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Welcome to the Transit Infrastructure & Urban Planning Politics thread! Thread Purpose First off: those of you with an encyclopedic and slightly disturbing degree of knowledge about the British railway system, the doors will be opening on your left into the Trainchat thread. Please remember to take all your belongings with you as you exit this thread. For everyone else who are interested in talking about the politics of cars/highways, trains/rail lines/subways (heavy and light), trams/streetcars, buses/bus lanes/trolleybuses/Bus Rapid Transit systems, bikes/bike lanes, sidewalks, ferries, airplanes/airports, and other pieces of vital infrastructure necessary for people to get where they want to go, you’re in the right place. Transit is also deeply intertwined with the ways cities, towns, and other parts of the ways we live are designed, so the politics of urban planning are also probably going to be discussed in this thread. Discussions of transit systems and transit politics around the globe are welcome, but for the next bit I’m going to focus on what’s happening with transit in America, because that’s what I’m most familiar with. Everything in this OP is just an intro from an amateur, not a professional, who isn’t employed and has never been employed by anyone working on transit infrastructure. Please feel free to get far nerdier if you want in the thread, and help rectify any serious errors in the OP, perhaps by posting in all caps. American Transit Infrastructure 101 To sum up a very complicated century very quickly, America at one point had plenty of public transit infrastructure that it then ripped out and replaced almost entirely with car-friendly infrastructure. Sometimes people banded together and said “Helllll no” (usually wealthy white people, coincidentally), but usually they just got their concerns…paved over.   While some people, i.e., anyone who’s ever watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit, love the idea that this was a grand conspiracy by General Motors, it was almost certainly a combination of factors, including that the infrastructure in question was never actually financially sound, the Great Depression happened, and all these great new roads made it super easy for white people to buy up cheap houses in suburbs that were suddenly within commuting distance, making it even easier to leave racial minorities behind in the inner city choking on whites’ economic dust. For the past few decades, due to a complex of factors that include the environmental movement, the collective realization that basing all transit on oil-guzzling machines makes you highly vulnerable to oil-exporting countries, people living in suburbs realizing that the suburbs are poo poo when it comes to doing anything other than raising kids, and urbanization simply demanding more public transit infrastructure, among a wide variety of things, public transit is coming back in America. Unfortunately, the past few decades also saw the American government taken over by a spectacularly successful anti-tax movement that has led to the degradation of all transit infrastructure, little by little, as it was slowly starved of the kinds of massive investment needed to keep everything in tip-top shape. Many components like bridges and highways are reaching the end of their natural planned lifespan, but just aren’t being replaced. The same holds true for public transit systems, many of which are simply unequipped to handle the kind of enormous urban audience that now depends on them to go wherever they need all day and all night. Technology is simultaneously changing the playing field in radical ways. Uber/Lyft/Hailo/etc. are busily destroying once-solid taxi monopolies, of course, (oh God please let this thread not be entirely people shitposting about ride-sharing apps  ), and the general idea of smartphone ride-hailing services may prove to be just the ticket for providing on-demand paratransit services, but even simple innovations like Google Maps can tell people exactly how to get places using public transit when it might have taken ages to build up the amount of knowledge necessary to use the system to its fullest extent. Large sums of money are necessary to keep existing public transit systems’ cores running safely, help new public transit systems expand into actual rapid transit networks, and ensure the rest of our transit infrastructure doesn’t completely fall into pieces while people are still using it. While the rebuilding is already ongoing in many places, in others the kind of expansion of services people want and/or deem necessary is going to mean a referendum on their local ballot this November. Developments in Public Transit Infrastructure/Urban Planning in North America These are mostly focused on subways and light rail because I only have so much time in the day, sorry bus/BRT fiends~ Sometimes maps are linked, ideally showing where construction is ongoing. I’ll be adding more later. Massive West Coast and Midwest Transit System Expansions A number of cities went gaga for transit a few years ago and their grand plans are finally coming to fruition. - Honolulu is currently building out an automated elevated rail-line that will connect it with its central airport and its western suburbs. Half the system will open in 2018, the next half in 2019, but the project experiencing the usual cost overruns that are making people loudly tsk. O’ahu, the most heavily populated Hawaiian island, is also sufficiently small that advocates are currently dreaming of the system expanding to cover the entire island, but dreaming is free.  - Denver is almost done building out a truly massive expansion of its public transit system that includes finally linking its far-out airport to its downtown. Particularly impressive because Denver is out in Midwestern Sprawl Country, but much of its expansion includes fast-moving heavy rail. The expansion includes ambitious future plans to finish a rail line from Denver to its 2nd largest city of Boulder that are shovel-ready as soon as they can get their hands on some federal cash.  - Ottawa is finally expanding its adorable little light rail, with service on its Confederation Line scheduled to open in 2018. So cute. Even more awesome-ly: Ottawans sometimes commute to work by ice-skating on the frozen river. Someone has suggested the possibility of turning this into an official skateway system.  - Los Angeles: Best known as one of the literal embodiments of Car Hell, LA finally opened the beginnings of its Metro Rail system in 1990, and the system continues to undergo relatively (for the United States) massive and rapid expansion. An extension of the Gold Line from Azusa to Downtown was just opened a few weeks ago, and is already seeing big ridership numbers, the first train to run through downtown Santa Monica in over 50 years will be opening for business this May, a light rail connecting the Expo Line to the Green Line is under construction to open in 2019, the Blue, Gold, and Expo lines will all be linked together downtown in 2020, the Purple Line is getting extended to La Cienega to open in 2023 — it’s all coming together, and there’s more where that came from if voters renew Measure R in November. Which, like all parts of the state of California when local taxes need to be raised, requires at least 66% voting in favor.   - Seattle: Another fresh young face on the block, the Seattle system just opened its Capitol Hill and University of Washington stations, with a 1.6 mile/2.6km southern extension to Angle Lake opening in September and expanding even further north to open in 2021. It still really only has a single, long North-South line, though, and expanding further into Bellevue, West Seattle, Everett, and Tacoma will voters to approve the Sound Transit 3 referendum this November.   - Salt Lake City: The TRAX system opened in 1999 just in time for the Winter Olympics. Everyone loved it so much that they’ve had the whole thing dramatically expanded with three lines, a streetcar, and commuter train up and running within thirteen years. The latest FrontLines 2015 program finished $300 million under budget and two years ahead of schedule. The desire for more TRAX has since cooled somewhat though, and it looks as though the system may need more time for the city to expand first to adequately justify further expansion.  - Portland opened its shiny new Orange Line last September, which includes the first bridge to span the Willamette River in decades. And don’t worry Portlanders — no cars allowed, just cyclists, pedestrians, and public transit.  - San Francisco: The BART system used to be the most advanced in the country when it was built. It has since been discovered that expanding your system all the way into San Jose (see next paragraph) rather than, say, ensure the core of your system is adequately maintained is a bad idea when your system relies on specialty parts that need to be custom-ordered. The system also definitely wasn’t designed for the kind of ridership that’s come from SF turning into the center of the global tech industry. Luckily, the new fiscal year beginning in July will see capital improvement projects focusing on upgrading train control systems and getting new rail cars — but there’s still a long way to go. Construction continues on the Warm Springs/South Fremont station, to open later this year, with stations in Milpitas and Berryessa to open in 2018 and proposed stations in downtown San Jose and Santa Clara projected to open in 2025. - Houston: The brand-new METRORail system just opened its doors with a North-South line opening in 2013 and two East-West lines opening last May. While two more shovel-ready lines were ready to go, funding evaporated and at least one has since been replaced with a BRT plan to open in 2017.  - Atlanta: Fun facts: Seattle turned down a boatload of federal funds back in the day to build a subway so that way undesirables wouldn’t be able to move around the area. All those earmarked funds have to go somewhere, though, so they went to Atlanta, where the MARTA system now struggles to wrassle the counties surrounding Atlanta into providing the system with funding. …they finally just gave up and are defaulting to a referendum on a half-penny sales tax increase within city limits that can only fund transit projects inside city limits,  as well as another that would expand MARTA service. Fulton County is also having a sales tax referendum, but it currently intends to put the $568 million towards everything but MARTA.  Honestly I’m a little out of my depth on all the local politics, but the point is that MARTA and Atlanta continue to do everything in their power to increase service and expand the system. - California High Speed Rail: Construction is ongoing on a high speed rail line at 220mph (350km/h) between Sacramento, San Francisco, LA, and San Diego. Phase 1 is currently under construction between San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim, with the system projected to be complete around 2029hahahahahahhahahahahahhahaha see ya in 2050 kids. Also being rolled around on the planning floor: the XpressWest train from Las Vegas to Victorville will eventually connect to this system with the High Desert Corridor from Palmdale to Victorville. Despite my cynicism and the inevitable delays and cost overruns a project on this magnitude will inevitably incur, I have to say, the long-term vision is extremely compelling, and will hopefully prevent anything like the Northeastern Corridor nightmare from ever emerging. And then we’ll link it up with Portland, and Seattle and Vancouver and Juneau and  - Texas High Speed Rail: Currently in the most basic planning stages between Dallas and Houston, and very likely to be shot dead on sight as area Texans begin to realize that some sort of infrastructure threatens to exist in their state, possibly with TAX DOLLARS or EMINENT DOMAIN?!?!  (It's actually entirely privately funded, TxDOT is projecting the cost at $10 billion for what that's worth.) - Minneapolis/St.Paul: With a fresh new East-West light-rail line open as of June 2014 connecting Minneapolis to St. Paul and now supplementing its older North-South line connecting Minneapolis to its airport and the Mall of America, the system now has major extensions planned for both lines, to open in 2020 and 2021.  East Coast Systems Are Falling Apart (And Sometimes Also Trying to Expand Simultaneously) Old systems didn’t get maintained and/or expanded too fast. The results aren’t pretty. - New York City: The NYC system is the most used in the continent, is on par with public transit in global international cities, and, for all its unbelievable incredibleness, still needs massive technological upgrades, the completion of the unbelievably expensive Second Av. Subway to relieve pressure on the enormously overburdened 4, 5, and 6 lines that singlehandedly serve the entire East Side of Manhattan, and the connection of the the many spoke lines that reach out into Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. Meanwhile, de Blasio is busy promoting a light rail system along the coast of Brooklyn to provide service that’s already made redundant by existing subway services, the new WTC PATH Transportation Hub cost $3.74 billion, and opening a single new station, 1.5 miles/2.4km of track, was proposed in 2005, started construction in 2007, and opened in September 2015 at a cost of $2.4 billion. (The system is also legendary for its NYC/State Government budgetary slapfights.) Ugh. The NYC system in a nutshell: it’s amazing and still uses paper tickets.  - Baltimore: With an North-South light rail and a East-West subway line, the Baltimore system has gotten plenty of attention as of late for Maryland’s Governor Hogan cancelling the Red Line light rail last June and, whoops, entirely forgetting to put Baltimore on its map for future transit investment, which was going to all of Maryland's highways and roads instead! Yay!!  - Boston is a total shitshow right now, expanding its weekend evening service a few years ago only to throw it away. An extension of the unbearably slow Green Line up into Somerville is also a long time coming. On the bright side, the recent re-opening of the central Government Center station has been years in the making, and its modernist glass structure allows for excellent views of the ugliest City Hall in American history. - Toronto’s system is really overcrowded and is desperately trying to expand, various factors that include local politics and funding issues are holding up its planning process though(?).  - Washington DC: Even as the system’s Silver Line continues to extend out to Dulles Airport and beyond, the core system continues to suffer from a profound lack of maintenance caused by fundamental design flaws and a general lack of investment in that department. The system is also uniquely burdened by its lack of federal funding, instead squeezing cash out of the District of Columbia and the many counties that surround it. The fights over who provides what are legendary, and have ensured that the Metro system has almost never had the highly reliable stream of funds necessary to make all that fun maintenance work possible. Then people started dying and things got serious. The system has recently hired a new General Manager after literally years of interviewing people (and then almost hiring someone who then got a really good look at the system and backed out), and he seems to be actually interested in solving problems, maybe, so we’ll see. Maryland is also busy building out a light rail system to connect the U-shaped ends of the DC Red Line on its dime, but that won't be ready until 2022.  (To summon the General Manager of the system, look in a mirror in the dark in a room filled with smoke and say the words “Safety Culture” three times.) - Amtrak Acela Express: Once at least pretending to be “high speed”, the Acela line has deteriorated so profoundly that it now runs at speeds comparable to its normal Boston-DC routes. I could write make an entire thread about the woes of Amtrak itself, forced to run highly unprofitable rural routes while its core system suffers, leaving both sides of the aisle to fling mud at the company (and each other, natch), but I’ll let you all hash out the long history of Amtrak and What Needs to Be Done in the thread. Suffice to say that the US can barely run even a conventional train line through one of the most densely populated areas on the planet, and that kind of says everything that really needs to be said. Other North American Systems As far as I know these systems aren’t in crisis or aren’t making really huge expansion moves. Or, to be far more honest: I just don’t really know that much about them.  Trust me, that’s usually a very good thing. If your transit system has attracted my interest, it’s probably because it’s in crisis. - Dallas/Ft. Worth: The DART system has had its share of success, with new lines and extensions opening to great fanfare within the past five years, but the ambitious 2010 plan that would have expanded it even further from now until 2030 has since been almost entirely scrapped. - Vancouver has an entirely automated system that’s extremely focused on using a feeder system to bus people to stations rather than trying to coat the entire city in expensive heavy rail. Last year’s transit referendum would have allowed a major expansion of the system, but it was overwhelmingly defeated. - Montréal’s subway is generally operational as far as I know. It plans to expand its Blue Line with five stations with federal funds. - Mexico City’s subway has the second-largest ridership in North America, and shouldn’t be underestimated. Its shiny new Line 12 is going to be expanded to connect with Line 1, but I haven’t seen any official planning docs or timelines on that yet. Fun facts: the system uses pictograms for each station because of the low literacy rates back when it was built. - Philadelphia: Despite the extensiveness of the SEPTA system, I don’t actually know that much about it.  They’re currently operating a major rebuilding program that includes buying new trains, opening a new commuter rail station, and various station upgrades and maintenance work.- Chicago: The famous L! I honestly don’t know much about it, but parts of it run 24 hours a day and has more than three tracks so it’s practically a miracle as far as I’m concerned. Sorry Chicagoans, please feel free to educate me further. - Monterrey: The ninth-largest city in Mexico apparently has quite the successful rapid transit system, with the 7th largest annual ridership in the continent. It’s a basic two-line N-S, E-W system, with a new third line stalled without federal financing for its final eight stations and still awaiting its railcars. With the infrastructure 90% complete, however, it’ll likely open some time in 2017. - St. Louis: A simple two-line light-rail system. Also not very familiar with it. International Developments Projects like the UK’s High Speed 2, London’s Crossrail system, the Grand Paris Express metro expansion, Japan’s Shinkansen expansions, and China’s, well, everything, among the many, many, other systems being created, expanded, and maintained worldwide, are displays of commitments to transit infrastructure that mostly just make me insanely jealous. Ongoing Issues in the Transit Infrastructure & Urban Planning Community Automation: The prospect of ending transit strikes and increasing system capacity with automated trains is enormously attractive, but requires the kind of technological upgrades that never come cheap. Automated buses and, of course, automated cars, are still works in progress, obviously. Fiscal and Organizational Management: The drama of local politics is suddenly taken to new heights around the hundreds of millions of