Where the Dem Candidates Stand on Transport

This is the best review so far I've seen of where the democratic candidates stand on transportation issues. It's not completely correct since it says that Richardson introduced light rail in New Mexico even though it was commuter rail. If you scroll down past the CAFE standards info you'll get to the public transit and smart growth section. So go check out the link to Daily Kos.

My favorite quotes from some of the candidates...

Edwards

...will create incentives for states and regions to plan smart growth and transit-oriented development with benchmarks for reductions in vehicle miles traveled.

Richardson

Bike and walking trails. Support metro area governments that create useful, safe bike trail infrastructure and bike parking in appropriate regions of the country. Create tax incentives for companies, universities, and governments to encourage bicycle commuting. Smart growth planning.

Provide state-level planning grants to allow coordination of planning functions and policies encouraging energy and water conservation, transit-oriented development, and other commitments to planning that reduces energy demand.

Obama

Reform Federal Transportation Funding: As president, Barack Obama will re-evaluate the transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account. Obama will build upon his efforts in the Senate to ensure that more Metropolitan Planning Organizations create policies to incentivize greater bicycle and pedestrian usage of roads and sidewalks, and he will also re-commit federal resources to public mass transportation projects across the country. Building more livable and sustainable communities will not only reduce the amount of time individuals spent commuting, but will also have significant benefits to air quality, public health and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Clinton

Link federal public transit funds to local land use policies that encourage residential developments that maximize public transit usage. Over the next 25 years, a large percentage of the buildings we live, work, and shop in will be rebuilt or newly built. This presents a significant opportunity for the federal government to encourage sensible residential and commercial development that are linked to, and encourage, public transit usage. Local areas seeking large federal investments in public transit are already required to have land-use plans and policies that make investing in a high-density transit system worthwhile. Today, these requirements are focused mainly on commercial developments and not enough on residential considerations. Hillary will encourage the sort of dense residential concentrations needed to support public transit systems by better linking public transit funding with residential land-use policies. This will help to discourage sprawl and fight congestion.

They talk a good game. I still wonder who will deliver.

Those Who Do Not Learn From History...

Are Doomed to Repeat It.

Two big elections tomorrow. Charlotte and Seattle. This will determine the future of two regions. If I lived in either region I would vote for the transit.

Charlotte

The city is trying to change its development paradigm. By building an extensive transit network that includes streetcars, light rail, commuter rail and rapid bus, the region will certainly change the way it grows up. It's up to the citizens to decide whether they want to be a regional city or a national metropolitan area. Since the City of Charlotte has the tools to develop the right way around transit, there is no doubt that if the transit tax is retained, the city will continue to change.

Seattle

The Seattle region is a bit different from Charlotte. Chalk full of environmentalists that like to shoot their own feet and the usual car obsessed road warriors, this region just needs to get started. They've been fighting about this transit decision since the 1960s and still haven't gotten what they so desperately need, a core rapid transit system. But if you need proof that this should get done, one only need to look at the same thing being discussed 40 years ago. This is going to keep coming up, it'll also keep costing more. Start already will ya?

Bloomberg and The Carbon Tax

I'm starting to like this guy. He gets it. Obviously its good that he's independently wealthy so he doesn't have to worry about special interests which makes him able to make tough decisions. He recently announced his support for a National Carbon Tax. The only question I have about this tax is who it will benefit. Some folks are going to want it to lower their taxes. Transit providers are going to want a share due to their obvious carbon reduction benefits. And with the highwaymen always want more funding and are possibly looking at a new sources for their addiction. So we'll have to see where the conversation goes before we can get too pumped up about it. But as of now it seems to be going in the right direction.

Why Not Build Both?

The LA Times has an article about planning for the Subway to the Sea. They've decided to not only study a route on Wilshire but on Santa Monica. When you look at the ridership on both lines it seems to make more sense to put it on Wilshire, and the property owners in neighborhoods along the line are stuck in the stone age. But here's a crazy proposition. Why not build both lines!? It seems to me that both routes would be good and will be needed in the future. It's interesting that people look at what ridership is now, because bus ridership doesn't tell you what the rail ridership is going to be, especially with the density and amount of young people in West Hollywood who would probably ride a train but not a bus. Another issue is the distance that people would have to travel from Union Station to get to the Sea if they used the Subway. But it would be shorter for people from the North. So really wouldn't it increase ridership on both if they built both. As Houston showed with its network effect, the sum is greater than the parts.

A Sad Day in the Running Community

I'm sorry to report that US Marathoner Ryan Shay has died. My heart and thoughts go out to Ryan Shay's family. As many of you know before I got into this whole crazy transit thing I was a runner. And many of the folks I raced against are now running towards the ultimate glory of the Olympics. However sometimes sad things happen. It's unfortunate that such a young fit athlete could be struck with a heart attack, but for those who knew Ryan or watched him race, he pushed himself to the limit. I remember sitting in the bleachers watching him run away from the 10,000 field at NCAA's in 2001. No one was ever going to catch him that day as he was on fire, pounding away on the track towards his championship. It is a sad day in the running community and he will be missed.

Live Blogging from Rail~Volution

Here we are in windy and sometimes rainy sometimes sunny Miami for Rail~Volution. We start our panel in about an hour and a half. We're going to talk about visualizations for new transit projects. Also, there will be a discussion on how visualization is going to now be required for large federal projects. Then we'll talk about blogging. Check out Steve's page (Urban Review St. Louis) who is on the panel with me. He's really good about catching folks parking where they aren't supposed to park and talking about urban issues.

