Interview with MUNI's executive director Nat Ford

Here is a really good interview (via capntransit) with the executive director that runs an aging multi-model system.

“People, operators, those types of folks. Everyone recognizes that it’s been 30 years and a lot of things have changed in that 30-year time frame technology-wise, origins and destinations, travel patterns. Our ridership has changed in 30 years.

“And particularly in this city, a great deal more seniors, a great deal more disabled passengers. And our operation carries a lot of school trips for school-age children so what happens in our particular case with the special events and all the different services we provide, in the 30-year time frame, a lot of things have changed.”

Ford says the TEP was a top-to-bottom analysis of the system to not only deal with OTP issues, but also travel times and to gauge customers’ needs.

What they found was that congestion, population increase, bicycle use — which accounts for nearly 20 percent of the travel share according to Ford — and pedestrians are all key factors.

Here is San Francisco's transit page.

The Wizard of NYC

Lately I have been posting about mayors in cities across the US that have been making progressive policy changes to make their cities better for cyclists. I have also argued that these changes seem to come about because these leaders are cyclist themselves. Well, if only we could be so lucky in New York City. As this NY Post article demonstrates, the rhetoric and reality are far apart when it comes to bike planning in NYC.

He oversees a bike-friendly administration, but Mayor Bloomberg thinks it makes no sense to allow the two-wheelers on the subway.The issue came up yesterday, when the mayor mentioned on his weekly WOR radio show that he had spotted someone exiting the subway with a bicycle just as he was getting on that morning for his commute to City Hall."I don't run the subway system, I don't run the MTA, but if I did - if I had total power - I guess I'd say it's too crowded for bikes," the mayor said.

Thanks to TA for the fast response, but this really makes me wonder about this so-called "bike friendly" administration (who appointed a great DOT commish). Is NYC ever going to get to a point where we have an administration, city planning department, DOT, and populous that will embrace and encourage cycling?

I am not naive, or even hopeful, enough that we will ever be Portland, Minneapolis, or even Madison when it comes to a bike infrastructure and planning. That does not mean that NYC can't make the effort and necessary changes to pursue a better cycling environment. In NYC, while we are seeing positive changes, I think we have gotten much too used to being satisfied with the scraps that are thrown our way and that are packaged as grand improvements.

For instance, the new bike entrance/exit at Grand Army Plaza and 7 blocks of a protect/separated bike lane on 9th Avenue in Manhattan are steps (scraps), but where are the fundamental changes? These changes need to include a more equitable approach to all forms of transit: dedicated bus lanes, dedicated bike network, and safe streets for everyone. In a city this large, these fundamental changes have been lacking.  Carrots are not enough, we need the stick.

$2.8 million subway or lightrail

This article and recent report demonstrates one of the problems with transportation planning and funding. Considering the limited amounts of money, does it not behoove cities to maximize those funds to the best potential? This study questions why Vancouver would spend this money on a subway line that services so few, instead of a tram (lightrail) extention that would service more city neighborhoods.

"There is no doubt that such a system would not be as fast as a subway," concludes the UBC team. "However based on the Portland experience, the benefits may be an improved quality of life in many neighbourhoods, an improved investment climate for higher density homes and job sites, enhanced access for citizens within their own districts and to other parts of the city (especially for the rapidly expanding seniors' demographic) and a substantially reduced cost per ride.

This again makes me question the $3.8 billion New York City is going to spend to build one phase of the Second Avenue Subway. Most of New York is already convinced that the other phases will never get built. For more on the Second Avenue Subway and NYC Subway in general, check out 2nd Avenue Sagas.

Transit improvements coming (by IKEA)

How does the Red Hook neighborhood in Brooklyn get better transit improvements and a new park? By building a new IKEA! This NY Times article offers a brief synopsis of what IKEA will be doing to get shoppers to their box store without the use of a car:

Transportation options include free shuttles every 15 minutes from three Brooklyn subway stations — the Smith and Ninth stop on the F and G line, the Fourth and Ninth stop on the R, and Borough Hall — between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily; the B61and B77 bus lines; and a free water taxi from Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan, running every 40 mihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifnutes daily from 10 a.m. to 8:20 p.m. The store will deliver furniture in stock and will have a courier service for small items ($39 in Brooklyn or $49 within 70 miles of the store, for a 3-by-3-foot box, filled with as much or as little as you want).

