Transit Energy Efficiency & Lifecycle Costs

We've seen any number of calculations of energy efficiency and green house gases in transit modes. Some a bit out there because of crazy assumptions for autos. Even our favorite libertarian O'Toole played the game. The problem with all of these is that they don't consider the whole picture, or what happens when buildings are built closer together and transportation makes it easier for people to walk. But I digress.

At Rail~Volution I saw a presentation by Tina Hodges at the FTA that had some cool charts and comparisons of modes. The one I've seen before is the increase in VMT versus what CAFE standards will do. Now we've seen that there is a bit of a drop recently due to the economy but with gas prices as they are and no change in habits, I still believe this will happen.


Then here is the difference between current occupancies vs. all of the vehicles full and over the lifecycle of the vehicle in the second chart. These are based on a UC Berkeley study by Mikhail Chester that considered vehicle construction, guidway construction etc. The list of items lifecycled are at the link. Apparently buses off peak are the worst and peak are the best, even better than rail lines. Yet rail lasts longer and attracts more passengers overall so on average is better. I didn't really have time to read the 332 page tome, but if you're interested go for it.


But the most interesting in the presentation to me was the difference between the Heavy Rail modes. BART is the most efficient while Cleveland is almost as bad as a single occupancy vehicle. The relative inefficiency of the EL was surprising to me as well.

Thought this would be of interest to folks. I have to say again that its necessary to not just measure the lifecycle and modes but rather the land uses and transportation, but its interesting to learn that this work is being done.

Transit Links

There's a good read about how the Fort Worth Streetcar idea came to the forefront of local planning. It's quite extensive, the way only a local weekly could do.
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The first run of the Savannah Streetcar.
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If the auto bailout passes, it looks like there will be help for transit agencies involved in those leaseback deals. While these deals might not have been a great idea, it just shows how underfunded our transit agencies are compared to the road complex.
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Some leaders in Milwaukie, Oregon are a bit skeptical about the MAX line that is proposed to come to town.

Rediculous Costs + Dumb Ideas

If you can't take a 2 of 6 lanes for rail or bus and get to the Oakland Airport just 3.2 miles away for $386 million dollars, there is something seriously wrong. I posted this a month ago, but after seeing this post, it seems as if BART is just not paying attention to what is going on in the world. No wonder people don't trust you to build the extension to San Jose. You're just trying to spend all the money you have when you don't really have to in order to get the job done. What a waste of money. It's not hard guys. Wake up.

Buildings of Yore

I don't know why but there's something just plainly attractive to me about these buildings in Louisville. After seeing them, and the lego buildings over at Greater Greater Washington, it made me wonder why its so hard to build like this anymore. I mean if you can do it with legos... Granted the lego buildings are a little bit over the top, but who could complain about density that looks so clean as that strip in Louisville.

Speaking of Louisville, its an interesting case. It's not a city I hear much about but Broken Sidewalk has brought it to life. The only other contact I've come in with Louisville was when I was looking over thier long range transit plan a few months ago. They have a robust plan, but thats all it is. A plan on a shelf. In fact, they must have taken out the maps that show the transit corridors because I can't find them now. "Waiting until funding is available." Here is another place that needs a bit of a push. If offered funding for a complete system through a better federal match, perhaps that would get the wheels rolling. Some places need a bigger push than others.

Doesn't Seem Like a Problem to Me

From the San Antonio Express News Transport Blog:

President-elect Barack Obama's call for sweeping infrastructure investments to put 2.5 million people to work has experts debating just what and how much government should do.

One problem, for some, is that toll roads and privatization could get left behind.

Oh noes! We wouldn't want that. I mean the whole idea of toll roads and privatization is getting money from the government right?

Lacking a Transit Power Broker

According to Robert Caro, who wrote the epic book about Robert Moses, New York has no lack of people that can throw their weight behind transit. It's just that no one seems to feel it's worth throwing weight behind.

‘Is there power?’ ”Yes, there is, said Robert A. Caro, who called his epic biography of Robert Moses “The Power Broker.” Mr. Ravitch’s challenge, he said, was to persuade gutsy public officials to exercise power on behalf of an agenda that Moses, who championed highways over mass transit, rejected.

“It’s not a lack of power,” Mr. Caro said in an interview. “It’s a lack of vision — of a vast metropolitan area as a single whole and what is necessary to tie that area together in a way that makes every segment of the population one. There are public officials with plenty of power. That power is just never thrown behind mass transit in the way it should be.”

This is a common theme in many cities. The lack of political will for transit. But many cities aren't New York with such a high transit constituency and many in the growth machine that is any city government don't see or don't want to see that it would actually benefit them to grow inward with transit instead of outward with roads. It's been too easy to keep going the way they know, rather than the way they should go.

Metro Madrid Subway Commercial

Why can't we have more commercials about transit like this? I posted this a few years ago after Metro Rider LA found it, but its worth seeing again.

Ricky Williams' Urban Adventure

Apparently good urbanism is important to even sometimes NFL running backs.

via Transit in Utah

Excuses?

I was reading an article about how Muni will have a hiring freeze and perhaps not be able to do the Transit Effectiveness Project. I have to say that isn't a very good excuse. Reworking routes and making them more effective shouldn't cost so much money that the whole idea gets axed in a downturn. NJC has more just about how annoying much of this situation is.

Q3 Transit Ridership Out

Expect to see these articles over the next few days. Below are links to ridership documents that haven't been updated on the APTA site quite yet (They'll be there Monday). 5% growth in transit ridership in Q3 (July to September) which is usually the heaviest ridership quarter of the year. Guess which mode has the highest ridership increase from percentage standpoint again. Light Rail at 10%. I'm not sure how they do the average weekday ridership calculations, but its interesting to see a lot of places in the 70,000 range that don't seem to get there often. Dallas, St. Louis, and Denver. Even Sacramento is close to 60k. Interesting.

Heavy Rail Numbers
Commuter Rail Numbers
Large Agency Bus Numbers
Trolleybus Numbers
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