TransLiblog

HOT Lanes in the Bay Area

2008-07-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of johnmarkos.

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has approved a plan to allow solo drivers to pay a toll to drive in Bay Area carpool lanes, turning HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes into HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes. The article states:

The system would be phased in over nearly two decades, starting in late 2010 or early 2011, and the first pilot projects would open on two congested corridors: southbound Interstate 680 over the Sunol Grade and both directions of Interstate 580 between Livermore and the I-680 interchange, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a regional planning and funding agency, which is coordinating the plan.

Eventually, the toll-lane network would be expanded to cover nearly 800 of the region's 1,200 miles of freeway lanes.

The price of the tolls hasn't been decided, but it could start out at a couple of dimes per mile. Motorists would use FasTrak transponders to pay.

You can read more about MTC's proposal here.

Prof. Donald Shoup Interview: Part 1

2008-07-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Prof. Shoup's homepage

Recently we interviewed Prof. Donald Shoup for a new feature on TransLiblog with some questions about his groundbreaking work in parking. This is the first half of that interview. The second half will be posted on 4 August 2008.

Prof. Shoup’s canonical work, The High Cost of Free Parking, is radically changing approaches to transportation in the academic world as well as industry. In this book, Prof. Shoup has argued for three fundamental parking principles- (1) implement a market-based pricing scheme for curbside parking that will ensure a 15 percent vacancy rate, (2) eliminate parking stall requirements for new developments, and (3) reinvest the lion’s share of parking revenue locally. Prof. Shoup received his PhD in Economics from Yale University and is currently Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, having formerly served as Chair of that department as well as Director of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies. He has also worked with various governmental organizations to assist in the creation of new policies for parking and public investment.
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ITSL: Market-based pricing of curbside parking is one of your more important contributions to the academic study of parking and is beginning to be adopted in different municipalities across the US. Another transportation topic that is currently very popular is congestion pricing for highways. What do you think is the source of the current trend toward transportation solutions based upon utilization pricing? Has utilization pricing always played a role in transportation through things like the fuel tax, or is the current movement fundamentally different?

DS: Pricing is becoming a popular solution to transportation problems in part because of the huge advances in pricing technology. Old fashioned single-space parking meters require drivers to carry exact change and decide in advance how long they want to park. Many drivers end up either paying for more time than they use, or not paying enough and risking a ticket. New technology, however, allows drivers to pay for curb parking without carrying exact change and without deciding in advance how long they want to park. Buying time at the curb can now be as convenient as any other of life’s daily transactions—no more complicated than buying a loaf of bread or a quart of milk.

The technology of collecting congestion tolls has also improved greatly, so most objections to transportation pricing are now political, not technological. I think the political key to generating political enthusiasm for performance-priced curb parking is to return at least a share of the meter revenue to pay for added public services in the metered neighborhoods. In Pasadena, CA, for example, after the city offered to spend all the meter revenue to pay for public investments in the Old Pasadena business district, the business and property owners quickly agreed to install meters because they saw that they would directly benefit from the revenue. The desire for public improvements soon outweighed the fear of driving customers away. Businesses and property owners began to see parking meters in a new light—as a source of revenue. They recommended the unusual policy of operating the meters until late in the evenings and on Sundays. The business and property owners bought into the proposal for parking meters because they were bought off with the resulting revenue.

Many transportation planners and economists agree that proper pricing is the best way, and perhaps the only way, to reduce congestion. And as Winston Churchill said, Americans will always do the right thing... after they've exhausted all the alternatives.

ITSL: Taking the first question into account, why do you suppose there is political and societal resistance to such an approach? Is this only a resistance to new and different ideas, or are there more robust arguments in place from detractors of market-based parking and congestion pricing?

DS: A generation ago, many planners and politicians opposed market solutions to public problems almost as a matter of principle, but even skeptics who still doubt the merits of market prices for other public services can in good conscience recommend charging them for parking. If cities underprice curb parking, they must require off-street parking everywhere—imposing enormous costs on the economy and the environment. Planners can and should regulate the quality of parking, but they should deregulate or limit its quantity. Instead of planning without prices, we can let prices do the planning.

