Transit

* The coolest ad ever below. www.edf.org/tranist

Ooops

A few things I forgot this morning

* Apple news:

1. Steve Jobs is not dying, he's just a little sick.  Via Engadget, here.  NYT, here.

2. Macworld Keynote tomorrow - Noon EST.

2a. TUAW has keynote predictions, here.

3. TUAW says that Apple's market share is 10%, and Windows' is the lowest ever.  Here.  

* I'm sure you heard, but Bill Richardson won't be our next Minister of Commerce, apparently he is just as corrupt as Corr.

* An entire website is gone ... lessons in why to backup.  Some journaling website, JournalSpace, disappeared over the weekend because it only had a single back-up, running a RAID 1 configuration.  Meaning that the data on the backup was just a mirror of the first drive - so when the first drive was for some reason overwritten, the second drive followed suit.  Via TechCrunch, here.

* The Paper of Record is poor :( - starting this morning they have begun to sell adspace on the front page of the paper.  This is a controversial move in the newspaper publishing business, but one that has become increasingly necessary due to declining revenue.  Article here.

* Daily Intel ran a story over the weekend about a bunch of drunk people who had the worst NYE ever.  A Metro-North train broke down just after leaving Bridgeport around 4am, sitting there without electricity (or heat) until a rescue train arrived around 6:30am.  Ugh, that would suck.  Here.

* Do you use iTunes?  Do you rate songs?  You should do both, rating songs really helps you pick out the ones you like.  Anyway - a simple hack (Mac only) allows you to enable half-star ratings.    Via LifeHacker, here.

* GGW has an idea for a new Brown Line ... a shoot off of the Red Line at NY Ave that would rejoin at Silver Spring.  It would serve Bloomingdale/McMillian/AFRH.  Here.

* BrunchDC rounds up the best brunches of 2008.  #1 = Tabard Inn.  Here.

* Rhee!  Rhee!  Rhee!  Rhee has a new plan for teacher professional development.  Here.

* How long will discs be around?  Bluray's future, via The Paper of Record - here.

* Last week I talked about how great Benjamin Button is ... and today Jane Gross over at the NYT has a post about how infancy and old-age are really the same, which is basically what Benjamin Button shows us.  An interesting movie to say the least - here.

* I passed by NextDoor, the new Ben's Chili Bowl place, and it seemed to  be open.  Now I just need to stop in and try it out.

And he fails us again...

Obama is really on a roll these days ... I can see the change rapidly disappearing over the horizon.

First he decides to have Rick Warren speak at Inauguration ... ues this is the same guy who has compared gay marriage to incest and polygamy.  Nice O ... nice.

And now this - when I came in this morning and saw that a Republican named LaHood would likely be named Minister of Transportation, I was intrigued as I had never heard anything about this guy.  Could he be the amazing savior of American transportation policy as we all hoped for from Obama?  Nope.  You can see the updated article in The Paper of Record here.  GGW has a small write-up about what a disaster this is, in terms of Transportation planning - here.  What was Obama thinking!?!?  Matt over at Track Twenty-Nine has a very informative write up as to why Obama has failed America with this nomination.  You can view that here, but I wanted to share with you this little excerpt in order to entire you to go over there:

And I'm afraid Mr. LaHood's nomination does not bode well for America's transportation policy. By selecting someone with little transportation experience, Mr. Obama is indicating that he does not place much emphasis on the importance of transportation on his policy agenda. 

While I don't necessarily think that Mr. LaHood will have a negative impact on transportation policy, I don't think that he's the person who is going to bring change to Washington. I think it most likely that he will keep the status quo, at best--and right now, that is one of the last things we need in transport policy. 

Here is a picture of LaHood ... he looks like a real winner.

Also ... just because I also saw this today and its transportation related, I share these interesting stats which I found over at Rebuilding Place in Urban Space:

Capacity of one mile of road-lane for one hour

Limited access freeway: approximately 2,000 vehicles

Typical urban arterial: 800-1,000 vehicles

Typical suburban arterial: 1,300 vehicles

Typical bus service*: 6,750 passengers

Bus rapid transit: 10,000 passengers

Light rail/tram: 15,000 passengers

Heavy rail: 20,000 to 65,000 passengers

* Streetcar service is comparable to bus service. Generally it isn't designed for high capacity, high speed service.

(Sources, Jeff Tunlin, Nelson Nygaard, Presentation in DC 2005, Steve Belmont, Cities in Full,Highway Capacity Manual)

Politicians: FAIL

A lovely blog, Trains for America, made this post today in reference to this editorial in the Baltimore Sun.

The sun is absolutely right in saying 

The loss of MARC trains and other transit cutbacks to falling tax revenues is not only ill-timed but a sign that Maryland must rethink how transportation is financed

 ... it is just unreal to me.  Are the states really this stupid?  Do we really not get it?

