Posts tagged transportation

Quote 86
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
There are lots of useful things we can do to rearrange daily life in the USA that would put people to work, but they would tend to defy the status quo. We could recognize that peak oil means that we have to grow our food differently and make local agriculture a more up-front piece of the economy. We could rebuild the railroads so that people don’t have to drive everywhere. We could rebuild our inland ports to move more bulk freight on boats. Notice these are very straightforward activities, unlike the manipulation of financial paper and markets. We’re not interested in focusing on agriculture and transport reform. Business and political interests are arrayed against changing anything. Something’s got to give.
James Howard Kunstler (via azspot)
via scudmissile
Quote 101
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
In transportation, we are shying away from major new projects like high-speed rail because they do not fit in with contemporary American commuting trends — forgetting the fact that the U.S. car reliance is a constructed one. We spent massively to create the highway network, and the result is that it is now the backbone of most Americans’ daily commutes. There was nothing natural about that process, and no reason to think that it cannot be reversed if we thought differently about our transportation system development. We are adding population at such a quick rate that we could encourage different commuting trends if we want to, but only if we invest the resources to do so.
Yonah Freemark, “A Note on the Future of American Transportation”
Quote 32
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
A new report from the Political Economy Research Institute says that bike and pedestrian projects create 11 to 14 jobs per million dollars spent, while road construction only creates 7 per million.
Bike Projects Create More Jobs Than Road Projects | Planetizen (via jxnblk)
via politicore
Quote 7
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
In retrospect I understand that this was utter insanity. Wider, faster, treeless roads not only ruin our public places, they kill people. Taking highway standards and applying them to urban and suburban streets, and even county roads, costs us thousands of lives every year. There is no earthly reason why an engineer would ever design a fourteen foot lane for a city block, yet we do it continuously.
Why? The answer is utterly shameful: Because that is the standard.
Confessions of a Recovering Engineer - Strong Towns Blog - Strong Towns (via urbanerds)
via urbanerds
Link 6
Notes
Posted 2 years ago

Why Private Transit is Destined to Fail | The Mark

via 20yardsoflinen
Quote 72
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
Public transportation speaks volumes about a society. It speaks about racism, economic injustice and the patterns of historical development as a nation — economic, social, cultural, political, environmental — which are embedded in a transportation system many people take for granted.
Molly Secours (via azspot)
via thesociologist
Photo 15
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
Driving Is Why You’re Fat (via GOOD) Zoom

Driving Is Why You’re Fat

(via GOOD)

Photo 174
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
simcities: travelhighlights: London Opens Bike “Superhighways” - GOOD Blog “Each is five feet wide, has two lanes so as to accommodate traffic in both directions, and is painted bright blue to “represent freedom.” One stretches 8.5 miles from the southern suburb of Merton to the city center. The other runs into town from Barking, in eastern London. Eventually, 12 of these commuter routes will radiate out from the center of London like spokes.” Zoom

simcities: travelhighlights:

London Opens Bike “Superhighways” - GOOD Blog

“Each is five feet wide, has two lanes so as to accommodate traffic in both directions, and is painted bright blue to “represent freedom.” One stretches 8.5 miles from the southern suburb of Merton to the city center. The other runs into town from Barking, in eastern London. Eventually, 12 of these commuter routes will radiate out from the center of London like spokes.”

via simcities
Link 5
Notes
Posted 2 years ago

INFRASTRUCTURIST - The Future Comes Down to Where We Live v. Where We Work

If anything, he argued, the economic crisis has highlighted that when Washington fails to address our sprawl epidemic, all the problems that result – obesity, congestion, foreign oil dependence – share a common element: There is a fundamental mismatch between where we live and where we work. Whatever we do to address these problems, he stated, the U.S. must find a way to attach housing to jobs.

The figures he gave to illustrate this point were stark: The costs of commuting to work in the U.S. have gone up 1000% in the past few decades. In Atlanta, the costs of driving totals 61% of family income in Atlanta, while cars eat up to 70% of family budgets in parts of California. Meanwhile, many cities face a huge shortage in affordable workforce housing.

Photo 9
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
thepublics: Transportation Alternatives Brand New: Established in 1973 Transportation Alternatives (TA) is a New York non-profit organization whose mission is to “reclaim New York City’s streets from the automobile, and to advocate for bicycling, walking and public transit as the best transportation alternatives.” If you ride your bike in New York and feel a little safer with every passing day, it’s probably thanks to TA, who is also responsible for campaigns to free Central Park and Prospect Part in Brooklyn from cars, as well as championing the controversial congestion pricing initiative that would charge cars for the priviledge of driving around certain parts of the city. This week, TA introduced a new identity created by Doyle Partners — fitting since it’s not rare to spot Mr. Stephen Doyle bicycling around town in a suit. Zoom

thepublics:

Transportation Alternatives

Brand New: Established in 1973 Transportation Alternatives (TA) is a New York non-profit organization whose mission is to “reclaim New York City’s streets from the automobile, and to advocate for bicycling, walking and public transit as the best transportation alternatives.” If you ride your bike in New York and feel a little safer with every passing day, it’s probably thanks to TA, who is also responsible for campaigns to free Central Park and Prospect Part in Brooklyn from cars, as well as championing the controversial congestion pricing initiative that would charge cars for the priviledge of driving around certain parts of the city. This week, TA introduced a new identity created by Doyle Partners — fitting since it’s not rare to spot Mr. Stephen Doyle bicycling around town in a suit.

via douglashaddow