No one wants to pay for parking—that will never change—but residents who benefit from the nonresidents’ payments for parking will begin to think like landlords, not tenants. Curb parking will come to be seen as a privilege, not a right. Once people understand that they will receive added public services paid for by curb parking, they begin to understand the rational arguments to charge performance prices—prices that vary to maintain about 85 percent occupancy—for curb parking. If cities continue to suck meter money out of neighborhoods and use it for general fund purposes, rational arguments about traffic congestion and the environment won’t convince many people that cities should charge performance prices for curb parking.

Suppose cities do return the meter revenues to pay for added public services on the metered streets. Then are there any robust arguments for free curb parking in areas where there is a parking shortage at the zero price? The only one I can think of is that performance pricing might be expensive to implement. But modern technology has greatly reduced the cost of collecting performance-based parking charges. Collection costs (both capital and operating) are usually less than 20 percent of the gross revenue even when parking charges are low. When meter rates rise to market levels, collection costs will be an even smaller share of the gross revenue. So I would conclude that all the objections to performance pricing are political, and that strategic use of the meter revenue can answer these political objections.

ITSL: One could analyze your approach to parking as a contribution to long-term sustainability in urban development. Is your approach, by feeding parking monies back into the community and by economically coaxing drivers into only taking trips they genuinely need to take, meant to be part of an effort to shift communities away from the current auto-centric model a more sustainable one? What do you take to be a sustainable urban model with regard to transportation?

DS: One of my basic research instincts is to look at cases where prices deviate greatly from costs, and to try to think of politically acceptable ways to bring the prices people pay into line with the cost they impose. In transportation, and especially in parking, the prices that drivers pay are often far below they costs they impose, and this underpricing leads to excessive driving.

Most proposals to restrain driving often suffer from their across-the-board nature. Because no one group benefits much more than another, the measures lack a natural constituency who will put time and money into advocating them. This is why I proposed the idea of Parking Benefit Districts, in which cities return meter revenue to pay for neighborhood public goods such as sidewalk repairs, underground wiring, and added police protection. These added public benefits for the residents can generate the necessary political support to charge for curb parking. Residents who receive the benefits can vote for their member of the city council, while most nonresidents who pay for parking in the neighborhood cannot. Politicians think politically, and in supporting a Parking Benefit District they will not have to break free from parochial, place-based concerns to adopt a reform that serves the wider public interest. By creating legitimate constituencies who enjoy selective public goods, Parking Benefit Districts rely on parochial, place-based concerns to provide the incentive for reform. The political support for these benefit districts will come from narrow self-interest, not ideological conviction, and no one needs to believe that charging market prices for curb parking is good transportation policy. In this case, residents who think locally and act locally will also be acting globally, whether they know it or not. Returning curb parking revenue to the metered neighborhoods makes sense at both the local and global levels. Getting the price of curb parking right will do a world of good.

ITSL: Historically speaking, why do people in our society expect free parking? Is it possible to wean people away from this expectation?

DS: When only the rich owned cars at the beginning of the 20th century, motorists simply parked their new cars at the curb where they had formerly tethered their horses and carriages. But when car ownership grew rapidly during the 1910s and 1920s, the parking problem developed. Curb parking remained free (the parking meter was not invented until 1935), but there were no longer enough spaces for everyone to park whenever and wherever they wanted. Drivers circled in vain looking for a vacant curb space, and their cars congested traffic. In the 1930s, cities began to require off-street parking in their zoning ordinances to deal with the parking shortage. This sounds like a good idea, and, in one sense, it was a good idea. Requiring all new buildings to provide ample on-site parking did solve one problem—the shortage of free curb parking—but the solution soon created new problems. People expected to park free, and urban planners began to assume that most people would travel everywhere by car, park on-site while they worked, shopped, or dined there, and then drive on to their next destination. Cities began to require each site to provide its own parking lot big enough to satisfy the expected peak demand for free parking, and most commercial buildings are now required to provide a parking lot bigger than the building itself. The required parking lot at a restaurant, for example, usually occupies at least three times as much land as the restaurant itself. Off-street parking requirements encourage everyone to drive wherever they go because they know they can usually park free when they get there: 87 percent of all trips in the U.S. are now made by personal motor vehicles, and only 1.5 percent by public transit.

