Tag / transit

by Adron

The Good News In Transit, The Private Sector

The original transit systems in the United States were all private sector. The passenger rail systems all over the United States were private sector. The US had transportation that was the envy of the world then!

It comes as no surprise then that the transit that is getting increases works with and for the private sector to get them involved. The private sector works with transit to get things moving.

Trimet in Portland is moving to increase service at the next schedule change, almost across the board. Seattle Streetcar is increasing service because of funding  from Amazon, Fred Hutch, and UW Medicine for rush hour service. I quote from the article,

“With several thousand additional employees moving into SLU this year, the employers are concerned that the cars are already pretty full during this timeframe and they want to be able to encourage as many employees as possible to take transit”

All over the country were the private sector is getting involved, Intercity Buses for example,  things are moving forward and actually happening. If our politicians can stay on track and actually work for the people and work with the private sector we can get this country put back together from the crumbling that is happening now. We may have no change to reclaim the industrial power house we were in the 1920-1950s, but we sure as hell can become a very livable and dynamic country.

by Adron

Wow, That Summarizes Metro’s Need to Get With The Program

Recently I posted an entry about how Metro just wasn’t holding up well with costs per ride.  Metro is an amazing system, considering, but Portland and many other cities are cheaper & more efficient at carrying riders to their destinations.  Making those systems a much better investment of the particular cities.  Hopefully Metro is getting on top of this problem to come up with some GOOD solutions, which doesn’t mean expanding expensive bus service or continuing to server long range outlying areas.  The cost efficiencies are not in serving the suburbs, which Metro does a LOT of these days.  Add Sound Transit, Sounder, and some of the other modes that serve the far outlying areas and you run into even HIGHER costs!

Here’s the article that recently just backed up my notion that Metro needs more light rail, more urban transit, more town center focus, and better all around town center structures that are people oriented.  Vancouver BC is proof, Portland is proof, and many other cities.  Seattle could easily cut their costs by a 1/5, possible even by a 1/3rd if they got after a very aggressive timeline in adding truly efficient transit options (light rail, urban walkability, and other such things are prime examples to help ridership & efficiencies).

Here’s a graph.

Wow, Light Rail is Cheap

Wow, Light Rail is Cheap

Some key links that show Metro IS at least heading the right direction.

by Adron

Transit Beer Seattle – 2011

4pm at Frontier Room on the 26th.  Tasty barbeque and beer too.

Of course, the main thing is we’ll be talking transit.  Seattle & all sorts of places.  So come on down and have a chit chat with us.

by Adron

How Many SOVs Don’t Need to be in Rush Hour?

Note:  SOV == Single Occupancy Vehicle, which is what about 98%+ of cars on the road are, one driver operating the vehicle on an inefficient trip to do X.

As I was sitting on the bus, which was actively removing over 90 people from SOV use I started thinking.  How many of these people do NOT need to be on the road?  How many people are confused and just think they need to be SOV?  How many of these people could take transit, could live in a better location or more intelligently?  How many of these people, if auto transport wasn’t so heavily subsidized, could even afford to be taking frivolous trips like this?  How much wealth redistribution through transportation dollars encourages needless trips that clog Interstates, Highways, arterials and other routes?  Not to even mention the environmental damage of the excess and unneeded trips.

Common Fallacies for People Living in Smart and Intelligent Cities

“I need a car because of X situation that I have!”

This is a nonsense argument for the vast majority of people traveling to and from work.  If X is a child, or a last minute errand to run on the way home, or other item that is an outlier situation to the normal commute.  So many people use this excuse and have not thought through their situation.

If you have a child all the more reason to encourage more intelligent, non-auto centric lifestyles.

If the child is sick or injures themselves at school, which is the often cited argument, it doesn’t hold up because if it is a big enough emergency you DO NOT and SHOULD NOT drive directly to them.  The emergency services in the United States are for that specific reason.  They’ll most likely get there before you and you’ll most likely endanger lives of those around you “hurrying” to get to your child.  If the child just needs picked up from school, in most cities there are a number of alternatives to you running to them and bringing them home.  There are taxies, zip car options, and more.  You just have to think without the absurdity of saying it is a necessity for you to maintain and keep an entire car just for the sole purpose of an emergency that may or may not happen.

If you’re excuse is even less, such as X being something like karate class or a meetup after work, then again the planning you have done is poor.  If you live in any decent city, if you’re traveling so far out of your way for a meetup that it requires a car you’ve grossly mismanaged your life.  Keep things close, keep things local to you, keep things within reasonable reach.

…and don’t just do these things because it’s more intelligent to use transit and be a more responsible member of society.  Do it because it servers YOU better.  Imagine not paying auto insurance, having a wide selection of cars at your disposal instead of JUST ONE (ZipCar, Rentals, etc), imagine no car payment, no maintenance, not paying for gas(ZipCar), not worrying about “parking” every time you go downtown, not having to step into the most dangerous mode of transport in the country.  Just imagine not having to deal with those things.  With a little thinking – in the good & smart cities in the US – you can get rid of these concerns and problems.  You can be a part of the citizenry that isn’t causing the problems associated with the sprawl.

…and I promise you, your life will be better lived for it.

Here are a few of the cities where people should and could drive less en masse.

  • Portland, OR
  • Seattle, WA
  • Chicago, IL (already a heavy transit usage city, but more could be done)
  • New York, NY (also already a heavy transit use city at over 50% of the city using transit, but again, there is more that could be done to get rid of frivolous and unneeded trips)
  • San Francisco, CA
  • Los Angeles, CA (transit is amazingly making a huge come back in LA)
  • San Diego, CA
  • Boston, MA
  • New Orleans, LA
  • Denver, CO
  • Miami, FL
  • Tacoma, WA
  • Sacramento, CA

All of these cities, and there are more too, are cities that offer enough transit, bike, and other alternatives that more people should really think through and look at options besides car ownership or leasing.  There are literally millions of trips per day, millions of gallons of fuel, millions of hours of congestion time, and millions of dollars to save if additional people just think through their lifestyle paradigms a little.

It doesn’t take much, just being smarter about your day.  I’m done with my transit rant of the day.  So help me though, if someone comes up with the above excuse again I’m gonna…

Live better, peace! – Transit Sleuth