gildone

While the US dithers with a mostly useless long-distance train "study", Europe keeps sprinting ahead: New Barcelona-Amsterdam night train is coming in 2025: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/rail-travel/sleeper-train-barcelona-amsterdam-night-b2293498.html And this will be a private operator! (Sidenote: Europe now has a trade association representing private passenger rail operators: https://www.allrail.eu/) This is Europe's current night train network:

I realize that advertising income from wrapping buses like this is important revenue for RTA, but I have seen several complaints on social media about how it makes it difficult to see your stop coming up, ruining the window view, etc. That said, why would RTA even bother to put such an obviously forced sunshiny spin on this?

Not sure where to put this as it's not Amtrak or "federal" news. The High Speed Rail Alliance has proposed an "Integrated Network Approach" for developing passenger rail in the US: https://www.hsrail.org/blog/integrated-network-approach/

I modify what I said above. All corridors in Ohio should start with 6 daily round trips with an average speed of 60 mph with plans to go to hourly service.

Separated Bike Lanes Means Safer Streets, Study Says A 13-year study of a dozen cities found that protected bike lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all users of the road. "Cities that build protected lanes for cyclists end up with safer roads for people on bikes and people in cars and on foot, a new study of 12 large metropolises revealed Wednesday." https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/05/29/protect-yourself-separated-bike-lanes-means-safer-streets-study-says/

I-69 is way over budget and taking 30+ years to complete. There is no public scrutiny or complaining. CA HSR, on the other hand, continues to get a lot of scrutiny and complaints. The Shinkansen was plagued with construction problems, political wrangling; ended up costing double its budget projections; and it's held up as a successful example of a HSR project. See video and articles below: An article about 1-69 construction problems and mismanagement: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2017/06/18/mike-pence-donald-trump-public-private-partnerships-mitch-daniels-interstate-69-isolux-bloomington/388756001/ According to this one, a 26-mile segment of I-69 is going to cost $61.5 million per mile. It also discusses cost over-runs on another segment: https://www.constructiondive.com/news/final-stretch-of-indiana-interstate-69-project-to-cost-16b/516832/

It looks like Jason Slaughter of Not Just Bikes is starting to have an impact, at least in Canada. One of the things the article talks about is climate change and the powerful effect walkable, transit-friendly cities will have in addressing it. It got me thinking, though. For several issues, there are very compelling reasons besides climate change to make key changes to our society and economy that will also help climate change. For example, most of the things we need to do to address climate change are the same things we need to do for energy independence. Regarding city design, I think it would be more effective to make the argument for change based on things like the financial health of our cities and reducing dependence on state and federal grants and all the strings that come with them. It's less of an abstract concept for a lot of people. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/evs-cities-climate-column-don-pittis-1.6654675 Excerpts: "If we care about climate change, we need to make it easier to walk, cycle or use public transit. Period," said Jason Slaughter, a vigorous critic of automobile-centric urban development, who grew up in suburban London, Ont. Until he got a driver's licence at the age of 16, he said, he was trapped in what he calls a "car-dependent hellscape."... Suburbs don't pay It is a difficult lesson learned by a number of U.S. cities that have simply run out of money to pay for crucial infrastructure repairs. What Stantec's research for the city of Halifax showed, wonderfully illustrated by graphics produced by the urban design group Urban3, is that relatively crowded walkable downtown parts of a city produce huge amounts of tax revenue, whereas suburban low-density areas result in a net tax cost.

Cleaner air in Cleveland is going to require a lot of road diets and giving more capacity to transit, cycling, and walking infrastructure. Cleveland's Not Breathing Easy https://thelandcle.org/stories/clevelands-not-breathing-easy-new-sensors-to-collect-more-data-on-air-quality/

How Residents Fought for - and won-a Slower Franklin Boulevard. (and how ODOT made the process unnecessarily complex) https://thelandcle.org/stories/how-residents-fought-for-and-won-a-slower-franklin-boulevard/

This is criminal negligence. It's time to start suing cities, DOT's and the engineers themselves who are refusing to address safety issues involving non-road users. They are being negligent: I was in a meeting today with Spanish Fork's Traffic Safety Committee about this dangerous school crossing. They effectively said nothing can be done to improve student safety because vehicle speed is the priority. Their preferred "solution" is to simply remove the crosswalk. https://t.co/wjTBVzkCbs Here's the rest of the twitter thread: The crossing guard suggested a HAWK signal. This was dismissed because the MUTCD (the car-centric 'bible' of traffic engineering) says there aren't enough pedestrians to warrant a HAWK signal. And UDOT doesn't usually like cities using HAWK signals anyway. The crossing guard suggested a modal filter across the north-south road similar to some UDOT intersections in Provo. This was dismissed as a political "non-starter" (despite north-south traffic numbers being so low they aren't even counted). The crossing guard suggested a pedestrian refuge island. This was dismissed because it would prevent drivers making southbound left turns (again, very few drivers do this). And because it's less convenient for snowplow drivers. The crossing guard suggested a raised crosswalk. This idea was hardly acknowledged, because the priority of this 5-lane road is vehicle speed. The crossing guard suggested moving the crosswalk away from the intersection by ~100 ft to remove turning vehicles from the equation. This was dismissed because it might occasionally disrupt the ordinary flow of cars through the intersection & would conflict with some driveways. The crossing guard suggested they try one of the above solutions on a temporary basis. If it works it can be made permanent, if it fails it can be easily removed. This was dismissed because the materials they use for temporary installations aren't robust enough for winter. They acted concerned and assured us they were listening and anxious to solve the problem. But the only solution they seriously entertained was removing the crosswalk and putting up signs telling kids to walk three blocks out of their way to the nearest traffic signal. The crossing guard told them he didn't like that idea because some children will continue to cross at this location & they were merely absolving themselves of blame in the event of a collision. They agreed with his point but cited similar examples on UDOT roads as justification. The crossing guard repeatedly told them that a child WILL be hit. But they didn't feel the urgency, because "this is only a problem for 15 minutes at the start and end of every day." They suggested maybe he should put out more cones. Time and again they cited UDOT and the MUTCD to explain why they weren't willing to use any creative solutions to protect kids from traffic violence. "Our hands are kind of tied." (Which isn't true) They ended by asking about collisions at the intersection. With enough injuries or deaths they might be able to add improvements. The priests of the MUTCD demand blood sacrifice before they're willing to act. WHEN a child is hit or killed here it cannot be called an accident. P.S. I should clarify that a decision hasn't yet officially been made. I made this thread mostly so that when a child is hit or killed there will be a record of their unwillingness to deviate from outdated, car-centric practices and they can't say it was an accident.

