Transit
Can Los Angeles Reinvent Itself Around Rail?
New op-ed explains key challenges and opportunities
A city famous for its car culture now has three new rail transit projects under construction. Can Los Angeles reinvent itself around rail-oriented development? Passenger vehicle transportation plays a major role in contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. But building more rail, alone, is not enough to get folks off the road and onto public transit. …
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CONTINUE READINGBART Turns 40: Some History Lessons
BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, turns 40-years-old today, with the unfortunate anniversary of 9/11. Some historical and financial tidbits: The original system was supposed to serve Marin and San Mateo Counties, along with San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties. According to Stephen Zwerling, San Mateo dropped out due to concern that neighboring …
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CONTINUE READINGDesigning City Streets That Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In the U.S., city planners have typically designed streets to enhance the comfort of the driver. Unfortunately, the very qualities that serve this goal tend to discourage foot traffic, bicycles, and transit use. The result is that standard street design tends to encourage activities that increase greenhouse gas emissions, and discourage more efficient ways to …
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CONTINUE READINGToo Cool to Avoid Blogging — The Straddling Bus
Critics of subways often argue, correctly, that they are very, very expensive. They argue much less correctly that they aren’t worth it from a cost-benefit perspective. (I’ll believe when they add in the subsidies for roads and automobiles, price auto traffic like they do with rail, and stop using tendentious examples to criticize high-speed rail). …
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CONTINUE READINGThe US Chamber of Commerce on Carbon Regulation: Sub-zero stupid
Holly referenced the Chamber of Commerce’s hysterical claim that regulating carbon dioxide would stop all the infrastructure projects in the stimulus. Not only is that not true, but it might in fact be exactly the opposite. The reason is pretty straightforward: to the extent that the government places caps on carbon dioxide, such a policy …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Does Larry Summers Want to Accelerate Climate Change?
I’ve never been a huge fan of Greenpeace: although I like much of the work they do, it has always seemed to me that they are more interested in headlines than the slogging work it takes to promote sustainability. But they had a great idea a few days ago: commission the respected private corporate consulting …
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