dollars that tend to come into play around transit infrastructure projects. The basic question of How the Hell Do We Make It All Work continues to entertain and horrify weird politics and transit wonks worldwide. Speaking of which… The Construction Money Mystery When it comes to transit construction costs in the US, it takes enormous, and I mean enormous amounts of money per mile, and despite many a think-piece, no one is quite sure why. But they have lots of guesses. And, of course: Local Political Smackdowns/Community Outreach: Lord hath no fury like a NIMBYist or a transit guru who feels they haven’t been adequately consulted and/or allowed to run the transit system all by themselves because they are just such amazing geniuses. Accessibility: Numerous stations on most transit systems badly need expensive upgrades to make them accessible to the disabled, and every transit system inevitably needs to take into account the need to provide paratransit services. Everything Old Is New Again: Trams, buses, and light rail are back in fashion in a major way, with Bus Rapid Transit systems and streetcars being planned and deployed willy-nilly — often without the elements necessary to make them a success, like, say, dedicated lanes to not make them just another bus in traffic, on-station fare payment systems to reduce dwell times, etc. But who could have possibly foreseen local politicians eagerly grabbing available funds to throw at shiny public projects?!  Weird, Fun Ideas: Gondolas! Hot air balloons!! Blimps!!! Elevators! because we’ll be living in arcologies 100 stories high!!! HYPERLOOP!!!!!!! HYYYYYPERRRRRRRLOOOOOOOOOP …hey, PopSci’s gotta run something on their covers. Gentrification, Income Inequality, and Segregation: This could be its own thread, but these economic, social, and racial issues are a major part of today's urban planning and transit projects and politics. I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention that this is kind of a big deal right now, since urban planning and transit have traditionally acted as powerful tools that reshaped America into discrete, segregated pockets. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx has personally championed using "opportunity" as a metric in judging projects that are up for federal funding, but there's still a long way to go in facilitating social and economic opportunity via transit in many cities. Media To Consume With Your Eyeballs Open to suggestions. Books - I’ve heard good things about - Zachary Schrag’s history of the DC Metro, The Great Subway Society, - bus frequency fiend Jarrett Walker’s Human Transit: How Clear Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives, and - Taras Grescoe’s Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile, but I’ve been super busy and haven’t been able to read them yet. Movies - Presumably they exist?  Websites Every city has at least one transit junkie with a website, but some are particularly notable. Under construction. I have a lot of links, but want to do them justice. Additional Maps/Transit Pix Under construction. Combed Thunderclap fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Apr 1, 2016 |
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Apr 1, 2016 07:21
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Saved for future single-grade OP extension near areas of high posting density.
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Apr 1, 2016 07:21
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The Maroon Hawk posted:Thanks for this, I don't have much to contribute but I'll enjoy reading it. You're very welcome! Also the Denver metro area is a wonderful, affordable place and I'm so happy it's about to become even more accessible for so many thousands of people!  Popular Thug Drink posted:MARTA sucks but it's not their fault - they're one of the most cost effective transit systems just from their perpetual shoestring budget I wish there was a transit system index for cost-effectiveness out there somewhere, that'd be a really interesting metric. Thanks for the local politics input. Also I guess they're better than nothing but the amount of funding that gets poured into building HOV lanes really gets me riled up. Argh
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Apr 1, 2016 08:12
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Are you a Bad Enough Dude/game designer to turn Robert Moses into an immortal machine? Prizes that include wild fame and $2k are up for grabs. Which reminds me to add links to games to the OP, ideally without wasting a good hour or so playing the delightful Mini Metro. As well as info on more systems, of course. I can't believe I forgot Morgantown and its legendary PRT system.
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Apr 1, 2016 15:29
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Warcabbit posted:I'm actually really interested in how a 10+ year old autonomous vehicle will behave, especially in inspection-less states. There really is just so much policy work and infrastructure work that needs to be done before automation's possible that it really will take a while. Including the basic fact that many American roads are so bad that they're not machine readable, which I find darkly hilarious: quote:Volvo's North American CEO, Lex Kerssemakers, lost his cool as the automaker's semi-autonomous prototype sporadically refused to drive itself during a press event at the Los Angeles Auto Show. seiferguy posted:The big issue with ST3 is that it will take forever to build because of the scale and the amount of time it will take to collect enough money to fund the initial parts. The completion date would probably be around when I retire, and I'm not even into my 30s yet Getting the infrastructure pipeline going until you constantly have plans under construction, funded and non-funded projects ready for construction, and areas under study to become projects takes a long, long time and can easily get tripped up by different projects getting their timelines shifted really fast. The downside of the UW/Capitol Hill station openings was people waking up to the fact that it's going to be ages before there's light rail into key neighborhoods like West Seattle. On the bright side, places like Salt Lake City had a similar wake-up call and really got things moving fast, and even places like LA eventually created an efficient conveyor belt of transit projects (that may or may not get jammed by the Measure R renewal referendum), so at least from an outsider's perspective it doesn't feel impossible that Seattle won't get its act together too eventually. 