Update: 3:10 ET Effie Stallsmith is up from the Federal Transit Administration and Steve is live blogging over at Urban Review St. Louis linked above.

Update: 3:30 ET Effie discusses transportation departments taking their plans and meetings to myspace.

Steve pointed out a youtube about RSS feeds. A lot of folks know how this works so you don't have to watch it, but I thought it was of interested to folks out there who are tired of going to different sites looking for new content. Why not make it come to you?

Flexcar Merges With Zipcar

I think car sharing is important to transit orientation. Because automobiles will always be a useful tool in the transportation toolchest, having available cars for people who need to run an errand or go out of town to an area not served by transit is great. It also cuts down on needed parking spaces and creates an environment for using transit as a main mode of transport. I'm not quite sure what the merger means but other folks have been covering it so I'll let them do the commentary.

Orphan Road
Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space
Portland Transport
Xing Columbus

Rail~Volution, Earthquakes, and Hurricanes

I'm headed to Rail~Volution tomorrow to be on a panel about transit and blogging. Should be a lot of fun except there is a pending storm headed to Miami where the conference is being held. So there should be a lot of rain and perhaps some thunder and lightning which is one thing i miss about Austin. There isn't a lot of thunder in San Francisco but there are earthquakes. In fact there was a 5.6 earthquake tonight that I didn't feel because i was driving home from my Gramma's house. So as my mom always says, move anywhere in the United States, just pick your natural disaster.

TOD Reduces Auto Trips by 50%

This is pretty awesome research via Planetizen. The folks at PB Placemaking and Dr. Robert Cervero have done a study which shows that when built right, TOD does reduce auto trips by 50% compared to suburban development which is the basis for the ITE trip generation tables. Now we need to start calculating the reduction in carbon emissions and we'll be in business.

Developers Looking Down The Rails

An article in the Seattle PI Saturday was about developers and light rail. In some situations they aren't waiting for the line to come to build big projects because the market is already there for compact living. But what is interesting is that most of these guys have been snooping around the future station areas looking for other possibly plays. I'm not going to lie and say that these light rail lines don't help developers, but transit opponents complain that its a handout for developers I have to laugh. Mostly because isn't that what their precious roads are for? So that sprawl developers can build on the periphery? Yes.

But the first real surge in activity would come only after voter approval and could be restrained even then because of the transportation project's long timeline, he said. "I'm not necessarily in a position today to buy land I'm going to sit on for seven to 10 years while some massive public works project validates my assumption."

It just costs too much to buy land and hold it for a decade, until light rail comes along, Shapiro said. "Most people have to see that it's really happening. When the construction starts, then everyone takes it more seriously."

Once a light-rail route and station sites are finalized, Johnson said, property values would "really take off."

Transportation leads to access which leads to development. So the argument that its just for developers is really a non-starter because opponents development of choice is just not the development that is environmentally sustainable. And right now with the awareness of climate change, they are losing the war. Haven't you noticed the noise machine turning its volume up to 11? They are getting scared and like a caged animal are attacking with their backs against the wall. Thats when they are most dangerous. Thats also when they get ridiculous and start proposing toll tunnels under cities and super freeway expansions.

So when we are talking about light rail or streetcars and development, don't let anyone get away with the argument that its just a ploy for developers. There are always going to be good developers and bad ones on both sides of the coin. And yes they make a good amount of money, and they take a sizable amount of risk to make it. But if it is between sprawl and compact transit oriented development, I'm in favor of the access transit provides to build the compact stuff. Just don't forget to lower the parking requirements.

Kansas City's Big LRT Expose

In an attempt to jump start the discussion about where light rail should run after the Mayor declared Clay Chastain's voter approved line dead, the Kansas City Star is running a number of small vignettes in the paper today. It's a pretty good job of covering many of the issues and has a cool map to boot. A good links page is located here. I will make a note that if they want to use streetcars for this plan they should have dedicated lanes. It's fine to use the modern streetcar vehicles, but this is a transit spine not a circulator.

And if you haven't been paying attention to KC since the vote passed last fall, go check out KCLightRail.com.

France's Conservative President on Expansion of Transit

What is wrong with conservatives in the United States? Even French President Sarkozy is getting in on the transit revolution calling for a reduction in transport emissions and . When are the ostriches in this country going to get their heads out of the sand?

Outlining the measures, Sarkozy said he was in favor of a moratorium on all new highways and airports as well as shifting trucks off highways and onto railroads. Road transport accounts for a quarter of French emissions.

Earlier, Jean-Louis Borloo also announced a freeze on the building of new roads and airports while consumers will be steered away from gas-guzzling cars through bonuses and penalties. Sarkozy also wants to extend France's tram and high-speed TGV train network.

Why The Decision in Houston is a Big Deal for Everyone

While the decision to go with Light Rail for 5 corridors caught a lot of people by surprise in Houston, it might have opened up a floodgate for cities to get funding for new transit projects. I can't stress enough how big this network effect is to cities who want to build new rail transit networks. Because the federal funding process is getting tighter, cities that want to build rail networks are going to have to get creative and Denver, Houston, and Salt Lake City have so far done that in their quest for funding.

