gildone

Same here. I'm afraid though that as the peak oil squeeze tighens, we're going to see 53' foot double trailers and 40' foot triple trailers on our interstates and not just the turnpikes.

Actually, the term is "road-train", not "land-train", but that's neither hear nor their since we're talking about 4-ways as has already been pointed out.

What's Atlantic Yards being built on? Sounds like maybe an old rail yard?

This one isn't in America, but I didn't see the need to start a separate thread. A town in Germany re-develops an old military base into a car-free community: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1220/p01s03-woeu.html First two paragraphs: New German community models car-free living FREIBURG, GERMANY – It's pickup time at the Vauban kindergarten here at the edge of the Black Forest, but there's not a single minivan waiting for the kids. Instead, a convoy of helmet-donning moms - bicycle trailers in tow - pedal up to the entrance. Welcome to Germany's best-known environmentally friendly neighborhood and a successful experiment in green urban living. The Vauban development - 2,000 new homes on a former military base 10 minutes by bike from the heart of Freiburg - has put into practice many ideas that were once dismissed as eco-fantasy but which are now moving to the center of public policy...

Deech: that was my thought. Doesn't BNSF run some of the Metra trains in Chicago?

The way the US is careening toward insolvency, I don't know if they'll extend us any credit!

I want this good news to start rubbing off in Ohio to the point that we start getting better trains service here! It's good to see good news in other states, but at the same time, it's depressing because it just highlights how far behind Ohio is.

Well at least a few people on the Council have a clue. That's encouraging.

The Peter B. Lewis Weatherhead School of Management Building, otherwise known as the overpriced gehry monstrosity. It made James Howard Kunstler's "Eyesore of the Month" at his website in October 2005: http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200510.html

Somehow I doubt that many people in city and county government even know what peak oil is, and if NOACA knows, they probably don't care.

KJP: Cleveland does have an advantage with it's port, but only if global warming/climate change doesn't result in a significant drop in the level of Lake Erie, which is a possibility. A three-foot drop will end commerical/industrial navigation on the Cuyahoga River. More than that and it may affect the port at the mouth as well. Lake Erie's water level is directly related to the water levels in Lake Huron and Lake Superior. Last I heard, Lake Superior's water level may be reaching a new low. P.S. I got the presentation from the same source you did, KJP. You beat me to the punch with the Paris trams article a couple of days ago, so now we're even :wink:

And we're just trying to get 110 mph, conventional trains running in Ohio and the Midwest. We're so far behind it's pathetic...

Presentation given at the Atlantic Planning Conference in Nova Scotia in October. The guy hits the ball out of the park: Planning and Peak Oil: http://www.atlanticplanners.org/Events/Conferences/2006%20Conference/2006API%20Principles%20of%20Post-Peak%20Planning.pdf

Ultra conservative Utah is being this forward-thinking? It just makes Ohio look bad, doesn't it?

Can you send me a copy of that report? Or post it here?

I don't like these privatization deals where the public ends up getting the short end of the stick. I think the Indiana deal was structured to benefit the private consortium much more so than the state of Indiana. I had a random thought, though I admit, I haven't fully thought it through to determine how sound it really is: Given what's coming with peak oil and the fact that as oil becomes more and more expensive (and scarce) in the coming decades, and since there is no combination of alternative fuels that will allow us to keep driving at the levels we do in America, then maybe it's not so bad for states to cash out their toll road assets now, provided the deal is overall better than the one in Indiand AND the money used for alternatives to driving (which the state of Indiana did not do, obviously).

Well, at least they have one now, I guess. Of course, they do have a subway, not to mention commuter trains, and TGV station at Charles de Gaulle airport, a rail connection from their subway to Orly airport, etc.

Thanks, KJP. I'll work on this.

Where are the designated zones downtown? I see cabs in front of the Ritz all the time, so I'm assuming that's one location. Where are there others?

Sounds like Joe C needs to get some pointed letters. I'll try to work on one this weekend. He doesn't seem to get it that you need to make friends, not enemies. How much longer is he going to be around anyway?

Thanks, Kevin, for the timeline/graphic. I had misremembered. I thought the line was supposed to by done by the end of '07. Oh well, what's another 7 months after 50 years of talk about the Corridor? I'm in the camp that wished they could have stuck with the streetcar/rail plan, but I'm still looking forward to the project's completion. I know the reason had to do with the FTA asking them to cut money from the project due largely to transportation priority changes after the Bush administration took over. Anyway, the #6 buses usually run so packed that the 60' buses alone should be a major improvement, not to mention the abysmal lack of light timing that has existed on Euclid. I do think/hope it will be a TOD growth engine too.

What happened to the Capital City Transit Coalition? Or I'm I thinking too far in the past?

I guess. It's nothing but dirt now.

Why is the highway trust fund going bankrupt? I thought it was continuously funded with federal gasoline/diesel taxes. Or, has the fund been over-leveraged through bonding or something like that?

But the trench is continuous and varies in width going westward until it pinches out just before E. 55th. Some places, it's not wide enough for a station. I thought it was center median all the way to U.C., then sidewalk stations eastward from there.