I Love Mass Transit

SEPTA

when I was in college I was drooling for the approval to San Jose. They got it, slashed it, and I moved away anyway so I dont care anymore.

Thats what San Jose gets for pretending they dont need SF. San Jose sucks.

(my usual pub quiz specialist subject, when I can't think of a better one, is "The London Underground")

It'd be much more than that. Taking a taxi from O'Hare to my old place near Division Street (not even downtown) was like $29.

Was reading about Gulangyu from that list just now

http://www.carfree.com/ has some interesting stuff about this also. Will be interesting to see if/how this kind of thinking becomes more prevalent when car usage has to reduce (not carfree places themselves but when newer towns/suburbs being to be denser again encouraging non-car journeys to save money)

Back to Metros - has anyone used Strasbourgs?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytravelphotos/sets/72157602252579748/detail/

Sadly I dind't actually use the tram in Strasbourg but it looked pretty amazing.

Happy birthday, Laurel!!!

lol, god I REALLY must be out of it, as that is so obviously on the wrong thread. Apologies to mass transit lovers.

(I would be one, too, but sadly, Minnesota really has mass failings in this area).

happy birthday laurel!

Which smaller US cities have good mass transit or light rail systems in your view?

I have no idea but it seems an opportunity to remind everyone that Seattle's tram system is called the SLUT.

Singapores appears to be called the SMRT which is also pretty hilarious.

no-brainer that US cities have all but phased out phrase "rapid transit"

Cleveland still calls their rail system "Rapid Transit." Don't see it going away any time soon.

Which smaller US cities have good mass transit or light rail systems in your view?

Portland is pretty stellar.

well, if yr syatem has Rapid in the name it'd be too transparent to change it.

Also NYC subway announcements using term "customers" stinks -- reminds you yer paying for this dreck. Prefer "suckers."

Yeah, Cleveland's train system is part of the RTA (rapid transit authority). I take the train almost everyday and it's magical- ideally there should be at least two more lines to serve the city but obviously the US has other priorities.

RTA is actually "Regional Transit Authority," but yah, otherwise RTA is pretty good all things considered. ("Voted Best Transit System in the Country!") I take the Green Line in in the mornings and love it.

Er yeah, you're right it's Regional. haha, I get on at Shaker Square every morning.

haha, I'm the guy asleep with sunglasses on and earbuds in if you're on the train that stops there around 7:25.

And thus a friendship was born.

Fuck that. Don't wake me.

I'm a 7:45 type of guy. Your sleep is safe.

Mainly asking because interested in smaller cities (or at least more compact cities) that have good transit systems that have good coverage of residential sections as well as central districts - ie which smaller cities are best equipped for a future less car-reliant - or with commutes more easily done without cars. Also more modern towns or cities that don't follow low density models.

I have used Portland's briefly but only in the center. How well does it cover the rest of the city in your view (I shall have a look at that myself now too)

http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/japanese_dualmode.htm

Any thoughts on DMVs?

Mpls/St. Paul has light rail now and they're expanding but the line doesn't reach my mom's first-tier suburb or Uptown yet, which is...wrong. Up until the early '60s my mom says there were trams that left from 2 blocks from my house, either headed downtown or to Lake Minnetonka. She loved them and lamented their passing when in London being jealous of tubetrainbus.

this term is used a lot in transportation planning circles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit

also, los angeles' express bus system is called "rapid."

Oh hay, birthday wishes for me!

There's some more stuff on DMVs on the rolling rolling thread. They only really work if you feed several bus services in to make one train. Because of headways it is much more efficent to have long trains on railways. Then you have the problem of getting the DMVs to the rail head on schedule and not having to wait around for the rest of the consist. It has potential, though.

Anyone with any experience of Ann Arbor?

Why the interest in the bus network of Ann Arbor?

Just plotting the AMG takeover.

mass transit under Trump/Ryan?

But most of these ballot-approved transit projects are also designed to rely heavily on matching funds from the federal government, and that may run counter to the priorities of a Republican-led House, Senate, and executive office. The GOP’s 2016 platform articulates a strong stance against funding transit, noting that “we propose to phase out the federal transit program.” It’s possible that when Congress’s current authorization of transportation spending expires in 2020, conservative leaders could create a highway/transit funding formula that’s less favorable to transit. And newer funding programs that have helped drive bus and rail projects under the Obama administration, such as the DOT’s TIGER grant program, could disappear.

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/11/on-tuesday-night-transit-was-victorious/507077/

i posted this on "too effing hot"

one more thing: while the fact that white people don't ride the bus is not of itself a problem for the solvency of metro or for climate change (because there aren't that many white people in LA county), it is a big problem because people who don't ride the bus tend to be opposed the measures that make the bus better for people who do. check out this BULLshit, for example https://laist.com/2019/07/16/eagle_rock_metro_rapid_bus_route_noho_to_pasadena.php.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, July 19, 2019 7:40 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

let's see how that is going...

My harasser, retired process server Caroline Aguirre of Highland Park, has become obsessed with me. Tonight she declared at an @EagleRockNC meeting that I "get an attorney for slander and lying." pic.twitter.com/GyBN5uHa48

— 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 (@topomodesto) August 7, 2019

when the threat of faster bus service for people who are not you breaks your brain https://t.co/KXhiCjqdtn

— sahra (@sahrasulaiman) August 7, 2019

hero

https://www.reddit.com/r/holdmycosmo/comments/coj5lt/hmc_whilst_i_tell_these_drivers_to_stay_out_of/

wait till she hears about bike lanes

There were gates in the middle of university grounds because cars weren't allowed through between prime student hours. The buses all had transducers at the bottom of the buses that would lift the gates. The amount of people that tried to tailgate through with the bus or try to drive through the gates and get their car damaged was very very satisfying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD3QlR98--A

That is amazing

oof

https://humantransit.org/2020/03/covid-19-what-if-transit-runs-out-of-money.html

then

.@Amtrak memo on grim outlook pic.twitter.com/KDh0G0v9S9

— David Shepardson (@davidshepardson) March 11, 2020

Paris isn't magic. City leadership decided to do this, they pushed through the doubt & resistance, & now they've cut cars almost in half & everyone f'ing loves Paris all over again. Any US city could decide to follow suit. https://t.co/EmXYbS0JFX

— David Roberts (@drvolts) September 23, 2021