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Apr 1, 2016 19:20
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Grand Theft Autobot posted:On the one hand, I agree that this thing is expensive, and I dislike very much the idea of building a BRT just to secure development along the line. I also understand that suburbanites probably aren't going to ride this thing. But still, goddamn, they have some hilariously racist and dramatic ways of explaining why they don't want a loving bus line. "What you've proposed is provably mediocre but it's making everyone panic so hard that it basically guarantees this is the best project for the area we're going to get for another decade or two," said every American transit advocate, a single tear rolling down their cheek as they tried to force a smile by thinking about rezoning senior citizen NIMBYists' neighborhoods for high-density development the second they finally drop dead. mastershakeman posted:I'll post more on Chicago later, but it's in a weird spot right now where service cuts six years ago and the white dinc push back into the city has resulted in a third of the city riding on maxed out infrastructure while the rest of it is underserved. Thanks for the input and links, posts on the situation in Chicago are greatly appreciated since it's such a massive system but I know next to nothing about the local politics. Also, $30-35 for a single ride on an express train to O'Hare? Don't even bother with the cost-benefit calculations, absolutely anyone can tell you how ridiculous that is right off the bat.
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Apr 2, 2016 04:42
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This is a good overview of current high-speed rail plans in Southeast Asia. (It's basically an all-out industrial war between China and Japan.)
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Apr 3, 2016 20:52
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donoteat posted:Would anyone be interested in an in-depth post series about SEPTA (America's worst greatest transit system)? I'd be very interested! Goons' in-depth posts about their local transit systems are greatly appreciated and I'll consider directly linking to them in the OP. 
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Apr 6, 2016 16:33
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quote:“This is the irony: The majority of whites in Atlanta wanted to be isolated when they thought about public transportation,” says historian Kevin Kruse. “As a result, they have been in their cars on 75 and 85. They got what they wanted. They are safe in their own space. They’re just not moving anywhere.” The saddest of schadenfreudes
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Apr 6, 2016 22:53
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To combine Grey Fox posted:More great transit news out of DC sillyloquy posted:#RainingIndoors quote:For years Metro has known a Red Line tunnel in Bethesda has been leaking, causing service problems between the Friendship Heights and Grosvenor-Strathmore stations. Repairs were scheduled to begin next year, but now Metro spokesperson Sherri Ly says an estimated $12.2 million project to fix the problem has been canceled. “We are in the process of evaluating our options to address the water infiltration issues on the Red Line,” Ly said Thursday in an email to Bethesda Beat. Link
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Apr 8, 2016 17:47
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donoteat posted:
Also this is awesome, and I'd like to humbly submit a request for "The Gang Builds a Tunnel" and/or "The Gang Gets Rid of Tokens" because I'm beginning to take a sick delight in just how badly transit projects can fail (  ) and nothing seems to fail more spectacularly than the multi-year processes of A) tunneling (see: Big Dig) or B) transitioning payment methods (see: Melbourne's $1.5 billion myki debacle)
Combed Thunderclap fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Apr 8, 2016 |
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Apr 8, 2016 17:50
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-Troika- posted:Why the hell do most transit projects have to file environmental impact anythings anyways. 99% of them are going through urban areas where there is no environment to speak of other than grassy medians and some trees. My impression is that if it's federally funded it's getting an environmental impact statement no matter what, yee haw and say thanks to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. EDIT: And yeah that's definitely a good thing, no way to know what kind of environmental impact you're going to have without one and these big infrastructure projects tend to interact with the environment in novel and exciting ways we'd like to know about in advance.
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Apr 8, 2016 18:28
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Amtrak woes continue, with a cameo appearance by Philly's similar traincar troubles:quote:A Japanese company hired to build new passenger railcars for regional Amtrak service has fallen years behind schedule and likely won’t complete the order before federal funding expires. In happier news, Paris continues to make itself increasingly pedestrian oriented: quote:Last year, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo promised to makeover seven major Parisian squares. This March, following a public consultation, Paris City Hall came up with the goods, providing detailed plans that will transform these famous, beautiful spaces in the period between now and 2020. Pretty       
Combed Thunderclap fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 00:40
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Just off the top of my head, people sometimes get pissy about elevated rail in dense areas because they tend to block out sunlight and alter the downtown's aesthetics, both of which are usually already at a premium in skyscraper territory. (I mention this because I just talked with someone who complained about it when they visited Chicago's downtown  )
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Apr 18, 2016 15:58
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The Pyongyang Metro is apparently now entirely open to tourist groups! (Beforehand only two metro stations were open, so you'd get on at one stop and then get off at the next station.) Highly recommended that you check it out, the photographs and captions are very detailed. Fun facts from the article: - If you thought your railcars were bad, Pyongyang's are literally taken off the too-old-for-service scrap heap from Berlin. - There's almost certainly a secret rail line used exclusively by the government, given that North Korea purchased twice the necessary number of railcars. - This is definitely a new policy because the North Koreans at the newly accessible stations are very freaked out.