While Red Hook will be getting these much needed transportation improvements (so people outside of the neighborhood can get there), IKEA has also decided that they need more parking. This Brooklyn Paper article discusses how they are adding more parking even before the store has opened:

The Scandinavian home-furnishings giant’s first New York City store will use the neighboring site of the former Revere Sugar refinery to handle any parking overflow from its own 1,400-car lot at least until Labor Day. Company officials didn’t disclose how many vehicles can be packed onto the dirt lot, but it is large enough to hold several hundred.

Company officials say the additional parking was added to meet demand, but also for a calming psychological effect on potentially frazzled customers.“The more spots you have, even if you don’t need them all, instill confidence in the customer that everything is going to run smoothly,” said Ikea spokesman Joseph Roth.

In an old industrial neighborhood that lost more than 50% of its popluation between 1950 and 1990, where 70% of the population lives in public housing, and where the annual median income is $9,500, is IKEA the answer to this neighborhood's concerns and issues? The IKEA in Red Hook is NYC's way of building whatever they want in a neighborhood that does not have the political capital to say no. And while at least IKEA is not a marine transfer station or power plant, what benefits (other than traffic congestion, increased pollution, and crowded streets) are the neighborhood and residents really getting?

Toronto: Whose Expressway? Our Expressway!

During critical mass in Toronto they decided to take to the expressway. While I have seen this in other cities, in Toronto they took over the entire thing.

The cyclists were part of Critical Mass, the huge group cycle that takes place on the last Friday of every month in Toronto and around the world. According to Martin Reis, who was in the pack, the decision to ascend the ramp onto the Gardiner Expressway was spontaneous (even though it bears some resemblance to a similar but much smaller Los Angeles freeway ride from two weeks ago), and was not intended to be a huge statement: as Reis put it, the groupthink was more along the lines of "Here we are. Let's take the Gardiner."

The cyclists started off in the merging lane, then gradually took over the rest of the lanes, controlling all of them by about the time they reached York Street. "We basically became like one giant automobile," Reis says. Fellow participant Nick Syperek told Torontoist that "it was exhilarating to see Toronto from that angle." Reis saw no confrontations between cyclists and motorists, characterizing the entire thing as "very very civilized, [and] very peaceful."

Here is the article and plenty of pics.

Bike Guru John Pucher

John Pucher is one of the leading scholars, advocates, and bike gurus who has been challenging the way we use our streets. While I have come across his work during my current bike study, this recent slideshow and video are excellent resources. His paper should be published sometime this summer.

This paper shows how the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany have made bicycling a safe, convenient, and practical way to get around their cities. The analysis relies on national aggregate data as well as case studies of large and small cities in each country. The key to achieving high levels of cycling appears to be the provision of separate cycling facilities along heavily traveled roads and at intersections, combined with traffic calming of most residential neighborhoods. Extensive cycling rights of way in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany are complemented by ample bike parking, full integration with public transport, comprehensive traffic education and training of both cyclists and motorists, and a wide range of promotional events intended to generate enthusiasm and wide public support for cycling.

In addition to their many pro-bike policies and programs, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany make driving expensive as well as inconvenient in central cities through a host of taxes and restrictions on car ownership, use, and parking. Moreover, strict land use policies foster compact, mixed-use developments that generate shorter and thus more bikeable trips. It is the coordinated implementation of this multi- faceted, mutually reinforcing set of policies that best explains the success of these three countries in promoting cycling. For comparison, the paper portrays the marginal status of cycling in the UK and USA, where only about one percent of trips are by bike.

Check out this interview over at Bike Portland and this in Momentum Magazine.

Interview with Jaime Lerner

Jaime Lerner, for those that don't know, is the man who created BRT. As Mayor of Curitiba in the 1960s he introduced the system that we now call Bus Rapid Transit. Metropolis Mag has an excellent interview with him.

Next year marks the 35th anniversary of a simple but transformative idea in urban planning and transportation: Curitiba, Brazil launched a surface bus system that behaves like a subway. Better than, in some ways. Double-articulated vehicles carry large volumes of commuters, passengers prepay their fare in glazed boarding tubes, designated lanes keep traffic flowing smoothly, and one bus trails the next by one minutes’ distance. Curitiba’s transit system was established with little municipal investment and at a fraction of the cost of subterranean excavation, and today it carries some 2 million people per day.

For those who want to learn more here is a good 2004 report on BRT and Curitiba.