So long as cities continue to require ample off-street parking at every site, people will never be weaned from expecting free parking. And unless cities begin to charge performance-based prices for curb parking, reducing or eliminating off-street parking requirements will not be politically possible. So I would argue that getting the price of curb parking right is a precondition to weaning people away from expecting free parking everywhere. Therefore, I would also argue that Parking Benefit Districts with revenue return to finance added local public services will create the political demand for more sensible parking prices.

ITSL: Does your work fit in with the New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Transportation Oriented Development movements? In what ways does your approach differ from or cohere to these movements?

DS: I hope the advocates of New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Transit Oriented Development will work to get parking right in new development. Most American cities put a floor under the parking supply to satisfy the peak demand for free parking, and then cap development density to limit vehicle trips. European cities, in contrast, often cap the number of parking spaces to avoid congesting the roads, and combine this strategy with a floor on allowed development density to encourage walking, cycling, and public transport. That is, Americans require parking and limit density, while Europeans require density and limit parking. The American policy looks exceptionally foolish when combined with complaints about traffic congestion and calls for Smart Growth.

A few American cities—Boston, New York, and San Francisco—do limit parking in their downtowns, but even these cities require parking everywhere else. If parking caps reduce vehicle trips, parking requirements surely increase them. If we want to reduce traffic congestion, energy consumption, and air pollution, the simplest and most productive single reform of American zoning would be to declare that all the existing off-street parking requirements are maximums rather than minimums, without changing any of the numbers, as the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea did in 1995. From that point on we could let the market take care of parking, and let city planners take care of the many vital issues that really demand their attention.

ITSL: In The High Cost of Free Parking, you mention Thomas Kuhn’s work a number of times- particularly through his theories developed in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. While the results of a parking-oriented approach to sustainability may converge with the efforts of planning movements like New Urbanism, the analysis of parking you provide is more revolutionary in terms of its conceptual break with traditional urban congestion analysis. Why is modifying city planning, as driven by economical considerations, more of a Copernican-style revolution than a modification by urban design principles?

DS: I think good economics and good design are complementary, and that bad economics in urban planning has led to bad design. As a profession, urban planning was once largely about urban design and arguably suffered from an absence of quantitative rigor. The profession has since compensated for its lack of quantitative analysis, but off-street parking requirements in zoning ordinances are an example of the pendulum having swung too far in the other direction, because most cities’ parking requirements give little consideration to aesthetics and city form. Most shopping centers with all the parking spaces that planners require become giant parking lots with a few buildings—not a good place to be a pedestrian. It undoubtedly meets the peak demand for free parking, but do planners really recommend this urban pattern? Parking profoundly affects the markets for both transportation and land, but is treated as an afterthought. Off-street parking requirements increase the cost of housing, subsidize cars, distort transportation choices, encourage sprawl, burden low-income households, damage the economy, and degrade the environment. Off-street parking requirements are a disease masquerading as a cure.

Supposing to require enough parking to meet the peak demand, urban planners focus almost exclusively on the ratio of parking spaces to floor area, and they neglect how all the required parking spaces affect urban design. Off-street parking requirements represent the triumph of quantity over quality in urban planning. Planners should stop requiring more parking spaces, and start requiring better parking design.

Parking spaces are an essential part of the transportation system, and they produce enormous benefits, but this does not mean that we need more parking spaces, or that parking should be free. When planners set minimum parking requirements, they do not define demand and supply the way economists do. For example, economists do not define the demand for food as the peak quantity of food consumed at free buffets where overweight diners eat until the last bite has zero value. Nor do economists, when asked for policy prescriptions, recommend that restaurants should be required to supply at least this quantity of free food no matter how much it costs. Yet planners do define parking demand as the peak number of spaces occupied at sites with free parking, and cities do require developers to supply at least this number of parking spaces, whatever the cost. Planning for parking is planning without prices. Getting the prices right in planning for parking will help architects design better buildings.
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ITSL wishes to thank Prof. Shoup for his thoughtful answers to these questions. Check back on 4 August 2008 for the second half of the interview.

San Francisco is for Pedestrians

2008-07-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk.
The SF Gate reports today that the website WalkScore.com has named San Francisco the country's most "walkable" city.

