Energy Question

So I've been thinking a lot about the BRT report and comments on the (edited from CCT: Purple Line) in this post. The WRI study states that BRT is better for reductions in GHGs than LRT because LRT comes from dirty sources such as coal. Ok, I'll bite. Here's Greg Fuhs (from WRI) very fair comment at the end of my last post:

What we (and MTA) are saying is that by building a medium or high investment BRT system in the corridor, this would reduce GHG emissions from current levels by getting more people out of single vehicles and moving them more efficiently along the corridor than is currently the case. The significant fuel savings from this system would lead to the reduced GHG levels.

The reason light rail would increase GHG emissions over No Build is due to the electricity source, which for this region is primarily coal-fired power plants. While people would leave their cars and move more efficiently along the corridor with light rail, the coal plant emissions generated to produce the electricity required for the Purple Line would exceed the emissions savings from getting people out of their cars.

Now I understand this argument, but I have to dive in a little deeper. I'm wondering if the following thought is true. If you build an electric system, bus or rail, more electricity has to be produced during peak periods where the rail line is more efficient than the buses burning diesel. At the same time, during the off-peak, does the powerplant have to produce extra power or does that energy already exist in the grid.

I've heard ideas about the power grid benefitting from off peak power usage because the plant was going to run no matter what, but I'm wondering if the GHG's are already being produced, therefor any other emissions such as those from the bus are on top of what already existed from the power plant whether the light rail line was there or not. If this were the case, doesn't that reduce the emissions factor of the LRVs because the emissions are already out there from the coal plant? Does anyone know the answer to this or other ideas?

Signs of the Apocalypse 2

The editor of an automotive magazine (Auto Week) commented that auto makers should start building light rail systems in the United States.

One of the shrewdest things the domestic auto industry could do is begin planning to produce light-rail systems.
...

OK, light rail would be competition for cars and trucks. But if it's coming anyway, why not get a piece of the action?

Yes, I know Michael Moore mentioned the same thing a few months ago. But how dumb would it be to ignore a good idea just because it was supported by someone who usually doesn't have a clue

It's nice to know they really think that light rail is competition for automobiles. Apparently they are still worried about losing market share. As much as I like this idea in theory I think it would turn out horrible in practice unless:

A. They bought designs from existing light rail vendor such as Siemens
B. They allowed local transit agencies to appoint quality control inspectors
C. There is an adopted standard for vehicles agreed upon like in the era of the PCC

I'm sure you all have some ideas too...

Not "The Highway Bill"

I know I've said this before, but it shows where the priorities are for people in the press. They still talk about the 'Highway' bill like that was the only thing the transportation bill funded.

As soon as the stimulus bill is completed, Mica said, the committee is “ready to launch a full effort” to get a highway bill done both on time and with significantly higher investments.

We have a lot of work to do. And...OMG BBQ ponies!

Railway Robbery?

I don't know about you all, but this seems a bit like a blackmail scheme. It's like we're in Berlusconi's Italy.

A firm called AnsaldoBreda says it will relocate its assembly and manufacturing plants from Pittsburg, Calif., and Italy to Los Angeles if -- and it's a big if -- the MTA agrees to buy 100 rail cars from the firm for more than $300 million.

This is the same firm that built Muni's and Boston's LRVs. I don't think the LA versions are bad looking, but they are too heavy making them energy hogs and have continued to be a problem in the maintenance department. Perhaps an all in move to Southern California and a change in management would to the company good. Though it doesn't look like that is going to happen. Why would they do that when they should just be expanding thier Pittsburg digs.

It's kind of funny though. After all the problems they've had, what makes them think that making such a claim would even remotely be taken seriously? Maybe they'll get a deal for an American made Sirio.

Sprawl Is Dead! Long Live Sprawl!

What does sprawl mean anymore to anyone? In one day President Obama discusses how important it is to build an interchange and how sprawl is dead. Are those two reconcilable? Only if we define what sprawl is and how it's created. Some on the other side consider streetcar suburbs from the end of the 19th century and early 20th century to be sprawl. They would consider the the Roman Empire to be sprawl.

But we seem to forget that those neighborhoods were made for walking, and recent studies have suggested that the interconnected road networks built by streetcars and before are safer than those built just for cars. This isn't just an issue of the environment, its an issue of public health and safety. But does that lead to a simple definition of the detrimental effects of sprawl?

So what is sprawl? Is it like Larry Flint's magazines? Do you know it when you see it? To my own understanding, sprawl is development that acts as a leach, taking tax base away from central cities and spending it sooner than it can be raised. It doesn't necessarily mean low density alone because that is a part of the market, just not 80% of it. The Fresno Bee also had a story about a study done on farmland preservation in California's central valley. We're losing land fast to endless unsustainable development. But how do we get to sustainable? What is the goal there? 0% net energy usage? Then there is this dependence on oil thing.

Sinn-Frei via Steven B.

But is it sprawl if your house is close to your job, even if you live out the suburbs? I've tried to think of what it is and what it isn't, but I can't seem to pin it down. So if we can't define it, how do we kill it?

Imagine This Story Times Millions

It's never fun when eminent domain is used. But when I think of it, it always brings me back to the thought of how many people were displaced and how much tax revenue has been lost because of the Interstate Highway System ripping through cities. One need only go back and watch Robert Caro's speech at CNU last year to understand the price of automobiling. As I've said many times before, Eisenhower marveled at and wanted to emulate the freeways between cities, not through them.

The autobahn was a rural network, without segments into and through Germany's cities. This seemed appropriate to Eisenhower, but in Washington, Thomas H. MacDonald and Herbert Fairbank of the U.S. Public Roads Administration (the name of the Federal Highway Administration's predecessor during the 1940's) saw the absence of metropolitan segments as a flaw that made the autobahn a poor model for America's future. Unlike Germany, traffic volumes were high in America where car ownership was widespread. Congestion in America's cities had long been a serious complaint that MacDonald and Fairbank would address in their vision of the Interstate System.

We sure tackled that congestion problem...that wasn't really addressed because that wasn't the point.

...MacDonald acknowledged with surprising candor that the urban components of the system were not designed to alleviate urban congestion, except to the extent that they would provide relieve to those motorists for whom the city was an inconvenient obstruction...

