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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“Regional Planning Is the New City Planning by Jackie Rangel  12.10.2011 The ripple effects of a new downtown skyscraper or suburban development are now felt far beyond any one neighborhood or even one city, extending to surrounding counties and metro areas. An ideological shift is underway as we understand the interconnectedness of the communities in which we live. Collectively, we’re rethinking our society’s developmental future. Cue regional planning. It’s not a new concept, but it’s quickly gaining in popularity as cities learn the importance of working together to build sustainable foundations for growth. For example, San Diego recently adopted the first Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) as part of its larger Regional Transportation Plan. While the plan accounts for a long-range vision for the logistic development of the area’s transport and travel infrastructure, the SCS component adds a necessary emphasis on the environmental impact of each decision.” Via: GOOD Magazine Photo: (cc) Flickr user La Citta Vita. via massurban:

“Regional Planning Is the New City Planning

by Jackie Rangel  12.10.2011

The ripple effects of a new downtown skyscraper or suburban development are now felt far beyond any one neighborhood or even one city, extending to surrounding counties and metro areas. An ideological shift is underway as we understand the interconnectedness of the communities in which we live. Collectively, we’re rethinking our society’s developmental future.

Cue regional planning. It’s not a new concept, but it’s quickly gaining in popularity as cities learn the importance of working together to build sustainable foundations for growth.

For example, San Diego recently adopted the first Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) as part of its larger Regional Transportation Plan. While the plan accounts for a long-range vision for the logistic development of the area’s transport and travel infrastructure, the SCS component adds a necessary emphasis on the environmental impact of each decision.”

Via: GOOD Magazine

Photo: (cc) Flickr user La Citta Vita.

via massurban:

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5 Cities with Congestion Pricing | Sustainable Cities Collective Congestion pricing is gathering some inertia in cities worldwide for a few reasons; safety, money, and public desire are among the main ones. Unlike traditional mechanisms to deal with more cars such as, well, building new roads, congestion pricing has had a profound effect on the cities it has come to. Pricing schemes operate on the same general platform – charge a car if it passes into a certain zone of a city – but each country has generated an architecture that is influenced as much by culture as it is by need. Below is a list of cities (and in one case, a city-state) that have designed and deployed congestion pricing systems:

5 Cities with Congestion Pricing | Sustainable Cities Collective

Congestion pricing is gathering some inertia in cities worldwide for a few reasons; safety, money, and public desire are among the main ones. Unlike traditional mechanisms to deal with more cars such as, well, building new roads, congestion pricing has had a profound effect on the cities it has come to. Pricing schemes operate on the same general platform – charge a car if it passes into a certain zone of a city – but each country has generated an architecture that is influenced as much by culture as it is by need. Below is a list of cities (and in one case, a city-state) that have designed and deployed congestion pricing systems:

(via smarterplanet)

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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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opensandiego: We make data about San Diego freely available for anyone to use. Starting Open San Diego has been a lot of fun. It’s exciting to see how quickly our community has grown! The most difficult, and important, work to do in these early days is make ourselves an official non-profit, select a board, and start raising money. It takes time to do it right … Discussions about “open government” and “government 2.0” get extremely confusing extremely quickly. There are countless ways to apply openness and new technology to improve our government, which often ends up leading to countless overlapping conversations. We have to fight hard against this tendency. This is one of the reasons why we focus exclusively on making data more accessible. Our visual identity is part of this too. Our sites should be clean and easy to understand. We’re tackling complicated problems, and we don’t want to further complicate them with confusing and cluttered design. We also want to avoid alienating less web-savvy or technical audiences who have valuable insights and contributions to make.

opensandiego:

We make data about San Diego freely available for anyone to use.

Starting Open San Diego has been a lot of fun. It’s exciting to see how quickly our community has grown!

The most difficult, and important, work to do in these early days is make ourselves an official non-profit, select a board, and start raising money. It takes time to do it right

…

Discussions about “open government” and “government 2.0” get extremely confusing extremely quickly. There are countless ways to apply openness and new technology to improve our government, which often ends up leading to countless overlapping conversations. We have to fight hard against this tendency. This is one of the reasons why we focus exclusively on making data more accessible.