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Apr 22, 2016 18:29
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La Caisse (The Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund) created an infrastructure group last summer, and it looks like we now know why: they really really really wanna build a light rail line that connects Montréal's far western and far eastern suburbs and airport to downtown, both of which have been rather neglected by the current Métro system. The Deets: - Fully automated, Vancouver-style - Total cost: $5.5 billion CDN, of which La Caisse is ready to put up $3 billion.  - Construction projected to start spring 2017, grand opening in 2020 (this is very aggressive)- Planned operation hours of 5 AM to 1 AM every day. [Link to press release] [Link to Radio Canada story en français, désolé mes petites anglophoniques]  
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Apr 22, 2016 23:16
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PT6A posted:Every airport in a major city should be reachable by metro or light rail, in my opinion. Oh poo poo I forgot Denver International Airport now has a train connection to downtown! https://twitter.com/SenBennetCO/status/723565710081953792 EDIT: Also, in the case of Montréal, the YUL bus to downtown is actually pretty fast and good, which might be why it's been so long since a real rail option was floated. Still freakin' ridiculous that places like DC's Dulles will have existed from 1962 to 2020 without a rail link while handling millions of passengers but that's car life for you 
Combed Thunderclap fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Apr 23, 2016 |
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Apr 23, 2016 00:32
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mastershakeman posted:Out of curiosity, are there any studies about optimum distance between train (or bus) stops, or density to support a stop? On the lines I ride in Chicago a few stops keep being discussed to remove from the light rail, and one's being added to the heavy rail which I think is a bad idea. Absolutely loads of them. Just from a quick search, this paper argues that bus stops in particular are best spaced roughly 4 to 5 stops every mile (in busy urban corridors), but there are many different models that are designed to give answers appropriate to the unique situation in which they are deployed (taking into account congestion, network frequency, dwell time, rider demand, etc.). When it comes to the density argument, it's difficult to tackle because you can just as easily argue for a spot popping up in a place where there's no demand (time to get development going and create more network-connected housing!) as there is extant demand (meet residents' transit needs!) etc. Regardless, here's a good paper discussing these so-called infill stations and how their need is calculated, which are often great ways to squeeze relatively cheap stations out of existing systems. Which new station in Chicago are you interested in? EDIT: The humantransit.org link talks about station distances way simpler. 
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May 2, 2016 06:43
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PT6A posted:On those busy urban corridors, is it best to have 4-5 stops per mile on separate routes (which may overlap significantly), or 4-5 stops per mile on the same route? I'd say that depends on how radically different the routes end up being and the needs of the people who ride each of them, although the Furth and Rahbee paper I linked seemed to indicate that they were assuming 4-5 stops per mile on the same route. Having even more than 4-5 stops per mile total spread across separate routes could potentially increase efficiency, obviously. quote:If it's all on the same route, that would drive me bonkers Ahahahaha. The American standard is 7-10 stops per mile on the same bus route. 
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May 2, 2016 07:08
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PT6A posted:Good lord, the bus must spend more time stopped than moving. All to save 200m walking? I believe optimal locations are simply prioritized over optimal spacing in many cases. Some American systems have adopted express buses with about 2 stops every mile and longer spacing, though, don't think us completely screwy nincompoops 
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May 2, 2016 07:19
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PT6A posted:That makes sense, I suppose. I'm not entirely clear about why there'd be that quantity of optimal locations, mind you. I often get the impression that these "optimal locations" are based off of someone calculating/chooses what they consider to be optimal locations a couple decades ago. Then these just get stuck in place forever because making buses faster isn't made a top priority, especially if it comes at the short-term expense of local riders who kick up a fuss whenever they try to remove a stop. No wonder US "BRT" systems are treated like they're the second coming, just the act of having bus stops spaced out that far is considered a revolution, let alone making the bus stops actually look nice and have canopies and whatnot. (  if this means they're going to try to reduce dwell times or put in bus lanes though, let's not go crazy with the moolah here)Each and every stop location being announced is standard in my local bus system, it's definitely essential!
