MetaFilter posts tagged with transportation

Cycle-ways before freeways

mathowie — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:51:14 -0800

In the late 1890s, a wooden "cycle-way" was built between Pasadena and Los Angeles for bicycle travel before freeways existed. It ran along the Arroyo Seco and though it was planned for the full ten mile distance, only two miles were completed by 1900 as the popularity of the bicycle waned. In 1983 a bike path was built along the stream basin but is both riddled with glass and debris and dangerous to impassible during a rainstorm. For the last 15 years, a group in Pasadena has been leading the effort to restore a bike path between Pasadena and Los Angeles.

Fear of Cycling

parudox — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:25:24 -0800

Fear of Cycling, an essay in five parts: introduction, constructing fear of cycling, helmet promotion campaigns, new cycling spaces, making cycling strange.

To boost urban cycling, figure out what women want.

lunit — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:59:50 -0800

In part because a gender gap persists in urban cycling, women are considered an “indicator species” for bike-friendly cities. If you're interested in reading more about women and cycling, Jan Garrard at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia has a ton of publications available.

A Little to the Left

Hardcore Poser — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:42:19 -0800

The Independent State of Samoa has just 200,000 citizens, but you can be sure many are a little less than placid today. They are undergoing a shift that few nations have done; one that may be as jarring as when Jekyll changes to Hyde . They are about to change lanes. In a big way. Samoa is the first territory in over 30 years to change which side of the road is driven on (the most recent switch-hitters before them being Nigeria and Ghana. There have been several countries that moved from left-hand driving to right; very few have gone the other way. Most switches have been to accommodate the flow of surrounding countries; Okinawa Prefecture did it to symbolize its return to Japanese control after the US took over. When Sweden first brought the issue forward in 1955, just over half the citizens voted; however the result was strongly against a change in direction. Twelve years later the change was implemented anyway. Interestingly, accident rates in Sweden during the first two months were down from the norm; they soon returned to the average rate. This was likely due to the extensive planning, legislation and redesign that was undertaken to increase capacity, rework problem intersections, reduce parked vehicles and change how pedestrians cross. Okinawa was not so fortunate. The changeover plan in Samoa has not been well received, and could meet with more opposition in the days to come. Many Samoans feel that the current government has not made sufficient preparations; over 18,000 protested in April of 2007. In a one-party country this has not mattered much to the will of the government. Local chiefs, called Matais, do have influence. The government recognises the ancient tribal customs enforced by the Matai as part of modern law. Many Matai are not onside with the planned change; some have vowed to disobey the new traffic laws. Other citizens advocates worry that, since most buses are not allowed to drive (their doors now open onto traffic), many poorer citizens will face difficulty and added expense getting to work. Early reports indicate things are calm at the moment. Today however was declared a national holiday, so the real test will be when people return to work tomorrow. Sadly, any problems with the transition, or the details of Samoa's underlying issues will likely not register very high on the West's radar.

Bike Parking

aniola — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:58:58 -0800

On bicycle parking.

We go from the ground to the mountain, baby! Without walking!

