Streetsblog New York City

We’ve been reporting on the Trinity Toll Road proposal in Dallas, yet another downtown highway with a tremendous cost.

Dallas wants to add another downtown freeway. Jason Roberts says the city will soon have to confront the limits to car-based planning. Photo: Freelancecrunch.com

This Dallas highway proposal could turn out differently than previous ones. There is real opposition at the grassroots level. And even though the majority of local decision makers are supportive, a notable few have vocally joined the opposition.

Still, the endless road widening campaigns and the complete lack of vision are getting to Jason Roberts at Bike Friendly Oak Cliff – and to other people he knows. Roberts says the Big D’s apparent inability face up to its unsustainable development patterns will be its downfall:

What we’re witnessing today is a generational divide where outdated philosophies are represented by a leadership that refuses to acknowledge the obvious fact that their children are all saying, “I’d rather live in Austin/Portland/NY/SF/Chicago than Dallas.” Stubbornly, the parents keep saying, “they’ll come back for the jobs,” without realizing that the jobs are starting to go where the people want to be.

We’re well aware of the $1.4 billion levee toll road, and the Winfrey Point parking debacle at the Dallas Arboretum (both ironic due to their nature vs. machine conflict), but another instance also making the news is the “lack of parking” headlines in the historic (and walkable) Bishop Arts District. Every week we’re seeing one costly issue after another related to our endless pursuit of maintaining unsustainable suburban development patterns, and the solutions are always the same: take more land, and give it to cars. For some reason, the adage “When you’re in a hole, stop digging” has been completely ignored, and I’m beginning to become numb to the monthly, “I’m finally leaving Dallas!” emails that friends keep sending me.

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Pittsburgh faces transit cuts of 35 percent. Image: Port Authority of Allegheny County

The last four years have been rough on American transit riders, as fare increases and route reductions became the norm, even as demand for service increased.

For many cities there’s still no end in sight, as Pittsburgh can attest. The Steel City is facing across-the-board cuts of 35 percent if the state doesn’t step in — and that comes just a year after the Port Authority slashed transit spending 15 percent.

Yonah Freemark at the Transport Politic says Pittsburgh — and other cities around the country — are suffering as a result of systemic problems with the way transit is funded at the local and national level:

The service cuts planned would be, suffice it to say, devastating. As the maps [above] illustrate, the Port Authority’s austerity plans would eliminate almost half of the region’s routes. This is in a city where, according to the U.S. Census, more than 25% of households have no vehicle available and almost 20% of workers use transit to get to work — figures that are far higher than the national average or even that of the vast majority of American center cities.

Pittsburgh, of course, is far from alone. From Boston — where a 23% fare increase and service cuts were approved a month ago — to Athens, Georgia — where night bus service is expected to be fully eliminated — American cities continue to cut their transit offerings. Friday’s U.S. national jobs report, which showed about 20,000 fewer people working in transit operations in April compared to a year ago (a 5% decline), only reinforced the fact that when it comes to transit service, cuts are the rule of the game.

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Within the big pro-transit tent, positions on Buy America policies — which compel agencies to purchase domestically-made materials — vary wildly. But from the perspective of providing more rail service to more people, these restrictions are unequivocally bad news. How bad?

Image: Systemic Failure

Network blog Systemic Failure recently looked at how the Federal Railroad Administration is about to spend a staggering sum to ensure that its new railcars are made with materials sourced from America. Rail in the United States will be worse for it:

The FRA is soliciting bids for a $551 million contract for 130 bi-level railcars. As a condition for the contract, the railcars must be manufactured entirely with American steel and components. If you do the math, that comes to 4.2 million dollars each – double the global market price for a bi-level car.

In other words, the FRA is pissing away a quarter billion dollars. Imagine all the projects that might have been done with $250 million. Imagine all the jobs that might have been created with that money. I’m talking real jobs — not bureaucrats enforcing Made-in-America rules. Jobs like installing new PTC signaling, repairing bridges, or expanding the transit network. You know, things that have tangible benefit to riders.

Sorry, but domestic passenger rail manufacturing is gone. And subsidizing obsolete FRA-compliant rolling stock isn’t the way to revitalize it.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Greater Greater Washington reports on how the suburb of White Flint is making itself more walkable and sustainable. M-bike.org peeks in on Detroiters who are carfree by choice. And The Political Environment shares the disappointing news that US DOT has thrown its support behind the billion-dollar-plus Zoo Interchange in Wisconsin — a boondoggle if there ever was one.

