gildone

Blame Sprawl for High Gas Prices: Over time, auto dependence became so ingrained as to seem normal. We put up with the cost of transportation surpassing the cost of food. We accepted the ugly crudscape of drive-throughs, big-box stores, and seas of parking. We internalized the stresses of road rage and commuting ennui. We relegated those who couldn’t drive (too young, too old, too poor or disabled) to second-class citizenship. We continued to widen highways to pharaonic scales, inducing more demand in a doomed effort to escape congestion. Despite occasional dips for recessions or global oil shocks, U.S. consumption of gas rose inexorably, from 50 billion gallons annually in the 1950s to 100 billion gallons by the early 1970s, climbing to nearly 150 billion gallons in 2019. https://commonedge.org/blame-sprawl-for-high-fuel-prices/

@Dblcut3Other downtowns are still doing well, like Kent and Sandusky. I think downtown Y'town will come back. The city is doing a lot of things right.

I think the remedy to this problem is more residential development in downtowns. For decades the model in most cities has been about making them places for employers and commuters. In order to make downtowns desirable, car traffic has to be reduced. Y'town is making progress in in this area. Fingers crosse🤞

I understand. There are a lot of good things about this area, even though it falls short in some key areas. There is a long way to go, but it's a lot better than it was 30 and 40 years ago. And things continue to get better, albeit slowly, and in spite of the backwardness of state gov't.

How do housing prices compare?

Burlington is very nice (from what I've read and heard). That's a good option.

I'd move to Boston, but I can't because housing is far too expensive.

See below... So my comment is this: CVSR tickets might get taxed. Peninsula has installed parking meters for spots on city streets, but all of the rest of the motorists who use the NPS-owned lots in Peninsula and Boston get to park for free. Doesn't seem quite right. "Also on the table is an entertainment tax for local shows and possibly for people riding the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad," Peninsula and Cuyahoga Valley National Park settle their differences after decades of tension https://www.ideastream.org/news/peninsula-and-cuyahoga-valley-national-park-settle-their-differences-after-decades-of-tension

"Tesla is a Fraud" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tesla-is-a-fraud-with-ed-niedermeyer/id1437755068?i=1000567971500 Book: Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45722402-ludicrous

Hoboken Hasn’t Had a Traffic Death in Four Years. What’s It Doing Right? https://www.curbed.com/2022/06/hoboken-traffic-deaths-none-vision-zero-streets.html

Correction, CSX has complained to Cong. Crawford of Arkansas, not the U.S. Senate.

CSX has complained to the U.S. House about this. They are trying to claim that by putting up a camera to catch CSX in its lies and using that info against them constitutes lobbying, which Amtrak is prohibited from doing. Their demeanor and statements during a recent FRA hearing were no better. Apparently, CSX doesn't have any adults running the company if this is the kind of crap they try to pull.

I was impressed with Boston on my recent trip. I was last here in 2019. Since then a bunch of new bike lanes have cropped up. Some are protected, some are not, but it's a lot of progress in a very short time. Also, there have been road diets in some areas like the North End. The subway is even cleaner, and throughout the day MBTA has "ambassadors" at each downtown stop to help riders unfamiliar with the system, and I used them on at least a few occasions. We had exactly 3 car trips during the week we were there: to get to and from the airport (water taxi doesn't go there on the weekends, and the Silver Line, which is a bus, takes 3 times as long as a cab), and an Uber to get back downtown after visiting a friend in Newton (we took the Green Line out, but it was very late when we came back). Now, if they had only connected North and South stations when they did The Big Dig. Speaking of which, as much criticism as it received at the time, it was the right thing to do. It replaced a double-deck highway that cut the city off from the waterfront. The amount of development and overall economic activity that has happened on and near the waterfront since has probably paid for it. Of course, now that Boston Harbor is one of the cleanest in the world helps too. A lot of money was spent to upgrade the city sewage system and clean up the harbor.

Having just spent time in Boston, I have to revise my opinion of Boston drivers. Compared to Ohio, there were noticeably fewer red-light runners, and pedestrians are treated with much more respect. My view is confined to central Boston. When I was in Boston in 1999 I would have ranked them the worst. Now my view is: If I could afford to live in Boston, I'd move there.

Finger Lakes Railway wants to expand rail service in Maine. Looks like there were unrealistic hopes to get it started by May 1 this year: https://www.bangordailynews.com/2022/01/30/news/midcoast/the-latest-push-to-revive-passenger-rail-to-rockland-faces-uncertain-future-joam40zk0w/

The image in my post above disappeared for some reason, and apparently there's a limited window for editing so here it is again.