It's interesting to note that some folks around the country might have been paying attention. Mayor Funkhouser in Kansas City believes that its a regional plan or nothing for his area. Some have thought it was a bit heavy handed of him to declare Clay Chastain's plan dead, but if he's thinking about really getting federal funding for a new transit system, he needs to lead the region towards a solution that will eventually get funding. Through the current rules, it looks like a high ridership starter line that can pass the current administration's cost effectiveness test (which Chastain's plan might not have) is how it should start. The other reason is that you'll need this first line to fund an extended network later.

But because the current rules are geared towards low end BRT projects, (The Orange Line and Euclid BRT projects would have not passed the required Medium cost-effectiveness rating rule the administration wants) Houston's recent deal might breathe new life into the application process for new expansion lines in cities that want to drastically expand their systems. Currently cities like Minneapolis are building a line every 10 years, meaning a simple 6 line network could take 40 more years. A problem might arise however with cities that don't have a starter line so that the rail bias can be attained for ridership measures.

It's been pretty easy to get extensions funded by the FTA in the past and they are generally the best modeled in terms of ridership. But the FTA has been making projects cut down their costs to make the rating. The Central Corridor has had a cap on how much it can cost meaning the locals don't have complete control over some of the decisions including a tunnel under the university because of that cost. This is a project that should have been built about 30 years ago but people are just starting to get it. But Minneapolis has plans for two more lines, the Southwest Corridor and the Northwest Corridor. So if cities are going to get serious about building expansive transit networks, Houston has shown the way to go for the time being. With a new administration who knows what could happen, but if you have to dance with who brung ya, it seems like Houston has opened the door to the ball.

Waiting for Austin...

I'm going to wait to hear more before I make an assessment of the Austin rail announcement that was made this morning. I will say however, that if M1ek is right about just an extension of the streetcar plan on 51st street, I will say NO NO NO and more NO! Do I have to repeat it? NO!

Train Splits

Nick over at 295bus asks, why can't we split trains? Well it seems as if the Sprinter in Oceanside will do it. I've heard a lot of people marvel at how trains split to go in different directions once they get to a certain station, mostly in Europe, but often wondered why we couldn't do that here.

Visualize Sprawl

This is a really cool simulation of uncool sprawl. I suggest a look. HT to Transit Miami.

Tram System Logos

More fun from the Europe Trip. Here are some photos of Transit Authority Logos. I thought it was interesting the other day when ColumbusING and Xing Columbus brought us MOTO. Here are some from Graz, Budapest, Prague, and Vienna.

Graz



Budapest



Budapest Metro



Prague Metro



Vienna

Can Transit Cause a Loss of Morals?

File this under: I'm not making this up.

According to a newspaper article dug up by TwoBells (Joe Lacey) on the SFMuni history list and confirmed by other list members, Cable Cars apparently caused one San Francisco woman to become a nymphomaniac. A few weeks after coming to San Francisco in 1964, she was involved in a terrible Cable Car crash which she claims made her go against her Lutheran morals. This in turn made the cable cars more popular (3rd Article). For the whole story you have to read the articles from the San Francisco Chronicle in their entirety below. It's quite hilarious and shows that you never know what could happen on transit or in the court of law.

Six New Subway Lines to Start Construction By End of Year

Some of you might have thought 'awesome!' when you saw the title but I'm sorry to be a downer because no its not LA or San Francisco but rather Beijing which has the luck. From China View via Live from the Third Rail.

Beijing's urban planning authorities have approved planning permission for six new subway lines on which work is scheduled to begin by the end of the year.

The six new lines - the No. 6, 8 and 9 lines, the second phase of the No. 10 line, and the Yizhuang and Daxing lines, have a total length of 152 kilometers, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning. They will be completed in 2012.

Beijing currently has five subway lines in operation, with a total length of 142 kilometers.

"The city aims to raise the proportion of citizens choosing public transport from the current 30 percent to 45 percent by 2015,and the subway passenger volume will increase to eight million a day from the current 2.2 million," said the commission's Zhou Nansen.

8 million a day is huge. New York City gets about 6.2 million a day. But what is interesting is that they set a goal to reach in terms of percentage of total and figure out what they need to do to reach it. It certainly would be exciting if a major city in the United States was building 6 new lines and LA comes to mind as a city that might want to do that.

LA Rockin The Transit Space Race

After the lift of the consent decree, the LACMTA has been busy planning the next wave of rail lines. Currently under construction are two lines, the Gold Line East Side and the Expo Line Phase 1. But slowly creeping up are the following lines...

The Crenshaw Corridor
Gold Line Foothill Extension
Expo Line Phase 2
Downtown Connector
Subway to the Sea

It's getting busy down there in LA, now if only they could speed it up and build them all at once like Denver, Houston, and Salt Lake City.

Finally a Trips Comparison!

Finally someone points out something I've been thinking for a long time about the hits on the Seattle light rail plan. The anti-transit faction has gotten away with their comparison of all regional trips to a specific corridor(s). This means they are comparing trips you take to get ice cream at 2am to trips taken on the freeway at rush hour. Obviously those 2am trips don't cause congestion, and capacity isn't an issue either. But as Diamajin points out, Mr. Westneat at the Seattle Times gets it too:

Project A, the no-brainer, will carry an additional 110,000 people daily over its 30 miles by the year 2030, according to its planners.

Project B, the wasteful one, will carry an additional 180,000 people per day over its 50 miles by the year 2030.

So ... the boondoggle will transport more people? For the same construction cost?

So it goes in the upside-down world of our transportation debate, circa 2007.

Project A is the widening of the Eastside's Interstate 405. The plan is to spend $10.9 billion (in 2002 dollars) laying four new freeway lanes and a bus rapid-transit route.

