Posted on Monday October 5th by The Infrastructurist | 460
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- This is Heads Up Driving week, which means: put down the cell phone already if you’re behind the wheel. Not that that transition is easy — one columnist finds it’s as tough quitting smoking. (Houston Chronicle)
- The old transportation bill expired last Wednesday night. Congress passed a stop-gap one-month extension, but the longer term plan isn’t yet clear. With the expiration states stand to lose $8.7 billion in federal funds, potentially costing thousands of jobs. (T4A blog)
- On Friday morning local politicians and various types who think petroleum powered transportation is not the be-all and end-all of human existence gathered to cut a ribbon at Washington’s fancy new Bike Transit Center. It’s at Union Station, which means it’s “multi-modal.” Also, it kind of looks like a helmet. (DCist - click for pics)
- The LA/Long Beach ports are the busiest in the nation. They were creating a major air pollution hazard. But strict new rules to clean up the cargo trucks coming and going from the facilities have cut diesel emissions by 70% in just two years. (LA Times)
- Last week, Canadian train-maker Bombardier inked a $4 billion deal to sell 80 Zefiro trains to China. The Zefiro goes 230 miles per hour. All the trains will be running by 2014. (Bloomberg)
- California should get “an outsized share” of the federal high speed rail funds, says an LA Times editorial. “Given the scale of the [project's] ambitions, it’s going to need every advantage it can get.” (LAT)
- Rock guy David Byrne wrote a much-noted new book about tooling around various cities on his bicyle. Byrne talked two-wheelin’ with a radio interviewer and suggested that cities in Texas are kind of screwed up ’cause nobody is ever outside their cars in public. (NPR)
- Is getting the Olympics a curse? Did Chicago dodge a bullet? On one hand, cities that host the games generally lose money. But if they build new transit and great public spaces–as Atlanta did–maybe it’s worth it… (NYT - Room For Debate)
October 5th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
David Byrne hits the nail on the head.
A story…A few weeks ago I decided to walk my son to his moms work for a visit, its not even 2 miles from where we live. Pop him in his stroller and off we go. Through the neighborhood all is great with nice side walks and the like. Get down to the 6 lane Hebron Parkway (about a mile left). To my amazement the side walk ends on both sides of the street??????? SO now I have to bushwhack it with a stroller! Got past that, then still had to cross underneath SH-121.
I have never gotten so many weird looks in my life. Oh and then I literally stopped the traffic everywhere(even though they had green lights to go when I crossed the street, I mean nobody moved I was the only one, all of them staring, only when I got well onto the sidewalk on the other side the chaos ensued….It was kinda surreal.
My wife being from here wanted to ring my neck!!! All I wanted to do was go for a walk with my son…WTF?
Oh and then coming back in the car (after severe injury threats from my wife had I decided to walk back) we get stuck behind a school bus driving through our neighborhood. The Bus dropped the kids off in front of their house, WTF? IN FRONT OF THEIR HOUSES!!!!!!! The school is not even a mile from the neighborhood, SO help me. When I was a kid, in South Africa, I used to walk home from school 3 miles everyday I was 7. No wonder the kids are fat lazy SOB’s today, holy shit.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Living far west Texas, southern New Mexico area I guess things are different. We have thousands of people who walk across the border from Mexico each day to get to work. There are also a lot people without the money for a car living all around our city.
We have an avid biking culture here, everything from mountain biking to hardcore Lance Armstrong admirers. People here love being outdoors and enjoying the beauty of the Chihuahua desert.
I doubt this “rocker” has been anywhere outside of Houston, Dallas, or Austin though.
We also have Houston and Dallas that have light rail systems in place. There are discussions and planning going on for a light rail line from southern Juarez Mexico across the border to El Paso. If dreams come true it will eventually stretch from Chihuahua City, Mexico to Denver, CO.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Take a look at TxDOT’s org chart and see if you can find where transit or pedestrians fit in.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
There was an announcement on the local Tampa news this week that Disney was going to put up some money for a high speed rail link from Tampa to Orlando. They haven’t even laid twenty feet of track and they already announced that tickets would be $20 each way. Round trip in a car wouldn’t use $20 worth of gas. Orlando is a sprawling city so even with high speed rail you would still have to rely on existing mass transit to get around once you are there. The proposed terminals would be near the theme park and near Tampa’s cruise port and tourist area. Unless you are a tourist this plan would be useless to the average resident. I was hoping you guys would have some insight.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
While I applaud the efforts of the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach to reduce pollution, I think that the economic downturn might have something to do with the decline in emissions:
http://www.labusinessjournal.com/industry_article_pay.asp?aID=03058219.5629842.1805570.3121883.6900032.117&aID2=138881&cID=b.
October 5th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
chuck-
The admin of this site has criticized the routing of the Tampa- Orlando HSR system since it avoids the DTs of Lakeland and Orlando.
Maybe if you did some research you would have been able to figure this out on your own.
And maybe a round trip won’t cost $20 in gas NOW, but gas prices aren’t stagnant and will likely rise in the future.
Besides, it is a good idea to give people OPTIONS in how they get around.