The Long, Ugly Road to a Federal Transportation Plan
Come September 30, Congress has to have a plan in hand to fund the nation's trains, buses, bikes, bridges and roads -- or pass an extension of the 2005 federal bill, locking in the same spending patterns that have nurtured Americans' addiction to the automobile. But the odds are that you haven't heard much about how the process works. What has to happen in order for Congress to meet that September deadline? Let's break it down a bit.
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gecko
#14 Mark Walker, "Aramis project in Paris"
This is "Aramis project" just a small blip in the large personal rapid transit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit article and there is no reason to believe that the Heathrow Project scheduled to open in 2010 will fail. There are a lot of reasons why projects fail. Regarding the Aramis' Control issues with software, etc. does not make a lot of sense for failure. Again, the largest industries in the world have a huge stake in transportation: Insurance, banking and finance, oil, auto, steel, electronics, etc., and the personal rapid transit small-vehicle concept is quite simple and quite straight-forward.
The MTA blasts through something like 9 billion dollars a year. Those trains you love so well are designed to go 100 miles per hour where average transit speeds of about 12 miles per hour are considered quite usual and acceptable. Each subway car weighs about 35 tons carrying a maximum of 188 people and maybe moves 20 tons of people and this stuff is way over-engineered to do what it has to do. With a bicycle-type vehicle weight of 25 pounds, the total vehicle weight to move 188 people is about 4,700 pounds or a little more than two tons.
Also, living in your little apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan you probably only have to walk a couple of blocks to get to those trains. And, if they fail you can take a bus, a taxi, or in many instances walk; and your train rides are probably mostly one-half hour or less. Most people in the five boroughs do not have the density of services, jobs etc. that Manhattanites have and you are speaking from a rather "elite" position.
And, you've admitted on Streetsblog that you hate buses and that a bus ride of an hour or more on a bus is awful.
Let us spend 9 billion dollars a year on small vehicle transit and see what happens.
Here is another excerpt from that wikipedia article on personal rapid transit which indicates the effect of special interest groups on global transportation:
"On March 23, 1973, U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) administrator Frank Herringer testified before Congress: "A DOT program leading to the development of a short, one-half to one-second headway, high-capacity PRT (HCPRT) system will be initiated in fiscal year 1974."[27] However, this HCPRT program was diverted into a modest technology program.[citation needed] According to PRT supporter J. Edward Anderson, this was "because of heavy lobbying from interests fearful of becoming irrelevant if a genuine PRT program became visible". From that time forward people interested in HCPRT were unable to obtain UMTA research funding.[28]"
Again, let us spend 9 billion dollars a year on small vehicle transit and see what happens.
in response to High Hopes -- And Higher Standards -- for Bloomberg 3.0
Douglas Willinger
"A quarter-billion to widen a single road, in a place served by transit, in the twilight of the automobile era. Wow."
Reminds me of stuff as this:
http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2009/04/doctrinaire-anti-new-highways-position.html
in response to $266 Million to Widen the Deegan. Crumbs for a More Livable Bronx River.
mfs
Kind of a creepy article title, no?
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Kids on Bikes
Jason A
The state is broke, it can't even repair the roads/bridges we have now, and we're *expanding* capacity to dump more cars into the densest, most transit-friendly city in the country?
in response to $266 Million to Widen the Deegan. Crumbs for a More Livable Bronx River.
Peter Smith
i, for one, am ecstatic that someone is apparently pushing for real bicycle infrastructure along a BRT route. miracle. let's do it!
same holds true for any LRT route -- we have to increase the capacity of our transit corridors, which means we have to get rid of the least efficient modes of transportation (private automobiles) in favor of the more efficient ones (walking and biking).
in response to World-Class Avenues for the East Side: What Great BRT Looks Like
Mark Walker
Gecko, not sure what you mean by a "serious development effort." The Wiki entry you cited earlier mentions the Aramis project in Paris, which consumed 500 million francs between 1967 and 1987. Despite all that time and money, "The project ultimately failed." Since the Wiki entry seems to have been written primarily by PRT enthusiasts, this is quite an admission. Whatever else you may say about light and heavy rail, there is no denying that both have a long history of projects successfully built and operated. I live in a neighborhood served by a 105-year-old subway line. And used it today. It exists and it works.
in response to High Hopes -- And Higher Standards -- for Bloomberg 3.0
Marty Barfowitz
Whose idea is this? Who at State DOT is advocating this? Who are the lobbyists or politicians that are pushing it? How does a project like this get prioritized at NY State DOT? What is their process?
