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.

massurban:

“Why U.S. Transit Systems Are Still So Far Away From Converting to Driverless Trains

Stephen Smith. July 9, 2012

With Google priming Nevada to be the first state to allow driverless cars on its roads, transit fans could be forgiven for asking: Where are the driverless trains?

The technology is relatively simple and has been around for decades. Unlike cars, which are autonomous and proceed on sight alone, railways must be centrally controlled to prevent collisions. So while a driverless car is limited by how far its sensors can “see,” the central computer that directs driverless trains is fully aware of all trains on its tracks, removing much of the guesswork.

The United States doesn’t yet have any fully automated trains outside of a few airport shuttles and small-scale “people movers,” but Europe and Asia have adopted the technology quite readily. European firms like Italy’s AnsaldoBreda and France’s Matra (now owned by Siemens) pioneered the technology, and which operates on six continents. Africa’s first system, in Algiers, opened in November of last year.

The obvious advantage of driverless trains over their manned counterparts is that transit agencies don’t have to pay drivers. Upgrading to driverless requires a large upfront investment, and still requires humans to act as engineers, maintenance workers, janitors, and station managers. But after the investment is made, eliminating the driver position offers agencies flexibility and riders much more frequent service.

During rush hour, the main impediment to more service is the number of trains an agency owns, and in some cases tracks that simply can’t handle any more traffic. But during off-peak hours, it’s the cost of putting drivers on each train that determines how often the trains come.

Driverless service eliminates these costs, “break[ing] the connection between frequency and labor costs,” as transit consultant Jarrett Walker put it. Vancouver’s driverless SkyTrain network, for example, has off-peak headways that would make Americans drool with envy. Riders on the Expo and Millennium trunk line never have to wait more than 5 minutes for a train, even late at night – a frequency that would be prohibitively expensive without driverless trains.”

Via: The Atlantic

Photo: Reuters

poptech:

Great infographic that compares stats of the five biggest US subway systems.

Comparing the Country’s Largest Public Transit Systems - Cities, Rethought - GOOD

Taking public transportation is one of the best way to combat congestion in our cities. But to encourage individuals to take mass transit, cities must invest to keep their transportation systems running efficiently and serving citizens’ needs. See how the country’s largest subway and rapid transit systems stack up in terms of how many riders they serve and how well they serve those riders.

methodinthemadness:

I’ve only been seeing Toronto a short time, but I feel that taking the TTC everyday has brought Toronto and I closer as a couple. We go on fun dates, he introduces me to all sorts of people and I get to see him quite frequently. However, I’ve also been shown some of his less favourable characteristics. Toronto can be very cold and abrasive, and he can be unreliable. He is often late to pick me up. He doesn’t even call to tell me he’s going to be late. I think Toronto needs to work on his communication skills. Luckily MIT has developed a bus stop concept that would really help my relationship with Toronto.

The EyeStop - unfortunately cheesily dubbed ‘the bus stop of the future’ - will help transform bus stops from unproductive uses of city space to interactive and informative travel centres. Touch sensitive screens allows users to plan their route, explore the web, learn about delays and get updated on wait times. They can also use their phone as an interface with the shelter to store trip information or post ads to electronic community announcement boards. As a bonus, the shelters are solar powered and will display urban pollutant levels.

I know it may take awhile for Toronto to come around, but I’m hoping for our relationship’s sake he considers opening the communication lines.

via fubiz

archresearch:

The most unusual feature of the express system [in Curitiba, Brazil] is its 100 tubular bus shelters. Passengers pay their fares at a turnstile at the end of a clear tube and then wait inside for their bus, which they enter from sliding doors in the tube. The design speeds up loading and unloading, Lerner says. In addition, computers can keep track of the number of passengers waiting in the tubes and dispatch buses accordingly. A similar system has been tested in New York City.

Photo via www.24en.com

Text via Herbst, Kris. Planning. Chicago: Sep 1992. Vol. 58, Iss. 9; pg. 24, 4 pgs