We all know Lewis Mumford had it right though when arguing against the highway system slashing through cities.

The key to reviving our center cities, Mumford said, "rests on the restoring of the pedestrian scale of distances to the interior of the city, of making it possible for the pedestrian to exist." He added, "We are faced, it is fairly obvious to me, with the blunders of one-dimensional thinking, or thinking very expertly about a single characteristic, a single feature that we are interested in, and forgetting the realities that surround us."

Transit Hub Tax Credits

I forgot about this, but New Jersey has a program which they give tax credits to companies that locate near transit. To me this is a great idea, since it creates a situation where existing infrastructure is taken advantage of and people have an option as to how they get to work.

H +T Revisited

The place where Transit Oriented Development has thrived since the decision to build in a subway instead of down the center of a freeway is now the location of the most affordable option for living in DC.

The report, prepared in partnership with the Center for Housing Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, measures combined housing and transportation costs for 22 areas within the DC region. Close-in Arlington County recorded the lowest combined costs, at 39 percent, while outlying areas such as Clarke County recorded the highest costs, at 58 percent.

One wonders what might have happened if the Orange Line had not been built as it was. With all the extra density, would all those people have moved further out to the suburbs? Would they be driving more? How much more energy would be expended? Yet I imagine if that line were considered today, it would not even come close to passing the cost effectiveness measure set in front of every transit project to trip it up. It shows what we should be trying to do. National metro subway plan anyone?

Do We Have to Even Read It?

And so it begins again. They got tossed out of Charlotte and now are hunting transit again. Some of their suggestions, more roads, BRT, and telecommuting. Anyone wonder why I continue to be skeptical of BRT? Especially when folks who hate transit advocate for more of it. Here's my favorite paragraphs:

The regional planning and transit bureaucrats who created the latest Triangle transit plan weren't really trying to fashion transportation policy. They were trying to remake the region's economy and land-use patterns according to "Smart Growth" principles that are, in truth, reactionary. They envision urban employment cores, dense residential neighborhoods and rigid commuting patterns based around a 19th century technology, the train, that bear little relationship to reality.

While some individuals desire such a lifestyle, the vast majority of citizens, 82 percent by one recent estimate, prefer to live the American dream in a single-family home and travel when and where they want using their personal vehicles. Any transportation plan hostile to clear public preferences is doomed to fail, and to cost taxpayers a great deal in the attempt.

Haha didn't anyone tell these guys about Karl Benz in 1885 and his four stroke gas engine. You know, 3 years before Frank Sprague and the electric streetcar. I wonder how many times we have to go over this. But that last paragraph is telling. No citations of real studies or polls (like this one) and all preferences of his own. How come its so expensive to live in Walkable cities? I would venture to guess it is because there is so much demand that prices are being driven up by folks who have money that want this type of lifestyle, making it harder for those who don't to leave the the suburbs. Again, why should we subsidize his suburbia?

Three Projects is Waaay Too Many

Another shortsighted look at transit.

Mayor Pat McCrory cautions against too many competing transit projects muddying the lobbying waters at a state and federal level. The Metropolitan Transit Commission steers most elements of the 2030 plan, including an ongoing assessment of whether to push forward with an extension of a northeast light-rail line and a northbound commuter-rail route.

We never worked on three highway projects at the same time, or road projects. It makes absolutely no sense to work on three transit projects at the same time. And there is no other funding source outside of the state and federal level. Money always grows on those trees alone.

But in all seriousness, there is plenty of money out there to fund transit. It's all about regional priority. Not that expect places to start switching over money tomorrow, but the interstate highway system is done. Widening freeways should be over. It's time to start thinking about more mobility for the tax base that has paid for everyone else's. Cities are the economic generators of this country. It's about time we treated them as such.

Sunday Backlog Links

So when I got back from LA yesterday and checked my feed reader my jaw dropped when the 1000+ number showed at the top. Too much information every day. It's amazing what the internet has brought but also time consuming. I can see why some completely eschew the process keeping themselves sane.

Another interesting thing that I missed is the end of the Stimulus craziness. Instead of running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I missed it all, which when I got back was oddly comforting. It can be quite crazy in Washington DC dealing with movement efforts because of the thousands of changes every day. Some find this exciting but with my background in distance running, I don't quite understand it. The franticness of it all goes against everything I learned from running, including patience and putting in your daily miles over a long term period to reap rewards. It's not quite as opportunistic which is satisfying, at least to me personally. Guess thats just my personality.

In any event, here are my favorite bits from the catch up process.

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A history of the Subway in Los Angeles. After being there Friday and riding the Subway and the 704 Rapid, I see absolutely no reason why people are opposed to more rail extensions. The ride was bumpy and crowded and needed a lot of work in the wayfinding department. There was no map so I knew where I was going and no announcements of transfer points. Transit TV is worthless as well.



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It's amazing when you hear stories of Japanese soldiers that were found on Islands many years after the Second World War was over still thinking they were in the war. Similarly, it's amazing when a fight is lost over rail people still continue to fight it, even after the voters strongly affirmed their will.
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Why are we still propping up the auto industry? And why do we consider transit expansion an "extra thing", something that is a novelty when its more of a necessity than tax breaks for automobiles.
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Gavin has officially lost my vote for Gov. His smarmyness probably had lost it anyway. Perhaps Jerry Brown or Antonio are better. Maybe, maybe not.
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If you have to vote for transit improvements, shouldn't we have to vote for roads as well?
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The Green Line in Dallas has created 2,200 jobs. It's really too bad we couldn't fund more of these lines.
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20 TOD projects in Charlotte are paused or canceled. This is a slowdown of 3,000 units. If we do give tax breaks to new home buyers, it should be near transit but I'm not sure if giving breaks is a smart idea in any context.