San Francisco scored an 86 out of 100, besting New York's 83 and Boston's 79. Seventeen of San Francisco's neighborhoods ranked 90 or above - considered a "walker's paradise" - including Chinatown, the Mission, Nob Hill and Haight-Ashbury.

"That says that San Francisco isn't just isolated pockets of walkability, but broad swaths," said Mike Mathieu, chairman and founder of Front Seat. "If you live and work in San Francisco, you know this. It means it's easier to get around, even with the hills."

The ability to conveniently travel by foot to services and jobs matters for a number of reasons. Studies show it means people get more exercise, drive fewer miles and consequently spend less on gas and produce fewer greenhouse emissions. Walkability also means there are people on the sidewalks, in stores and at restaurants, making neighborhoods livelier and, for many, more attractive.

"It's both healthy for the Earth and for humans to be able to walk to most of the places they need," said Kate White, executive director of the San Francisco office of the Urban Land Institute, a planning group. "Your carbon footprint is significantly lower than someone who has to drive everywhere ... and you're able to have real neighborhoods where you're not totally separated from your neighbors."

This report follows SFMTA's new Pedestrian Master Plan which aims to make the city more walkable, focusing on pedestrian safety and access to transit.

Biofuels cause food prices to soar

2008-07-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of The Guardian

A lead article in the Guardian reports that a leaked World Bank paper estimates that the price of basic foodstuffs has risen 75%, due to the diversion of basic crops to biofuel production. It seems that the report has remained unpublished to avoid embarrassing the U.S. government (President Bush has said that biofuel has caused the price of food to rise by only 3%) and for fear of getting the World Bank into political hot water.

The report identifies three main factors in this enormous price rise. A third of the US's corn and half of the EU's vegetable oil now goes to biofuel; farmers are being encouraged to set aside land for biofuel crops; and speculators have got in on the act.

The Guardian has posted the report on its website.

Hands on Driving.

2008-07-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

California legislation outlawing driving whilst holding a mobile phone went into effect today, as well as prohibiting drivers under the age of 18 from using any mobile phone device while operating a vehicle. The California DMV has a handy FAQ about the new legislation. The new law doesn't prohibit text messaging though, nor other distractions such as shaving or eating. Many have already derided the law as ignoring the real distraction behind mobile phone use in cars - talking on the phone.

A recent article entitled "A meta-analysis of the effects of cell phones on driver performance" examines research and literature about mobile phones and driving to asess their affect on traffic safety. Talking on the phone is only one in a list of many distractions which affect a driver's performance, yet most legislation has targeted mobile phone use exclusively.

Is it a conspiracy to get people to buy new phones with Blue Tooth or a pretext for drivers to be stopped and searched? Hopefully neither.

Amtrak's Busiest Month in History

2008-06-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

Last month Amtrak had its busiest month in its history. Nationwide ridership for May 2008 was up nearly 11%. For NPR's story, their reporter rode the Heartland Flyer, which travels between Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Fort Worth, Texas. One rider on that train compared the price of a round trip ticket on Amtrak, $66, to the price for gas one-way in his truck -- $80. When this blogger checked on ticket availability for the Hearland Flyer for Friday morning, he found the train sold out.

Amtrak spokesman Mark Magliari says that half of the increase in ridership this year is due to the high price of fuel. As of today, Thursday, a seat in coach from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, on Monday's train is $30.00. The trip of 200 miles in the most popular SUV in America, a Honda CR-V (22mpg), would cost $34.72 if you paid $3.82/gallon, the average price in Oklahoma City.

Photo from flickr user sheilaellen

Work Underway on Flying Car

2008-06-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

In 2005 Milner Motors started work on a roadable aircraft now called the Milner AirCar. According to March 2008 issue (Starting on page 80 of this 132 page pdf) of Aerospace Testing International, that same craft is being readied for NHTSA crash testing and James Milner believes that the roadable section already exceeds Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) crashworthiness requirements and Federal Aviation Regulation requirements. The craft will carry 4 people and fly at 200 mph and reach an altitude of 25,000 feet. The aircraft engine should have 320bhp and the roading motor will be 40bhp and allow it to get up to 85 mph on the highway. The AirCar is expected to sell for around $450,000. The company will also be building a nonflying electric car of the same design.