Our visual identity is part of this too. Our sites should be clean and easy to understand. We’re tackling complicated problems, and we don’t want to further complicate them with confusing and cluttered design. We also want to avoid alienating less web-savvy or technical audiences who have valuable insights and contributions to make.

(via smarterplanet)

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plantedcity:

surp:

The Nature of Cities explores both the nature in are own backyards - Austin and San Diego and the possibilities in projects of cities of the future - Malmo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Freiburg, Amsterdam and Paris.

The film features Sustainable Communities professor Timothy Beatley as he tours these places with City Planners, Landscape Architects, Ecologists and Residents.

Commentary by Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) and Dr. Stephen Kellert (Biophilic Design) provide the background for looking at the living possibilities of how we can be in an urban environment integrated with the nature around us.

60 minutes

Produced by Throughline Productions

There is a review here

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Even if you attended or viewed some of the videos from our New York City Smarter Cities event in October, you’ll find that last week’s first-ever Smarter Cities Virtual Forum affords a deeper dive into some of the key issues and smarter solutions that cities from Richmond, Virginia (public safety) to Las Vegas, Nevada (transportation) are undertaking today. One of the nice features of hosting the event virtually is the ability to deliver the presentations to you, in their entirety, on demand. IBM’s new General Manager for North America, Bridget van Kralingen opened the forum with an update on our Smarter Cities initiatives and on what we’re seeing come out of these important conversations, as more people understand and embrace its vision. Cities are taking their first steps, piloting projects to improve efficiency and lower costs: The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) is working with IBM to analyze and revitalize its aging water and sewer system. Relationships are deepening: IBM completed an automatic metering project with Houston-based Centerpoint Energy, and now the utility is engaging with us for a Smart Grid project. Understanding and awareness are growing: Fordham University in New York has developed a new business analytics curriculum, preparing students with the needed skills to address key challenges – from reforming healthcare, to making buildings more energy efficient, to improving delivery of public services. Cross-industry connections are being made: Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is partnering with grocery retailer Kroger developing charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. (via A Smarter Planet Blog)

Even if you attended or viewed some of the videos from our New York City Smarter Cities event in October, you’ll find that last week’s first-ever Smarter Cities Virtual Forum affords a deeper dive into some of the key issues and smarter solutions that cities from Richmond, Virginia (public safety) to Las Vegas, Nevada (transportation) are undertaking today. One of the nice features of hosting the event virtually is the ability to deliver the presentations to you, in their entirety, on demand.

IBM’s new General Manager for North America, Bridget van Kralingen opened the forum with an update on our Smarter Cities initiatives and on what we’re seeing come out of these important conversations, as more people understand and embrace its vision.

Cities are taking their first steps, piloting projects to improve efficiency and lower costs: The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) is working with IBM to analyze and revitalize its aging water and sewer system.

Relationships are deepening: IBM completed an automatic metering project with Houston-based Centerpoint Energy, and now the utility is engaging with us for a Smart Grid project.

Understanding and awareness are growing: Fordham University in New York has developed a new business analytics curriculum, preparing students with the needed skills to address key challenges – from reforming healthcare, to making buildings more energy efficient, to improving delivery of public services.

Cross-industry connections are being made: Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is partnering with grocery retailer Kroger developing charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

(via A Smarter Planet Blog)

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CitiSense: Cellular Environmental Monitoring  » dailywireless.org  » CitiSense, a cell-phone based sensor network system, has won a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop and deploy hundreds of small environmental sensors carried by the public in San Diego. The goal of CitiSense is to build and deploy thousands of small environmental sensors that use cell phones to relay data. The sensor-wearing public may also wear biological monitors, collecting basic health information, such as heart rate. The data will be analyzed, anonymized and reflected back out to individuals, public health agencies and San Diego at large.

CitiSense: Cellular Environmental Monitoring  » dailywireless.org  »

CitiSense, a cell-phone based sensor network system, has won a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop and deploy hundreds of small environmental sensors carried by the public in San Diego. The goal of CitiSense is to build and deploy thousands of small environmental sensors that use cell phones to relay data. The sensor-wearing public may also wear biological monitors, collecting basic health information, such as heart rate. The data will be analyzed, anonymized and reflected back out to individuals, public health agencies and San Diego at large.

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