wintersweet — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:29:37 -0800

The funicular railway is a kind of cable-based railway that gives me great joy because of its peculiar shape and its uselessness for doing anything other than what it does. A funicular carriage is generally stairstepped or terraced, so you can't repurpose these cars for other uses. They generally work in a particular way, too, as pairs: one goes up the mountain, one comes down the mountain! Maybe this kind of glee is why they seem to be especially popular in Japan today, where they can be taken to many popular sightseeing areas--but a fair number of funicular railway riders are probably there for the journey, not the destination. You can go on a pilgrimage to the numinous group of peaks called Kōyasan (here's a video of the trip there) via the Kōyasan Cable, which even accepts payment by smart card. You can take the Mitake Tozan Mountain Railway not too far from Tokyo and do some fine hiking in the Chichibu Tama Kai National Park (video trip). In the famous sightseeing region of Hakone, you can start your journey on the modern-looking Hakone Tozan Cable Car, defying the generally old-fashioned vibe (you complete your trip up to Lake Ashi on a ropeway, and once you get to the lake you can hop on a replica of the HMS Victory or 17th-century French warship Soleil Royal no I am not even kidding). Then there's the Kintetsu Ikoma Cable Line. The dog car, named Bull, and the cat car, named Mike, are on the Hōzanji line to the Buddhist temple Hōzanji. (Another Flickr user notes that some people use these trains as part of their normal commute.) The music-themed Do-Re-Mi car and the cake-themed Sweet car go to the amusement park Skyland Ikoma on the Ikoma line. Compared to these four, the two cars on Hōzanji Line 2 look positively normal. There are probably a couple dozen funiculars in Japan, so...more where those came from! (They even have cool looking tickets--more here.) In the videos above you can see the "passing track" style, where a single track is used for most of the course but there's a kind of "mouth" area where the two cars pass each other on two tracks. Other systems may use parallel tracks. For zillions more strangely hypnotic Japanese funicular railway videos, see this Youtube search results page. (Yes, those katakana spell "cable car", basically. Although they're two somewhat different things in English, they're the same thing in Japanese. There's a note about this on the Japanese Wikipedia entry, and another link is provided for San Francisco cable car seekers.) There's not enough space to address funiculars all over the world, but I'll add a few general notes: The name comes from Latin for "rope." Many of the now-closed ones in the US (where they're often called inclines or incline railroads) and elsewhere were used to get into mines, but they've also been used to move ships. The steepest passenger railway in the world, the Katoomba Scenic Railway in Blue Mountains, Australia, is a funicular railway, as is supposedly-the-shortest and supposedly-soon-to-return-to-operation, Angels Flight in Los Angeles, USA. There's also a funicular that may be the oldest railway in the world, the Reiszug in Austria, which dates to the 1500s and is now run by motor--a lot older than this 1920s one from Japan! They're found in many other places in the world. There are many in South America (most notably Valparaiso, Chile), some in other parts of Asia (though not Korea for some reason, as far as I can tell), and particularly in Switzerland, Italy, and other hilly and mountainous areas of Europe, where Michel has blogged his photos for you. Apparently they were pretty popular in the Soviet Union, too. For details on how they operate, you can read the nitty-gritty of funicular function at the Sweden-based funiculars.net. You may even know a song about funiculars! The 1880 song "Funiculì, Funiculà," is about the opening of the funicular on Mount Vesuvius (no, really!) which had to be shut down in 1944 after repeated eruptions caused problems. And yes, that's where the headline on this post comes from. Here, for no apparent reason, is a children's chorus, Luciano Pavarotti, and Aqua (yes, THAT Aqua) performing "Funiculì, Funiculà."

Polin' on the River

Miko — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:26:33 -0800

Since 1870, the Hatton Ferry in Hatton, VA, has been helping people and vehicles cross the James River - under pole power [ferry is cable-assisted, and poling starts at 3:42]. Before the nation was connected by a network of bridges, pole barges like this were a common means of transportation across smaller waterways. Hatton Ferry is thought to be the very last working survivor of those thousands of the pole-driven ferries; but today, due to DOT budget constraints, it may go out of existence. I wouldn't have known about this without having received an interesting ListServ email from Dr. Jurretta Jordan Heckscher, Research Specialist, Digital Reference Section of The Library of Congress, who provided many of the news and LOC links. Also, best part of the video is when the raft of tubers drifts along, 12-packs cooling in the water and all.

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway...

2bucksplus — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:18:32 -0800

On Sunday New York City closed two of the busiest sections of perhaps the most famous street in the U.S. to traffic and created pedestrian plazas in the "Crossroads of the World" (and also in Herald Square) [brief plan / NYCDOT detailed plan]. Spearheaded by Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan (featured in an excellent New York Magazine article) and the Bloomberg Administration as part of the "Green Light for Midtown" program, the pedestrian malls are ostensibly a pilot program to determine the feasibility of permanent conversion later this year, with the stated goal of increasing traffic flow through midtown (warning PDF). Criticism from motorists, especially taxi drivers (New York Post), and for the quality of the chairs and planters used in the conversion aside (New York Times Architecture Review), the urban plazas have received generally favorable reviews (New York Times YouTube channel, NYDailyNews.com, AMNY) and national attention.