When done, the road will be 67 percent wider and carry 110,000 more trips than now. In some parts it will flow more freely. In others — such as the evening rush hour between Bellevue and Renton — it will be as jammed as it is today. (All this is from the state's studies.)

Project B is Sound Transit's light-rail plan. For $10.2 billion (in 2006 dollars), it would extend rail north to Lynnwood, east to Bellevue and south to Tacoma. The whole system, including the line being built now, is projected to carry 300,000 riders daily by 2030.

So the Times does some stuff right with Mr. Westneat, but allows Mr. Niles to parrot one of the anti-transit factions favorite comparisons without proper analysis of his claim. Regional trips to a specific corridor. As has been said before, the Big Dig only takes less than 2% of regional passenger miles. And before the cost escalations the road warriors loved that project. Some still love it and hope to repeat it in Atlanta among other places. But, as we know from the previous comparison: 180,000 > 110,000. But is it just 180,000?

What I would like to see is these 311,000 transit trips plus the calculation of walking trips generated from smarter development, specifically the trips that won't be taken by car. This is what the folks in Portland are referring to as the trip not taken.

In a 1994 travel survey, it was shown that areas with good transit and mixed use development got 9.8 VMT per capita. In outlying areas of the city, that number went up to 21.7 per capita. So if we look at the 7,200 housing units that were built in the vicinity of the streetcar, this means an annual reduction of 31 million VMT! This suggests that people don't have to drive as far (good for carbon reduction) and take trips using other means such as bikes and walking (even better).

So it seems to me that in this instance, if this light rail and streetcar network in Seattle generates smarter growth patterns for the next 1 million people, you can count on significant VMT reduction and more alternative trips. Now compare that to adding another freeway which will just add more VMT due to the extra trips you need to take in a auto-centric environment. I wish someone would discuss these issues rather than taking the bait and talking about that dumb region to corridor comparison.

All Rails in Space City

This afternoon the Metro board finally approved rail on Richmond putting the best line forward they could even if it wasn't the best line (Thanks Afton Oaks!). In a shocker that I don't think anyone expected, they also voted for light rail on all 5 lines! But after reading Christof's blog I was wondering if what he said about funding and the FTA was true? I haven't noticed any change in the funding mechanisms so what is going on down there? Is it possible that because Tom Delay is gone they have better support from their legislators (sans "I don't like rail" Culbertson)?

This was made possible by the other surprise of the day — the Southeast Line on Scott, along with all the other 2012 lines, will be light rail, thanks to new FTA funding rules. Thus, the Southeast Line and University Line will be able to share track on Scott. And that amended idea carried.

Perhaps they have been behind the scenes like Salt Lake City working out a deal with the feds to pay for their lines in bulk since they have a master plan. I think that might be the wave of the future so other cities might want to look close at how to plan a system then get funding for it rather than going line by line. We'll probably hear about it more in the coming days. From the Chronicle:

"We now feel we can pass federal muster (to obtain 50 percent funding) by going to light rail on all five lines at once," board chairman David Wolff said. "We can't help but believe that people will be thrilled by it."

In 2005, residents and elected officials along the planned North, East End, Southeast and Uptown lines were dismayed to learn that Metro analysis showed cost and ridership on them would be too low to justify federal funding for rail.

Check out the link to Christof for a new system map.

The Integration of Transit & Land Use

There is a Salon article that discusses how real this video is. Amazing!

Pay Now or Pay Later

That's what the Seattle PI is saying. And you know what, they are right. Costs and materials are always going to escalate and unless you get started its always going to cost more.

Speaking of the future ...It is coming, regardless of how you vote for this proposition. You could vote no and leave us in the transportation "Groundhog's Day" situation we're in. Or you could vote yes -- and we implore you to -- and free this region from its gridlocked thinking.

Really Freakin Fast

So if you go to Budapest watch out for the killer escalators. They are faster than any others I've ever seen. My mom almost ate it a number of times getting on. They are so fast they get videos on YouTube. AND they have bike races on them!

Utah Nimby's Have a Good Thing

Some just don't get it. They could have the best situation in the world but they wouldn't know it. Transit in Utah has the story.

Vienna's Ringstrasse

In addition to the ring system in Budapest, Vienna has the Ringstrasse. Interestingly enough, there isn’t a single line that completes the loop however many lines come into town and turn around next to the loop leaving the downtown walking city to be accessed only by the Metro system. There are several lines which use the Ringstrasse but all lines link to specific metro stations on the Ringstrasse with the Strassenbahn (Tram) filling in the accessibility gaps between Metro stations and regional rail. The central city is completely walkable, mostly cobbled and in some instances closed off to cars.



What is the history of this tram ring that allows the circulation of this signature street? Initially the ring was the city fortifications. However Franz Joseph, the King of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire decided that it wasn’t needed anymore and wanted to create a signature street. And create a meaningful place he did. The street is very wide and accommodates automobiles, streetcars, as well as a wide tree lined pedestrian and bike space.

The most interesting piece related to transit is not really the loop itself, although its an important part of both Vienna and Budapest transport, but rather the multimodal connections that are made at certain nodes along the Ringstrasse. At one node, there are four tram stops on the surface, a tram turnaround just beneath the surface and a connection to the M2 Metro which follows its own ring around half of the downtown. In the photos below you can kind of see how this works.











