Candidates Part 2

The other day I looked at what the candidates were saying about transit. It looks like we got some more information about Bill Richardson over the last few days from the Northwest. The Northwest Progressive Institute is blogging about Mr. Richardson and his transit views which seem good. Someone should post these views on his website so more people can find out about them. From NWPI:

Richardson also pledged to keep Amtrak going and concluded by saying that he would be "a President with a national transportation policy: focused on light rail, bullet trains, more efficient transportation."

Southwest & High Speed Rail

We're getting closer to high speed rail here and California and over on Intermodality Christof is discussing it as well for Texas. I'm pretty sure that Southwest will fight tooth and nail but perhaps it would be in their best interest to build and operate the train themselves. Then as they lose airshare they gain rail share. There was an article in the Austin American Statesman about them not having anywhere new to go...well what about all the smaller metro regions that would thrive with HSR like Bryan College Station TX, Waco TX, or Bakersfield CA? I think that's a business model they might want to pursue. Does anyone else think that this would be a viable option when they run out of places to go with planes? I think it would open up a whole new market for them they just don't see with their smarty pants up in corporate that don't think about the freeways as possibly taking some of their business. They should. If they built their own alternative energy generation along the route they would win major brownie points as well.

Austin Dreaming

Originally uploaded by Transit Nerds

While Austin had the ASG plan and Envision Central Texas, there hasn't been any talk of the Space Race there in any format. After the commuter rail is completed where do they go? Streetcar? Will it get built and is it really the foot in the door that will lead to light rail? Might light rail come back? It might be time for a big vision from the grass roots on up. In the space race it seems that places with big visions are getting far and places that are complaining about gas prices are not. The vision is not just talking about where lines should go but rather three key components...

1. Affordability - Everyone knows that gas prices are going up and working families are going to be hit hardest. But they don't really have transit options that allow them to save money and time in Austin. I know when i stay with my friend in the Arboretum, there is no meaningful way for me to get downtown. So taking a cab is the only option unless i want to have someone pick me up. I can't see people taking cabs every day or waiting an hour for the #3 bus to get downtown. The express bus is for commuters only.
2. Energy Independence - Everyone is talking about energy in terms of CAFE standards and alternative energy, but people need to get that our built environment is a huge part of our energy consumption. This is how we need to talk about transit. Not only is rail efficient, but it's effective in networks...not one line here and there. So in order to deal with energy issues, we need to have a frank discussion about the energy savings of a transit network, specifically when it comes down to creating transit corridors and land use decisions. A rail network will allow these corridors to grow and perhaps pay for part of the infrastructure cost of implementing it.
3. Mobility - We would be remiss to leave this one out. People need to be able to get places. This means that lines need to connect to each other in a meaningful way that allows people to get to where they want to go efficiently. Efficient high speed transit will do it.

Now don't get me wrong, as I always say, Automobiles have their place, especially Mayor Wynn's plug-in hybrids but they still as i've said before promote sprawl and energy inefficient land use patterns and transport. Here in San Francisco I own a car but perhaps drive it once a week and fill up my tank about once a month. $4.85 gas just doesn't matter to me. And it shouldn't affect everyone everywhere else so drastically either.

Dreams: So here is a random vision for transit in Austin. This is basically thoughts on paper about how Austin might grow a network so that more people use it transit. I'm guessing this network would be pretty expensive, but think of all the money we've tossed into highways. I imagine the economic impact of this network would far outweigh its cost.

Blue - A light rail spine is the first step to this
Orange - The orange line goes into the student jammed riverside then to the airport. This will connect students to school and travelers to international destinations without having to get in a car.
Red - Commuter rail lines. These are not typical diesel commuter rail lines. These should be electric and every 20 minutes off peak. They should connect to job centers like Dell in Round Rock and San Marcos San Antonio and perhaps the airport
Yellow - Express bus networks. This needs to be a part of the network. We have roads so we might as well use them, especially in areas that probably don't have heavy transit usage but perhaps would grow with better service.
Purple - Rapid Streetcar network. This network of streetcars would run along major corridors helping to redevelop them into mixed use centers where people can walk from their neighborhoods to get groceries or catch a streetcar downtown or to activity centers. Parts of the streetcar network will run on light rail ROW to increase headways between major centers downtown while some will be bi-directional with passing sidings at stations and track signaling so that they have their own right of way. It will also be cheaper to build while still being able to operate at 10 minute headways.