A different approach to the flying car idea is Paul Moller's Skycar. Whereas the Milner craft will need to be driven to the airport for take-off, the Moller Skycar, being a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL)craft, will need no runway, and is not drivable as a conventional car at all. The Skycar is expected to have a top airspeed of 375 mph, reach 36,000 feet, and get you from location to location entirely by air. If you want one of the first 100 units, it will cost you around a million dollars. Moller has been working on developing a commercial VTOL craft for around forty years.

Images courtesy Milner Motors

Most and Least Fuel Efficient Cars

2008-06-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

With the price of regular gas in the U.S. typically over $4.50/gallon many people are looking for more fuel efficient cars. Fortunately, the Department of Energy and the EPA have compiled a list of fuel efficiency ratings at fueleconomy.gov.

Toyota Prius Hybrid, $29K ; 48 mpg city, 45 highway
Honda Civic Hybrid, $24K ; 40 mpg city, 45 highway
Smart ForTwo, $14K ; 33 mpg city, 41 highway
Toyota Yaris, $17K ; 29 mpg city, 36 highway
Mini Cooper manual, $19K ; 28 mpg city, 37 highway
Toyota Corrola, $23K ; 28 mpg city, 37 highway
Honda Fit, $19K ; 28 mpg city, 34 highway

Among the least fuel efficient vehicles you'll find:

SUV
Mercedes-Benz G 55 AMG 4WD, $112K ; 11 mpg city, 13 highway

Minivan
Toyota Sienna 4WD, $42K ; 16 mpg city, 21 highway

Small pickup truck
Ford Ranger 4WD, $26K ; 14 mpg city, 17 highway

2 Seater
Lamborghini Murcielago, $500K ; 8 mpg city, 13 highway

Prices based on common configurations found in the San Francisco Bay Area from Cars.com.

Find the cheapest gas in your area (within the U.S.) through AAA's website. After you've entered your zip code, click on AAA Gas Price Finder.

Bloomberg Takes It to the Streets!

2008-06-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Flickr.com

The New York Times is reporting on a new experiment in New York City to have a "car-free zone" for three Saturdays in August. The article reports that

“If it works, we’ll certainly consider doing it again,” Mr. Bloomberg said, at a news conference in the East Village on Lafayette Street, which will be included in the route. “If not, we won’t. But we have never been afraid to try new ideas, especially the ones that have the potential to improve the quality of life

The area affected will be contained to Manhattan, from the hours of 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Some detractors worry about the impact on business, while others speculate that increased foot traffic will compensate. Cyclists were, however, uniformly positive in their reactions.

Head Injuries on the Rise in Pennsylvania

2008-06-16T12:21:00.001-07:00

In 2003, Pennsylvania repealed its universal helmet law. If you're over 21 and you have more than two years' riding experience, you can now ride without a helmet in Pennsylvania. The authors of a paper to be published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Public Health found a 32% increase in head injury deaths and a 42% increase in head injury-related hospitalizations in the two years after the helmet law was repealed -- and that's after taking into account the increase in motorcycle registrations. A University of Pittsburgh press release summarizes the finding of the report, "Changes in Motorcycle-Related Head Injury Deaths, Hospitalizations,and Hospital Charges Following Repeal of Pennsylvania’s Mandatory Motorcycle Helmet Law," was co-authored by Kristen J. Mertz and Harold B. Weiss of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.

According to an article in Hanover, PA's Evening Sun, 20 states have laws requiring all motorcycle riders to wear helmets, while 27 states have laws that require minors or passengers to wear head protection. Iowa, Illinois and New Hampshire have no helmet laws.

Hypermiling - Green alternative or just Cheap?

2008-06-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Simply Marvelous.

There are many different responses to rising fuel prices- driving less, complaining more, using more fuel efficient vehicles, or making your current vehicle more fuel efficient. One group has taken common tips to for fuel efficiency to the extreme- Hypermiling.

Hypermilers have six core techniques:

First (and most important) step: Start recording your gas mileage. Easiest way? Use your trip odometer.

Do you drive aggressively and not know it?

How long are you sitting still at red lights?

Keeping moving in traffic congestion

Slowly accelerate after stops

Your cruise control saves gas

Both NPR and CNN have profiled Hypermilers recently, and it's clear that it's attractive to people as both a way to save money and to help cut down on emissions.

