October 21, 20231 yr I attended NOACA's annual meeting yesterday. In addition to a major focus on passenger rail (Derrick James from Amtrak was one of 3 panel speakers), Grace Gallucci mentioned NOACA's "Street Supplies Program" The program is funded by ODOT with a $2 million/year grant (this surprised me, actually). It provides communities with paint and a library of roadway materials (tape, cones, and signs to parklets, bike racks, colorful street furniture, and planters, etc.) so they can do demonstration projects to gauge community interest in street re-designs. The most interesting thing about the program is that, according to Grace, generates a 50:1 economic return on investment. https://www.noaca.org/community-assistance-center/planning-assistance/street-supplies Edited October 21, 20231 yr by gildone
October 21, 20231 yr I turn down social things all the time because the amont of driving you have to do to be social in adulthood is exponentially higher than in say college. You have been driving all week then someone from college wants you to come see them. It's not 5 blocks anymore, now it's 3 hours of driving around in the dark by yourself after working all day.
November 9, 20231 yr Johns Hopkins study recommends narrow travel lanes A nationwide study of more than 1,000 street sections sides with urbanists and planners in the long-standing battle with traffic engineers over the benefits of narrow travel lanes in urban places. ROBERT STEUTEVILLE NOV. 8, 2023 https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2023/11/08/johns-hopkins-study-recommends-narrow-travel-lanes
January 5, 20241 yr Wow! How's this for a bluntly-titled book: https://islandpress.org/books/killed-traffic-engineer
January 8, 20241 yr The description is just as blunt: Quote In the US we are nearing four million road deaths since we began counting them in 1899. The numbers are getting worse in recent years, yet we continue to accept these deaths as part of doing business. There has been no examination of why we engineer roads that are literally killing us. Fixing the carnage on our roadways requires a change in mindset and a dramatic transformation of transportation. This goes for traffic engineers in particular because they are still the ones in charge of our streets. In Killed by a Traffic Engineer, civil engineering professor Wes Marshall shines a spotlight on how little science there is behind the way that our streets are engineered, which leaves safety as an afterthought. While traffic engineers are not trying to cause deliberate harm to anyone, he explains, they are guilty of creating a transportation system whose designs remain largely based on plausible, but unproven, conjecture. Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, Killed by a Traffic Engineer shows how traffic engineering “research” is outdated and unexamined (at its best) and often steered by an industry and culture considering only how to get from point A to B the fastest way possible, to the detriment of safety, quality of life, equality, and planetary health. Marshall examines our need for speed and how traffic engineers disconnected it from safety, the focus on capacity and how it influences design, blaming human error, relying on faulty data, how liability drives reporting, measuring road safety outcomes, and the education (and reeducation) of traffic engineers. Killed by a Traffic Engineer is ultimately hopeful about what is possible once we shift our thinking and demand streets engineered for the safety of people, both outside and inside of cars. It will make you look at your city and streets—and traffic engineers— in a new light and inspire you to take action.
May 24, 20241 yr On 7/6/2015 at 4:13 PM, KJP said: The maintenance is only half the cost component, especially as we keep adding more pavement. Frankly, adding urban highway lane-miles to address peak congestion is a financial loser. It takes up to 250 years for the gas tax revenues from one new lane-mile of urban freeway to equal the original construction cost of that lane-mile. The following instead makes a market-driven case for charging motorists a congestion fee based on when the demand for driving is greatest.... _______ “Construction costs for adding lanes in urban areas average $10–$15 million per lane mile. In general, the funding for this type of construction comes from taxes that drivers pay when buying gas for their vehicles. Overall, funds generated from gas taxes on an added lane during rush hours amount to only $60,000 a year (based on 10,000 vehicles per day during rush hours, paying fuel taxes amounting to about 2 cents per mile). This amount is grossly insufficient to pay for the lane addition.” SOURCE: Federal Highway Administration http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop08039/cp_prim1_02.htm Bumping this because it's awesome. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 4, 2024Sep 4 its also because the bosses arent around anymore — PERSONAL FINANCE ‘Rush’ hour isn’t what it used to be. Working 10-to-4 is the new 9-to-5, commuting data shows PUBLISHED TUE, SEP 3 202410:00 AM EDT Jessica Dickler KEY POINTS “Rush” hour isn’t what it used to be. Commuters are going in later and leaving earlier, according to traffic data. With more flexible work arrangements, going to the office for only part of the day, or “coffee badging” is now common. more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/03/working-10-to-4-is-the-new-9-to-5-commuting-data-shows.html
September 25, 2024Sep 25 NSFW but funny "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 22, 2024Nov 22 There's no way to make car-dependent transportation affordable for everyone. Quote There are many misconceptions about unaffordability problems and potential solutions. The first is that automobile transportation can become affordable if governments minimize user costs such as fuel taxes, road tolls, parking fees, and insurance premiums. It cannot. Automobile travel incurs many costs so reducing individual costs provide only modest savings. For example, fuel represents about 20 percent of total vehicle expenses and in the U.S. taxes represent about 20 percent of fuel costs, so cutting fuel taxes in half would only reduce total fuel expenses by 2 percent and total vehicle costs by less than one percent. This indicates that many commonly proposed affordability strategies are token, they only provide small savings. To be substantial, affordability strategies must reduce a major portion of vehicle expenses including purchase, financing, insurance, and residential parking costs. https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/132752-planning-true-transportation-affordability-beyond-common-misconceptions Cities that pro-actively change their mindset and reduce lane-miles of roadway and surface parking, and heavily subsidize transit so that residents can meet their daily needs without a car, will more likely be affordable places to live.
