Diesel Well Spent: Sustainability through Embodied Energy

When the question arises, “How many miles do your buses get to the gallon?” you need not cringe.  A diesel bus getting 4 miles to the gallon is greener than a hybrid car like a Prius that gets 40 or 50 mpg due to the handy little phenomenon called embodied energy.  Embodied energy is all the energy invested in a quantifiable purpose, generally understood as the generation of some kind of product,...

The Old Stick in the Mud

Should rural road segments not get service just because there are no sidewalks? ADA does not prevent it. If there is one unrelenting question that comes up when a transit agency is discussing the Americans with Disabilities Act and transit stops it is “Can we put up a bus stop sign in the grass/dirt/sand where there is no sidewalk without violating ADA?”  TPM has dealt with this at length elsewhere,...

Appreciation: Mattapan High Speed Line

I’m standing on the narrow platform of the Mattapan High-Speed Line at Ashmont terminal. The platform flanks an elevated, hairpin turn-around loop abutting the station mezzanine. It is a sweltering July day, and I can’t help but notice that what appear to be sprinklers spraying the rails in the turning loop. Never having encountered this feature on a transit line, I was momentarily puzzled. Was...

Wow, What a Difference!

My friend and rail expert Gregory Thompson loves the movie Chinatown.  He grew up in L.A. in the same time period the movie takes place and appreciates the details in director Roman Polanski’s film, especially the streetcars.  “It’s the bells,” says Thompson.  “You never see any streetcars in the movie, but you hear the streetcar bells coming through the open windows.” Streetcars are...

Understanding the 53s

There are a number of different funding mechanisms provided by the Federal Transit Administration that all start with the number 53, taken from 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53, but the two most important ones, financially speaking, are 5307 and 5309.  FTA Section 5307 funds are non-discretionary funds, meaning they go out every year to eligible recipients and are distributed to regions on an urbanized area formula...

Hybrids: Leaves on the Nevergreen Tree

Yahoo’s green blog had a post a few days ago that listed writer Lori Bongiorno’s green hypocrites.  One of them was certain hybrid owners: “Owns a hybrid, but drives all around town alone. The kind of car you drive is just one part of the transportation equation. Walking, biking, carpooling, and taking public transportation when you can are also important. Try to drive the most fuel-efficient...

The High Cost of “Major Service Change”

The headline on Phillip Matier’s and Andrew Ross’s story just sounded bad:  “BART spending $800K to define three words.”  It is easy to imagine the public saying “That’s more than 250,000 per word,” or “I’d have done it for half that.”  In fact, commenters on the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle story had lots of other three-word proposals like “Clean the Trains,”...

Population Pyramids II: How to Build

The raw data from the census in Excel. Following up on Population Pyramids I which shows the story-telling power of population pyramids, this post explains how to create them. Negotiating the labrynth of the U.S. Census Beureau can be a challenge so this link will take you right to the 2008 ACS 1-year Data.  Under the 2008 tab in the blue area chose Subject Tables from the list at right.  Select...

Keeping Riders

Saleswoman Deanna Droira-Garcia very suddenly lost her ability to drive when she began having epileptic seizures.  As a result she was riding Tri-rail down in Miami, Florida, and saw a car card advertising a competition for the best stories on why riders use and value transit.  Before her seizures, Droira-Garcia had driven not only to work, but for work as she traveled to make sales calls.  She...

Transit is in the business of moving people, not relieving congestion

As regularly as an equatorial sunrise, Google Alerts sends me news clips from around the world of transit.  From these articles I know light rail is making progress in the Carolinas, transit ridership is increasing in car-mad Phoenix, and congressional candidates are talking about transit on the campaign trail.  Unfortunately, most of these missives from the transit field carry with them the promise...

Moscow Metro II: Buried History in the Moscow Metro

To say that the Park Pobedy (Victory Park) station is deep is to say that the Moscow Metropolitan is just a good way to get around.  Mounting the escalator, one immediately recalls the posters in the metro showing a station attendant, young, blond, and cute, in her blue uniform.  She smiles beguilingly and the text reads “Yest’ Vykhod.”  There is an exit.  This is reassuring.  The escalators,...

Moscow Metro I: The Virtual Tour

  Detail from the false cupolas of Mayakovskaya The wonders of socialist construction are few.  Visitors to the Russian capital go to see the Kremlin, Red Square, and St. Basil’s Cathedral, remnants of Moscovy, the ancient land of the Rus.  Of course Lenin’s macabre presence still draws a crowd to his mausoleum, but with the exception of the Seven Sisters—the seven soviet-gothic skyscrapers...