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No such thing as Green Personal Transportation?
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Developers say eliminating a station on the Corridor Cities Transitway would hurt their large development scheme.
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At least we'll be able to get around Spain. They are planning a huge HSR network. Seems like they are the leaders in the next major infrastructure movement. Perhaps when President Eisenhower goes to Spain he can see how it worked and promote it here. Then another group will co-opt it and turn the autobahn into a mover within cities instead of between them. Did I just get my time periods mixed up?
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Copying an idea that I believe came from Columbus, the Charlotte Bobcats are selling transit tickets with thier event tickets. I think this could be a very real way to raise capital for transit projects and allow people to use thier event tickets as proof of purchase (POP)
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This is what the Stimulus was supposed to fix, but won't. We'll have to depend on the transportation bill for this. In the meantime, work should be done to get land along the lines ready for the future.
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Who knew that streets built before the suburban sprawl craze were actually safer than the roads built for cars. Well data backs that up as well.

Ogden, Utah Photos

I spent a few days talking about streetcars with some folks in Ogden, Utah. Fortunately or unfortunately I didn't have access to the internet the last few days because of my schedule, but I did take a few movies and pictures. I wish I would have had a little more time for a vlog but perhaps if I go back. Also, if I do disappear for a few days, you can check me out on twitter as well. I still have to figure out how to use it more effectively but for the most part its random observations when riding transit or where i'm located.

Anyway, Ogden is a really neat little city and they have a spectacular downtown with some great old buildings and the nearby streetcar suburbs . It was the center of much of the railroad's east west movements. Much to my surprise, this wasn't Salt Lake City's role. I got to see the Front Runner Commuter line from a far and took some pictures of the old downtown. I'll have some more cool stuff up tomorrow or Sunday.

And if you wonder why we should keep moving towards better land use and transit that lowers emissions...take a look at what Temperature inversions do to Salt Lake City. They just became a non-attainment area.



This is 25th Street, really cool main street which used to be a really seedy part of town. Tons of cities would kill for buildings like these.



Front Runner Commuter Rail

When Do We Get to Win?

When we win we still lose. Seems like that is the theme over in the Senate. And as an added bonus, the Senate has turned into the State of California, where the minority seems to win somehow. How come the minority didn't win all the time when the Democrats were in power? This is infuriating.

Then you have people who are supposed to be allies voting against the bill. Landrieu of all people should know better after Katrina knocked out the New Orleans Streetcar system for months on end and put an abrupt stop to expansion of the Desire Line, for which funding had almost materialized before the storm.

And when President Obama "pledged to launch the biggest public works program since the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s" we didn't think you meant a whole new highway system. People want Infrastructure and not just roads. Republican pollsters even say they do. Rails, energy facilities, water treatment etc etc.

How about investing in operating transit? It has been conspicuously left out and as Brad Plummer mentions over at the Vine, Obama's team when asked why the infrastructure funding is so paltry, responds that they don't think we can spend it fast enough. I think its more something along the lines of this...

You can go ahead and tell yourself that this is just theory - just a single example. But that's willful ignorance, as the Hindrey scalping is only one chapter in what has been one long narrative arc whereby economic progressives have been deliberately shut out of top administration jobs. Just step back and think about it for a minute: Amid a stable of eminently qualified and well-respected progressives like James Galbraith, Joseph Stiglitz, Dean Baker, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman and Larry Mishel, Obama has chosen Rubin sycophants like Larry Summers and Tim Geithner to run the economy - the same Larry Summers who pushed the repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act, the same Geithner who masterminded the kleptocratic bank bailout, the same duo whose claim to fame is their personal connections to Rubin, a disgraced Citigroup executive at the center of the current meltdown. And the list of Rubin sycophants keeps getting longer, from Peter Orszag to Jason Furman.

You can only have a circus when the clowns are in the building. And that includes the bearded ladies that think that the census is pork. But the bigger story here is that Obama's people only believe in pushing paper around instead of dirt.

But this all got me thinking, what would get people to pay attention? What would get people to start thinking about how important transit is in the major metropolitan areas and how a stimulus would work? How about we just pull an Ottawa and shut it all down. Imagine the signal that would send. Just stop running the buses and trains for one random unannounced day and see what happens. When all those Senate aids can't get to work or when bicycles start piling up outside the capital office buildings, perhaps some will take notice. When Denver shut down its system, the region was brought 30 minute delays and hellish parking scenarios downtown. When LA did it, traffic speeds declined 20%. Those are big numbers. Imagine them everywhere. Do you think people would finally notice?

I know i'm getting a bit more militant about this, but if we don't start seeing signs that things are actually going to change this year, it might be time to start trying something different than just voting for change. It's not like we're asking a lot more than is needed in this country. That comes during reauthorization. We're gonna have to change things ourselves. Anyone else getting tired of being not the permanent minority or majority, but permanently screwed?

Two Thirds Green, One Third Black

It looks like New York will get a once in a lifetime opportunity. I trust that someone good will be found that can change the face of traffic engineering in New York City. Now if only we could pass a stimulus package that would make Danes proud. What kind of package would they pass you ask? Well one with two thirds green and one third black. Perhaps we could learn something about framing.

Last Thursday, the Danish government agreed to invest 94 billion kroner ($16 billion) to improve the nation’s roads, railways and bike lanes by 2020.

Traffic Minister Lars Barfoed was quoted by The Copenhagen Post as saying, “The shape of the agreement is clear: two-thirds green, one-third black,” meaning that most of the budget will go towards public transit infrastructure and the rest will be spent on asphalt road projects.

Much different than the 80/20 highways to transit we promote here. 4/5ths Black. Does that mean 4/5ths home ownership?

Texas Ridership Down

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that ridership is down in Houston, Dallas, and Austin in the last three months. I don't understand why transit planners at these agencies are racking their brains wondering why transit ridership is down. I mean, the economy has nothing to do with it. Right?

And the reasons are not always readily apparent.

In one instance, DART officials were puzzled when ridership suddenly dried up in a Dallas neighborhood that had provided consistent business for years. It was determined that apartment closures were to blame.

I think we'll see more of this in the coming months.

Tell Boxer to Hit Back Hard

This is ridiculous.

Inhofe sent a letter to current Committee Chair Barbara Boxer last week expressing outrage that highways were only getting $27 billion in the Senate version of the Economic Recovery Act, and said "given the large number of ready to go highway projects and the economic benefits of highway investment, we believe the level of highway investment should be at least 10 percent of the total stimulus package," or more than $80 billion.

The worst part? She's considering doing it!!! The Chair of the Environment and Public Works committee even thinking about caving to the biggest opposition to the environment in the Senate? No way BB. T4 has the action alert.

