Did You Know?

Curitiba along with its intense zoning has social service and cultural hubs at its bus transfer stations. The City also has a transfer of development rights program. Read more about this history here. Don't get me started on BRT though...they will be building a metro shortly, apparently with a world bank loan. It should be ready they say by 2009. Translate the article here. Portuguese to English. It's from 2003 and has been around a while, still interesting though even if i can't find any information on it.

Mayor Cassio Taniguchi announced, in the tuesday, that Curitiba will implant a system of light subway in the narrow channels of the axle North-South highway. For the proposal, the passage of the subway will have 19,5 kilometers and will be same praticamento of the current biarticulated buses.

Cargo Trams

They're back. Hardly a new idea, the Cargo Tram was once a mainstay of the railroads and interurbans. Three European cities are up and running with three different types of cargo service and it will be interesting to see if this is possible in the United States. I think though we needed better networks than we have now.

Zurich - Kind of a Good Will Trailer on rails. People drop off disposable items and electronics and it's taken to the recycling center to be disposed of properly. English Translations can be done here.

Amsterdam - City Cargo will use trams and electric vehicles to distribute goods in the city. This is a really promising idea for the United States if we ever rebuild some of our interurban lines. No more big delivery trucks with diesel emissions...

Dresden - Volkswagen built a spur off of the city tram line to transport car parts across the city. The tram line takes 3 trucks off the road per trip. Fascinating Stuff.

A Discussion at Portland Transport about Cargo Trams...and a Swiss Blog is following the trend.

Still No Computer

Still don't have a home computer, its supposed to be coming next week. But it has allowed me to enjoy a bit of San Francisco transit. Last saturday i took a nice little jaunt into the Inner Sunset District from my home in Noe Valley using the J Church to the N Judah connection. There is a little place i recommend called tart to tart with awesome fudge sundaes.

Also, i attended a webinar on google transit. It's a really cool program that i recommend to everyone. Hopefully at some point we can merge it with something like Zillow to see true affordability and the connections to work from home through transit. Keep your fingers crossed.

Federal Gravy Train

It's often the federal government that's giving out money for transportation. Well they aren't really giving it out, we paid them taxes and they give it back to us. In places like the Bay Area we get back less than we pay in. Why is it that regions who pay the most money act as welfare areas to the other parts of the state or country. I certainly don't want my money going to build Don Young's Alaska bridge to no-where. But how much extra money would there be if there was a regional system instead of a state system? It's an interesting question that might get an interesting answer if i had the data.

So yesterday two bay area congressional members, one of them is my Gramma's congresswoman, asked the congressional transportation overlord for more money back. I think its great but I'm wondering what types of projects it would go to. Freeway expansion? I don't care about that since i don't use the freeway often, and if i do, it's on Wednesday night when no one is on it and I still pay the bridge toll, which brings me to my next point...freeway o holics love to say that highways are paid for by user fees. But what about those of us who pay gas taxes but don't drive on the freeway, or drive on the freeway that doesn't get any of that money. I hardly call that a user fee. It sounds like subsidy to me given that none of my gas tax money goes to my street.

I think M1ek touched on this at one point but when are suburbanites gonna realize they are just freeloading off the people who use surface streets? I'm all for tolls and perhaps if people had to pay the true cost of suburbanization, they might realize, well of course we should build more transit and collectively ride it, it would save us a ton of money. I know i know, wishful thinking.

Anyways, perhaps we shouldn't have a federal gravy train at all. Transportation monies should go to regional entities rather than national ones. Then we'll get the money the region needs and it will be spent on regional problems. I dunno. Thoughts?

Border Towns Looking at Light Rail

I was interested to see this article this morning discussing a possible light rail line in the Valley. The Valley is what Texans call the Rio Grande Valley just across the border from Mexico. Now I don't doubt that it will turn into a BRT bonanza after the consultants come in due to cost effectiveness criteria, but hopefully that will change.

Did You Know?

The city of Vancouver has barely a freeway touching its edge. A book i've been reading called Dream City discusses Vancouver's transit and its interesting to see how that city's streetcar lines weren't quite radial. The city grew up with the car, but the car didn't quite have the same pull as in American cities .

A Good Charlotte Kick in the....

The knuckle draggers in Charlotte trying to redo the 1998 referendum should be paying attention to whats said in other cities. Basically they're trying to ruin Charlotte rumors (whether true or false) that they are going to pull business away from Atlanta. Say it enough times and it becomes true, just like Austin being the Live Music Capital of the World. Charlotte's version is that they are going to take Atlanta's biz because they are being progressive about transport, too bad the Reason foundation type folks don't get it.

From the AJC...

Moreover, as Atlanta ignores mass transit planning, it will be outpaced by other urban areas that have the foresight to put a brake on road-driven growth. Charlotte, with its ambitious inter-modal transit planning, stands poised to seize business opportunities from us, its chief rival as the Southeast's principal business and banking center. Even the Denver region, itself no model of sound mass-transit planning, last year demonstrated its commitment to pursue a new path when voters approved a bond issue for an innovative light rail system.

And the Transit Space Race moves along.

Or Regular Property Owner

Apparently they still have to pay taxes.

Houston Metro: Property Owner

I'm not sure what i think of this move by Metro to buy a developer's land then sell back when they are ready. I'm guessing this is to give the developer time to come up with a TOD plan without incurring the costs of holding land year to year. Perhaps the city should have come up with a way to do this without having Metro purchase the land and make it available for all properties that are going to develop TOD. In that sense they would be able to provide more density and community benefits with the money they saved. Heck perhaps this is a way to fund new light rail lines? Buy the land along a corridor and sell it back to pay for the infrastructure. It could work right? It would be a LIF. Land Increment Financing.

TGV Rivals Maglev

The Fench TGV made by Alstom has broken its own record. It almost broke the record held by Maglev technology. So why are we spending tons of money on maglev development went current rail lines could go as fast and perhaps for cheaper.