In another node, there are loops for trams, buses and the Metro connected by tunnels which allow citizens to not cross the Ringstrasse on the surface. Underneath the surface its like a mini-mall with eateries and the infamous Tabak shops where you can buy cigarettes and your metro pass.

So why do these systems work? Well first off they are the circulators for all modal connections with in the central city. Their operation is dependent on the interface of faster Metro lines and slower tram and bus connections (the photo below is a tram and bus stop). In Vienna specifically the buses sometimes are even using the tram right of way and stops of the trams. They also all connect to the intercity trains on the edges of town allowing anyone living in town to get around effortlessly without a car.




This means that its incredible affordable to live in the old parts of Vienna. I was told that inside the ring is expensive, but just outside of the ring you can get a nice flat for $600 per month. I will warn folks that there are lots of good restaurants there so food could get expensive.

And if you're worried about the environment, there are people there to remind you.

Charlotte Sans Train

I went out on Friday and took some pictures along Charlotte's light rail line. In the neighborhoods along the line, there are many signs in windows displaying "Vote no" on the repeal of the transit tax.













I was however annoyed with the waste of space for the electric substation, basically taking up a prime parcel of property close to the tracks for one use that could have been integrated into a larger development. They might be able to salvage it, but it seems unlikely that they will try. The substation is the brick box in the center of the property below(cut off a bit by blogger). Notice how the other development builds to the line.

Flying Drone & Obama's Enviro Tone

I can't seem to stay put in San Francisco. I feel like the airplane is my second home and my body doesn't know what time it is. Right now I'm in Charlotte so hopefully I'll be able to get some light rail pictures for folks, or at least some good TOD pictures. So I won't be getting to the Ringstrasse today.

There is some news that i'd like to share even if I can't cover it as adequately as i'd like. Obama let loose on his plan to take on climate change. Hill Heat covers it pretty well but here is my favorite part...

Sustainable communities

• Reform federal transportation funding to take into account smart growth considerations
• Require states to plan for energy conservation for the expenditure of federal transportation funds
• Reform the tax code to make benefits for driving and public transit or ridesharing equal

Carless in Seattle also has some of the scoop. I dunno what anyone else thinks, but this seems like a big deal. Here is some of the policy speech he gave.

Streetcars & Philanthropists

Michael Cudahy, a Milwaukie philanthropist, is sick of the leadership there not getting along on transit issues. So what does he do? He proposes his own streetcar line and suggests that developers pay for parts of it. If only developers paid for all of them, then we'd be in business.

Ringing the Hub & Spoke

In all of the cities that I visited this past week, there were at least 3 metro lines each, yet only two of them had distributive ring tram systems that supplement those systems. Budapest and Vienna were very interesting in how their systems worked a bit differently from the typical hub and spoke system found in most cities. They might be interesting case studies to look at when you compare them to cities in the United States thinking about ring systems such as Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta.

Budapest and the Caterpillars

In Budapest, the ring routes do some heavy crosstown lifting, specifically, the 4 and 6 routes which run on one minute headways and carry 10,000 riders per hour per direction during rush hours (I think there might be more). It seemed at times that the Combino Supras had many more people riding them than the subways with multi-car consists.



You'll notice in the map below that the subway system operates in the traditional spoke system but if you look closer at the Pest side of the city (That's East since Buda and Pest were initially different cities) there are yellow tram rings that connect the subway stations. The 1,4,6 and 47,49 routes make crosstown connections easy. We stayed on the 4,6 lines and took them to connect with the Metro on many occasions and were always completely packed into the cars, especially in the evenings and even at 9pm at night when students and young folks were out at night.

The benefit of these rings is that with their one minute headways combined with the subway's 3 minute headways, you can get anywhere in the city faster than in a car.





The benefits of these ring routes are many. They are fast ways to get between metro stations as well as distribute people to the places in between. You'll also notice that they connect to the suburban railways as well (in green). There are also two routes that go north and south on the river connecting the top and bottom of the ring. This is where I saw the most tourists.



The trams were also designed not for commutes but urban transportation. The interiors were chair sparse and able to fit many more people for short trips.





Next i'll talk about Vienna's Ringstrasse and the above and underground tram transfers in the Strassenbahn.

Trains, Planes, and Funiculars

All of my travel with the exception of my cab ride to the airport at 4:30 am on the last day was done by walking, intercity train, riverboat or public transit. I've got about 7 different transit cards and photos from the different systems. Here are some of the transit modes. I apologize for the lighting but I didn't really have a choice in that matter :)

Vienna Metro



Vienna Tram



Vienna Modern Tram



Budapest Metro



Budapest Metro M1



Budapest Tram



Budapest Tram



Budapest Combino Supra



Budapest Funicular - Second Oldest in Europe



Budapest Bus



Budapest Trolleybus



Prague Metro



Prague Tram

Collapse & Civilizations

I don't even know where to begin to talk about my trip. First there are the ring systems of Vienna and Budapest that I want to write about, I've got about 200 pictures to share and as I hopped on BART today to get home from the SF Airport I was more than just a little bit disappointed about transit efforts in the United States. As I get my bearings and overcome some jet lag I'll try to write up some of my experiences. Sitting at a bar with an Austrian named Mike, almost dieing on the faster than American laws would allow escalators on the Budapest Metro, and the legacy of eastern bloc communism in Budapest and Prague.

I would however like to share something I wrote up on the plane ride over to Vienna...