Crose-posted from General Transit thread: Gas prices causing an increase in transit usage in some areas. 2 examples: Santa Fe https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/high-gas-prices-force-santa-feans-to-limit-trips-add-riders-to-the-rail-runner/article_582823e8-eb58-11ec-8807-3b1f44feef08.html Sacramento: https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2022/06/14/sacramento-gas-prices-soar-public-transit/

Gas prices causing an increase in transit usage in some areas. 2 examples: Santa Fe https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/high-gas-prices-force-santa-feans-to-limit-trips-add-riders-to-the-rail-runner/article_582823e8-eb58-11ec-8807-3b1f44feef08.html Sacramento: https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2022/06/14/sacramento-gas-prices-soar-public-transit/

I finally got a response from Curb. For awhile, there was a cab company in Ohio they had an agreement with. That's no longer the case. They have no plans at this time to return to the state.

I downloaded the Curb app. A web search turns up a page on the Curb website containing an announcement that Curb is "now serving all of Cuyahoga County". Tried to use it recently to get to the Cleveland Airport from Berea. The app said: "Curb is not available in your area". E-mailed Curb with a screenshot of the announcement. Got an auto-reply saying "A Curb agent will respond to your inquiry within 48 hours". They never did. Does anyone know if Curb serves all of Cuyahoga County or not? Can't say I'm impressed. Customer service seems to suck everywhere these days.

The other responses notwithstanding-- apples and oranges. Show us an example of a transportation poll that you feel is wrong.

And every single time I've seen this statement made, it's done with no actual evidence. As I said, the few walkable, transit-friendly neighborhoods that exist in the US are too expensive for most because demand exceeds supply. The fact that driving and (outside of urban areas) parking has been priced well below cost, influences behavior too. It's good that you think if transit were expanded, more people would use it. That's true, if it's done right. Most transit buses are a PITA because they are stuck in the same traffic, on the same poorly-designed streets and stroads as cars. Make it efficient, frequent, and clean and they become more attractive. As an example, when the 86 bus from the Brook Park station to Berea existed, I wanted to use it more, but service was too infrequent and didn't run late enough into the evening. RTA just considered it a commuter bus and nothing more.

It's less of a cultural decision than is assumed by some. Every national poll ever done for the past 25 years about whether the country should improve rail and transit infrastructure has shown majority support for both. The few transit-friendly, walkable neighborhoods the country has are too expensive fir most people to live in because demand exceeds supply. Americans don't have a l8ve affair with cars as us often said. It's a shotgun marriage.

@Boomerang_BrianThanks for posting Quincy Morgan's Twitter thread. Sorry I didn't respond sooner. Anyway... Until Amtrak admits that it has been diverting money from the long distance and state-suported trains via their route accounting system and using it to prop up the NEC, you won't see them put any money into the LD network. The only exception here might be the North Coast Hiawatha through southern Montana--and that's because Montana's senators support it. In fact, I would bet that Senator John Tester of Montana I'd the one responsible for that provision in the law. Even that train won't happen anytime soon. Amtrak doesn't have the equipment. New LD equipment is badly needed but all Amtrak has ordered is new Acelas and new corridor equipment. They don't plan on placing an order for LD equipment until 2024, meaning the firstbreplacement cars won't come until close to 2030. It's iffy that the LD equipment will even last that long as the Superliners used on the western LD trains and the Capitol Ltd are on the verge of developing structural problems. Amtrak President and CEO Stephen Gardner has disdain fir the LD trains. He was the main driver behind trying to break up the SW Chief and run a bus bridge between LA Junta, CO and Albuquerque, NM. If it were up to him, the LD trains wouldn't exist. Fortunately it's not, but the way the LD trains are operating this summer with equipment failures delaying trains and sleepers being removed without notice to passengers, etc., it really looks like he's trying to hobble the LD network. I'll add that Antrak board Chair Anthony Coscia is just as bad, yet Biden re-appointed him.

I downloaded the Curb app. A web search turns up a page on the Curb website containing an announcement that Curb is "now serving all of Cuyahoga County". Tried to use it recently to get to the Cleveland Airport from Berea. The app said: "Curb is not available in your area". E-mailed Curb with a screenshot of the announcement. Got an auto-reply saying "A Curb agent will respond to your inquiry within 48 hours". They never did. Does anyone know if Curb serves all of Cuyahoga County or not? Can't say I'm impressed. Customer service seems to suck everywhere these days.