Twenty Times a Day

shoesfullofdust — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:57:07 -0800

...the Department of Transportation will not keep secret the data we collect on birds striking airplanes. - Ray LaHood, United States Secretary of Transportation

From the dreaded mourning dove to the nefarious Canada goose to the humble armadillo, the FAA's recently released National Wildlife Strike Database ON-LINE contains information on aircraft/wildlife strikes from over 100,000 reported incidents between 1990 and 2008. The database was referenced previously in the Birdstrike in the Hudson thread, but until this week the the F.A.A. provided only aggregate data about wildlife strikes - collisions by state, not by airport. Submit your query here or download the current version(15 MB MS Access format) from this page. Federal Aviation Administration - Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Home Page. Wildlife Strikes to Civil Aircraft in the United States 1990 - 2007 - A comprehensive analysis of the database (pdf format). Sharing the Skies (TP 13549E) is an online book about the subject of aircraft/wildlife strikes from Transport Canada.

The Guide to Highly Efficient Things

netbros — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:01:49 -0800

Meta-efficiency is the analysis of efficiency at a more comprehensive level. Metaefficient Review assesses products considering not only their energy efficiency but also the embodied energy, toxicity, affordability, and usability. In the architecture and building section you can find articles such as The Largest Building In The World To Be Green. The renewable power section includes information about Solar Canopies For Parking Lots that provide shade for customers, while generating up to a half-megawatt of electricity. New zero emissions electric scooter bicycles can be found in the transportation section. Metaefficient has been at this for five years, so there are hundreds of articles and product reviews in the archives. Metaefficient is the brainchild of Justin Thomas.

If it ain't broke, fix it.

You Should See the Other Guy — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:51:09 -0800

I like watching videos of people riding fixed gear bikes in the city: Empire, MashSF, Macaframa, Fast Friday, Bootleg Sessions, Lucas Brunelle's crazy vids (linked on MeFi before). Don't like videos? Try Fixed Gear Magazine (pdf of vol 1 and vol 2) or CogMag (dead tree mag, but excerpts from each issue are on their site).

Milky Way Transit Authority

homunculus — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:29:23 -0800

The Milky Way Transit Authority. [Via]

So you ditched your car - here's help with public transit

desjardins — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:58:07 -0800

NextBus uses GPS to tell you the predicted time of the next bus. Google maps show buses in real time, and you can get updates on your phone/PDA. The coverage is limited to certain agencies within the US, so these other sites might be useful: Hopstop covers subways and buses in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, DC, and more. (mobile version) Google Transit has many US metro areas in addition to Canada, Europe, and Japan. (previously) Many more locations inside. Other trip planners (mostly mobile):

MTA (New York City)
MTA (Los Angeles)
Amtrak
New Jersey Transit
MBTA (Boston)
Washington DC Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Chicago Regional Transit Authority (CTA, Metra)
A Train (Atlanta)
Valley Metro (Phoenix)
San Francisco Bay Area 511 (BART, Muni Metro, VTA Light Rail, Cable cars, Commuter Rail, buses, ferries)
Portland (interactive map; roll your own app)
King County Metro Online (Seattle)
Toronto (TTC Buses and subways)
Vancouver (BC) Translink
Paris (RER, TGV, Metro, bus, more - in French)
London Underground and DLR
Norikae-Annei (Tokyo)

Whoa, Nellie! The Great Epizootic of 1872

cenoxo — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 01:39:04 -0800

Running Like Wildfire — Imagine a national disaster that stopped 99% of American transportation in its tracks; shut down the country; halted shipping and trade; hobbled counter-insurgency operations, and helped Boston burn down. It spread from Canada southward to Cuba and westward to the Pacific, crippling all that Americans took for granted: their cities and towns; their supplies of food and consumer goods; their jobs, businesses, and the national economy. Such was the Great Epizootic of 1872.