I’m sitting here on a KLM flight to Amsterdam then to Vienna Austria for vacation with my family in Eastern Europe. The seat to my left is empty and the movie Oceans 13 just finished but I noticed something so true. Earlier there was a man sitting next to me from Visalia. It’s a small town in Central California where agriculture is the lifeblood of the community. Earlier I overheard him talking to the man on his left from Stockton, which is quickly becoming a bedroom community for the Bay Area. He asked what he did for a living and the man replied “I’m a developer”.

Now I’m not usually one to listen in but of course being an urban planner I had to hear what was coming next. The man from Visalia was uncomfortable in his seat being about 6’4” or so. Of course these planes are more like cattle cars than luxurious transportation but his knees were sitting in the cracks of the seats in front of us and his elbow was in my ribs. But he continued cheerily talking asking the developer, if there was any more room to build in Stockton because of the disappearance of farmland. The man from Visalia asked, “Why don’t you build up instead of out?” The developer replied, “There is plenty of land left to build on.” Under my breath I said “Yeah right” realizing what kind of developer he was.

The man from Visalia kept going on about resources and conservation and even ended up discussing taking vegetable oil from fast food restaurants for reuse. He then moved on to me asking what I did. I said “I’m an urban planner.” He seemed surprised. “That guy next to me is a developer.” I nodded and said “Yes I heard.” He asked what I did specifically and I told him. He then went on to discuss his former job as a parole officer and the travesty of the red car. “The Mayor was a crook” he said. “Ripping out all those streetcars.” People I talk to always seem launch into the benefits of transit without provocation. I never prodded him or even told him about my thoughts on the subject but he told me about it anyways. He was around for the red car and seemed specifically upset about their demise. “You’d never be able to build it back today” he said. I told him they were trying.

Throughout the flight he kept getting hit in the knees by the lady in front of us who tried to lean her seat back. He had to protest each time which led him to ask to move seats. The flight attendant was more than happy to help him out so he was out of there leaving me and the developer an empty seat between us. As we both put our stuff on the tray table where the man from Visalia was sitting I noticed the book he put down juxtaposed with the one that I put down. His was a hardcover deep crimson red book titled “Empire”. Mine was a softcover book by Jared Diamond called Collapse about the collapse of several civilizations throughout history by climate change among a number of other factors including war and societal suicide (ie: Easter Island). It really stuck in my head the difference between the two sets of warring factions in the sprawl fight. The ones who think there are endless spoils to be had and a never ending supply of resources, and those who are looking to avoid a collapse. I’ve never seen the fight in such black/white or good/evil terms and probably will never again because of course it is never so simple. I’m not a hardcore environmentalist or anything but for a moment there I realized why I do what I do.

Photos From Half Way

Here are some photos from my trip to Eastern Europe. I'll describe more when I have time. I've taken about 200 photos so far so i'll get them up eventually.



Entrance to the oldest subway in mainland Europe.



The interior of the Combino Supra streetcar. Always packed.



The Vienna Metro. Comes every 5 minutes no matter what time of day. Even on Saturday and Sundays!!!



A newer Vienna Tram. Very Cool.

Still going to be slow on the posting. I'll try.

Future Posting Gaps & Budapest

Today I'm leaving for Eastern Europe for a week and a half. Hopefully I'll be able to post but as a precursor I wanted to post a link to 'Dodo' and his review of the tram system over at the European Tribune. There are some great pictures as well.

This summer, Budapest put new trams in service on the world's busiest tram line, trams from the Siemens Combino family that are the world's longest trams for passengers:

For me as a railfan, trams and tramways were too ordinary and everyday sights, and never considered them 'proper' railway. So I was astonished to discover that trams have plenty of afficiados among Western railfans. What's more, it turned out my (former) home city Budapest was an eldorado for them: an extensive network even after four decades of closures, lots of different tram types, lots of older types in regular traffic.

So, I thought trams deserve Train Blogging coverage, and took the occasion of the arrival of the Combinos to remedy my long dismissal by reading up on tramways, and present their development via the trams of Budapest. But when the Combinos had big technical difficulties, I delayed posting. Now I do it with a lager picture selection.

Breaking Development in the Transit Space Race

Something big happened today. The Utah transit authority and the FTA signed an agreement that would allow the federal government to pay for 20% of Salt Lake Cities 5 line rail expansion. I'm not quite sure yet who got the better deal, but I think it was the Utah Transit Authority. According to the Deseret News:

UTA general manager John Inglish said the letter of intent, known as a memorandum of understanding, was an unprecedented agreement between a state agency and the Federal Transit Administration. Normally, transit agencies approach the federal government for funding on projects one-by-one, not as a package deal, he said.

Because the letter of intent applies to all five projects, Inglish said his agency will save what would have been years of waiting through a lengthy federal funding process.

So instead of going through the New Starts process while waiting for the FTA to reject their projects or cause cost inflation and change station locations to fit the ridership model which favors bus projects, they can actually plan to come in under budget and on time and with the projects the voters wanted. The memorandum of understanding states that UTA will fund two light rail lines and a commuter line on it's own while the FTA pays for 80% of two other light rail lines.

Ever since the New Starts program started, the federal share has been dwindling for fixed guideway projects. Starting out on the same footing as highways, federal funding began at 80% of the project cost but has since dwindled to 50% with a 10 year waiting period. While 20% overall might be a little low, the signing of the document today by the UTA has opened up options for cities that want to get into the transit space race. Cities that have been able to raise local money yet have a master plan to build a transit system. This fits into one of the reasons why I started this blog, which is to document the transit space race.