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May 2, 2016 07:32
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Happy 100th birthday, Jane Jacobs!   So cute  EDIT: Even more articles about Jacobs and her legacy can be found here. Combed Thunderclap fucked around with this message at 18:27 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 18:24
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Fun poo poo continues to go down regarding the Washington DC Metro system: Yesterday the new General Manager finally released The Big Plan To Unfuck Metro, which involves ending Friday and Saturday late-night service, initiating maintenance at 8 PM instead of midnight, and a bunch of localized system overhauls that will involve parts of the system either being shut down altogether or experiencing major reductions in service for up to a month at a time. People are pissed, but are generally willing to put up with it since this is going to compress three years' worth of repair work into a single year and make the system less likely to randomly catch on fire. Which is what happened this Thursday. https://twitter.com/IsMetroOnFire/status/728349308509003776 Oops. As it turns out, Metro's response was to send someone out to take a look at the part of the track that exploded, called it OK, and kept running trains as though everything was fine. The same section of track caught on fire again later in the day, and they finally closed the station. Everyone discovered these events this morning, when the Federal Transit Administration reported all this and completely lost its poo poo, issuing a bunch of emergency directives that include retraining all staff in basic safety procedures by May 16th and threatening to shut down the entire system if Metro doesn't cooperate. (Or, worse, with withholding funding!) For more on why the Metro system is so unbelievably hosed up, see this link (or just ask and a thread Goon will be on hand to assist you shortly). To sum it all up very simply: the system has been operating from the start to be severely over reliant on automation to keep the system safe, and rushed construction (out of a fear of the funding vanishing up Congress's DC-hating rear end) resulted in a number of structural flaws that have yet to be resolved and basically make parts of the system leak all the time. EDIT: Also the entire governance structure of the system is basically a complete fragmented nightmare between a bunch of different entities, all of which want to contribute as little money as humanly possible to keeping the system running. Combed Thunderclap fucked around with this message at 19:35 on May 7, 2016 |
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May 7, 2016 19:32
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Casual Yogurt posted:LA's up to 105 miles of Metro Rail. Another 15 miles under construction. Woohoo! Congrats to LA! With the Expo Line Part 2 open as of today,, Santa Monica once again has a rail link to downtown LA for the first time since the streetcar link shut down in 1953. The link above is to a post by LA Metro discussing all the details of the project on their blog, The Source, which is just generally a good read since they're constantly posting interesting stuff about the transit projects and real problems facing public transport in the region. A good example of public communications by a transit agency done right.
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May 20, 2016 22:55
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Ardennes posted:Granted, it always seem that the core issue boiled down to cash not mismanagement. I mean it is expected heads are going to roll but I don't think it is the core of the dysfunction. Cash might be the core of the initial cause but I'm not sure the dysfunction really has a core anymore. Roughly $5 billion's been spent exclusively on unfucking Metro over the past four years and it's still spontaneously combusting. The GM's apparent commitment to a genuinely multifaceted assault on that dysfunction continues to prove encouraging, at least.
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May 21, 2016 00:41
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Politico's published a great overview of the recent history of transit in Denver, including all the political deals and business coalition-building that made FastTracks happen.
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May 21, 2016 07:57
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The ULink extension in Seattle is kicking rear end, with the latest ridership figures at record highs and trips proving to be faster than expected. Meanwhile, transit blogger Anton Dubrau gives a serious critique to the Caisse's plan for light rail in Montréal, arguing that its capacity is way too small to be able to handle the amount of traffic it's going to get connecting to so many commuter rail lines. (I admit I had the same thought initially, the plan's trying to link up so many areas that it resembles the map for Boston's Green Line trolleys, which are so slow you can outrun them.)
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May 22, 2016 19:17
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Mark Evans has created a tool that visualizes the data contained in the American Community Survey that pertains to someone's home and work locations and how they get there. The point: MAKE ME GIFS All of the different colors represent different counties where the commuter in question works: Los Angeles, commutes of 20-100 miles:  NYC, commutes of 100-300 miles:  Washtenaw, MI, commutes of 0-100 miles:  Washington, DC, commutes of 20-100 miles:  Fairfax County, VA, commutes of 20-100 miles: 
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May 25, 2016 18:07
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Absurd Alhazred posted:You're telling me that people commute to NYC all the way from Buffalo!? Maybe New Yorkers know more about how plausible this is, but I'm sure those are people who just put down "I live in Buffalo" and "I work in NYC" and bam, they're in the dataset. It isn't impossible if you commute back home for the weekend or are a jetsetter, maybe?
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May 25, 2016 21:48
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May 26, 2016 15:35
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The Kansas City Streetcar is thriving! Hopefully it'll be the start of the public transit bug that similarly bit non-coastal cities like Denver and Salt Lake City. quote:During the 27 days of operation since the streetcar made its debut on May 6, total ridership has reached 173,751 as of Wednesday. Friday will be the four-week anniversary of the streetcar. Meanwhile, out in the Swiss Alps, the Gotthard Base Tunnel has opened after 20 years of construction, shaving an hour off the Zürich-Milan route after it opens for passenger rail in December, and, most significantly, enormously increasing the area's freight rail capacity so it can take roughly a million trucks a year off roads. Next door, France has created a kind of grading system for cars where you can get certain benefits if your car doesn't pollute. The new markings will be mandatory for older cars in Paris, as the city will begin to ban all cars created before 1997 during the weekday. [link en français] [English link] It seems inevitable that these little stickers will eventually become mandatory and then you can impose more disincentives and incentives for different categories.
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Jun 2, 2016 22:57
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Neon Belly posted:Does that streetcar not have a dedicated lane? Funny you mention it, a Twitter spat almost immediately broke out re: this story about how obviously dedicated lanes aren't necessary for a successful system  and then how they still are important!!  etc etc.I personally think it's obvious they aren't needed for a working system. An optimal system on the other hand...
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Jun 3, 2016 01:56
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Happy 20th anniversary, DART! (Dallas's light rail system) This great piece celebrating the anniversary also provides a good overview of the system's history and future, and how it has and hasn't impacted transit in Dallas.