So this is an idea. I did it just for kicks because this is what I'd like to see happen in order for Austin to enter the transit space race. But let's do a quick hypothetical. Say that 40% of Austinites (from the 2000 census) were using transit on a daily basis. If they increased their location efficiency enough to reduce their driving by 5000 miles per year at 20mpg that would be a savings of $1000 at 4$ per gallon. If added all together, that $1000 of 40% is $276 million per year. Over the lifecycle of the network which can be 50 years, this amounts to $13.8 billion dollars in savings or $50,000 dollars per person who uses it, not including benefits to property owners etc. Of course it's just hypothetical like I always do but this is how we need to look at costs. Not how much does it cost but what do we get out of it?

What the Candidates Say Or Don't Say

Wow. This is abhorrent. All this talk of Global Warming and energy savings etc and no talk of urban form or transit. It is worse than I thought it was. I mean I know it's not sexy to everyone, but man these guys could have me leaning their way with a comprehensive rail initiative, or even mentioning transit. I guess i expected too much.

Barack Obama discusses renewable energy, fuel economy standards, and cleaner coal. What a joke. I was starting to like him, this is too bad.

Hilary Clinton says we need alternative energy and apparently has an "Apollo Like" plan for energy independence. Anyone want to guess if it includes electric rail? She, like Obama also wants better fuel standards but come on you guys, better fuel standards still allows sprawl which is ridiculously inefficient. It's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

John Edwards believes in renewable energy, changing the auto industry yadda yadda yadda. Again he doesn't understand the effect of the built environment on energy usage.

Bill Richardson believes in the same as the above.

This is disturbing and made me go and immediately sign the petition to draft Al Gore. He gets it and is probably the only one who really understands what it will take to get this country back on the right track. I started out this post with the intention of looking at all the candidates but the Republicans were just too ridiculous to even link to in terms of what they were talking about. I guess it's telling when some of them still don't believe in evolution. I was also hoping for more from the Democratic candidates. With over a year to go perhaps some of them will get it but I'm not going to count on it.

City of Beer and Buses

So Milwaukee Wisconsin is having the same debate that every city has when they are deciding whether to hop on the mass transit horse. The Leader of the County wants buses because they are more effective for "those people" and the Mayor wants a streetcar system, I'm guessing as a foot in the door for light rail. Well they should all just stop and go for the gold. I don't understand why these folks don't just invest in their communities. Light rail is an excellent investment. Look what it has done for Minneapolis. A shot in the arm along Hiawatha Avenue is what they needed and they got it. Now they can't talk enough about the Central Corridor and Southwest Corridor. The only thing that stands in their way is well...shortsighted government leaders. Tim Pawlenty and Scott Walker should just go away. In fact they should move to Cincinnati and live with Stephan Louis. That city is probably last on the list of large cities where people want to live in the United States, specifically when they get out of college. Why? Because there is no thinking and dreaming going on there, only people that say no. I don't know how these people got voted in, but in the next election I hope people throw out the bathtub drowning conservatives and vote for whoever has big dreams and wants to invest in their future.

Zombies in the Subway!

As I was walking by Union Square on my way home from work today I noticed a strange occurrence. There were folks with duct tape, blood and ripped clothes trying to get into a Victoria's Secret while the cable cars were going by. I even noticed one of them holding a cardboard sign that said "Rights for Ded People". Yes it was spelled ded. Then they made their way down to the Market Street subway. This Zombie Mob one of the any number of crazy things that happens in San Francisco every year. Pillow fights and treasure hunts are not uncommon. Now if only there were random transit rider uprisings to fix Muni. Perhaps that would raise some eyebrows from the local government, because ghost trains and late trains don't seem to bother them.

