On Demand
How They Do It There: Transportation
Friday, May 02, 2008
Walter Hook, executive director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, talks about cutting-edge transportation ideas from around the world.
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i read about the possible use of fly wheels; they were being tested a couple of years ago and haven't heard about them since. Any updates? even if it's somewhere else besides nyc?
plus, how are the fuel cell buses being tested in CA doing? haven't heard any results in about a year. thanks!
j,
There were supposed to be 3 in Oakland and 3 in Silicon Valley. I've never seen even one of them, but I don't spend much time in either place. I know that 3 years after the debut, AC transit (East Bay/Oakland) voted for more diesel buses, because the upgrade to fuel cell buses for the entire fleet, or even part of it, was too high. I don't know after that.
In San Francisco, people generally show their environmental concerns by slapping a "Keep Tahoe Blue" bumper sticker on their new SUV's. They do this without any sense of how motorized boats and cars have polluted the lake. BIG problem with runoff on the Nevada side, as laws there even less stringent. Tahoe is still mindbendingly beautiful, but they've gotta restrict car use there SOON.
Some things going on here in Paris:
- More bus lanes
- Many buses using biofuels or natural gas
- Electric minibuses
- GPS-equipped buses and bus shelters to know how long you have to wait for the next bus
- Some bus lines equipped for remote control of traffic lights
- Free short-term bike loans (Vélib system)
- Expansion of bike lanes and bike-bus lanes
- Conversion of existing subway lines to automated trains
- New tramways using either conventional metal wheels or tires
- New water taxi on Seine (Voguéo)
- Contact-free travel pas (Navigo)
- Promotion of car sharing (big plan for expansion of a street-based system coming)
I was in Buenos Aries, Argentina and saw the public bus wheels there had this apparent add on- photo here:
http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh49/jamosenk/Argentina%20Bus/?action=view¤t=Bus2.jpg
or http://tinyurl.com/3jv7so
Anybody know what that's for? (is it for regenerative braking?)
How 'bout -enforcing- the Bus Only lanes??!!
The back exit stairs are higher from the street and some people can't comfortably disembark from the rear exit.
What about placing extra buses at the end/start of the line when it is known that there are going to be delays due to congestion, demonstrations, etc.
I am specifically talking about the M-1 and the M-6 lines. So many times the dispatcher just turns the bus at 14th St to avoid the congestion and keep the bus on schedule, forgetting or not caring about the passengers who are trying to get uptown from points south of 14th Street. If the MTA would just put a bus or two at the South Ferry turn-around, the buses could maintain their schedule and the passengers could board the bus and make their way home after a long day at work.
Well then that gives us another project, design trucks that don't make so much noise! Isn't that green and friendly?!
how about car free days in Manhattan! that would be truly amazing!
It does seem like NYC is WAY behind in public transportation. I'm really disappointed that congestion pricing didn't pass, especially after those air quality numbers came out yesterday and showed just how toxic NYC air really is.
The Paris bike system sounds phenomenal! I'd deffinitely ride a bike in the city if there were safer lanes and fewer cars. I know too many people who've been hit, injured, and killed while riding their bikes here.
Safe, indoor and cheap bicycle parking in Manhattan. I commute from Middle Village to Weehawken and would love to be able to cycle some of the way. Also, more ferries and water taxis, subsidized if needs be (the NY Waterway is a giant rip-off).
Also, instead of congestion pricing, mandatory carpooling during peak hours as was enforced after 9/11.
Why don't we move the bike lanes between the parked cars and the sidewalk? People are less likely to open doors on the left side, and cars wouldn't be able to drive in the bike lane that way.
In some towns, roads are clotted with cars but only at the times when kids need to be dropped off and picked up at school.
The roadways do not have enough stop signs and police do not monitor them to the extent that a parent would allow a child to walk to school. (In fact many of the drivers are from foreign countries where road rules are non-existent, and they ain't learning any rules under these conditions...)
My suggestion would be a combination of enforcing traffic rules and offering school buses.
whoops: RIGHT side that is...
Is your guest aware of vision42.org.
east-west light rail on 42nd street.
I despise busses. If I don't have to I don't take them.
They already have one of those sky rides cable-car things to Roosevelt Island, don't they?
I heard a proposition to put a monorail in the middle of the Jersey Turnpike and power it partially with little turbines in the jersey barriers that would run off the wind generated by all the cars going by. Is this crazy enough to work?
New York used to have trolleys. We got rid of them (which was silly, they would be so cool to ride around in). But it would just be cheaper to do BRT
Here's a cheap alternative. Tele-commuting. It's the cheapest and most effective option.
