Denial Isn't Just a River in Africa

They lost by 70% of the vote, yet they still have a bit of internal transit conflict. Council members in Huntersville had this to say about the commuter rail line. From the Charlotte Observer:

Jeter and Lucas said they're willing to discuss options with CATS because they're not against the train, just the funding plan.

Swain said those on her board opposed to TIF financing are "wrestling with their ideological philosophies and the mandate of the people."

Two weeks ago voters approved keeping a Mecklenburg County half-cent sales tax that funds transit projects, such as the train.

Jeter said the 70 percent support of voters for maintaining the tax wasn't a "mandate from the Huntersville residents that they want commuter rail in Huntersville."

He said the train is part of the town's future transportation solution, but that roads should come first. The town doesn't spend any of its money on road building, but it should, he said.

How soon is the future? Most have said its now. The transit opponents all said "This is a referendum on the trains". How quickly things change. My feeling is that, if they don't want it, start on the downtown streetcar. The black community in Charlotte who rallied for the transit tax and were promised a sped up streetcar construction timeline will be more willing to build now than these folks.

Second Avenue Gets FFGA from FTA

They've been waiting a while for this $1.3 Billion cash infusion from the FTA. Seems as though they might finally get what they've been seeking all these years. Check out Second Avenue Sagas, a great blog about New York Transit in general and their discussion about this.

RSS Feeds and Information Sharing

Much of the information I use for this blog comes from Google Alerts or RSS feeds. However there are a number of sites that still don't have feeds. In order to give some encouragement to these folks, I'd like to list them in no particular order to introduce people but also in hopes that they'll slide into the information age.

Update: There is an RSS Feed here for Progressive Railroading.
Update 2: Railway Technology has a feed here.

Progressive Railroading - News compilation organization.
Railway Age - More railroads than transit but it would be nice to get feeds on articles that are in the most recent edition
Light Rail Now! - I know a lot of folks get info from Lyndon and Dave. I've pestered them about feeds a few times as have others.
APTA Heritage Trolley - Updates news about streetcars and heritage streetcars around the country.
CFTE - Election central for transit ballot measures
Citizens for Modern Transit St. Louis - Tom Shrout and Co are doing a great job in STL.
CfPT Atlanta - Folks doing good work in Atlanta
FTA - A feed needed please
Journal of Transport and Land Use - Not publishing yet, but when they do...
LRTA - International Light Rail News
Railway Technology - Updates from around the world.

And many more. If anyone wants to send any of these folks in email asking them nicely to get an rss feed that would be awesome. I've already emailed a few with mixed results. Also, if anyone has any other sites to add let me know.

Creating Demand for Office TOD

Recently Microsoft has started its own bus service to its campus in Redmond. Google and other companies have these bus services and I've discussed before why they annoyed me. But there might be a small consolation bonus in this that wasn't previously realized. Because of companies such as Google, office space is at a premium making it possible to build more office space near transit stops. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal:

Demand for quality space in Google-land is strong, and market rental rates now justify the costs of redeveloping obsolete industrial structures into higher-density modern offices, observes veteran Silicon Valley commercial broker Gregory M. Davies at CPS/Corfac Intl. in Santa Clara.

Planned commercial projects are taking advantage of the neighborhood's attractive transit service, including not only the VTA light-rail system but also Caltrain's Baby Bullet express service whizzing commuters from San Francisco in well under an hour, Davies adds.

This also brings up another point about San Jose. The office park sprawl there with all the tech companies is probably the worst I've ever seen. I don't get why our buddy Randal O'Toole calls San Jose a failure in Smart Growth when there is none. The land use around light rail is the worst in the country and never focused. Just junk buildings that should be destroyed and reoriented towards the streets and given a grid.

Check out the aerial below to see what it looks like. Tons of parking spaces and wasted land. Its amazing this system gets over 30,000 riders a day. The green and blue lines are the San Jose Light Rail. Looks like its going through a bunch of industrial warehouses, but they are just single use offices.

So What Pencils?

In every city in America right now there is a fight between a community and a developer. It's happening in Austin as M1ek and AC are discussing at the moment. In this instance the community is asking for something that the developer could, but does not want to give because really why should they? The rules were laid down and the developer followed them.

So when cities come up with extensive plans for the area around a light rail station that won't be there for a few years, what is a developer or city to do? The City of Aurora south of Denver is in that predicament right now. So what are citizens who want good development to do?