Senator Boxer is considering an amendment to increase highway funding in the economic recovery legislation. Let her know we don't want another blank check for highways. We need to ensure that the amendment language would achieve important safety, system repair, and climate goals.

Ask Senator Boxer to support an amendment that would:

1. Give preference to projects that reduce vehicle miles traveled, like transit, bike or pedestrian projects.

2. Fast Track Highway Safety projects that improve efficiency and reduce congestion, like bridge maintenance and improved signalization.

If we don't prioritize our spending we cannot achieve our environmental, energy, and safety goals, and we run the risk of harming our state and the nation. Thank you for speaking out against another blank check for highways.

Please call Senator Boxer's office today at (202) 224-3553

On Locking Grids

Given many cities don't have grids anymore, I find it interesting that gridlock is still in the lexicon, specifically because if we did have a grid system, its likely there would be less lock. And to my current point in the last post about congestion and its endless war, I think the editors of the Rocky Mountain News have it wrong that the whole purpose in life of transportation funding should be to keep travel speeds at current levels through increased road and transit capacity. That's hardly a laudable goal given the number of people that will likely live in Denver in 20 years and how much more VMT that would mean, more than likely wiping out reductions in emissions.

It's not only FasTracks that is short of funding, after all. Revenue for the upkeep, improvement and expansion of metro roads and highways is also far below what would be needed to preserve today's travel speeds over the next 20 years. Unless lawmakers and civic leaders think FasTracks alone can prevent future gridlock - a naive hope for reasons we'll explain - they should make sure that any future ballot issue includes more than a FasTracks bailout.

I think there should be money for maintenance and repair, but beyond that, Fastracks is just a regional commuter system. There needs to be funding for local circulation and greater frequency that will help spur denser walkable neighborhoods. Don't get all scared at density either Denver. Maybe it means a few granny flats or maybe it means high rises. Depends on the neighborhood.

Is Obama's DOT Team Just Setting Up for Wall Street?

It's an interesting question and I really don't know enough about these folks or their backgrounds to make a judgment. I do know that none of these people have been at the forefront of the push for greater transit or livable streets. Perhaps they have mentioned it in passing but they likely don't see it as most important. Most DOT types only care about a question that shouldn't be at the top of the list. Congestion. And usually the only answer to them is road capacity. But the problem is that its kind of like the War on Terror, there is no specific end and no one really knows what congestion eradication means. If we were to eradicate congestion, it just means we're probably wasting space or have too much capacity that is only used in peak hours.

H/T Anonymous poster that I can't credit because they posted anonymously.

Grocery Store Proximity

So the last few times I went into the Bell Market on 24th street in Noe Valley I noticed the selection of items getting worse and worse each week. This was down from an already small selection of groceries due to the fact that it was rather small for a grocery store.

It is only a quarter mile from my house and the best part is that its a flat walk. Being so close, I would not worry about forgetting something because I could just run back and get it in no time without having to hop in my car. In fact, getting in my car would be the worst idea ever because I would spend more time looking for a place to park than walking there, shopping, and walking back home. Now I'll have to go either 1 mile North or South to the Safeways' located at both of those locations.

In any event, I just learned today that Bell Market was closing and would be replaced with a Whole Foods. I'm not really sure what I think about that. Whole Foods tends to be overpriced and will in all likelihood turn 24th street into a fun traffic jam on Saturday mornings (Not that it matters to me since I walk, but I'm sure others will complain). Some merchants have called for it to be turned into a parking lot, but in all actuality having WF as an anchor will bring more foot traffic to the other businesses on the street.

During the time period I have lived here, I noticed that one of my biggest trip generators is groceries. Work trips are the largest with trips to the grocery store the second largest and trips to hang out with friends third. It made me realize just how important grocery stores located close by are for my and more than likely everyone's transit oriented lifestyle.

TOD Still Going

Despite the downturn, developers in Dallas are still moving forward with development near transit. Though in Farmers branch took a few false starts after pulling property together.

Over the years, Farmers Branch has spent nearly $10 million to accumulate land and set up zoning for the roughly 144-acre station area. Of that, the city owns about 50 acres, about 18 of which are available for development.

McDougal Cos., which is also working with Irving on a development project, would buy the land from Farmers Branch.

And city officials say they believe that this, the third time, is the charm. Farmers Branch had memorandums of understanding with two previous developers for projects in the station area, but both fell through.

After 20 years of hoping, they might get their town center. And all it took was a transit connection.

Punctuality in Cali...Columbia.

German engineers trekked to Cali Columbia, a place made famous at least in America by drug cartels, to fix up the transportation system in order to make it more punctual.

The fight between good and evil is represented by the colors green and red, at least that is the way Miguel Castro sees it. Castro is a bus driver in the Colombian metropolis of Cali, and the two colored lights on his dashboard tell him whether he is behind schedule or not. For Castro the panel of lights is a small revolution. Prior to their arrival, there were only the timetables to rely on -- treated by drivers more as a broad recommendation than as hard and fast rules.

H/T Planetizen

Lazy Saturday Links

Looks like BART will get some WiFi after all.
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Where will the next commuter line be?

Fred Hansen: “This is the first state’s first commuter rail project. I don’t think it’ll be it’s last.”

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54% of Cincinnati jobs (City of, not region) are in the core. That is some pretty good job density, excellent for transit.
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In DC, 43% of folks in the core walk or take transit. Would biking get them over 50%? In transit zones in DC, in and outside of the core, the number of people who walk bike or take transit was 42% in 2000.
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Personally I think asking bikers to pay a user fee on roads that are generally paid for out of local sales, income, and property taxes is silly. A lot of the times bikes aren't even allowed on freeways which are paid for with gas taxes that people think pays for streets, but doesn't. This is the same as asking urban dwellers who do own a car but don't use freeways or state highways to subsidize the folks who do even more. Sure they get indirect goods movement benefits but they could also pay indirectly for that with a little higher price at the store, much like people pay for free parking at grocery stores through more expensive goods.
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The Aces train we talked about last week is on the go.
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Mad press for Streetsblog. An article in Planetizen about discusses how they are trying to change the urban discussion. And the founder Mark Gorton got some good press in Wired. For those annoyed with Muni, Gorton is looking for the solution!