Los Angeles' Gold Line's ridership is still growing, two years after its opening -- blowing a huge hole in new "research" by the Reason Foundation. Photo: Stop and Move

The Reason Foundation’s “research” on high-speed rail is pretty predictable. We know what this oil industry-backed think tank is going to say before they’ve said it: Ridership will be lower than expected; costs will be higher.

What’s more interesting than the conclusions, to us anyway, is the methodological contortion needed to draw them. So with some nose-holding, today we’ll examine Reason’s latest report on LA’s Exposition line.

The group claims the $930 million line will take 60 to 170 years to pay for its construction costs. (Never mind that nobody expects the line to pay for its construction costs, just like nobody expects roads to pay for themselves. Moving on.)

Here’s how the Reason folks reached their specious conclusion: They stood at the station on two of the first several days this rail line was open and counted passengers. Too bad that’s a nonsensical way to judge how many people will be riding the line a year from now, much less 60 years into the future, says James Sinclair at Network blog Stop and Move:

It’s easy to point out that ridership in week 1 of a transit line is meaningless. For example, this excellent ridership chart of the Gold Line in LA [above] shows that after opening an extension (which was almost like a brand new line), after 2 years ridership still has not stabilized and continues to increase as people become aware of the line and have time to adapt their patterns to take advantage of it.

If after 2 years ridership is still growing as people get exposed to the line, how on earth could you make 100+ year claims on 2 days of data on the first week of service? … oh no, I’m doing it. I’ve wasted valuable seconds of my time trying to point out mistakes in the article.

That’s time wasted that would have been just as effectively been spent questioning the “all natural” claims on bottles of soda, or the ludicrous lies sent out by Pizza Hut when they say you can get ANY pizza with ANY crust for $10 (and then charge extra for stuffed crust).

Instead of wasting time on the article, it’s best to simply understand how something so ridiculous can be written. It’s simple. The article is an ad by an oil company, and as such, should be held to the same standard as health claims on bottles of soda and the word “any” in fast food advertisements.

Elsewhere on the Network today: A View From the Cycle Path explains how the Dutch make maintaining safe cycleways a top priority even when roads are under construction. Burning the Midnight Oil reports that plans are moving forward for the Omaha-to-Chicago rail line. And Urban Review STL explains how, after decades of population loss in St. Louis, patterns are shifting.

There’s a new sheriff in Washington, at least when it comes to parking.

Washington, DC has been experimenting with performance parking. Does a new hire mean the city is going to make more sweeping changes? Photo: We Love DC

New DC parking czar Angelo Rao has all the trappings of a real reformer, according to John Hendel at TBD on Foot, and his selection by Mayor Vince Gray could be telling.

For a few years now, Washington has taken some important steps toward a smarter parking system. Among them: a pilot project in performance parking began in 2008 under then-mayor Adrian Fenty, and the City Council voted this week to let the pilot expand citywide. Gray’s recently stated goal of making three out of four trips car-free by 2030 also presumably carries major implications for parking policy.

Rao seems like an apt choice if Gray is serious about parking reform, Hendel reports:

Parking in particular will play a crucial role as D.C. struggles to manage its gridlock and transportation priorities. Mayor Vince Gray identified parking as one of the short-term priorities in his Sustainable D.C. plans, which call for three out of four trips to be car-free within 20 years. Of the two short-term actions the city needs: “Reduce building parking minimums and increase the availability of on-street parking through citywide performance parking districts.”

Luckily Angelo Rao’s sensibilities seem to fit right into the direction that D.C. is heading — although they have apparently provoked controversy in the past.

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To freeway or not to freeway? That’s been the question facing Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.

A freeway revolt in Dallas? A grassroots campaign produced this graphic as part of their push to stop the Trinity Parkway project, a planned downtown highway. Photo: Dallas Morning News Transportation Blog

Where at one time this would have been an open-and-shut case of “just build it,” Dallas’s Trinity Parkway toll road saga is already full of interesting twists and turns. Earlier this week, Rawlings sought public opinion on the project through his Facebook page, drawing far more jeers than cheers. Meanwhile, a petition has been circulating urging the city to call this one off. This has led some observers to wonder whether Dallas was witnessing its first “freeway revolt.”