One way to go is to bank the land and do something that can be easily be turned when the market changes or when the rail line extension comes. Community land trusts and affordable housing funds could possibly do this or the city could buy it to hold although thats almost like the third way below. Another is to let them develop the junk they were going to, which in the case of Aurora, like Austin, is the much hated Wal-Mart. A third and sometimes unpopular way to go is to provide incentives to make the development pencil. This is what Aurora is thinking about as well.

Bob Watkins, Aurora's director of planning, said Aurora hopes the vacant plot will be developed into "a special place that would be unique and help establish an identity for the city."

The city is currently trying to develop an incentive package for the project.

"It probably is going to require some kind of incentive package ... I think the time is right. We have things happening with FasTracks, with RTD, everything that's going on," Hogan said.

RTD plans to extend light rail from the Nine Mile Station at Parker Road along I-225 and then swing away from the highway with a station planned at the location.

A big problem is figuring out where that is going to be since engineering on LRT projects and other improvements might take years. This is where developers can take issues into their own hands if they decide to help build these transit lines. Perhaps we'll start seeing more of that soon. So when a piece of land is scoped for future development, better make sure that everything people want is in order (coding, zoning, plans, affordable housing, etc) so you don't get unlucky and stuck with Wal-Mart or providing incentives.

Update: Here is a map of the area. The line will take an angle and go right.
Update 2: Had the wrong line. Better picture below.

Electric Transit Anyone?

Money is going to our buddies in Venezuela, Russia and Iran because of our addiction. Is anyone going to stand up now for good electric transit, solar panels, wave power and so on? Well, maybe next year.

In the United States, the rising bill for imported petroleum lowers already anemic consumer savings rates, adds to inflation, worsens the trade deficit, undermines the dollar and makes it more difficult for the Federal Reserve to balance its competing goals of fighting inflation and sustaining growth.

I've always wondered what would happen if the road builders just retooled for trolley buses and light rail and the car companies started pumping out streetcars. I know that would never happen but it would be interesting. Perhaps alternative energy competitions and innovations are in order.

Sausalito Streetcar?

Update: Another article discusses 5 possible future lines. 295bus covers this as well.

Two architects in Sausalito are proposing a streetcar system to Mill Valley. According to the Marin Independent Journal:

They also have gotten the attention of elected leaders in Southern Marin, who say the trolley plan could work. Money, of course, will largely determine whether the trolley system ever becomes reality. Rex and Nichol envision a trolley that would run on tracks built into existing roads and flow with traffic. They would be powered by a single overhead electric wire.

They figure it would cost $20 million to $50 million to get a demonstration line up and running from the Depot in Mill Valley to ferry terminal in Sausalito in five years. Trolleys would stop every quarter or half mile along Miller Avenue and then Bridgeway. Trolleys eventually could serve Novato, San Rafael, Fairfax, San Anselmo, Ross and Tiburon.

I've created a map of the route. In terms of TOD and Redevelopment, it doesn't seem like a bad one. The only problem I see is that this is a heavily traveled route by car with sections prone to auto backups. Since this is a main route, it doesn't seem wise to be in the street. There is however sufficient space in the median in many places. It also allows people who live in Mill Valley and Sausalito to get to the ferry to San Francisco fairly easily without a car and is actually close to most of the developed area. Take a look below.

Updating the Transit Space Race

After last week there have been a few changes to the Transit Space Race. Unfortunately for the moment Seattle has dropped down to TSR hopeful while I've added Los Angeles to the Space Race because there is so much going on. To see what is going on lets take a look at the stats and go through the list.

In the Space Race...

Wednesday Update: Updates below are in bold... Legacy Post to come soon...

Charlotte - 1 LRT Line Under Construction, 2 LRT Planned, 2 Streetcar Lines, 1 Commuter Rail Line

Dallas/Fort Worth - 2 LRT Lines, 1 Commuter Rail Line, 1 Streetcar Line, 2 LRT Lines Planned, 1 Commuter Rail line planned - More regional commuter rail discussions.