Portland, Oregon has already used his open-source software to plan its bus routes. San Francisco, whose MUNI bus system is a frequent target of criticism, could be next to get the treatment. Gorton says he's in talks with the city to supply transit routing software for MUNI that will do a much better job of keeping track of where people are going and figuring out how best to get them there. San Francisco "overpaid greatly" for a badly-supported proprietary closed-source system that barely works, according to Gorton, putting the city under the thumb of a private company that provides sub-par support.

"They're frustrated and thinking about replacing it completely, and see the value of open-source because then they won't have any of these support problems," he said. "And they won't be constantly at the mercy of the private companies that have these little mini-monopolies."

Good luck with that. We hope it works out.

Gold Line Pull

They're testing on the Gold Line Eastside Extension in LA. In the video a service truck is pulling an LRV but those new Bredas are quite heavy. Looks like the truck has some torque.


Gold Line Trains In Movement from curbed los angeles on Vimeo.

H/T AF

Information Underload 101

This is about the 100th article by Ben Wear about the cost of the Capital Metro Commuter Rail Line. Sure it's something citizens want to hear about, but in a more intelligent world, he would be asking questions about how the system is only going to have a few runs a day and the technical details of what would fix that or how it got to this point that anything even needed to be fixed. You know, information that would keep something disappointing like that from happening again. Or possibly how light rail downtown could possibly realign development in Austin or even how there are a billion different ways to fund transit lines with innovative ideas. But no, Austin is stuck with yet another article about the cost of the line.

As you all know, I'm not a reporter. But if I were to write a column on transportation, I would probably educate myself about what the best practices are around the country and fill my feed reader with every single piece of transportation information I can to inform my writing. I try to do that anyway but I don't get paid to write and I don't have a whole city to inform. But newspapers wonder why they are losing readers and market share to other sources and I would say its because the information they give is just too basic, especially on issues such as transportation.

While blog commentary will never take the place of reporting, they are creating an elevated discussion about niche issues such as transit and development. As I was discussing with a colleague the other day, if we were relating blogs to college courses, newspapers are often the intro courses and blogs the upper level electives. Feel free to look at the course schedule.

Update 1.30.09: David has more on newspaper issues including simple things they can do like linking out.

Thursday Links

Portland Transport has photos of Oregon Iron Works first American made streetcar.
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A high speed rail connection will soon be forged between Helsinki and St. Petersburgh Russia. I imagine that would be quite the beautiful trip.
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Looks like Gavin was talking a bit too fast for the bus boys at AC Transit.

Fernandez told Newsom that if he wants the first phase of the Transbay Terminal project delayed until funding is secured for the rail piece, terms of an agreement between AC Transit and the Transbay board may be ''threatened or violated.'' He asked the mayor to clarify his intentions.

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The Fort Worth Streetcar is moving forward. Kevin updates us and notes that they are thinking of paying for part of the capital with toll revenue.

The Marketing Worked...Too Well?

No one I know thinks the Caltrain baby bullet is actually fast in terms of overall speed. Especially when compared to say a Shinkansen, TGV, or ICE train. But the marketing seems to have worked so well, some on the peninsula are asking, why do we need high speed rail if we've already got the Baby Bullet. The HSR Compatability Blog answers that question in full detail. The short answer, there is a reason it's only a baby.

Crazy Pills All Around!

We have nothing to show for tossing bones to the R's. They got concessions but we know the bill got watered down because of it. Now the auto industry is going to be using our money to be dinosaurs. What did we vote for in November. I forgot.

At least more funding got into the package. And Mr. Dukakis assures us that the future will be good.

Wired.com: The Obama administration has promised more rail and transit funding. Are we going to see things start to happen?

Dukakis: No question about it. This economic mess we're in has actually turned out to be a huge opportunity to invest in transit projects. Despite the concerns out there, I think this is a huge opportunity.

Wired.com: What concerns?

Dukakis: There's worry that the states just aren't ready to move on stuff. They haven't done the planning and the engineering they need to jump into major projects when the funding is there. We have a major construction-management problem in this country. In Massachusetts, the governor wants to build a four-mile light-rail extension using existing right of way [tracks and property that are already in place], and it's going to take six years to complete. How can that be? Chinese and Irish immigrants were laying four miles of track a day on the transcontinental railroad, and that was in the 1860s.

Was there any money for engineering in the bill? I agree that it shouldn't take six years to build the green line. It should have been done yesterday. But unless there is some sort of signal from the administration that engineering should begin and go faster on more of these lines because the money will start flowing, there's no reason for transit agencies to push harder for it. That just means that the cycle continues as to whether it should be done at all. This is why the next transportation bill is so important. Let's get it right.

The Recycling Bin

Is anyone else tired of the same old recycled junk? Can someone remind me if the Interstate Highway System we started building in the 1950's ever turned a profit. I think it was a long term investment that granted returns in other ways. Some good, some not so good. From the Wall Street Journal on the stimulus:

We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years...

How many times do you think these guys took the Acela to DC to hang out with thier cronies. I guess they don't believe in the investment. Rupert's opinion page hacks are dumber than a box of rocks. This is a gem though:

Most of the rest of this project spending will go to such things as renewable energy funding ($8 billion) or mass transit ($6 billion) that have a low or negative return on investment. Most urban transit systems are so badly managed that their fares cover less than half of their costs. However, the people who operate these systems belong to public-employee unions that are campaign contributors to . . . guess which party?

Would you like some cheese with that whine? Does no one on the R team understand how all transportation works? It's like they believe air traffic controllers come from magical fairly land and highway funds come out of an oil derrick. Where did they get these opinions from anyways? It certainly wasn't from the Manhattan news staff, most of whom I'm sure drive to work right?? I heard the cracker jack factory had some openings. Perhaps you could fill the boxes with this noise.

They Elect Representatives

More on the Virginia Beach saga. An editorial in the local paper is calling on city leaders to be..well..leaders. Apparently back in 1999 while sister city Norfolk was moving forward with its light rail plan under the guidance of its leaders, the folks in Virginia Beach passed the buck.