Yesterday, Rawlings came out in favor of building the highway.

The anti-highway forces aren’t giving up. Helping to lead the charge is Patrick Kennedy, proprietor of Network blog Walkable Dallas-Fort Worth and well-known regional planning pundit. Responding to the mayor’s pro-highway statement, Kennedy posted this open letter to Rawlings:

If growth is what we’re focused on, then that is growth the highway may trigger regionally, i.e. outside of the city of Dallas boundaries. If we’re thinking that could induce investment in South Dallas, what kind of investment might that be? More gas stations and XXX shops, the eventual highest and best use of highway frontage property? South Dallas needs less car dependence and more empowerment via legitimate street networks, transit, and walkable infrastructure. More highway capacity simply adds more drivers and more dependence upon the car. It is South Dallas that will feel that pain the most.

If congestion relief is the goal, then shouldn’t we be tolling existing roads first? Ya know, working demand levers rather than new supply which has been proven over and over again to only be a temporary solution before inducing more traffic?

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If there’s one thing we can say about the way transit riders and cyclists are portrayed on television and in the movies, it’s that there’s definitely room for improvement. Car-free people somehow become either the 40-year-old virgin (Hollywood will never live down that one) or conspicuously absent — erased from consciousness.

As the 40-year-old virgin, Steve Carell played an adult who still behaved like a child in many ways. One of his quirks was his choice of transportation: a bicycle. Image: Entertainment Wallpaper

Adonia Lugo at Network blog Urban Adonia says the media reflects reality — up to a point. Non-automotive transportation is imbued with connotations of class and social standing — and the entertainment industry has not been shy about exploiting them:

Pretty much every time I watch TV or mainstream movies, I notice some scripted jab at people who don’t drive. In The 40 Year Old Virgin, the filmmakers indicate the main character’s incompetence at being an adult, along with his virginity and penchant for collecting toys, through the fact that he rides a bike to get around. Last week I watched an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” where one character tells another that any adult who does not drive must be “retarded.” Jokes built on the subtle or blatant assertion that only driving counts, that people who bike, ride transit, and walk are weirdos, seem to be stock material for writers.

These jokes hinge on the idea that people who can pay to drive everywhere should know better than to choose to associate with the dregs of society outside of cars. To me, this comes across as pretty racist and classist. The continuing contempt for the poor is a huge problem for sustainable transportation because so many Americans think of the stuff we promote as symbolic of poverty and disempowerment. Whether it’s intentional or not, imagining that people can be tainted by the mode of transport they use is pretty dehumanizing. I’ve felt the shame of standing at a bus stop, waiting and waiting, while cars flow past. You’re not supposed to have to wait; you’re an American, the cultural conditioning says in the back of my mind.

Elsewhere on the Network today: The Dallas Morning News Transportation Blog reports that the city’s mayor is trying to make up his mind about the new toll road proposed for downtown — and he’s encountering overwhelming public opposition. Human Transit comments on an all-too-common phenomenon: when tax revenues approved for transit end up elsewhere. And Urban Velo introduces us to a handy new term: bike shop deserts.

A growing number of communities across the country now have complete streets policies — somewhere in the neighborhood of 280, if you want to get specific. But now comes the hard part: implementing those policies on real streets.

The city of Cleveland recently installed a temporary, "pop-up" cycle track. But can the city get used to designing all its streets this way following the passage of a complete streets policy? Photo: Bike Cleveland

Complete streets policies represent a complete 180 from the way transportation planning has been done in 99 percent of communities for the past, oh, six decades. Former New Jersey DOT executive Gary Toth, now of Project for Public Spaces, was in Cleveland last week to help local engineers and construction managers understand exactly what the city’s new complete streets policy means.

Here’s a sampling of Toth’s message, as reported by Mark Lefkowitz of Green City Blue Lake:

The new reality, says Toth, will ask traffic engineers to consider ‘quality of place’ and to remove the blinders on such context sensitive issues as how is land being used.

Cities like Cleveland are discovering that they can create more value in this tumultuous funding landscape, he assured, when items like bike lanes are baked in to the design.

Engineers have a key role to play in leading the charge. Done right, complete streets can be good for cars, too.

“Completing the street does not change travel times,” Toth said, citing data from the addition of a bike lane on Prospect Park in New York City. “They decreased crash rates. Travel time is pretty much the same, but more cyclists are getting more value out of that road.”

