Not that Simple

Update: You Can Listen to the Episode of Forum by clicking here.

I worry about analysis like these in the Tyee. While it's nice to think that if we didn't build that heavy rail line we could build x more miles of streetcar lines, it's really not that simple. Mostly because they serve two different purposes. You can't just say we can have 8 miles of streetcar for a mile of heavy rail, because what is happening is your trading short trips at a slower speed for longer trips at a faster speed. It's necessary to have both.

This morning I was listening to forum on KQED and one of the callers said it was absurd that he couldn't get from Sunnyvale to Berkeley in 2 hours. This is due to the lack of express trains between major destinations. In a better transit system, you would have Caltrain bullets stopping only at places like San Jose, Palo Alto, and San Francisco. Then it would go in it's own tube to Oakland and Berkeley. This is an expensive service due to the tube and electrification etc, and would likely generate calls to spend money more "cost effectively". They would say, why not build 400 buses or the next big trade off. The problem is you need both. In order to make transit useful, there need to be short trips and long trips made easy.

Now I know there is limited funding, but we need to start thinking like non-transit wonks think. And they think, why can't I get from a to b in under an hour if it takes that long in my car. Transit has to be competitive time wise, whether you're trying to hop a few blocks to get a bite to eat or going to a different city in the region.

FTA Privitization Program Hunts School Buses

Oh the places they will go...with their ideology. More tales of the Bush administration transferring wealth to private corporations. The FTA has decided to make it a requirement to allow charter services to bid for event transport that is now provided by the transit agency such as for baseball games and other special events. And now they are trying to make school bus service. But who is going to serve kids in downtrodden districts that no private entity wants to serve?

In the East Bay, about 30,000 schoolchildren use AC Transit buses to get to and from school, paying $15 a month for discounted youth passes. While many of those trips are on regular routes used for nonschool commuters, some of them with route numbers between 600 and 699 are specially scheduled and routed to serve specific schools. Local officials fear that the change sought by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) would ban those special routes.
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"If this came to pass, it would be a disastrous development for Oakland and for many school districts in California," said Troy Flint, spokesman for the Oakland school district. Flint said it would be "a huge financial burden" for the district to pay for private contractors, and that it wasn't clear whether private companies would even be willing to serve all of the areas covered by AC Transit.

I'm not sure what to think of this, but at first thought, its the stupidest thing I've heard yet. Especially from the FTA spokesman who when asked about AC Transit situation had this to say: "Federal Transit Administration spokesman Paul Griffo said that because the regulation process is under way, the agency cannot address specific concerns such as those raised by AC Transit." That's probably because they didn't think of it, as usual.

It's All About the Benjamins

Example 1: Charlotte

We talked with several riders who say gas prices and convenience have prompted them to give light rail a try, opting to pay $2.60 for a round trip ticket, rather than a gas guzzling trip to work.

“I did an analysis of it and I save $150 a month, not have to pay to park and drive my SUV uptown,” said Tim Gray, who has been riding light rail since its launch in November.

“I think I'm saving $75 to $100 a month. It really adds up,” said Bernice Parenti, who started riding a month ago.

That's the good kind of wealth transfer. Back into your pocket. So if all those folks filling up the lot at I-485 at the South End of the line saved $75 a month. That is $900 a year. No chump change for sure. It comes out to $672,000 a year in people's pockets. Or $20 million over the 30 year life of the vehicles. And that's just one station. Think about the folks who get rid of cars in the South End or Uptown Charlotte. Big money...for real people.

Cost Rocket

The Denver Transit Stop discusses how expensive roads are going to be to us in a few years.

Focusing just on CDOT, Governor Ritter's Blue Ribbon panel for Transportation Finance and Implementation found that there is a $51 Billion gap just in sustaining the infrastructure we already have. By 2030 that gap is expected to be $104 Billion. What does that mean exactly? According to CDOT, by 2016 if you spend an hour on the highway, about 40 min of it will be on rough pavement (currently it's 20 minutes).

But then again it will cost a lot for transit as well. Krugman jumped on the transit talk express, so Robert Reich joined up.

Even though it’s a hundred times more efficient for each of us to stop driving and use trains and buses, there’s not enough money in the public kitty for us to do so.

So are we gonna keep funding what helps people spend more money, or save it?

The Future is in the Past

Orphan Road has photos of a 1920 plan for a Seattle Subway System. It looks awfully familiar.