Record wingsuit flight over Galway Bay

2008-06-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy of Galway Advertiser.

Swiss wingsuit master Ueli Gegenschatz has broken the record for such flights. Jumping from a skydiving craft 14,760 feet over the Aran Islands in Galway Bay he flew unaided to the mainland, a distance of almost 11 miles. Aided by a tailwind he achieved a speed of 155 miles an hour, taking just 5 mins 45 sec to reach Connemara Regional Airport before parachuting to the ground.

(Another stunning picture of Gegenschatz directly over Inis Mór, Aran's largest island, can be seen on the BBC's report.)

Gasoline, a bargain still

2008-05-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy of Slate.com.

In a Slate.com article, "Gasoline is cheap", business correspondent Robert Bryce points out that the current price of gasoline in the US is only slightly higher than it was in 1922. British motorists pay $8.38 per gallon, while drivers in Turkey pay three times as much as their US counterparts. For those of us who cannot get over the shock of the $4 gallon of gas, a related article describes the Five Stages of Grief and gasoline prices in America

Go Green! Go Used!

2008-05-20T16:36:00.001-07:00

Photo courtesy of Parker's.

Wired published an article that might make you think about the next vehicle you purchase. Worried about greenhouse gas emissions and global warming? Leaning towards a hybrid because they're better for the environment? Wired breaks down the emissions produced by building a hybrid car versus those emitted by a sensible used vehicle:

If a new Prius were placed head-to-head with a used car, would the Prius win? Don't bet on it. Making a Prius consumes 113 million BTUs, according to sustainability engineer Pablo Päster. A single gallon of gas contains about 113,000 Btus, so Toyota's green wonder guzzles the equivalent of 1,000 gallons before it clocks its first mile. A used car, on the other hand, starts with a significant advantage: The first owner has already paid off its carbon debt. Buy a decade-old Toyota Tercel, which gets a respectable 35 mpg, and the Prius will have to drive 100,000 miles to catch up.

We're quite fond of the Daihatsu Charade, which looks like an egg and gets great mileage.

Is the Bay Area Ready for Congestion Pricing?

2008-05-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

In August 2007, the US Department of Transportation’s Urban Partnership Program made $158.7 million available to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to relieve traffic congestion . In order to receive the funds, SF hopes to introduce a variable toll on Doyle Drive, a connector to the Golden Gate Bridge. This would encourage drivers to switch to public transit or drive during less congested times of day.

Federal funds are at risk, however, as Marin and San Francisco argue about the fairness of tolls on the bridge and Doyle Drive. The board of directors of Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District voted on May 9 to consider a congestion-based toll for the bridge but what impact that will have on Doyle Drive tolling remains to be seen. The SFCTA has issued a Toll Feasibility Fact Sheet that outlines how the electronic tolling would work.

The proposal is meeting from resistance from North Bay drivers who characterize it as an attempt by San Francisco to make them help pay for the rebuilding of outdated and seismically unsafe Doyle Drive. Others argue that this is a regional problem that needs to be addressed from that perspective. The public will be able to weigh in at a bridge district hearing July 11.

Laura Stonehill, a student in the dual-degree program in Transportation Engineering and City Planning at UC Berkeley, won First Prize in the American Planning Association’s Transportation Planning Division’s 2008 competition for her paper, Congestion Pricing on Doyle Drive . Congestion pricing in this context, she notes, would serve not only to reduce demand during peak traffic times but also to generate funds to reconstruct the connector to the Golden Gate Bridge. She recommends addressing concerns of North Bay residents, being open with the public about the pricing scheme and its objectives, and setting prices so that congestion is actually mitigated. The success of such a project is critical since it would be the first large-scale application of congestion pricing in the U.S.

Welcome to the Fast Lane

2008-04-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Salon.com.

Have you heard the news? Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is the newest member of blogosphere with Welcome to the Fast Lane. Peters writes:

This new opportunity will allow me and others here at the Department to speak with you and engage in an earnest conversation about our nation’s transportation system…and, I hope, have a little fun while we’re doing it.

So go over there, subscribe to their RSS Feed, and let the U.S. Department of Transportation know your opinions!

14,218 Flights Over the U.S.