London Transport Museum

netbros — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:01:39 -0800

The Future Generator at the London Transport Museum is a forecasting look at the effect of transport on climate change in London. But you can get a sense of history as well. The museum's collection originated in the 1920s, when the London General Omnibus Company decided to preserve two Victorian horse buses and an early motorbus for future generations. They moved to the present location in 1980. Londoners can take a trip back in time on the Metropolitan line and enjoy a special day out in Metro-land as two historic electric trains run special excursions on Sunday 14 September 2008. You can browse the museum online or visit the physical location at Covent Garden Piazza. Explore the collection of over 16,000 photographs. Search via location, themes or dates over a century of photographs. London Transport Museum has more than 80 road and rail vehicles in its collection representing public transport in the city and its suburban and country areas over the last two centuries. The 20 vehicles on display at Covent Garden are all featured here.

Quad Quadricycle

Kronos_to_Earth — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:09:22 -0800

Destined for display at this year's Burning Man, a very impressive quadricycle is out and about in an early appearance. (via) An explanation of the machine's name is in this article.

iHitch = web2.0 + hitchiking (possibly)

stbalbach — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:38:50 -0800

iHitch is to hitchhiking that CouchSurfing is to hotels. iHitch is just an idea, but key technologies (GPS phones, GPS in cars, Web2.0) are coming available in critical mass that could transform 'hitchhiking' into a mainstream, safe, reliable and cheap form of transportation. Some metro area carpool websites have already successfully started down this road.

we heart electric bikes

Brian B. — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:10:52 -0800

Bicycles are the most efficient mode of transportation; walking is a distant second, followed by crowded vans and motorcycles, with everything else being relatively equal. This may change soon. WSJ online jokingly tests a new plug-in electric bike versus a standard racing model.

Everybody loves a choo-choo

ThePinkSuperhero — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:52:27 -0800

The Boys and the Subway A father's artistic account of his sons' love of the NYC subway system.

The Amazing Race

[NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:52:23 -0800

The Great NYC Commuter Race! A short by Streetfilms about Transportation Alternatives' annual event that pits a cyclist against a car and a straphanger in a race to Union Square from Fort Greene. Guess who wins?

Urban Tentacles

Kronos_to_Earth — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:08:07 -0800

Interzone interchanges: Can GPS get a driver off of, or keep a driver off of...these things? (via)

Encyclopedia of Transportation Planning Strategies

salvia — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:04:26 -0800

Too much traffic? Can't find parking? Choking on smog? Worried about climate change? Gas prices too high, but you still have to drive? Send your city planner a link to the Online Encyclopedia of Transportation Demand Management strategies. The Victoria Transport Policy Institute was mentioned in a comment back in 2005, but not the encyclopedia, which is one of the most complete online transportation resources that I've run across lately.

Sorry, Alaska and Hawaii. Build more roads.

desjardins — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:50:17 -0800

Two visualization projects: All of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image. And zipdecode, a unique map of US zipcodes.

Value-added housing costs

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:04:16 -0800

How far away from work do you live? How much of your pay gets used up to get you to and from work, get you around town, and pay for where you live? As gas and food prices continue to rise, "affordability" has become a more critical notion for everyday Americans. The Center for Neighborhood Technology developed their Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, which aims to help better inform renters and owners about the relationship of transportation options to where one lives.

Readers' Travels

Kattullus — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:44:41 -0800

I know a man who once went to Sioux City, not one of the world’s leading destinations, precisely because he had never been there before. More than a decade later he still talks about the experience, from the Sergeant Floyd obelisk to the dog track of North Sioux and the meat packing plant converted to a shopping mall. The same impulse explains a non-specialist’s reading a history of Byzantine iconography or a survey of Australian wildlife. Both offer a break in daily life and an enlargement of our sense of wonder and possibility. That awareness can provide a sense of transcendence, and connection, or even the spark of divine discontent that leads people to change their lives.

Reading as Vacation, an essay by J. D. Smith and Subway Reader, pictures of people who read while using public transportation.