Charlotte Ridership

Ridership down about 500, but still past initial projections.

However, average weekday ridership on CATS’ light-rail system fell 3.2 percent last month to 16,357 from 16,895 in July.

Toronto's Rapid Transit Plan

Steve Munro as usual has the plan. Again, as I said before, they are spending more money on transit in this one city than we do through the federal new starts program. Priorities?

Some Things Never Change...

San Francisco's Prop 1 back in the day. The Subway under Market happened eventually, but sure cost a lot more. It certainly was worth it.



Now Prop 5 from the time sounds awfully familiar as well. Ripping out all those tracks sure did help traffic in San Francisco.

H/T AD

A Commercial I Enjoy. In The Sun...

The subway steps they are walking up are right in front of my office. They were filming one day and I didn't know what it was for. Now I know, and I like the result. More biking = healthier lifestyle.

An Increase in Trips, But Leveling the Auto Volume

I agree with Stephen on this one. It's silly for Canadian liberals to say that if we encourage transit, it allows us to increase the traffic volume. I do believe that we can increase trips by building transit and livable communities. We can do more with less space. There's also no more room for expanding roads, so we need to increase the capacity of the surface roads we have, the easiest way being with transit.

Related Comedy

GEORGE: Ladies and gentlemen, this (Opens the door, Steven is standing there) is Steven Koren. His G.P.A. is a solid 2.0! Right in that meaty part of the curve - not showing off, not falling behind.

WYCK: George, the quailifications for this scholarship were suppose to be… largely academic.

GEORGE: I'm sure we're all aware of the flaws and biases of standardized tests.

WYCK: These aren't standardized tests - these are his grades.

GEORGE: Besides, Steven Koren has the highest of aspirations. He wants to be (pauses for effect) an architect.

WYCK: Is that right?

STEVEN: Actually, maybe I could set my sights a little bit higher.

GEORGE: (Laughs) Steven, nothing is higher than an architect.

STEVEN: I think I'd really like to be a city planner. (Sits down, addressing the entire foundation board) Why limit myself to just one building, when I can design a whole city?

The Next Times Someone Complains About Cost of a Needed Project

Give them this anecdote. From Market Street Railway:

A subway under Geary downtown and through the Western Addition, surfacing at Steiner Street, was proposed as early as 1936. It would have used conventional streetcars, and, had it been built -- at a then-projected cost of $13 million -- it might have forestalled the automobile expressway.

How much would a similar subway cost today? In the billions of dollars. It's needed but expensive. If we don't do it sooner, it will have to be done later, and at an even greater expense. Such is the cost of waiting. If we had done it before, the tunnel would be there for good and we wouldn't have to lay down billions.

I also suggest reading Transbay Blog's excellent write up.

$200 Billion Dollars

What is the amount of money China spent on rail infrastructure Alex. Not just that, but in a 4 year period!!!!!!

Honda Shipping 81% Rail

Interesting. Why don't more car companies ship this high a percentage by rail?

Product Distribution

* An industry-high 81% of automobile were shipped by rail, the most fuel-efficient means of product transportation.

* CO2 emissions from automobile transport were reduced by 5,493 metric tons though the use of more fuel-efficient Auto-Max rail cars.

Adamantium for Hawaii Rail Composition!

Mayor Mufi won the majority of votes in his re-election bid but not enough to dispatch both of his opponents in the Honolulu mayoral primary. His 49% haul beat out both crazed highwayman Panos Prevedoros and current council member Anne Kobayashi who together rang up 48% of the vote. Close for sure but the totals were reflective of a mayoral race and not November's presidential election which will bring out the city's residents to vote in droves. Out of 900,000 people, only about 150,000 or ~16% came out to vote. In the 2000 election, Hawaii had about a 41% turnout rate however with a native son in Barack Obama running it is likely to be much much more.

Mayor Mufi now faces Kobayashi in the November election and it has been billed as a Rail vs. BRT showdown. On the ballot is a yes or no question of whether to go with steel wheels on steel rail. It's possibly the silliest transit question on any ballot ever, but its there and people are going to vote. A more pressing question in a city denser than most others in the United States should have a rail system, however the technology for the rail should be a bigger question. An automated guideway like Skytrain in Vancouver which is under discussion or a typical metro or light rail system that could be operated using interchangable parts that are not proprietary. I'd personally like to see more of that discussion.

The fact of the matter is that with a higher turnout it is likely that Mufi will win and the rail will pass. The reason being that most people support the rail transit solution and a defeat will only come when numbers are diluted or rail backers do something stupid, which isn't out of the realm of possibility. The next vote however will be on whether they should go with adamantium or steel for the rails themselves. After that, the voters will decide on whether the computer chips in the trains will be Intel, AMD or an abacus.