January 4Jan 4 Traffic engineers need to take responsibility for their road and street designs: "In reality, the duty to prevent collisions should fall on the road engineers, car companies, and public officials who create the system in which people drive, bike, or walk—and not on road users themselves. By lumping everyone together, the phrase blurs that distinction, allowing those who can do the most to save lives to dodge accountability." Who’s really to blame—and who isn’t—for America’s traffic death epidemic Politicians love to say that ‘road safety is a shared responsibility,’ but the reality is that some groups have a much larger duty than others. https://www.fastcompany.com/91233037/whos-really-to-blame-and-who-isnt-for-americas-traffic-death-epidemic
January 28Jan 28 get ready for public transit to falter further here we go — Trump to name congestion pricing opponent Marc Molinaro to oversee transit By Jimmy Vielkind Published Jan 28, 2025 A former Republican congressman from the Hudson Valley and opponent of congestion pricing is in line to lead the federal agency that oversees mass transit. Marc Molinaro has had discussions with Trump administration officials about leading the Federal Transit Administration, according to people familiar with the matter. Part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the FTA oversees mass transit systems around the nation and disburses roughly $20 billion a year in grant funding. more: https://gothamist.com/news/trump-to-name-congestion-pricing-opponent-marc-molinaro-to-oversee-transit
May 4May 4 love a righteous rant —https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI606cnSGJi/?igsh=MTZvNm43aGJ0dmFvdg==
May 23May 23 On 1/28/2025 at 8:30 AM, mrnyc said:get ready for public transit to falter further here we go — Trump to name congestion pricing opponent Marc Molinaro to oversee transit By Jimmy VielkindPublished Jan 28, 2025 A former Republican congressman from the Hudson Valley and opponent of congestion pricing is in line to lead the federal agency that oversees mass transit. Marc Molinaro has had discussions with Trump administration officials about leading the Federal Transit Administration, according to people familiar with the matter. Part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the FTA oversees mass transit systems around the nation and disburses roughly $20 billion a year in grant funding. more:https://gothamist.com/news/trump-to-name-congestion-pricing-opponent-marc-molinaro-to-oversee-transit"“Transit oversight and funding is incredibly important to New York. The MTA moves 43% of Americans who use mass transit and we’re hopeful to get proportionate funding. We look forward to working with the new administration and its appointees,” MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick wrote in an email."Even I was surprised by this number.A Republican former Congressman who got the endorsement of the local transit workers union is probably not the worst choice one could get.
May 25May 25 On 5/23/2025 at 10:59 AM, E Rocc said:"“Transit oversight and funding is incredibly important to New York. The MTA moves 43% of Americans who use mass transit and we’re hopeful to get proportionate funding. We look forward to working with the new administration and its appointees,” MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick wrote in an email."Even I was surprised by this number.A Republican former Congressman who got the endorsement of the local transit workers union is probably not the worst choice one could get.not the worst? you mean because he will not cause trouble as dangerously incompetent trump tool duffy enacts their threatened massive cuts in mta fed funding?
May 27May 27 When was the last time you walked to a store or a park? I find that walking improves my mood, not just my physical health. But in much of America, you can't walk to anything nearby. You are forced to drive. That is not freedom...“The United States, with its enormous highways, sprawling suburbs and neglected public transport systems, is one of the most car-dependent countries in the world. But this arrangement of obligatory driving is making many Americans actively unhappy, new research has found.” Via @guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/29/extreme-car-dependency-unhappiness-americans "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
Create an account or sign in to comment