Denver - 2 LRT Lines, 2 Planned, 4 Commuter Rail Lines Planned, Streetcar discussions

Houston - 1 LRT Lines, 5 Planned, Commuter Rail discussions

Los Angeles - 1 Heavy Rail Line, 3 LRT Lines, 2 LRT Under Construction, 2 LRT Planned, 1 Heavy Rail Line Planned, 1 BRT Line, 7 Commuter Rail lines, Other Corridor Discussions

Phoenix - 1 LRT Line Under Construction, 4 Corridors Planned, Commuter rail discussion

Portland - 3 LRT Lines, 1 Streetcar Line, 1 Light Rail Line Under Construction, 1 Commuter Rail Line Under Construction, 1 Light Rail Line Planned, Streetcar Loop Planned, Streetcar Network Discussion

Salt Lake City - 2 LRT Lines, 1 Commuter Rail Line Under Construction, 4 Light Rail Lines Planned, 1 Commuter Rail Line Planned, Planned Streetcar

St. Louis - 2 LRT Lines, 2 Corridors Under Planning, Planned Streetcar

Minneapolis - 1 LRT Line, 1 Commuter Rail Line Under Construction, 3 Planned LRT Lines, Planned Streetcar System, Planned Commute Rail Lines

Transit Space Race Hopefuls...

Kansas City - Light Rail Discussion

Norfolk - 1 LRT Under Construction, Planned Network

Sacramento - 3 LRT Lines, 2 Light Rail Lines Planned, 1 Streetcar Line Planned

Seattle - 2 Streetcar Lines, 2 Commuter Rail Lines, 1 LRT Line Under Construction, Extension Planned, Commuter Rail Discussions, LRT Extension Discussions

Tampa - Regional Network discussion

Atlanta - Heavy Rail Lines, 2 Planned Streetcars, Commuter Rail Line Discussions

Eugene - 1 BRT Line, 2 Planned

San Diego - 3 Light Rail lines, 1 commuter rail line, 1 LRT line planned, Streetcar planned, BRT discussions.

Transit Space Race Hopeless...

Columbus - Streetcar Plans
Cincinnati - Streetcar Plans
Austin - Commuter Rail Under Construction, Fixed Guideway Discussions
Madison - Commuter Rail/BRT Discussions
Milwaukee - Commuter Rail/Streetcar Discussions
Orlando- Planned Commuter Rail/Network Discussions
Las Vegas - Monorail/Bus Rapid Transit
Albuquerque - Commuter Rail line, Planned Streetcar Line
Raleigh Durham - Fixed Guideway Discussion

Double Speak Means 'I Don't Like Transit'

The newly elected council of Huntersville North of Charlotte wants to toss a stick in the spokes of the North Corridor commuter rail. They're worried about the financing of the project which will come from a number of different sources. From the Charlotte Observer:

The current financing plan for the commuter line calls for CATS to pay for 34 percent of the construction cost with the state paying for 25 percent. Just under 10 percent is already allocated for the Gateway Station project, which would be the line's signature station uptown and will be the city's Amtrak station.

The balance -- $70 million -- would come from the municipalities.

CATS wants to build the line now so it can help shape development along the train stations. It wants to create high-density housing, along with retail, near the stops. It then wants to use a portion of the property taxes generated from the high-density development to help pay for construction, called tax-increment financing.

What is interesting about this is that the anti-transit(ATs) are always asking transit to pay for itself. So when officials get innovative in their financing plan to actually have transit pay for at least a part of itself, the ATs see a threat. They don't want the train at all. The argument, 'transit should pay for itself' is actually code for 'I don't like transit'.

Given that the city's part of the funding will come from new development like it did when streetcar lines were building Boston and other cities many years ago, its a surprise to me that this set of folks, who love free markets, would be against it. So the balance of $70 million would be funded through new dense development which will drive ridership AND pay some of the construction cost. Less cars on the road at rush hour and the ability to put the density away from existing neighborhoods? Sign an AT up for opposition!

I understand the worries about the market at the moment, but these things go in cycles and certain markets take off when others tank. Mixed use doesn't need to be vertical and most of the development will need to happen in phases. But they'll never get the densities around transit if they don't build the line. Meaning more people on the road and more junk multi-family apartment complexes in random places. But ATs like that kinda stuff. It's the American Dream, right?

Team Player of the Year

File Under Running.

Reed Connor of the Woodlands High (My high school's arch-rival) in Texas won my respect this weekend. He was in 5th place going into the last 100 meters at the Texas State Cross Country Meet for big schools when he collapsed from dehydration. He got up and wobbled the final 25 meters and finished 5th on his team to beat Southlake Carroll by 6 points. This is one of the gutsiest moves I've ever seen. He was later taken to the hospital and given 4 liters of fluid by IV and is in good condition.

If you want to see the video of this amazing feat, check out FloTrack and watch the 5A boys finish.

What is also amazing is that since 1981, Kingwood (my high school) and the Woodlands have won the State XC meet 22 out of the last 25 years. That's a pretty good dynasty for both teams.

I also want to give a shout out to the Lady Mustangs at Kingwood High for winning their 7th State Championship.