Ten years ago, the council abdicated its responsibility, punting the issue to voters with no recommendations and too little information. Eight of 11 members declined even to take a position.

Then-Vice Mayor Will Sessoms and Councilwoman Barbara Henley said they supported light rail but did not actively campaign for it. Not surprisingly, in the absence of information and leadership, voters rejected it. The 1999 referendum became an excuse to delay action on the Norfolk Southern line, a critical corridor for the city's future.

I'm amazed of late how much politicians who were elected to lead want to hide behind voters to make decisions for them or decide that they want things to be bipartisan if only for the reason that they can blame the other side when things go wrong. Take for example the stimulus package. At this very moment I'm sure its getting watered down in hopes of bipartisanship, something one side has made clear they don't believe.

But the Virginian Pilot makes a good point:

Voters don't decide which highways get built, whether the government should mail taxpayers stimulus checks or send troops to the Middle East. They elect representatives to make those decisions.

If Virginia Beach's leaders support moving forward with light rail, they must publicly make the case for it, one strong enough to sway the city's voters.

Why is it that we can build roads and don't have to ask anyone but when we make an investment in transit we have to ask usually not once, but a number of times to do it. Politicos always hide behind the decision when they should be embracing it. In cities where they have rejected rail referendums, they have been feeling it the last year. In cities where leaders and voters have made it happen, they have benefited from the investment, even if its short of what it should really be.

Quote of the Day

I just had to copy Frank:

So state gas taxes are sort of like tobacco taxes… if the tobacco revenue were funneled into advertising cigarettes.

MTC Meeting Tonight

It might still be possible to get more money to bikes and transit projects from MTC. Check out Transbay Blog's post about tomorrow's meeting. If you go, tell them to shove the road money.

My annoyance goes far. They have done no modeling to see what would happen with Oakland or San Francisco core BART expansions in terms of land use and green house gas changes. There's no real true modeling as the Streetsblog post mentions to real bike infrastructure and improvements to Muni and other agency bus movement would go a long way as well. Curbing cars with congestion pricing downtown would be good, but only if they improve transit capacity and speeds into downtown and the areas within the cordon. As I always say, it shouldn't take me an hour to go three miles on the bus. That should be the goal, better transit service, not better car service during peak hours.

Pushing Hard or Hardly Pushing?

Where was Gavin during the campaign? I know a lot of people like Gavin, but I can't stand his moves on transit. It just seems like he's never pushed very hard for big ideas and he's always kind of floated in the wind when it comes to them, waiting till the last minute to voice the right answer. Sometimes he's all wrong on auto issues like allowing cars into Golden Gate park on the weekends.

Why isn't the TEP getting a French push like HSR? How come its not getting hammered in right now? He could be a real leader on that. I'm glad to see he's behind HSR. But it would have been nice to hear him scream about it during the campaign.

When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Larry?

A number of recent blog posts as well as Peter DeFazio in an interview with Rachel Maddow have pointed blame for the reduction in rail funding in the stimulus package at the Obama folks and more directly at former treasury secretary and Obama advisor Larry Summers. It's not surprising that he is in favor of tax cuts given his plea for them even before the economic slowdown in 2007. Recently he's become a convert to infrastructure in words alone, but it doesn't seem like the actions are following through. Instead they've put in tax cuts as funding for infrastructure, particularly rail was junked. But as Tom states at Angry Bear:

The underlying problem is that helicoptering money to "consumers" by way of tax cuts or lump-sum grants a la last year's stimulus payments does little or nothing to help satisfy demands that are latent due to incomplete markets. Give me $100 and I can drive to Chicago for the day, not insignificantly because past public infrastructure spending built the roads from here to there. Give everyone in Madison $100 and it still does sod all for extending the Amtrak Hiawatha service, seeing as the city was cut off from such passenger rail network as still exists in the upper Midwest and reconnecting it requires a substantial investment. Maybe in libertarian fantasyland, there are no such things as collective action problems, but elsewhere overcoming them may be considered to be a useful function of government.

As opponents like to say, 90% of people drive, well then we should spend 90% on roads. But its a cycle of spending that causes this to happen. As we've seen in places like Copenhagen, if you build infrastructure to support other modes such as cycling and transit, you will get more and more riders and shift the policies. This is what we did in the 50's in support of the automobile. It was a collective push to increase funding and regulations for that mode that led to its rise. At the time, many felt it was the way of the future, but looking back we know that was completely wrong.

But the issue with the stimulus that continues is the fact that we aren't doing enough and a lot of people don't seem to understand what is "enough". Calling $3 billion adequate is kind of lame, especially given the $250 billion in new projects that are in que as well as the thought that California's high speed rail line would be $40 itself. There is a want for a national high speed rail network, or at least start of work on the key city to city lines that would increase productivity and connectivity. And the excuse that it won't be started fast enough is based on existing FTA and DOT timelines in which transit is suffocated based on underfunding. Another excuse is that we should wait for the next transportation bill. But if we are able to make investments now and write a bill that can fold some of them in, why not do it?

While many will point to the New Deal as a major part of what got us out of the depression, the cap was World War II in which we turned auto plants into tank and plane manufacturers and people saved instead of continuing thier spending. No extra rubber around for new cars, only for the war effort. In fact, this poster reminds us of the lengths people took to save energy and resources. Imagine if in this time period of hardship people were asked to save a little more and come together to build or invest in more of what is needed such as education and technology.


If I were in charge, perhaps I would have an office of infrastructure reconciliation. This means bringing our rail infrastructure up to a current standard and increasing output dramatically, much like China. We'll have to also wait and see on the idea of an infrastructure bank but this is no time to comprimise or seek middle ground as Mr. Summers stated Obama will do. Tax cuts are an idea of the Republicans, thier solution to EVERYTHING over the last 30 years. After a while, there's not much left to cut. Look where that has gotten us. Seems like this is a time to strike forward with big thoughts and ideas.

Progress

Here's a fun site for you all to try out if you haven't already. You can create these:

Using What You Purchase

Looks like Norfolk Southern is going to be asking a bit more for the ROW between Virginia Beach and Norfolk. Half of it will be used for the existing light rail line. It would be pretty worthwhile to buy now though because it will only get more expensive.

