Posted on Monday November 9th by Alex Lessard-Pilon | 172
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- Boston spends 20 times as much on Logan Airport’s security than that of its entire public transportation system. Attacks on trains in Europe have some public advocates worried that we’re not doing enough to protect riders. (BostonChannel)
- Also in Boston, commuters get an IPhone app called To-A-T, which locates stations and knows when trains and buses will arrive. This kind of move is only possible if scheduling data is released to the public. (Boston)
- NYC transit chief resigns, walks away with $300,000 and a lousy attitude. “May the day come soon when New York City will have a world class transit system,” he wrote. Who was responsible for that, anyway? Oh, right… (AMNY)
- Utility companies are pushing Congress to legislate on cap-and-trade, out of fear that if it doesn’t, the EPA will establish costlier rules. EPA rules would be “more arbitrary, more expensive, and more uncertain for investors,” says one industry exec. (WSJ)
- Last Wednesday, a NYC bus driver struck and killed a 22-year-old man. It was the driver’s first day back on duty after a suspension for texting while driving. Apparently he used his phone “to post disparaging comments about his passengers to Facebook.” (Gothamist)
- A history of failures in urban planning have left contemporary planners at the mercy of politicians, who often know little about planning. In Vancouver, an independent planning council spars with the mayor’s office in a productive separation of power. (StreetsblogSF)
- Oft-reviled gargantuan interchanges get their due as urban landmarks for combining “the thrill of a roller coaster with the grandeur of a Roman aqueduct.” Among the recipients of Transportation Awards are the MacArthur Maze (SF) and the Marquette Interchange (Milwaukee). (NYTimes)
- Practice makes perfect, right? Well, 949 practice tries and $4,200 in fees was enough for one South Korean woman to finally pass the written portion of a driver’s exam (you only need a 60 to pass). The 68-year-old now must face the road test. (BBC)
- Speeding drivers caught by laser guns in Chicago are getting off easy, due to the slight legal technicality that the technology used to catch them was never proven scientifically reliable in Illinois court. (Tribune)
- Can you identify architectural landmarks from the sky? Play this guessing game and find out… (LATimes)
- Gizmodo has an astonishing set of pictures of the Hoover Dam bypass. The quarter-billion dollar bridge is set to open in late 2010. (Gizmodo)
November 9th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
“Boston spends 20 times as much on Logan Airport’s security than that of its entire public transportation system.”
For those who found that statement ambiguous (as I did) - Boston spends 20x as much on Logan’s security as it does on the MBTA’s *security*, not on the entire MBTA.
That’s much less surprising; I can’t recall ever being searched while riding the T, and yet I’m searched just about every time that I fly.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Then again, there are those of us that won’t want the third degree every time we take the subway. (We’ll put aside the issues that airport security does little to make airports secure). Remember you arrive an hour early to get through airport security. Would you like to have to arrive at your T station a hour early to go through screening and detectors? Hey, the Big Dig is critical infrastructure - why don’t we screen every car and truck before it enters the tunnel?
November 10th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
The sentence reads: “than that of its entire public transportation system”. It isn’t ambiguous or incorrect. Boston spends 20 times as much on the security of its airport as it does on that ‘of its entire public transportation system’. ‘That’ referencing security, and ‘of’ specifying that it belongs to the public transport. I thought it was clear as could be.
November 13th, 2009 at 5:41 am
“Practice makes perfect, right? Well, 949 practice tries and $4,200 in fees was enough for one South Korean woman to finally pass the written portion of a driver’s exam (you only need a 60 to pass). The 68-year-old now must face the road test.”
What’s the bet she pranged the car on the way home?