Friday, July 17, 2009

Some Notes

USA Today has an article about intensifying suburbs in the Hong Kong style. Interesting they mention the tall buildings but not the massive transit infrastructure needed to move these people to where they want to go.
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Jarrett at Human transit was wondering early on what would get comments and a discussion going. I don't think he has to look anymore. In fact he's even got the ears of major newspaper reporters. Now if only they actually understood what he was saying or if newspaper reporters actually gave the public credit for knowing more than they do. This Dallas Morning News post is exactly why print media is dying. Calling your readers stupid works every time.
Further, would the public understand the dual systems? Is there a city today that has a combination of light rail and streetcars in a downtown area where there is demonstrated demand for both?
I'm tired of Texas (or from any state) transportation reporters who don't know transportation.
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The Evergreen Line gone?
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Swimo pops its head out of the water again. It's like a cute little penguin, an electric penguin that runs on rails without wires. When we all have Zed PMs we'll be golden.
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Fort Worth is hoping for Streetcars sooner than planned.

4 comments:

AJ said...

Like Cox and O'Toole, Jarrett and other bloggers seem to be hung up on minute notions of mobility and threadbare assertions that "the demand was already there, zoning is all you need".

It's the reason that Smart Growth is being attacked lately, so many proponents are demanding we remake the suburbs and expect the downtown core to magically reappear. You can't invest higher capital in the core, all rail systems must head out into the suburbs, you're delusional if you think a system specific to the core is worth the investment, zoning is a magical implement that makes buildings appear, Portland sucks, etc..

Like the lie one blogger uses that says that Portland didn't consider streetcars until well after they had several lines open, even though Streetcars have been on the drawing board before the first expansion in Portland even began to chug through Goose Hollow.

Anonymous said...

No mention of Sound Transit Link opening up its line tomorrow?

Matt Fisher said...

None? Quoting Inspector Gadget, "Wowsers!"

Adirondacker12800 said...

Further, would the public understand the dual systems?

Off the top of my head - they understand it in Boston, they understand it in Newark NJ, they understand it in Philadelphia, they understand it in Toronto...