Though I would hope that they don't use the whole thing, at least further east towards the beach. The closer the ROW gets to the beach, the closer it gets to a large Naval Air Station, which is likely not too great for mixed use development unless at some point it is shut down and the property is redeveloped. Close by however is a major shopping district that could be recast after its useful life as a new center for Virginia Beach. Currently it has a lot of parking spaces ripe for redevelopment. You can see the difference between the two probably paths below.

You can also see in the aerial below that there is a wide median for ROW. However such a large street could use a boulevard reconfiguration to calm traffic and create better pedestrian scale development.


The extension to Virginia Beach also seems like a good line from a job connection standpoint as well. Three miles from the end of the current line under construction and west of the Naval Air Station above is this job and entertainment center below called Virginia Beach Town Center.

The point however is that while this is a good line, they need to look long and hard into where it goes, and might want to think about how much the ROW is worth beyond the Naval Air Station. It's probably worth buying and keeping for the future because if the NAS is decommissioned, a rapid streetcar could connect the station with the beach and start and end at light rail stations as well as circulation. But it's something to look into.

Attempted Robbery

It's always a bad idea to start letting the state take money from transportation funding to plug holes. Look at where it has gotten us in California, $3 billion dollars gone and transit gets screwed. Well here is another case where putting your foot down is a good thing. The State of Hawaii wants to steal the transit tax but Mayor Mufi is saying no. Good for him.

When Three Ps Come Up Aces

I got an email from a friend of the blog with a link to the Aces Train. Apparently it is a public private partnership run through the Casinos in Atlantic City and New Jersey Transit in which there is direct service between New York and Atlantic City with a stop in Newark. Shuttle service would be provided between the casinos and the station and ticketing would be done through Amtrak. It does come with a steep price tag however. $100 round trip and $150 if you want to go first class.

What is most interesting is that this is a public private partnership (PPP) in which New Jersey provides the tracks and the casinos provided the railcars and operating costs. I wonder if they will get commuters as well? Though $50 might be a bit steep, the seats look comfortable. However it has been a long time coming. It has been in the works for a while and still hasn't started though this time its slated for Feb 6th.

Rising Values Near Transit in UK

There is an article in the Times of London on whether purchasing a home near transit is a worthwhile investment. In London people are willing to pay a premium to be near a tube stop and values around areas that will soon be stations are rising quickly.

The extension of the former East London Tube Line will run from West Croydon and Crystal Palace to Dalston Junction, and will connect with the Tube network at Whitechapel. A second phase, due to open in 2011, will continue the line through Canonbury to Highbury & Islington Tube station. The average house price has already risen from £187,800 in 2001 to £317,959 in 2007, according to Hometrack, and gentrification has arrived in the form of the Dalston Culture House and the relocation of the Vortex jazz club to new premises, as well as several new restaurants.
...
A 2005 report by the Passenger Transport Executive Group found that all UK tram schemes have led to increases in commercial and residential property values, in some cases by 15 per cent. Rental prices have risen by 7 percent.

What is most interesting though is something we never think of here in the United States. The warnings to some are that retailers won't be around until closer to the time that the new station opens.

But buyers must be prepared to wait. “The change will not be instantaneous. Some people who would never have considered living in an area without a Tube line will come immediately. Others will wait for the retail and restaurants.” Scotford urges buyers to be aware that retailers may not arrive immediately to the area because current leases will take a while to expire. But it should not take too long.

The fact that they expect retail that is within walking distance is a little bit different. Here there are a whole heap of issues surrounding the type of retail and whether there will be enough parking because around the station extensions, there is generally not enough density to support such retail without parking or other help from cities, but there it's expected. Kind of an upsetting commentary if you ask me.

The Overhead Wire is Done

No not me or the blog, rather the wires that bring electricity to streetcars and light rail. Yonah brings our attention to an MSNBC article in which Bombardier unveils their new technology advancement.

The innovative principle of the PRIMOVE system is rooted in the principle of inductive power transfer, a technology used in cleanrooms in the computer chip and automotive industries. With Bombardier's introduction of PRIMOVE, inductive power transfer comes to rail vehicles for the first time.

Apparently they have been testing in Germany since 2003 and the system apparently can work in all weather, unlike the Alstom APS system which reportedly has problems with ice and snow. Now we wait for commercial installation and testing under real life conditions. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Clean Air

One of the things I harp on constantly is the need for clean air which is part of the reason that I like electric transit. Well Matt at Orphan Road has some news about lifespans and clean air. Seems like it helps people live longer. Who knew?

The Over Under

The East End in Houston is building a light rail line. To perpendicularly cross the freight tracks, Metro has proposed building a bridge. The neighbors want an underpass. My first question would be what happens to the underpass in the medical center when you get a torrential rain storm, something that happens quite often in Houston. Does it flood? If so, it doesn't seem like a great idea, however aesthetically pleasing. Does anyone know of other lines that have a flooding problem?

One Million Riders

You know you want to say it like Dr. Evil. WMATA rocked it's all time high with an exclamation point. This was forcast by many before so it wasn't too much of a surprise, but its still an achievement. On that note, Richard has a post up about capacity and the additional costs of capacity and makes the case for those people paying more that use it at peak due to capacity built explicitly for peak travel instead of average travel.

At the same time, Ryan notes that this super ridership record should make the region think about increasing core capacity with new subway lines and streetcars. I tend to agree. More core capacity can only increase mobility and perhaps let out a bit of a relief valve. Other cities such as Budapest are still building core lines in the central city (like line 4, line 5), we should be doing that as well.

Thinking Inside the Box Left at DOT

Yonah as usual has a great post up on the confirmation hearing of future Secretary Lahood. There were a few parts that bothered me, including the repackaging of old ideas as innovative. When Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota asked what kind of innovative ways to replenish the highway trust fund, he said:

Public/private programs… Tolling of new lanes, tolling of highways, is a different way of thinking about it… We need to think of those kind of opportunities… Differently than just the gasoline tax… We know that people are still using Amtrak even though gas prices went down, we know people in places like Chicago are still using mass transit.

While I like all the nods to transit that were mentioned, and there were a lot of those, the idea of taxing cars alone as the only way to get things done, even if it is tolling is a bit one sided. What about how the Red Line in Portland was financed by trading property in exchange for Bechtel building the line. Or the Seattle Streetcar where property owners taxed themselves for half of the capital cost.