Second Avenue Sagas discusses the 1960 New York Subway Expansion that never happened.

Switchback laments the loss of the Arborway Branch of the Green Line in Boston. The State has a legal obligation to run it as a rail line again, but they just paved over the tracks, hoping the thought will just go away. I would say that Boston is second to AC Transit in rail hate. Not an easy feat when everyone else is trying to put rail lines back.

A post on the Political Environment Blog discusses the loss of a rail fight in Milwaukee back in 1997. Then Governor Tommy Thompson loved the idea, but apparently its demise was due to right-wing radio. It seems like some things never change. The city still can't quite beat back the scourge of winger radio and in a city that's set up well for transit (weighted density 5,830) with approaching $5 gas, things are starting to look up a little when the main paper is pushing both sides a bit harder.

Had Tommy stood up to the local conservative talk radio hosts who still use "light rail" as an all-purpose anti-urban code phrase, workers and students commuting from Waukesha could be riding the rails with some of that $4-gallon gas money in their pockets.

We can learn much from the past, so we don't make similar mistakes going forward.

Barack Obama on Transit

He's the democratic nominee now. RT Rider has his positions on transport here.

Strengthening America's Transportation Infrastructure

Invest in Public Transportation
Create Greater Incentives for Public Transit Usage
Strengthen Metropolitan Planning to Cut Down Traffic Congestion
Require States to Plan for Energy Conservation

Full Subway Car? Don't Mess with the Ladies

Today is PSA day. This one comes from Ben at Second Avenue Sagas:

Crowded subway cars often create bad situations for women, and the vast majority of men know little or nothing about it. Ask your female friends, however, and more than one of them are bound to have stories to tell about fellow straphangers getting a little too close, a little too frisky and a little too touchy-feely during rush hour. It is a sad reality of life in the subways.

Not cool. Recently on BART its been getting crowded and it does get uncomfortable, I imagine more so for females. Personally I try and make myself take up as little space as possible, taking my bag off so I don't touch people. But it can be a bit hard to do if its a sardine tin day.

Do You Have SOV Disorder?

H/T Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

State of NC Stepping Up

Today in the Charlotte Observer there was an article about a $1.6 Billion in State Funds to match local transportation efforts. It also authorizes all of the large regions to pass a sales tax if they so choose similar to the 1/2 cent sales tax that exists in Charlotte. But the best part about this is that it leaves decisions up to the localities.

The bill doesn't appropriate any money. It simply authorizes urban counties to adopt local taxes for transportation projects and authorizes creation of the Congestion Relief and Intermodal Transportation 21st Century Fund to provide money for an array of transportation uses. How it would be funded would be decided in another legislative session. But the bill offers Wake, Durham and Orange counties in the Triangle and Forsyth and Guilford in the Triad the opportunity to do what Charlotte has done.

"I just think it starts the framework for a comprehensive transportation plan for North Carolinians, giving them options for getting to work, shopping and recreation," said Carney. "It broadens our thinking for the 21st and 22nd century transportation options."

There's one other thing. Because the bill doesn't appropriate money, it leaves decision-making to local voters, Carney said. "This is about the public, not the legislature, deciding what is best.

This means we could see more money in North Carolina for transit options. With the Triangle looking at an intermodal plan, this could push money their way. And with improved federal funding hopefully under a new administration, Charlotte might be able to speed up their expansion given the extra availability of funds. Currently they are trying to move up the streetcar to 2013 from 2018.

CATS officials also have intentions of extending the light rail to University City by 2015 at an estimated cost of $750 million and building commuter rail to the Lake Norman area by 2012 for an estimated $261 million.
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CATS chief executive Keith Parker said in March that CATS can't do all three projects at once without a new funding source.

Muni LRT to be Powered by the Sun

Calgary powers its light rail with wind, Seattle with hydro and Muni which was partial hydro, will now be solar. So much for those coal fired power plant arguments against light rail and future energy.

The photovoltaic systems at the two facilities and the solar energy they generate will be developed and operated under a "Power Purchase Agreement" between the SFPUC and Recurrent Energy. Under the agreement, which the SFPUC members authorized SFPUC staff to negotiate today, Recurrent will finance, design, build and operate the solar energy projects and provide all the energy generated to the SFPUC for a period of 25 years. The five megawatts generated between the two facilities will be used to help power other San Francisco public services and buildings, including streetlights, San Francisco General Hospital, Muni light rail and city schools.