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In all the havoc this latest recession has unleashed upon Detroit, a few refrains have been echoed repeatedly: recapture the city’s entrepreneurial spirit, embrace the green economy, and reduce dependency on the auto industry.

Detroit Bikes is helping to keep manufacturing jobs in the Motor City. Photo: Detroit News

There’s no better example of Detroit taking those recommendations to heart than Detroit Bikes. Todd Scott at M-Bike.org has this report:

They are creating simple, low-cost, practical urban bikes that should retail for just under $500. And they expect to be building them in the city of Detroit – up to 100 a day if all goes as planned.

Detroit Bikes is starting to get noticed. The Detroit News and Crain’s Detroit Business both wrote about the new company and its founder, Zak Pashak, an entrepreneur from Calgary. Pashak told the News, “Henry Ford’s goal was to create affordable, reliable transportation. That’s my goal.”

This is really exciting. We’re not sure the last time bicycles were built in earnest within the city of Detroit.

Pashak told Detroit Make it Here that “it’s possible to produce affordable, American-made bikes in volume, especially in Detroit,” due to the city’s low cost.

Little known fact: Henry Ford tinkered with bicycles before getting sidetracked with that whole cars-and-assembly-lines business.

Elsewhere on the Network today: The League of American Bicyclists looks at a study finding that men are overrepresented on local bicycle and pedestrian advisory panels. Streets.mn examines how certain transportation projects can detract from local wealth, despite local leaders’ expectations to the contrary. And Cap’n Transit observes how drivers tend to see their vehicles as extensions of themselves, and how that can have deadly consequences for those without tons of metal protecting them.

It’s been interesting to watch the scrutiny building around how police handle collisions between cyclists and drivers in New York City. It’s become something of a scandal the way devastating or fatal crashes involving cyclists are rarely prosecuted or even investigated.

San Diego Police Lieutenant Rick O'Hanlon says unless a cyclist is killed in a collision, the department will not pursue criminal charges. Photo: BikeSD

Sadly, New York is certainly not alone in this respect. Today we have a case study out of San Diego.

Sam Ollinger at Network blog Bike San Diego recently followed up with her local police department on the results of five crashes where cyclists were killed or injured. What she found was very similar to what’s happening in New York.

Rick O’Hanlon, San Diego’s lieutenant of Traffic Division, told Ollinger that unless a cyclist dies, charges won’t rise beyond a traffic violation. And even in cases when a cyclist is killed, criminal charges are no sure thing:

No charges have been filed against the driver who struck the little ten-year-old girl who was injured while riding with her father. No charges were filed because the little girl survived.

Since [Grant] Fisher survived, no charges have been filed. The SDPD has asked the DMV to reexamine the driver’s license [of the 76-year-old who was responsible]. Fisher, in the meantime, has filed a civil suit against the driver that is currently ongoing.

When asked for specific details on the [fatal] [Charles] Gilbreth case and details about the collision. O’Hanlon stated that speed, alcohol, road rage nor the sun’s glare (as was the reason stated in the Ortiz case) were not factors in the Gilbreth crash. He said that investigation was still ongoing as results from the medical examiner and the toxicologist could take anywhere from 6-8 weeks to wrap up. There were no witnesses in this crash as the MTS driver didn’t witness the crash.

O’Hanlon responded, “to be charged with a crime, there has to be a death.” Thus, the only recourse for the party injured is to pursue the case in Civil Court for damages. In order for a case to go to the District Attorney’s office the case has to be a felony – and the criteria for a felony includes intent, malice, gross negligence or substance abuse. But in a case that is not a manslaughter, “the law is very restrictive. We don’t have a misdemeanor.” Intentional road rage acts have “malice and premeditation and you have assault with a deadly weapon.” Absent that, “you have a vehicle code violation.”

I imagine those tickets will be little consolation to individuals who have been badly injured, perhaps permanently. Hopefully, the campaign around this issue in New York will result in a more fair system for cyclists — one that can be replicated in San Diego and elsewhere around the nation.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Urban Milwaukee looks at the auto industry’s (successful) attempts to link driving with the hallowed concept of freedom. And Systemic Failure shares a picture that perfectly captures the absurdity of American car culture: an SUV with a built-in stationary bicycle!