This might be a good model for cities that are just now looking to build light rail networks or who might want to get back into the hunt. Now it should be said that in keeping up with Denver and Portland, Salt Lake City had a referendum to raise their sales tax to fund their rail extensions. I know there have been a few thoughts that this might be happening but UTA was traveling under the radar until this announcement. Other cities might take notice and see this as an opportunity to make a deal with the FTA. Minneapolis is looking to build 3 more LRT lines, Tampa just announced a new rail plan and Birmingham is starting to think about it.

Houston tried to do this a few years ago but the idea got blocked by former Rep Tom Delay and John Culbertson. They asked that the FTA fund the first two rail lines while they built the next two locally. They were asking for 50% of the total and before that they were trying to use the main street line as a match. Because they couldn't get it through though, they had to downgrade some lines to BRT.

As I said before, this is a pretty big deal. It might signal a big change in how transit expansion is going to get funded. Hopefully it moves back up from 20% and perhaps the death of the process that has caused so many problems by taking quick decision making away from local jurisdictions.

South End Moving Up

In Charlotte, TOD has been sprouting like weeds. It must make the faux libertarians mad that their pet cause isn't getting all the money, and doesn't produce the changes that everyone else wants. Today there was an article in the Observer documenting the growth in the south end of Charlotte:

"There has been an increased interest in South End within the last two years," said Tim Manes, planning coordinator with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission. "We are starting to see more projects in the preliminary design stage, rezoning stage and even formal transit-oriented development approval stage.

"Light rail is definitely one of the major draws for new projects, said Ryan Willis, principal for Boxwood, a realty company that represents the new Park Avenue Plaza project and also has a project in the NoDa arts district north of uptown.Park Avenue Plaza, a four-story condominium building under construction on Park Avenue, will have 39 residential units built around a boutique hotel-style atrium.

It also will have four commercial spaces at street level and a parking garage.The developer was initially interested in that site because CATS planned a light rail stop at Park Avenue, though that stop was eventually deleted from plans, Willis said. There's still a stop at Bland Street, though, about 500 feet north of the property, he said.

And I guess its a bit of a competition between two parts of town.

"In the past two years, what I've seen is that the South End is growing faster than the NoDa area," he said. "It's almost like they're competing for the title of the arts area."

Both NoDa and South End have monthly gallery crawls. Other galleries in the South End include the Charlotte Art League, Elder Gallery, Chasen Galleries, and Hidell Brooks Gallery.

Newell doesn't see the comparison between NoDa and South End. Merrifield Partners markets toward engineers, architects and designers who want to live and work in the same area. NoDa tends to draw artists.

"It's a whole different animal than NoDa. It's just a different market. It's different buildings, more amenities, better transit," he said. "A lot of those things contribute to South End."

That's right, better transit and better access means more development and higher land values. I sure wish they would have built a freeway on that rail line. Instead of an 11 story building, we could have 11 one story buildings. Wouldn't that be swell.

How To Hate Light Rail in Houston

Apparently there is a recipe in Houston for anti-rail arguments. Go to any Houston anti-rail site and there is a clearly a template for bashing rail lines. I can see the book now, steps for being against rail in Houston. I noticed some of the many steps in a recent editorial in the Houston Chronicle.

Step 1: Claim the Light Rail Blocks Traffic and Hogs the Road.

Though the light-rail trains don't often sit still to clog streets, the right-of-way hogs do stifle traffic through downtown and Midtown each day. If the leaders of the Metropolitan Transit Authority have their way, Richmond Avenue will also soon be nearly impassable during rush hours.

Remind me again how many people those LRVs carry versus cars? So who should have priority, a train full of people, or a single occupancy vehicle? Increasing the capacity of Main Street seems to be rather beneficial. The line does get 40,000 riders a day.

Step 2: Transit should be a private enterprise, since cars always pay for themselves.

The New York Times, which so often whiffs at attempts to explain Houston to the nation, highlighted the downtown tunnel system recently in a feature story that illustrates how the city works best.

"(The tunnel system) was not centrally planned; it just grew," wrote Houston-based reporter Ralph Blumenthal. "And, befitting Texans' distrust of government, most of it is private."

Rule 3: Cite Joel Kotkin or Wendell Cox or RandalL O'Toole as Experts

Light rail and bike paths are but two examples of the current push to shape Houston in the vision of urban planners and civic leaders who hate Houston's now 171-year tradition of organic growth. A debate on such matters has been carried out in this newspaper since urban expert Joel Kotkin told the Greater Houston Partnership early this summer that Houston's embrace of free-market planning was a great example for other cities.

Outsiders like Kotkin seem to have a pretty good view of Houston's workings these days, perhaps even better than its residents.

It always cracks me up that there is no mention of where these guys come from or their motives, just that they are experts. But most people know who these guys are by now.

Rule 4: Houston's Lack of Planning Make it the Greatest City in the USA

Indeed, like the tunnels, Houston wasn't planned so much as it just grew into the nation's fourth-largest city. Now, many would like to see Houston turn its back on the very strategy — that is, nonstrategy — that made the city great.

Rule 5: The Public Process is Flawed Because We the Minority Aren't Getting Our Way

Alas resistance, as they say, is futile. Metro recently held public hearings that allowed opponents of the Richmond rail route to voice their dissent. But surely all those attending the meeting know any words of discord fell on deaf ears.

Seemingly nothing can be said that will convince Metro's leaders of anything other than the plan they're forcing on Houston. Those who live and operate businesses along Richmond are told to sacrifice for the "greater good."