We need more funding, we at least need to keep our current funding levels.  People are going to be cutting back on using their cars to save on gas and turning to mass transit.  Now is the time we need more service, better service - to show people they don't need their cars.

This was just a quick and short rant - but I just had to say it - again

Transit Policy and why Americans are just wrong...

We now take a break from our regularly scheduled programming of complaining about the people on buses to complaining about the policies that make up the mass transit systems of our great nation.  Really to ask ... What is wrong America?  Why do you lack any sort of foresight?

This morning I was reading the "Dinner Links" over at Greater Greater Washington (which if you have yet to check out - you should, its a great blog) where a post on Salon was referenced.  This post attempts to explain or to understand why at a time when we have a record ridership on transit systems around the country, we are facing budget cuts and service reductions.  I really suggest you check out the article for yourself - here! 

I think we are in an interesting conundrum as a nation - as gas prices have risen, we have thankfully left the car in the driveway and have begun taking more and more transit.  Yet as our economy collapses around us, the states are left with massive budget shortfalls - and see transit as something they can cut.  I understand the pure economics behind it, but I do not understand why politicians (and most people) do not seem to see the true economics behind cutting transit budgets.  If we cut a transit budget, that means less trains, fewer buses, and more problems - which is exactly the opposite of what we need.  

 

The Federal Highway Aid Act allows the Federal government to pay 90% of highway construction costs, but where is the Federal Mass-Transportation Aid Act?  There is no question behind the fact that most Americans think they are above mass-transit.  I will admit that up until 6 months ago, the thought of taking a bus never would even enter my mind - now I have integrated them into my life.

My current problem with buses is not the fact that I feel below them - it is that most people don't realize they are there.  When I suggest we bus somewhere instead of taking a cab or walking, people scoff at me.  I can't seem to figure out what it is rooted in, what the American aversion to mass-transit is based in ... where does it come from?  I certainly don't have the answer, but anyone who could enlighten me would be greatly appreciated.  Why is it acceptable to spend so much money on highways, yet it is a huge issue when we spend even a dime on mass-transit?  Highways are good and serve a great purpose - I love road trips, and driving in general - but for intra-city transit, roads just seem unnecessary.  

 

In my ideal city, cars would travel through underground networks, while the surface was left for pedestrians, buses, and light-rail.  What a beautiful city that would be ...  I like Robert Moses and think he is a great man, though I also agree with Jane Jacobs that the car can destroy neighborhoods -- but I disagree with their car-centric thinking.  Moses cared too much about the car, and Jacobs made it out be our enemy.  The car has a place in society, just not one that supplants mass-transit.

To go off on a final tangent (sorry that I have been all over the place) - I'm going back to the Salon article.  In 1926, Americans took 147 transit trips per capita, per year.  In 1950, it was down to 113 - and by 1956 as families moved to the suburbs and got their cars, the number had dropped to 66.  Just two years ago, in 2006, it was 33.  (Here is the link to the article again, in case you didn't click it earlier)

I fear/wonder what will happen as oil prices continue to plummet.  I can only hope that Americans don't rush back to their cars, and can also hope that layoffs don't cause ridership decreases.  The more people using mass transit, the more people care about it - which in turn will hopefully allow our state representatives, congressmen, senators, and future president to understand that we need serious investment in mass-transit now!

I promise this post is over ... so I will write about this another time, but if you haven't already - check out Transportation for America.  Very important.

-bye!

In case I don't see you - Good Afternoon, Good Evening, and Goodnight!

Hey everyone - my name is Tim and I am one of the new members of the Connetiquette blog team.  Some people prefer to call this blog CAMP, but I'm going to stick with Connetiquette for now - probably until I get too lazy to write it all out.  I just figured I would say hey to you all before unleashing my first few posts on you.  I generally don't believe in the standards of conventional written English, so I apologize in advance for that.  I love the ellipses (...), I have developed a fond love affair with the dash (-) as of late, and I've also been known to litter my writing too many commas (,).

Also I'd like to note that certain authors and posters qualify their postings with a 'we' - I would like to say now, that I am not a part of 'we'.  Although 'we' may represent ideas stolen from me, I did not participate in the post -- and to be honest I am not quite sure who 'we' are/is?

I recently graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in Geography, a minor in GIS, and a fond (sometimes insane) obsession with urban and transportation policy.  I love cars, but I love mass-transit as well - both have a place in our society and one day I hope we will find a balance between the two.  Also I love wikipedia, and will be linking to it (and a bunch of other things) all the time in my posts.  I suggest you get a tabbed browswer and click any links to open new tabs - it allows you to keep reading what you are reading and store the interesting links for later.

If you ever have any questions - feel free to comment/reply to any of my posts, I enjoy the feedback and discussions.  It's been good to meet you ...

-Tim