Some days are nice for walking the three miles or biking, but BART doesn't allow bikes when i go to work so i have to sneak it on if i want to do that. They need runaround vehicles or bike rental at the station. I would totally use it.

But the main point was that driving out of San Francisco towards the maze there was no traffic. I mean there were cars but they were moving. There were cars at the toll plaza but not many. It was amazing. Did the shift to transit and other routes really make that big a difference? Are people just so lazy and lemming like that they drive their cars even if they have a good transit alternative? What this says to me is that the answer is yes. How long will induced traffic take to pick back up is the question.

BRT Meets in the Morning

I saw on the SFist that there was a meeting about the Geary BRT. I would have gone however the meeting was in the morning during work. I'm rather annoyed because i would have hoped that I would have been able to make some comments about the need to make it LRT ready and push for the downtown subway segment. But alas I would have had to skip work to make comments. Perhaps they allow emails. Why is it that only certain activists are allowed to attend meetings? Skipping work? Geez.