I believe over 50% voted for the Metro Solutions light rail plan and most people on Richmond want the rail line. The stats that come from Culbertson's head are just that, in his head.

Rule 6: If It Doesn't Serve Suburban Commuters, It Doesn't Serve Anyone Worth Serving

Never mind that the light rail can't get commuters from the suburbs to their jobs. Or that Houston's decentralized population and wide geographic reach vastly reduce the utility of a static mass transit structure.

Of course they are probably fine with the HOV lane road warrior bus system they created. People in Houston working along the major freeways have an option with those HOV lanes built with federal funding. Very few people realize that Houston has already spent at least a billion dollars on those spokes. Yet even with those improvements, there was still a need for a crazy expansion of the Katy Freeway, which no one complains about going over budget.

Rule 7: Call the Rail Line a Name

I know the guy in this article wanted to call the Houston light rail by a name, perhaps danger train or something silly like that, but he had to look credible right?

So take a look at all of these elements of a rail attack piece, does it look like every other attack piece ever done? Of course it does because deep down they just do not like rail and can not just come out and say it. All they have to do is say "I don't like rail". This is not a war of ideas but one of ideology. It's like a virus that has spread from Karl Rove's brain to every aspect of life.

If you have another step, feel free to post it in the comments.

Land Use, Land Use, Land Use

We've known for a while now that it isn't just the transportation that matters, it's also the land use it serves. And new research from Smart Growth America is another rather compelling argument for it. It basically states that compact development is key to reducing auto dependence and the effects of climate change. This report also uses the expertise of Jerry Walters at Fehr & Peers who with his colleagues there has come up with the direct ridership model which does a better job at predicting ridership based on different access to the stations such as bikes, buses, and walking based on the land uses and the surrounding grid. Previous studies referenced in this report state that there is a 35% reduction in driving from compact development.

The 1994 Portland Metro Travel Survey stated that people who live in mixed use communities with good transit take about 9.8 VMT per capita versus 21.7 VMT per capita. That's rather impressive and shows that increases in transportation and land use measures would benefit cities who are looking to reduce VMT. This finding was used to show that the over 7,000 housing units built on the streetcar line downtown in walkable, transit oriented neighborhoods, would reduce VMT by 31 million a year. If we say that a gallon of gas is 20 pounds of carbon, then we would reduce carbon emissions by 24.8 million pounds if fuel economy is 25 mpg which is being really generous.

More transit options, more compact development, reduced VMT.

Play Consumer Consequences

Here is a game put forth by American Public Media. If you don't want to feel bad about your lifestyle, don't take it. I'm pretty sure everyone unless you starve yourselves or live next to work is going to need more than one earth to sustain your lifestyle. Apparently I'm bad because my daily trip to work on the train is long (12 miles each way) even though i drive my car maybe once a week. I can't imagine how many earths someone uses that drives their car from nowheresville to work every day.

And They're Back in the Game

Mr. Setty and Demery have put the PublicTransit.us site back up. Finally we can get our hands on all of those passenger density reports they've done. Check it out as its a good amount of material to take in.

We Need Subways, But How Will We Pay For Them?

Los Angeles
Now here's an idea, lets pay for transit lines like we used to, tie them to real estate. Obviously this isn't a way to pay for the whole line (unless zoning was lifted and there was a development free for all) but it should be considered for partial funding. It's possible that a development fund could be put together to fund stations, or private developers could bid to build high rises with the stations. I'm sure there are a lot of other innovative ways to create a TIF district. Maybe there could be a roof tax for every new unit along the line. Anyone have any innovative ideas for funding transit?

San Francisco
Speaking of subway dreams, Polk Street Blog reminds everyone that there will be a BRT planning session for Van Ness in San Francisco. I'm kind of upset that I'm going to miss it because I would have gone and raised some issues with the BRT scheme. This is one of the lines that I think should be a Subway and for two reasons(they both might fit into the same reason):

A. Van Ness is the main through street to get from 101 South to the Golden Gate Bridge. The street is already crowded and on many days traffic does not move an inch. I'm not asking for a freeway because that would be a dumb idea (one that almost happened). But taking away two lanes on the busiest North-South street in town for buses that will still get caught in cross traffic every block? Could ITS realistically keep up with that? There are 31 crossings from Fort Mason and Market street which is only 2 miles.

B. I want to get to the other side of the city in less than 45 minutes and I don't think that is possible on the surface streets. By other side of the city I mean 3 miles between my house(white dot) and the bar where I watch UT play football(Orange Dot) and my friends Mark and Ade live(Orange Circle). It's like I have to plan a day just to see them without driving my car. Taking the J to the 47/49 is a fun bumpy people watching experience, but I imagine I could cut this trip to 25 minutes with a subway which would make it about the same convenience as my car (more so because I don't have to park).

So zone up Van Ness and do it with TIF districts. Make the Van Ness/Geary/Subway to the Sea a state TIF project to see if it works. If it doesn't work as well as it should, well these are good projects that should be funded anyways, if it does work, it can act as a model for cities around the country who might want to build a subway line or extension.

I've made this map before but just so people can see what I'm talking about check out the map below. The blue line is BART, the Red lines are existing MUNI Metro lines. The red dashed lines are planned rail extensions and the yellow dashed lines are subway projects I wish would happen so I can eat dim sum on Geary or watch the UT games on Union without spending 2 hours on the bus and J.

Ridership on the largest bus lines in SF is in this article.