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Jun 14, 2016 15:37
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Columbus, Ohio has won a total of $140 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Smart City Challenge! This is also an excellent opportunity for tech companies like Alphabet to begin circling around the freshly acquired funds. The Guardian offers a look inside what their urban planning division, Sidewalk Labs, has been up to, and while like usual they're sounding the alarm about Those Dangerous Tech Companies! their plan to shift people onto ride-sharing services does seem...suspect.
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Jun 27, 2016 22:40
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FISHMANPET posted:No no no, NYC is absolutely exceptional in its 4 track layout. Nobody was short sighted building WMATA as a 2 track system. 2 tracks is standard practice throughout the world. Yeah, Paris runs (roughly) 5:30 AM to 12:40 AM every single day (and until 1:40 AM on Fridays and Saturdays and days before a holiday) and has insane frequency and a massive network. They only use 2 tracks and somehow manage to get their maintenance done (and not have things on fire, most of the time). More tracks are useful, but they aren't representative of system resilience.
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Oct 12, 2016 18:13
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Cock Democracy posted:I've had this idea that if I were in charge of Metro, I'd just shut the whole rail system down immediately, and do as much maintenance catch-up work as possible until DC, MD and VA agree to give it regular funding. Two birds, one stone. Pretty sure this is the glorious fantasy of any public transit enthusiast, which lasts exactly as long as it takes to remember the economic impact on people who really can't afford it. New NYT story about the slow degradation of the New Jersey transit system. Christie deserves every ounce of pain that's coming his way.
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Oct 13, 2016 19:36
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:One point about automation: I love systems that have designated gates only for tap-systems. DC does not, so in tourist season it sucked when I was trying to get to work, and all four inbound gates in front of me are tied up by multiple members of the Swenson clan of North Dakota who spread out across all lanes trying to figure out which slot their paper card goes into so they can get over to the Smithsonian. Hope I can make your day by saying that DC has obsoleted paper tickets, so the Swenson clan will be able to get on their merry way much quicker.
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Oct 18, 2016 19:04
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I want to get off the DC Metro's wild death spiral ridequote:Under Wiedefeld’s proposed fare increases, bus fares would rise 25 cents, to $2 per ride. For rail passengers, the minimum and maximum fares would increase to $2.25 and $6 respectively — up from $2.15 and $5.90. Off-peak trip fares on Metro would increase 25 cents, while peak-trip fares would increase a dime. The cost of daily parking would also increase by 10 cents.
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Oct 30, 2016 18:25
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This thread desperately needs at least one post on the SEPTA strike, currently in its 6th day. Negotiations are ongoing today. SEPTA Regional Rail and suburban transit buses/trolleys are not affected. An attempt at an injunction to stop the strike on Friday on the grounds of public welfare yesterday failed; the current top concern is surrounding SEPTA functioning on Election Day. The PAC My Ride to Vote has raised sufficient funds to partner with Uber, Lyft, and Zipcar to offer free rides to the polls for all in Pennsylvania using the code VOTEPA. My understanding of the situation is that the union is seeking to discuss pension and health benefits, bathroom breaks, and operating fatigue, but as always information is somewhat vague during these internal negotiations. If anyone knows more, please feel free to chime in.
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Nov 6, 2016 22:01
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The SEPTA strike is over, just in time for the system to once more be fully operational by Election Day. Speaking of which... U.S. ELECTION DAY MEGA-POST Here's what's on the ballot tomorrow in the way of transit referenda: Los Angeles Measure M GIF of present system and future projects:  Funding mechanism: permanent 0.5% increase in Los Angeles County sales tax (in addition to current 0.5% transit sales tax) Cost of new projects/amount funded: $120 billion Required vote percentage to pass: 66% Detroit  Funding mechanism: 20-year 1.2 millage ($1.20 property tax for every $1,000 of taxable value of a home) Cost of new projects/amount funded: $4.74 billion Required vote percentage to pass: 50% Seattle Sound Transit 3  Funding mechanism: 0.5% sales tax, 0.8% motor vehicle excise tax, property tax of $0.25/$1,000 of assessed valuation Cost of new projects/amount funded: $53.8 billion Required vote percentage to pass: 50% Atlanta  Funding mechanism: 0.5% sales tax Cost of new projects/amount funded: $2.5 billion in first 40 years Required vote percentage to pass: 50% Raleigh     Funding mechanism: 0.5% sales tax Cost of new projects/amount funded: $2.3 billion in first 10 years Required vote percentage to pass: 50% San Francisco This is a BART maintenance project that would upgrade and repair stations, tracks, tunnels, electrical power systems, train control systems, and other infrastructure. Funding mechanism: levied bonds; tax of $2.02 per $100,000 of assessed valuation that would rise to $17.49 per $100,000 of assessed valuation by 2035 Cost of new projects/amount funded: $3.5 billion Required vote percentage to pass: 66% Indianapolis   Funding mechanism: income tax of 0.25% Cost of new projects: $390 million Required vote percentage to pass: 50% Combed Thunderclap fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Nov 7, 2016 |
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Nov 7, 2016 16:37
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