We need to somehow tie transportation investments to land use and that could mean funding based on true costs and things like tolling for suburban roads, but also other ideas that are floating around out there that could change the way we think about these investments and their value (H+T). Let's start to think harder. It's like we don't know how to be super innovative anymore. Or maybe I'm just hoping for too much.

"I Just Had to Drive"

Since I have no cable I tend to watch shows that I probably wouldn't watch otherwise. Most of the time the tv is just background to my laptop and the blog. But I was watching a show that will not be named and one of the main characters was going to make a decision she needed to think about, so she went for a drive.

Which made me think, does anyone go for a think on the bus or train? Just wander aimlessly about a city in order to collect their thoughts? I used to run in order to do that, but I haven't run in a while and it kind of hurts these days, not quite as relaxing. But somedays I'll go for a walk to check out urban things or get on the J and go for a ride. It just reminded me how much driving is entrenched into the national psyche. So much so that its seen as therapy for many, which begs the question, how can that be overcome?

Inaguration Sinkhole

Looks like the news is on hold, at least anything I would find interesting enough to post on at great length. At least Governor Rick Perry is kind enough to let locals vote on taxing themselves for a North Texas rail network. Thank you oh benevolent 38%er. Seems like there are a few (at least 2 as of today) of those low marks in Texas these days. Who wants LBJ and the Great Society Subway idea back?

Signs in the Concrete

I went for a bit of a walk today in my neighborhood. Here are some of the signs I found. Not so much transit, but planning related. The most interesting one to me is the anti-google sign. I've seen them a number of times, and have heard complaints, not to mention seen how expensive housing has become in the neighborhood in even the three years I've been here. In any event here are some photos:

Water Department Cover


The Google Bus Stop. At the place where Google kids hop on the bus, someone painted this into the concrete. It says "Trendy Google Professionals Help Raise Housing Costs".


Obamaism


Vegans for McCain


Stop the War, March 19th


Mr. Seahorse Knows That No One Is Illegal


There were also some interesting signs and murals:

Good Fricken Chicken


Emmy's Spaghetti Shack. Get the Spaghetti and Meatballs...mmm


Dewar's Ad


I'll post more interesting things I found later, but I thought the signs and stencils were funny.

MLK Linkfest

It was a nice day today and I took a bit of a walk around my neighborhood looking for odd things, I'll get to that in the next post, but I had a few articles I needed to get out so here they are:
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Steve at Urban St. Louis has an amazing set of three aerial photos that show the degradation of MLK(before it was called such) over time due to "urban renewal" among other things. Check it out.
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Matt discusses the coming Metrocalypse during inauguration.
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India is talking high speed rail.
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Cleveland gets 6th annual ridership increase. Things going well.
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Richard Layman reposts a comment he originally left here about the WRI Purple Line study. Apparently the Shell Oil* funded think tank has been working on BRT studies around the world, but has never recommended light or heavy rail.
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An El Paso paper editorial states that a rail line should be on the cities to do list.
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A Dallas Morning News editorial calls for new buses to be CNG. How about more trolleybuses? Figure out a way to integrate the restructuring of the energy grid and the highest ridership routes in order to facilitate the reduction in particulate matter on the corridors and the long term alternative energy strategy. Buses are a 12 year investment, what will happen in 12 years? my guess is a lot.

The Problem Using Auto Taxes to Pay for Transit

The Twin Cities funds transit partially through new car sales. In this recent economy its projected that the overall taxes from this method will be $200 million less than in 2003. The problem here is funding transit through increased auto sales. If more people have cars, how likely is it that they'll need increased transit alternatives? And in an economic downturn, the idea of funding transit through purchases is antithetical due to the greater need for transit during these periods, as evidenced in the last year. Even though transit receives a higher share of the car taxes today, that means a huge deficit for transit which in all likelihood means service cuts. But for capital projects, it means that like every other city, they have to hope for some funding that is likely not coming.

Despite a ridership increase of 6.8 percent for the first 11 months of 2008, the council predicts a budget shortfall of $72 million through the next biennium "just to maintain existing transit service and fund committed service expansions."

To me this is the problem with the stimulus, cities and regions which are the major economic drivers of this nation are getting the shaft when DOTs (aka Highway Departments) want to build new capacity to the outskirts. There's no more room for expansion in cities without tearing out more of the urban fabric. For too long we've funded roads to nowhere and with 50 years of the same policies, we have the problems we are in now. It's not like this is a new theory or something being tested, the new capacity idea has been tested for 50 years! We need to figure out a way to either make highways go through the same process as transit or loosen the strings for transit so lines can be built much easier. This also means more money for transit is needed in the stimulus package. Its time to start catching up.

The Obama Train

President-Elect Obama
Originally uploaded by will.quale

The Dark Side of the Stimulus Package

Here are some bunk stimulus links.

TPM Election Central 1 and 2: Transit Wars

Even the Environmental Defense Fund, considered a relatively centrist player in the phalanx of Washington green groups, had a bone to pick with the transit part of the stimulus plan. Fewer than half of the 50 states have publicly released their priority transportation projects, according to the EDF, making transparency from the nation's governors a crucial missing piece.

Wall Street Journal: Return of the Oberstar

Some members of the House transportation committee objected to the proposed level of investment during a Democratic caucus session Thursday, and several members later spoke out during a committee meeting. Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D., Ore.) suggested the committee draft a letter or resolution to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi objecting to the transport section of the stimulus bill.

Open Left: Oberstar Strikes Back

Basically CBO got numbers from the Bush administration DOT that said it was not possible to spend money on these projects within 90 days, meaning they're not "shovel ready". Oberstar explains that's BS and it's ridiculous to be taking numbers from the Bush folks at DOT that are getting ready to high-tail it out of town.

Grist: Help Me Joe-B1 Kenobi

All this comes just as Barack Obama and "Amtrak" Joe Biden get ready for a railroad trip along said corridor. They'll be traveling from Philadelphia down to Washington, D.C. this weekend on their "Whistle Stop Train Tour." Maybe the trip will give them a few hours to think about transit funding.