Streetcars are a GREAT
Streetcars are a GREAT idea. I have often wondered why they are not implemented, especially along the high-traffic corridors (e.g., 42nd, 34th, 57th). I have used them in San Francisco and throughout Europe.
Curitiba's Bus System (and City Planning) should be a model for most systems:
http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/344
-I've been there and it is very efficient. I think it can work in certain places in NYC. The buses run in dedicated lanes so they don't get stuck in traffic.
To clarify the situation in Toronto, the caller has some of it correct: There are some streetcars in Toronto that run on regular streets, and cars share the lane. There are other streetcars that have a right of way lane dedicated to streetcars only. The second type works better, as these cars are not affected by car traffic and vice versa.
However, your guest is quite correct in mentioning that a similar dedicated lane for buses would accomplish a similar effect with much less expense.
The biggest problem with the streetcars is that if one breaks down, it blocks all streetcars behind it until the TTC is able to remove the broken-down car. For the tracks that share car lanes, car traffic is also affected.
street card across 14thst
ped zones: downtown and canal st.
what about more pedestrian/bike/bus only streets (like Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn)?
making the city more bike friendly would help things a lot too
This is a shoutout to Steve in the Bronx.
I'd like to hear more of your clear thinking on public transportation. I find most of the discussion divorced from reality, like the idea that we would institute an obnoxious system of congestion pricing before simple measures like strictly enforcing laws against double parking.
In Berlin they have dedicated lanes for bicycles with their own traffic lights and everything. They also have women's parking lots, so that women can come home late at night alone and not worry about some bad-intentioned man lurking in the lot. I've never seen such a civic minded city.
Streetcars are a great idea! They should be free (to avoid having to waste time paying upon boarding), and people should just pay for them with their taxes (that might encourage them to actually use them instead of cars!). Visitors to NY should pay at the airport or tolls at the bridges and tunnels should go partway to that usage.
All of the above ideas sound great, but none of them will be implemented until we have leadership that changes the basic philosophy that a car equals freedom, success, you name it, and strict enforcement of existing laws. Double parking, parking in bike lanes, bus stops, driving while on the phone, and incessant honking all seem to occur with such impunity that I assume people are never ticketed.
As a bicyclist, pedestrian, mass transit rider and occasional motorist I'm sick of it.
The irony is we have an efficient and far reaching system that could be improved by some modest improvements.
Rapid busses for areas not served by subway.
Trolleys on major crosstown streets.
Taxis only on some crosstown streets.
The increase in green space, pedestrian areas, and bike lanes underway should escalate.
A long awaited rail tunnel would remove the 18 wheelers.
It really seems that New York is not only not civic minded but actually anit-civic. This is a city that has, in the last 50 years, been built to accomodate cars. Nothing else. The problems that New York faces are easily fixable as has been shown by other cities (which by the way do not have nearly as much money as New York). The MTA is poorly managed to the point of being a joke, but that aside, New Yorkers like most Americans vote against their own interests and needs, while those in other cities and countries demand their needs from their governing bodies. We all know what needs to be done and still it does not get done. And in looking at the way the body politic works in this city, will never be done.
New York is not the greatest city and the transportation and education systems are a crowning testament to the fact that it is not even close, not even in the running for a city that functions on the plus side of things or even forits people.
The big drawback to BRT is pollution; I know the new Hybrid buses are much better than the old diesels, but no match for streetcars which can receive their power from non-fossil fuels. Trolley buses are a decent alternative, but would be forbidden under current NYC law that doesn't allow any overhead electric wires in Manhattan.In fact, streetcars in Manhattan drew their current from underground conduits.
15 or 20 years ago a South American company constructed a demonstration "bus rapid transit" loop in lower Manhattan. Each bus stop had a platform which you entered by stairs or a ramp where you waited for the bus and were able to enter at the bus floor level. You entered at the front and exited at the back at the same level. This really speeded up the whole entering/exiting time, especially for handicapped passengers. This system could be used now on the Second Ave. line and when used with a really restricted bus lane would negate the construction of the 2nd. Ave. subway. Why has this been forgotten?
Google "Jaime Lerner" and you will find info on the brilliant achitect / mayor of Curitiba Brazil who developer their "bus rapid transit" system in the 1980's. BRT is really the only affordable option for growing cities that have "Queens - like" density (denser than suburbs but not quite Manhatten or Paris)and a predominanly middle class demogaphic. Subways are simply too expensive and are more or less gold plated urban toys / curiosiities. Since BRT's go "station to station" in dedicated lanes they don't have the annoying start-stop-start-stop aspect of typical bus service and move people quite rapidly. BRT is perfect for major arteries like avenues, boulevards and parkways.
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