massurban: “Can Light Rail Carry a City’s Transit System? ERIC JAFFE. August 1, 2012 We often think of light rail as a single component of a larger transit system, but if it’s done right it can just as soon serve as the foundation. Since 1981 a dozen American cities have built light rail lines atop bus-only systems. In five of them — Dallas, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and San Diego — light rail now accounts for at least 30 percent of all transit ridership in the metropolitan area, even as it covers less than that much service space in the region. Transit researchers Gregory Thompson and Jeffrey Brown of Florida State, known for their espousal of multi-destination transit systems, recently took a closer look at these light rail systems to determine what characteristics define the best of the best. In a recent issue [PDF] of the Journal of Public Transportation, Thompson and Brown identify two of these “backbone” systems in particular — Portland and San Diego — as far more efficient than the others. Thompson and Brown settled on three key factors in the success of these systems. First, a great light rail system anchors a transit network that’s dispersed throughout a metro area. Second, it acts as an express regional alternative to the local bus network. And third, it promotes transfers between the bus and rail systems. The researchers believe these traits can serve as guides for future light rail planners “by setting forth attributes that these services need to possess in order to attract substantial ridership.” In good Olympic spirit, the researchers then judged all five of the above “backbone” systems and gave them scores of up to five points on each success marker, for a possible total of 15 points. Here’s how the light rail systems placed, from highest- to lowest-scoring. (Caveat: the data were collected circa 2007, which made the evaluations especially unfavorable to Salt Lake City’s popular TRAX system, so we’ve omitted that here.)” Via: The Atlantic Cities Photo: Flickr user TriMet via Creative Commons

massurban:

“Can Light Rail Carry a City’s Transit System?

ERIC JAFFE. August 1, 2012

We often think of light rail as a single component of a larger transit system, but if it’s done right it can just as soon serve as the foundation. Since 1981 a dozen American cities have built light rail lines atop bus-only systems. In five of them — Dallas, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and San Diego — light rail now accounts for at least 30 percent of all transit ridership in the metropolitan area, even as it covers less than that much service space in the region.

Transit researchers Gregory Thompson and Jeffrey Brown of Florida State, known for their espousal of multi-destination transit systems, recently took a closer look at these light rail systems to determine what characteristics define the best of the best. In a recent issue [PDF] of the Journal of Public Transportation, Thompson and Brown identify two of these “backbone” systems in particular — Portland and San Diego — as far more efficient than the others.

Thompson and Brown settled on three key factors in the success of these systems. First, a great light rail system anchors a transit network that’s dispersed throughout a metro area. Second, it acts as an express regional alternative to the local bus network. And third, it promotes transfers between the bus and rail systems. The researchers believe these traits can serve as guides for future light rail planners “by setting forth attributes that these services need to possess in order to attract substantial ridership.”

In good Olympic spirit, the researchers then judged all five of the above “backbone” systems and gave them scores of up to five points on each success marker, for a possible total of 15 points. Here’s how the light rail systems placed, from highest- to lowest-scoring. (Caveat: the data were collected circa 2007, which made the evaluations especially unfavorable to Salt Lake City’s popular TRAX system, so we’ve omitted that here.)”

Via: The Atlantic Cities

Photo: Flickr user TriMet via Creative Commons

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On The Right Track - The Architect’s Newspaper An autocentric culture sets a high bar for the rest of the nation as mass transittled by light raillchugs ahead on the West Coast. National attention focused on the recent opening of the Expo Line, an 8.6-mile light rail route that connects downtown LA with Culver City. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Before all is said and done, Los Angeles —long stereotyped as a car-only city—will have more than 100 miles of public transit lines, as the West Coast, home to the nation’s first light rail line in San Diego and to its most comprehensive light rail system in Portland, continues to add a slew of new rail. New lines, stations, infrastructure, and transit-oriented developments are popping up and in planning stages in and around Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego. And if you count West Coast–adjacent cities such as Phoenix and Denver, there are even more. Los Angeles and Seattle are set to double their offerings while Marin and Sonoma are just beginning to add rail to the mix.

On The Right Track - The Architect’s Newspaper

An autocentric culture sets a high bar for the rest of the nation as mass transittled by light raillchugs ahead on the West Coast.

National attention focused on the recent opening of the Expo Line, an 8.6-mile light rail route that connects downtown LA with Culver City. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Before all is said and done, Los Angeles —long stereotyped as a car-only city—will have more than 100 miles of public transit lines, as the West Coast, home to the nation’s first light rail line in San Diego and to its most comprehensive light rail system in Portland, continues to add a slew of new rail.

New lines, stations, infrastructure, and transit-oriented developments are popping up and in planning stages in and around Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego. And if you count West Coast–adjacent cities such as Phoenix and Denver, there are even more. Los Angeles and Seattle are set to double their offerings while Marin and Sonoma are just beginning to add rail to the mix.

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Mapnificent is a tool that visualizes the places you can reach on public transportation given a certain amount of time. Custom settings let you note how long it takes you to get to transit stations, with an experimental option to calculate traffic by adjusting for time of day (though it doesn’t seem to account for L.A.’s gridlock). There are maps for Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and the Bay Area. (via highcountrynews) Map: Shows areas available by public transit within 15 minutes from the Los Angeles Times. Credit: Mapnificent via latimes:

Mapnificent is a tool that visualizes the places you can reach on public transportation given a certain amount of time. Custom settings let you note how long it takes you to get to transit stations, with an experimental option to calculate traffic by adjusting for time of day (though it doesn’t seem to account for L.A.’s gridlock).

There are maps for Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and the Bay Area. (via highcountrynews)

Map: Shows areas available by public transit within 15 minutes from the Los Angeles Times. Credit: Mapnificent

via latimes:

(via wnyc)

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LivingSocial Now Offers Daily Deals For 52 Cities – 25 More Than Yesterday

LivingSocial, the daily deal site that is often referred to as the main competitor to Groupon (see our extensive guide on group-buying sites in the United States and beyond here), is experiencing fast growth.

Rather than launching in one new city on a regular basis, like Groupon tends to do, the company this morning announced that it has added 25 live markets to its roster, nearly doubling the amount of cities it offers daily deals in.

The social commerce startup is now effectively live in 52 markets and 3 countries (the U.S., UK and Canada), now that it has added cities like Sacramento, Miami, Las Vegas, Toronto, Memphis, Buffalo, Detroit and Vancouver to the fray.

(Read more on Techcrunch)

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