And So It Begins...

Sound Transit 2.1 is on the ballot in Seattle. Where is the support badge? :) Check out STB for some liveblogging goodness. It looks like we're going to have a fun night in November when these votes take place. We'll be live-blogging results for LA, Seattle, and perhaps San Jose during the election. If there are more, we'll make sure to cover them.

If You Live in DC...

tell Mayor Fenty how you feel about hiring a progressive new transportation director, hopefully someone who doesn't look at level of service like its gods will. Check out Greater Greater Washington for more info and a tool for sending the Mayor your thoughts.

Sugar House Trolley Gets the Nod in Salt Lake

The Sugar House Trolley in Salt Lake will most likely be constructed after receiving a 5-0 vote at council. It's an interesting addition to the TRAX expansion and isn't included in the 70 miles in 7 years Frontlines plan that TRAX is working on.

The cool part will be that it'll be a streetcar in its own ROW with a hike and bike trail along side. Below are pictures of the corridor.


My only question is whether they will allow the streetcars to run on the TRAX ROW towards West Valley or up to downtown Salt Lake. They should be able to operate them that way, but we'll see what happens. If I were a TOD developer, I would hop on that junction where the three lines meet.

In other Salt Lake news, an article in the Tribune has an interesting take on how the government can help the New West prosper. I think the New West is already taking steps to do remarkable things, but the following was interesting.

Brookings suggests that the federal government can help by providing better data and modeling on climate change, water and energy issues. We agree. Increased federal investment in public transportation would help, too. So would a national energy policy that reduces vehicle emissions.

Much like other types of research, the government can help lead the way on sustainability efforts.

DFW Fight Brewing Over Commuter Rail ROW

DART owns the right of way, the T has plans to use it. Looks like a fight is a brewing.

WSJ Article Treasure Trove of Bush Transportation Lunacy

The house has passed a bill to inject $8 billion dollars into the highway fund for projects from the general fund. It passed with a veto proof majority yet the President has threatened to veto it. As people conserve more gas by driving less and driving hybrids, they also cause the transportation fund used to pay for freeways and transit to dwindle.

Let's put aside for a second the fact that congress wants to spend more infrastructure money on roads instead of putting it towards sustainable transportation or alternative energy or railway electrification. The Decider's hooligans made me laugh then shake my head in embarrassment for this country when they made the following statements in the Wall Street Journal:

The White House called the bill "a gimmick and a dangerous precedent that shifts costs from users to taxpayers at large."

Since when did users pay for freeways anyway? I'm lost, isn't the usual argument for taking money from other pots to pay for roads that all taxpayers are users of the system in some form or fashion. But lets not take from taxpayers to help users when we could instead...

The administration has proposed covering the trust fund shortfall by shifting money out of a mass transit account.

Yeah, that's a great idea. In a time of great pressure on transit systems due to high gas prices, let's expand roads using transit funds! That will totally help us cut our dependence on foreign oil and to lower gas prices, lets increase demand for driving! I'm sorry, but what a bunch of *^&@*%$$ morons! Really?! And what's a good transportation article without saying that really tolls aren't taxes and the Republicans don't want to raise taxes:

But the administration and many Republicans oppose tax increases, instead favoring greater tolling and a heavier emphasis on private-sector investment.

Isn't relying on tolling still making people pay more money. Not that I'm against tolling in certain instances, but its still a tax. I wish someone would call them out on that. I wish someone would call them out on all of this.

The Hub of Progress

So my parents got me an awesome book on the History of Houston's street railways. On page 92 there's a flyer that has a picture of a streetcar, a bus and an interurban railcar in the center of a wheel. On the outside ends of the spokes there are pictures of destinations along the line such as shops, suburbs, factories, homes, offices, churches etc. The title of the flyer is "The Hub of Progress"

The text is just as interesting:

The hub around which the wheel of prosperity turns in city life is the transportation system.

Houston has grown very rapidly - to become one of the nation's leading cities, the streetcar, bus, and interurban transportation in a large way made possible the Houston of today.

They help to build new residential sections, they carry customers to the merchant, patrons to the theater and are the means by which the great army of wage earners go to and from their place of employment.

Their value to a city cannot be measured in dollars and cents. (emphasis added)

Perhaps we should remember that. Transit systems are often over analyzed in terms of cost and under analyzed in terms of benefits. We can use streetcars and interurbans to build the cities of tomorrow, while remembering that they built some of the best neighborhoods of today.

Vote for Honolulu Mayor Based on Mode

There are going to be three choices for Mayor in Honolulu, but be careful who you vote for, you could get a transit mode you don't like. The existing mayor has been pushing rail while Council Member Kobayashi is keen on BRT that would operate in its own aerial structure. But wait, if you don't like that choice, you can vote for Dr. Panos Prevedouros who is a traffic engineering professor who thinks HOT lanes are the answer.

While I wonder about building an elevated rail line instead of a subway under major arterials, why do people still think that building a huge structure to carry limited capacity vehicles is still a good idea these days. I don't get it!? What am I missing? Why do people think that more operators is a good idea when labor costs are the largest part of the operating budget and you have a ridiculously dense city with a need for a high capacity transit spine? And for good measure make it diesel or some other fuel that puts carbon in the air next to your outdoor cafe. I'm getting cynical.

Beijing Car Bans Swamp Subway Lines

I can't imagine what would happen to transit systems here if gas were to go to $10 a gallon. In Beijing today, the loop subway line was shut off from entries when it got dangerously full. A reported 1.8 million cars were ordered off the road to cut pollution for the olympics causing people to use the transit alternative.

Listen to a short story from Marketplace on the Olympic Air Cleaning.

Don't Drill, Invest in Community

An op-ed on Huffpost by Geoff Anderson and Shelley Poticha discusses why we should be eschewing drilling and investing in America's future with better transit and communities.

Encouragingly, Congress has begun to hear their constituents' calls for help. The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly for the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act, authorizing $1.7 billion over two years to help transit agencies stave off fare increases and keep pace with ballooning ridership.

But while critically important and timely, this measure is only a minor down-payment on what is required to meet the growing demands on our transportation network. Still needed, urgently, is relief for residents of small cities and rural areas. And longer term, we have to keep pace with demands for public transportation, and give this country a reason to be proud of its high-speed trains, light-rail lines, and both rapid and conventional bus transportation options.

We need to make more of our streets safe and convenient for walking and biking to work, school, shops and public transportation stops. We have to create incentives for developers to invest in our close-in suburbs and urban centers, to meet the huge demand for affordable homes in convenient locations. Americans are not dumb: given the real choice, we would much rather invest in well-located real estate than in gasoline.

I'd like to add that again, we don't need any more carbon in our air or oil dependence.

Historical Seattle Transit Data

I hear there is an upcoming election on a rapid transit network. The Mayor urges the opponents to stop being ridiculous. Hopefully that is a future, but here is a link to Seattle Transit's past. Check out PublicTransit.us' historical light rail data.