The Overhead Wire

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Let Your Elders Sit

A few months ago we linked to Trimettiquet. Tri-Met asked them to stop using their logo, so if someone wants to help them out designing a new one give them a shout. Seems like this transit etiquette thing is taking off and its no different in San Francisco. I've had to make kids get up for elders before. I'm sure I'm not their favorite people now but they should know better. There's a new local resource called Muni Manners as well. I'm often annoyed at those kids that don't get up for elders/pregnant women/folks with disabilities on a full train, I think its great they are doing this and discussing the whole host of things that are polite on transit.

Metrobama

There's chattering on the Metropolitan Policy of Barack Obama. He gave a speech to the US Conference of Mayors and here's what people are saying. I think the best part is a person in the cabinet who would be in charge of metropolitan policy. That's something we really need, considering HUD and DOT don't really talk to each other when they should.

Ezra Klein -

It's worth noting that Obama's promise to fill the coffers of the Federal Highway Fund comes before his promise to build a "a world-class transit system." He does, however, say, "I don’t want to see the fastest train in the world built halfway around the world in Shanghai, I want to see it built right here in the United States of America." I'd sort of like to see that too, so Gobama!

Yglesias -

To seize the possibility of this moment, we need to promote strong cities as the backbone of regional growth. And yet, Washington remains trapped in an earlier era, wedded to an outdated “urban” agenda that focuses exclusively on the problems in our cities, and ignores our growing metro areas; an agenda that confuses anti-poverty policy with a metropolitan strategy, and ends up hurting both.

This is a point that urban policy people have been trying to push into the mainstream for a while. The fact that Obama's saying this means, among other things, that his team is paying attention to the right people. But we have poor people who don't live in cities, and cities are facing issues besides poverty -- among other things, we have the question of how to make it affordable for non-rich people to live in nice urban areas. Other highlights:

Here's obviously this is my favorite part:

It’s time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq and start investing that money in Phoenix, Nashville, Seattle, and metro areas across this country. Let’s invest that money in a world-class transit system. Let’s re-commit federal dollars to strengthen mass transit and reform our tax code to give folks a reason to take the bus instead of driving to work – because investing in mass transit helps make metro areas more livable and can help our regional economies grow.

And while we’re at it, we’ll partner with our mayors to invest in green energy technology and ensure that your buses and buildings are energy efficient. And we’ll also invest in our ports, roads, and high-speed rails – because I don’t want to see the fastest train in the world built halfway around the world in Shanghai, I want to see it built right here in the United States of America.

As many of you know I don't think Maglev is really worth it. You can go almost as fast with HSR which is proven technology. But I like the fighting spirit.

Transportation Corridors

This is what you get when you have a long term plan for developing a corridor and do it right. I was watching some baseball today and the game was in Boston. They showed an aerial photo of the Back Bay and it got me thinking...corridors.

Arlington County Virginia

Wilshire Blvd: Flickr by ATIS 547

Boston Back Bay on the Green Line

Peachtree Street in Atlanta

I know there are more. Anyone have a corridor to share?

Friday, June 20, 2008

Similarities

What do Tiger Woods and the United States have in common? They are playing through the tournament with two stress fractures and a torn ligament. Both are amazing, but need rest and rehabilitation to heal and are not smart for continuing in the current condition. Infrastructure funding is needed and important, let's not wait till our legs break in half.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Desire for City Living Increasing

I'm going to grudgingly quote from an AP article right now, but its a really good one.

On Wednesday, a survey of 900 Coldwell Banker agents showed a remarkable 96 percent said that rising gas prices were a concern to their clients, and 78 percent said higher fuel costs are increasing their desire for city living.
...

"When we decided that we were going to make a move we basically put a dot in the middle of the map where my office is and said, `We are not going to live farther than essentially a 20-minute circle around that,'" Bulkeley said.

Worth the read. H/T Eliza H.

Edmonton Council Ditch Trolleybuses, Are Shortsighted

Stephen Rees has the story. I have to mention how dumb I think this is. At a time when fuel is going through the roof, to get rid of overhead wires that can be used for clean electric propulsion and go with "hybrids" is folly. The thing that really gets me is the claim that in 2010 ETBs will be almost a million dollars a piece. Who got these numbers? It was mentioned on one of my list serves that there is a perfectly good trolleybus for sale out there for $500,000(can't find costs for this particular one, but I'm sure there is a low cost version out there. It's just an electric motor!).

Obviously no one was looking into it. And apparently, the 7 of 13 council members are into spewing more particulates into the air. When are we going to get serious about air quality. I must say I appreciate the Muni lines that have electric wires. When I'm walking on the street, I don't feel like I'm breathing dead dinosaur.

Free Shipping

I was talking with my Grandmother last night about downtown Oakland. It used to be the place to go for shopping and she remembers when there were four large department stores downtown. She also mentioned something else interesting; free delivery. Since most people in the 20s and 30s took public transit shopping, if they bought an item at a department store it was delivered to their home, for free. Sure would make some transit trips easier to make when the complaint is, "I can't take that on the train."