Heads need to roll.
in response to $266 Million to Widen the Deegan. Crumbs for a More Livable Bronx River.
gecko
The idea of personal rapid transit (PRT) is not bad. There has never been a really serious development effort. Also, one that was scaled down to the individual level, i.e., single-person vehicles 100 pounds or less. Or, one that would involve low-cost, small, distributed on-demand vehicles that could work on and off the PRT system.
Ratheon built a PRT prototype. Nixon spent (wasted?) something like $100 million on one in the south. And currently, there is one being finished at Heathrow Airport I believe which is probably quite nice. George Haikalis and George Bliss wrote a paper on people-powered PRT a number of years back.
Probably the nicest one is Shweeb which is a modern version of commercial cycle-rail systems built in the 1880s. (www.shweeb.com) Shweeb is a human-power only system easily upgradable to accept auxiliary electric power assist. Under human power only riders have gone as fast as 56 mph!
It is really kind of amazing how goofy some of the stuff is that goes on about transportation with the world's largest industries that are involved: Insurance, banking and finance, oil, auto, steel, electronics, etc., etc., etc; the stakes are really high; especially, as one of the major causes of the climate change crisis.
in response to High Hopes -- And Higher Standards -- for Bloomberg 3.0
vnm
It is beyond incomprehensible that this is even being considered given the huge state deficits. If you have to rehabilitation the viaduct - do so. But PLEASE, do not expand roadway capacity and encourage traffic in New York City.
in response to $266 Million to Widen the Deegan. Crumbs for a More Livable Bronx River.
Mark Walker
Gecko, you posted that in the wrong thread. Hah!
Also, you missed the double post -- I remembered I was the first to bring PRT into the conversation, regretted this immediately, and withdrew the accusation.
Regarding the link from the NYT ... noted.
in response to High Hopes -- And Higher Standards -- for Bloomberg 3.0
gecko
#53 Mark Walker, "Another of my adversary's achievements -- the PRT lunatic fringe is back."
This is really fun coming from Mark.
Mark, Here is a good NY Times article about how excercise eliminates stress:
"Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious"
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/phys-ed-why-exercise-makes-you-less-anxious
Hint, hint, hint, . . .
in response to High Hopes -- And Higher Standards -- for Bloomberg 3.0
W. K. Lis
And they complain there is little money for public transit!
in response to $266 Million to Widen the Deegan. Crumbs for a More Livable Bronx River.
Mike C
Oh yeah, and there's this - is that Google employee delusional too?
in response to Bus Rapid Transit Designs for East Side Avenues Still in Flux
gecko
#38 V "never heard of these powered tricycles"
First link is funny:
electricity is my friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfRMa_u9wm8
ICE Trice Q with BionX electric assist by RBR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEQNWmt-IM8
Kind of embarrassing that no major transit system (including NYC DoT) is not considering this because it is adaptaion of very mature straight forward technology. (Google to your heart's content on this stuff!)
Eco-footprint of the vehicle is 1% of cars.
Eco-footprint of supporting infrastructure is much less than 1% of cars.
in response to World-Class Avenues for the East Side: What Great BRT Looks Like
Mike C
Ian, your denial doesn't change reality. Others who did follow the links can judge for themselves. Here's more:
Boston Globe article
Ithaca, NY, PRT activism
Time magazine article about the car-free PRT-based Masdar City project.
NASA partners with PRT company.
BBC article about Heathrow's pilot PRT project.
Frost & Sullivan analysis of the future potential of PRT.
NY Times article about Ithaca PRT conference.
Economist article on ULTra PRT founder Martin Lowson.
CNN article on PRT.
LOTS of insanity out there. I'd be especially interested in your thoughts on insanity at NASA.
in response to Bus Rapid Transit Designs for East Side Avenues Still in Flux
Eric McClure
The street sweeper has failed to clean my side of the block in Park Slope now for two consecutive weeks, and the street's a mess. Because of the volume of leaves, they need to stop frequently to disgorge the accumulated debris.