The different perspectives are interesting. I don't think about that, only how I don't like that I had to go there when it sucked.

the Venice was a worse dump than the Loft in the 80s/90s. Maybe it hasn't changed a lot, but it's a lot cleaner and the restrooms don't reek. A story: back in the early 90s a friend of mine caught the old man bartender/owner of the Venice at the time re-using glasses without washing them.

I was there mid-80s to early 90s (two degrees). The town and campus was butt ugly. Wish it was like it is now when I was there, but that has been my luck... places get fixed up after I leave (Kent, Toledo, Columbus...). It's enough to give one a complex 😁

"Kent State has begun demolition of Terrace Hall on front campus to make way for the universitys new college of business" @yanni_gogolakWhat's going to become of the former (and rather ugly) College of Business building?

Buffalo has seen the biggest jump in its population since the 1920s. One of the things that has helped the city is its "Green Code" one of the chief components of the Green Code is to get rid of parking minimums. Is Cleveland ever going to overhaul its zoning code? https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2022/08/16/how-zoning-reform-has-helped-turn-buffalo-around

Meanwhile, there are other cities in the country where the solution to post-pandemic commuting patterns is to re-designing their rail transit systems to increase mobility all day long and well into the evening hours. Why is this town so damned backward in its thinking sometimes?

Musk admits hyperloop was a lie: "He (Musk) has a history of floating false solutions to the drawbacks of our over-reliance on cars that stifle efforts to give people other options. The Boring Company was supposed to solve traffic, not be the Las Vegas amusement ride it is now. As I’ve written in my book, Musk admitted (copied below) to his biographer Ashlee Vance that Hyperloop was all about trying to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in California—even though he had no plans to build it." "Several years ago, Musk said that public transit was “a pain in the ass” where you were surrounded by strangers, including possible serial killers, to justify his opposition. But the futures sold to us by Musk and many others in Silicon Valley didn’t just suit their personal preferences. They were designed to meet business needs, and were the cause of just as many problems as they claimed to solve—if not more." https://time.com/6203815/elon-musk-flaws-billionaire-visions/

Actually, it's that the feds pay 80% of the cost of new capacity but 0% for maintenance. I don't know how well the idea would work. I thought it might get a conversation going, which it did.

Time for the federlal government to exit the highway business? Don’t Pause the Gas Tax, Redirect It https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2022/7/25/dont-pause-the-gas-tax-redirect-it?utm_content=buffere384a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Excerpt: "The solution is devolution. Congress should leave highway taxation and spending to the states. We should commensurately remove federal red tape and regulations on highways, beyond a minimum standard of safety, so that states and cities can use their dollars to address local mobility with organic solutions. The federal gas tax should remain but be used, instead, to subsidize locally sponsored projects that promote walkability, micromobility, and transit. "The benefits of reforming federal highway funding and changing the way we spend the federal gas tax would be swift and tangible. First, giving states and cities more latitude will encourage local innovation, helping us find better transportation solutions and root out failed practices. Second, it will compel honest accounting of the cost of car-centric infrastructure. Right now, federal gas tax revenue incentivizes states to build and build without thinking about the compounded costs of maintaining an ever-expanding roadway, which are paid for by our children in the form of federal debt."

Yeah. I agree. I wish these companies the best. I'd certainly take Acela or a standard Northeast Regional train before I'd take a bus.

@DEPACincyAmtrak is more than Acela, which is only a small part of their business. I was comparing to the system as a whole.

@KJP said: "I would like to see a bus company that can offer a modicum of customer service again." I've always wondered if any entrepreneur would try offering a first class bus experience. It is happening: The Jet (WAS-NYC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh1ULPYMQhI Napaway (Sleeper Bus, WAS-Nashville): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ygWEAY4WE Cabin: LA-San Fran overnight bus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRTzEJ8znL0 These buses put Amtrak to shame. Time will tell if they succeed. I hope they do.

Amtrak spent 11 years and $450 million to save Acela riders 100 seconds How much of this is Amtrak and how much is the general lack of US ability to build infrastructure projects as quickly and efficiently as other countries? https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxn8qx/amtrak-spent-11-years-and-dollar450-million-to-save-acela-riders-100-seconds

"U.S. roads have become markedly more dangerous in recent years. In 2021, motor vehicle crashes killed nearly 43,000 people. That’s up from about 33,000 in 2012, and a 16-year high... "More than half of respondents said they “always” or “often” read or send text messages while driving, 43% said they watched cellphone videos always or often while driving, and more than a third said they always or often drove while engaged in a video chat..." https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-07-06/we-are-killing-people-how-technology-has-made-your-car-a-candy-store-of-distraction

The Amazing Way Bicycles Change You Anthony Desnick TEDxZumbroRiver