Question About Plug in Hybrid Cars

I have a question about plug in hybrids. Are they predicated on having a snout house or a garage? I park my car all over the place near my house in San Francisco and there is no where I would be able to plug in on the street. I wonder what the urban design implications are for these cars. Are there going to be outlets sticking up all over the place? Cables?

Hold That Thought...Until November

What would happen if we stopped pitting projects against each other? An article in the Los Angeles Times discusses this and recommends that instead of deciding on one project against the other, they should wait. This seems to be a common theme. The current administration is so bad, cities are so desperate for improvements to transit that they are willing to gamble and wait for the next administration, hoping its a democratic one. The Times says that they should wait for a half cent sales tax to pass in the county, but methinks waiting for a better shake at the FTA wouldn't hurt either.

Transfer of Wealth Part III

Remember when we were talking about a lot of our money getting transfered to countries that don't like us? Well it gets even better. All those stimulus checks are going to oil. Are we ever going to learn? Why couldn't we have just spent that money on transportation upgrades that last? From the New Jersey Star Ledger:

"The rebate check approach was created with the hopes that consumers would increase their spending on goods and services," said Brandi Kennedy, assistant director for the Montclair office of NJPIRG. "But as gas prices keep rising, American families have been pouring their stimulus money into their gas tanks."

Rebel Without a Charge

My friend Mr. Setty sent me a link to English Russia about a month ago with a copy of this photo asking for a caption. The original post is an interesting photo group of electric trucks with overhead wires. My first thought was the title to this post. What comes to your mind when you see this picture?

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Unbeknownst to Virginia Beach city leaders, two republican state legislators from Virginia have introduced a bill that would extend the under construction light rail from Norfolk to the beach. It's another case of taking folks into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming.

“It’s time for this to happen, whether they favor it or not,” Tata said Tuesday....“You’d be foolish to drive in,” he said. “I-264 right now is sort of like a race track , it’s so dangerous. Why fight that kind of battle? You could train in and save on parking fees.”

Fuelish indeed.

Using Space Better Comments

About a month ago I wrote up this post on using space better using San Jose as an example. Well today reader Marc made this observation:

That looks like the lettered part of the Cisco campus (or at least the area near it - lettered buildings are west of 1st, numbered buildings are east). I worked in building 6 (or was it 7) for a few years. While that particular building was at the Cisco Way station, getting around campus without a car was terrible. An example - people would *drive* to get across the street to building 10. Why? Because you can only cross (safely) at the corners and the blocks are very long.

Tasman is also very wide (5 lanes in each direction, if you include the turn lanes), plus enough width for three tracks of lightrail. If you're going from a midblock building to the midblock building across the street, you're looking at a 10-15 minute walk.

Wow. Not just bad to get there, but bad to work there too. Thanks for the comment Marc. And welcome to all those who found their way here from Blogs of Note.

Pot Meet Kettle

I wrote out a long post but I thought I should just let everyone read Mary Peters really gross blog post.

Here's my favorite quote:

Most people haven’t yet fully grasped the unprecedented innovation taking place in transportation today.

Of course its ironic because neither has she.

Employment, Residential Booming Near Transit

Very cool news out of New Jersey. The state created a tax credit program for businesses that located and built near transit and its been stimulating the market. From the New York Times:

The state’s new Urban Transit Hub tax-credit program, which took effect in January for sites near mass-transit stations, is already stimulating the market, real estate specialists say, even though it applies in only nine cities.

Mr. Pozycki said the tax credit program is a crucial reason why SJP decided to move forward with its third corporate center building in Hoboken, which had sat on the drawing boards for nearly four years. (During that time, SJP shifted its focus to the hot Manhattan office market, and has begun construction of 11 Times Square, a glass-and-steel tower at Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street.)

It's great because its predicated on locating near transit so even if these offices move out of Manhattan, people can still get to work on transit, and it opens up less invested areas for dense employment development.

On the opposite side of the country, Salt Lake City is seeing more building permits for dense housing near transit. From the Salt Lake City Tribune:

Industry insiders say surging gasoline prices, a sagging economy and energy-policy uncertainty due to the presidential chase have combined to create the latest condo spurt. And it's no coincidence the new league of lofts are located near TRAX light-rail lines.
...
TRAX spine gets lofty: Open-plan lofts and energy-efficient condos are sprouting along the TRAX spine on the fringe of downtown. There is the funky Angelina's Corner on the curve of 700 South and 200 West and ultra-green Rowhaus just north of the baseball park on West Temple, and there are hundreds of units planned at Market Station, a walkable development slated for the warehouse district in South Salt Lake.

The IRS Raises Automobile Milage Rate

They say nothing about transit, but they allow more money to be expensed to cars. 58 cents a mile, up from 50.5 cents.

Arlington Did It Right

One of the things that bothers me these days is the need for the FTA to judge things based on cost and not long term benefit. An article in the Washington Post discusses the long term benefits that the planners in Arlington VA saw when they decided to run the Orange line underground and away from the freeway.

It got me thinking, what would BART look like if they had made the decision to build like Metro in DC and run the line through main corridors instead of down the center of the freeway. Here is what I came up with. The dotted lines and black dots I drew and the regular line and existing stations are shown by the little BART symbols.

If I were to speculate that these stations would have the ridership of 24th and 16th street mission, we would be seeing an additional 110,000 riders.



Since BART didn't learn anything from Arlington either, the BART to San Jose line will make the same mistakes, running on existing ROW instead of down the main corridors where its needed. The same exists with the BART to Livermore extension which we discussed earlier.