It's bad enough that this was precipitated by the reduction in alternate-side periods from three hours to ninety minutes. Now we're going to shave another five minutes off the time available to sweep the streets.
Drivers, 1. Clean streets, 0.
in response to City Council Parking Giveaway Will Bring More Gridlock
Benjamin Kabak
Simply absurd. What avenues of protest are available? Pushing our representatives, legal challenges, etc.?
in response to $266 Million to Widen the Deegan. Crumbs for a More Livable Bronx River.
The Dynamic Mumeshantz & Quilbert
This HAS to be stopped. THIS is madness. There should be a giant protest where we get every livable streets advocate from all over the city to show up. I mean the asthma part alone? We need to demand justice!!!
in response to $266 Million to Widen the Deegan. Crumbs for a More Livable Bronx River.
Mark Walker
A quarter-billion to widen a single road, in a place served by transit, in the twilight of the automobile era. Wow.
in response to $266 Million to Widen the Deegan. Crumbs for a More Livable Bronx River.
sarah gilbert
sounds like fun! just like Julian, I'm so in. here's my car-free set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cafemama/sets/72157594168211560/
I'll tag a few especially fun ones for you.
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Kids on Bikes
Ian Turner
Mike, I clicked on one of your links and saw that you had vastly inflated and removed from context what the article actually had to say. At that point you lost all credibility in my mind and I stopped looking further.
Cheers,
--Ian
in response to Bus Rapid Transit Designs for East Side Avenues Still in Flux
Julian
Ooooooooh I can't wait. Here's my photoset:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/totcycle/sets/72157622837946278/
And some other favorites on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/totcycle/favorites/
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Kids on Bikes
W. K. Lis
Is that 5 minutes start when I come to a full stop, or when I am on the sidewalk after locking the doors to my car, or when...?
in response to City Council Parking Giveaway Will Bring More Gridlock
Mike C
Ian, one of the co-founders has made statements in support of PRT. And what about the other huge groups I cited? WWF? Posco? The Swedish governemt? There are more too - BAA, Foster & Partners, engineering conglomerates SKM, Arup, CH2M Hill... all have endorsed PRT as a transit option.
Look, I have no problem with people here not liking PRT, but when you start calling PRT enthusiasts "insane", I feel compelled to point out the thousands of respectable people you are smearing.
in response to Bus Rapid Transit Designs for East Side Avenues Still in Flux
Glenn
League of Conservation Voters had a nice event last night with the two new Brooklyn Waterfront City Councilmembers-Elect: Levin and Lander.
They sounded very good on ideas of sustainable/smart growth & development. Balancing the need for more affordable housing & weaving new development into the context of the existing neighborhood.
They both said that they liked PlaNYC and that they would like hold Bloomberg accountable to his promises in PlaNYC.
in response to In Third Term, Bloomberg Must Align All Agencies With PlaNYC
Jeff
Regarding the three-foot passing buffer law:
One question which has always been on my mind is, if a motorist passes a cyclist at an unsafe speed and/or buffer distance (especially if said passing is prompted by the motorist's frustration), is that considered Assault with a Deadly Weapon?
As a moral question, I fail to see how this is any different than one pedestrian walking up to another, pointing a gun in his or her face, and saying, "Get out of my way, or I will f*cking kill you."
Does the law see it this way as well? Should I be calling 911 every time a motorist intentionally threatens my life due to the simple reason that my presence on the road may delay his commute by fifteen seconds?
in response to Today's Headlines
brent
The biggest issue of all, imho, is that these pols are pandering, spineless cowards. NY faces immense traffic problems that require real work and immaginative solutions. Instead, the only thing these morons can work towards is to waste time on this populist giveaway. Its gross, really.
The lesson here is that Quinn is an obstacle to positive solutions and it is never too soon to rally against her mayoral ambitions.
in response to City Council Parking Giveaway Will Bring More Gridlock
Todd Edelman
OK, here I am, arguing with an anonymous person about absolutist language.
Clutch, to your points:
"One, the national focus is on federal legislation and the federal-aid program, and most road projects involving federal dollars are major roadways or highways that almost no one would dream of making car-free."
> SURE, the Complete Streets Act is only about federally-funded projects.
"Two, car-free is a local concept, and such projects are usually small-scale, even temporary, and done with local (not federal) funds."