This Is What It Has Become

While I am biased towards transit, I think the Texas Legislature's latest action shows what is happening all over the United States. The investments that need to be made in infrastructure are being stymied by people who just think about themselves. Texas is run at the moment by Republicans. Most of them are from rural areas that have no need for transit and any time they hear tax they turn and run. In light of the fact that many people would like to have the chance to vote in order to raise taxes for commuter rail in Dallas, it sickens me that they won't even get the chance. What's worse, someone else decided whether you could pool your resources to get a valuable service. This isn't a democracy, but rather a government run by thugs and self interested businessmen. Most in the legislature don't work or if they do its for a law firm or real estate business where they have already made a lot of money. I mean are you serious, not even letting people vote for a tax for commuter rail??? It's not like they were approving the tax, just the vote. Yet they made Austin vote for Light Rail in 2000. What a bunch of hypocrites.

The FTA Class of 2001

In doing research for work I this afternoon I came across the class of 2001 for the FTA New Starts Program. The Class of 01 in Preliminary Engineering and Final Design of the FTA New Starts Process was an impressive class. Included:

Houston LRT - Above Projections at 40,000
Denver Souteast Corridor - Just opened and over projections 33,000 riders
Minneapolis Hiawatha - 34,000 riders
Phoenix LRT - Under Construction
Salt Lake's First Extension
Seattle Central Link - Under Construction
Portland Interstate Max - Increased Bus Ridership by 100%
San Diego Mission Valley East - Now known as the Green line, way over projections

The list goes on. But i got really sad when i noticed a familiar face that died along the way. Austin. Likely to be up there with these other lines rolling over its projections due to it's alignment, it was supposed to take 37,000 people each day. You can't tell me that is doing too little. But it makes me wonder, what if Austin went back to the original 2000 plan as M1ek always says. We missed a huge opportunity there and here is the worst thing about it. We gave $369 million dollars to someone else in the list above. It probably went to Minneapolis or Portland. Next time I see them, I might ask Jim Skaggs and Gerald Daugherty why they stole our money. Or perhaps Mike Levy, why does he and those other two clowns hate Austin so much that they would not help us get money we pay in gas taxes back to our city for transportation improvements. This lack of respect, just like Tom Delay's blockage of funding for Houston's line, makes me sick.

And who else is in bed with these guys? Ben Wear. He isn't a journalist, but rather a shill for Jim Skaggs and company. In this article he uses Skaggs name again as a source. One of my favorite bands, Piebald, has a line in one of their songs that is apt for him and Skaggs: "We are the only friends that we have". In my old blog I noted that his name is found almost every two months in a Statesman article against Capital Metro sales tax or rail. He must be the only opponent, well him, Mike Levy and Gerald Daugherty. I wish I could use lexis nexus again for this. If anyone can use it let me know because we should nail him to a wall with the rest of them for throwing out almost $370 MILLION DOLLARS! He complains about money for rail here and there, but he lost us that money. And for that neither he nor Daugherty should ever be forgiven or allowed in the city limits. Let them live and shop in the burbs if they hate Austin so much.

If you want to go on a wayback machine trip, even before M1ek, Louis Black told us so. But if you want to look forward, CAMPO is taking critiques of it's 2030 plan. Flood it with comments on light rail.

Blog Hype

Here are some articles that folks might want to read

Cristof at Intermodality discusses transit balkanization.

The Portland Transport Blog.

Check out the blogroll as well at Transit Miami.

Curitiba Transport Chief Throws BRT Under the Bus

Whoa. This article is an amazing expose of Curitiba in the New York Times Magazine that was touched on earlier in the blog. But the best part comes here...

“That competition is very hard,” says Paulo Schmidt, the president of URBS, the rapid-bus system. During peak hours, buses on the main routes are already arriving at almost 30-second intervals; any more buses, and they would back up. While acknowledging his iconoclasm in questioning the sufficiency of Curitiba’s trademark bus network, Schmidt nevertheless says a light-rail system is needed to complement it.

What?!?! Light Rail to compliment the mighty BRT of Curitiba??? This is going to do two things. 1. This will drive folks like Bill Vincent crazy and perhaps they'll start slamming Mr. Schmidt like Bush slams former allies Karl Rove style which will show that they are super fanatics that will do anything to promote the BRT sham. 2. The pro-BRT folks aren't going to like this very much because it shows that even the BRT needs help from rail. For years they have been trying to resist rail in Curitiba believing that it would be a big blow to their efforts to get BRT in the United States. Seems like this might be one of those watershed moments when hopefully we see the beginning of the end of "The bus that looks like a train" argument.