> I am not talking about temporary, because Complete Streets is not temporary. And why not Federal funds?
"Three, there are exceptions to most complete streets policies; we normally worry about these as a possible means of excluding walking, bicyling or tranist facilities from projects, but in a certain context the exceptions could be used to deny access to autos."
> OK, sure, in theory, but from the slides on the National Complete Streets Coalition website, I see no intention of excluding automobiles. Some of the designs reduce lanes, examples, they say, of a "road diet". But are these re-designs actually reducing automobile capacity, or were they just so "super sized" to begin with that it more of a situation of less food being ordered, and less wasted, but the same amount eaten?
The slides show lots of mainly empty spaces, with more bike lanes and more greenery sometimes. I grew up in a suburb of L.A. where some streets had no demarcated walking space, but I know that sidewalks ghettos are not a solution.
The website has claims about projected carbon savings as a result of "Completion", but - unlike with automobile adverts - there is nothing to compare them to. They are totally abstract.
So, I won't change my position. "Complete Streets" is a lie and an obfuscation. If we need to wink a little to make things go forward in urban development than the "green" pandemic which perhaps has already peaked has left terrible scars and a permanently weakened immune system.
Is it - more than anything else - just a make work program for landscape architects and contractors?
in response to U.S. DOT Secretary Gets a Message on Pedestrian Safety
zgori
I have a hard time imagining any plan that leaves fewer than five lanes available for cars (three for travel and two for parking) actually getting built. On the other hand, they have managed to do some pretty creative things in other parts of the city, so you never know.
in response to World-Class Avenues for the East Side: What Great BRT Looks Like
Ian Turner
Mike,
Yes, the "one Google employee with a background in transportation planning" that you cited is delusional.
--Ian
in response to Bus Rapid Transit Designs for East Side Avenues Still in Flux
Justin
I have it on VERY good authority that Dr. Klinkenborg is himself a cyclist.
in response to Today's Headlines
drewo
Article with a similar theme in today's Arizona (Tucson) Star:
"Police: Crosswalks don't guarantee safety"
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/318182.php
Some, uh, lowlights:
/Each of the recent incidents [6 people, including 3 children] have occurred in crosswalks, police said. But just because someone is in a crosswalk doesn't mean it's safe — or even legal — to cross.
"Yes. The pedestrian has the right of way, but it doesn't make the driver wrong if someone runs out in front of them," Lopez said./
in response to Blaming the Pedestrian, Again
Mark Walker
Actually, no, I should blame myself. In any case, this 227-part (and counting) thread is the definitive Streetsblog slugfest on the subject. For more information, Google "prt mike c."
in response to Bus Rapid Transit Designs for East Side Avenues Still in Flux
Steve Faust
A comment on the Verlyn Klinkenborg Editorial Observer - Individualism, Identity and Bicycles in Northern California.
I am puzzled by Klinkenborg's last comments about Thomas Jefferson.
If the horse were pedaling or it was an electric bicycle, I could agree, but since these students were all pedaling on their own, what's the loss? If Klinkenborg is so worried about humans being "so ambitious to exceed a foot-pace", what does he say about cars? Isn't bicycling a lot closer to "our natural gaits" than riding in a car?
Yesterday, I rode my bicycle over the Brooklyn Bridge, up the Hudson bike path to a show at the Javits Center, across town to a Community Board meeting at the NYU Medical Center, with a shopping stop along the way, and returned home down the East River Drive bike path in the twinkling dark over the Manhattan Bridge back to Brooklyn. I traveled faster than any subway bus combination, but frankly, by the end of the day, I was tired.
I earned my ride, I enjoyed the views, I lost nothing riding the bicycle.
in response to Today's Headlines
Mark Walker
Another of my adversary's achievements -- the PRT lunatic fringe is back.
in response to Bus Rapid Transit Designs for East Side Avenues Still in Flux
Mark Walker
Good piece, but I still don't understand the disconnect between the mayor's goals for a sustainable city and his administration's actions in facilitating boondoggles. What am I missing here?
in response to In Third Term, Bloomberg Must Align All Agencies With PlaNYC
Mike C
Mark Walker: is MNDOT also insane? How about Google? Or Korea's largest steelmaker Posco? Or New Urbanism co-founder Peter Calthorpe? Or World Wildlife fund? Or the government of Sweden?
That's a lot of "insanity", don't you think?
Just sayin'.
in response to Bus Rapid Transit Designs for East Side Avenues Still in Flux
paco
I'm against the grace period, but do think it sounds like great PR and know the average driver will appreciate it. People are often shortsighted and so they can only see the five minutes extra they can avoid a ticket, and not the thirty extra minutes stuck in traffic this policy will give them. Sometimes giving them these little nuggets of seeming goodwill perhaps will help the overall cause when they finally get around to bigger issues like east river tolls.
in response to City Council Parking Giveaway Will Bring More Gridlock
Benjamin Kabak
If I see any of the Roadify people around Park Slope this weekend, I will gladly have a calm discussion about how utterly stupid and irresponsible their product is.
in response to Today's Headlines
Moser
The idea that people elected by a few thousand votes give a shit about the average New Yorker is equally nuts.
in response to City Council Parking Giveaway Will Bring More Gridlock
Dan Berkman
I can't believe that The City Council decided that messing with parking meter fees was the best way to give regular people a break. The idea that "average" New Yorkers are harmed more by parking tickets than traffic congestion is just nuts.
in response to City Council Parking Giveaway Will Bring More Gridlock
JK
For sure it's stupid and will cause some traffic and confusion, but I doubt the meter grace period is going to make all that much of a difference in overall traffic or curb use. Here's why. First, enforcement of overtime meter violations is already abysmal in much of the city. TA's report on Columbus Ave plus spot surveying on Manhattan's Upper West Side by Columbia grad students (unpublished) have found a third to a half of cars are at expired meters. I've seen the same thing when eyeballing meters in Astoria, Flushing, Ridgewood and Flatbush etc. (This is consistent with overtime violations in other big US cities.) Second, only a small portion of curb parking is metered. Motorists already spend huge amounts of time cruising for parking on free side streets. So, the grace period is a step in the wrong direction, but it's going to add a drop of congestion in the ocean of cruising and delays caused by the current parking dysfunction.
in response to City Council Parking Giveaway Will Bring More Gridlock
Shemp
In some states the Interlock requirement is put on your license, like "must wear corrective lenses" and you can be legally screwed if you are found driving a car without it. Don't know if that is in the NYS law or not.
in response to Today's Headlines
eLK
How did Verlyn Klinkenborg get to Palo Alto? He must be looking through a rear view mirror.
in response to Today's Headlines
Urbanis
I don't think any city street or avenue should have more than two automobile travel lanes running in the same direction. Please! We people have better things to do with our street space.
in response to World-Class Avenues for the East Side: What Great BRT Looks Like
Urbanis
I think the reason why a windshield perspective prevails almost universally is that in this country, sprawl and lack of high-quality mass transit means that life without a car can severely restrict your access to workplaces, retail, and social opportunities and thus dramatically lower your quality of life. Even in transit-rich New York City, where the majority of residents are car-free, our 24-hour mass transit system is far from being the best that it could be in speed, frequency, coverage, and comfort, and we are all painfully aware of the thousand little sacrifices we make to use the system, especially late at night and on weekends. So, are we really surprised when the police, juries, and individuals reflexively diminish the driver's responsibility and blame the pedestrian (or bicyclist)? Because we all "have" to drive, and we drivers don't mean to hurt anyone, and any one of us could have been behind the wheel when this happened, and life without a car is simply...unthinkable.
in response to Blaming the Pedestrian, Again
v
gecko:
i've never heard of these powered tricycles before. sounds a little crazy, but maybe kind of awesome.
in response to World-Class Avenues for the East Side: What Great BRT Looks Like
Urbanis
When will 24-hour access for pedestrians and bicyclists to the George Washington Bridge be restored? The post-9/11 restrictions are nonsensical: how does preventing pedestrians and bicyclists--but not people driving cars--from using the bridge after midnight curb terrorism? Terrorists can learn how to drive just as well as anyone else.
in response to Port Authority Work Puts GWB Sidewalks on Shifts
mike
Sounds like Dyker Heights could use some attention:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=31991
in response to Today's Headlines
vnm
Building on what J. Mork said, what happens if you own a car but want to get behind the wheel of a different one (a friends or a rental)? Does the interlock device stay with the driver or with the car?
in response to Today's Headlines