2008-04-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is a computer generated animated depiction of airline flights over the United States from late night March 19th to early morning March 21st 2005. The work was created by artist Aaron Koblin based on data collected from the Federal Aviation Administration. In the movie, a frame of which is seen here, the bright blob towards the lower left is Hawaii, the bright blob just upper left of center is Southern California, and the lines comming into frame from upper right are trans Atlantic flights. Several different methods for displaying this same set of air traffic data can be seen in Koblin's YouTube video. For the entire month of March 2005 the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports 996,240 revenue departures.

They might stop for this

2008-04-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

Saw this mentioned on the Environmental Design Library's site. An interesting concept for a crosswalk signal that no-one could possibly fail to notice, from the designer Hanyoung Lee. It's a virtual wall composed of plasma laser beams containing images of people crossing. It seems it would be good at controlling pedestrians too.

Image source: Yanko Design.

In-Vehicle Alcohol Detectors for the Masses

2008-04-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

The rate of repeat DWI offenses has been cut by over 40% in the U.S. and Canada by the use of ignition interlock devices. These are small, hand held breathalyzers that work in conjunction with an aftermarket ignition cut-off switch which allows a driver to start their car only if they pass their on-the-spot blood alcohol content test. 37 states now offer ignition interlocks as an alternative to license suspension for many DWI offenders.

The success of this program has prompted the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to explore the feasibility of alcohol detection systems for all cars. Such a system would need to be, according to the newly launched Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety website, "far less intrusive – they must not impede sober drivers from starting their vehicles. They would need to be capable of rapidly and accurately determining and measuring alcohol in the blood."

Sources: AutoWeek, 1 800 DWI LAWS.

Image: AutoWeek

Visualizing Bus Routes

2008-04-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of R. Justin Stewart.

The most classic and oft cited visualization of a transit network is probably Beck's original map of the London Underground. Minnesota based artist R. Justin Stewart has a new piece that maps out the route and schedule of a Minneapolis bus line from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m., with distance as the horizontal axis and time as the vertical. Definitely a new way to look at transit networks.

Via VisualComplexity.

Berkeley Lecturer Emeritus W. Homburger in BDP

2008-04-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

photo courtesy of ITS

W. Homburger's (Institute of Transportation Studies Lecturer Emeritus and former acting director) recent talk to the Berkeley City Commons Club was written up this week in the Berkeley Daily Planet. The topic concerned, among other things, the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) designed to ease traffic issues in the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay (most notably, for Berkeley residents, eliminating a lane on Telegraph Avenue for BRT operations). Homburger is skeptical of this project, noting that, despite his general support for some associated measures,

AC Transit wants to spend capital funds, which is money with a ribbon-cutting at the end. [...] When’s the last time you saw a ribbon-cutting for maintaining a building?

Homburger goes on to explain that more robust support from local citizens is necessary for the proper implementation of such a system. He is not without his critics, however. A blog entitled Friends of BRT Blog has written a recent post criticizing some of Prof. Homburger's thoughts on BRT in the East Bay (which came in the form of another article in BDP). Charles Siegel, of the Berkeley-based Preservation Institute, explains in the blog post that

Homburger claims that "loss of a pair of lanes on Telegraph will increase congestion and the anger of residents on parallel streets where backups are already formidable." In reality, the BRT project would actually reduce, not increase, the number of cars entering the neighborhood.

For example, AC Transit analysis forecasts that the number of vehicles traffic crossing a line just north of Ashby Avenue stretching from Sacramento Street to College Avenue during the afternoon peak hour in 2025 would be 15,400 without BRT and 14,900 with BRT - a decrease of 500 cars. In addition, AC Transit could provide traffic calming devices to protect residents of streets near the BRT line.

Of course the East Bay BRT project is still in its planning stages, so no commitment has been made one way or another by AC Transit on the matter. Information on the proposal can be found here.

-J. Chipman

Peak Oil and the Future of Transportation

2008-03-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

photograph courtesy of flickr

The current issue of Cal Transit's Transit America serial has an interesting article on the issue of peak oil (here on p 7, in PDF). The article, written by the mayor of Huntington Beach, California, Debbie Cook, opens with the following:

Core to all U.S. transportation planning is the assumption that oil will always be abundant and cheap. This premise continues to dominate every regional transportation plan in the country and drives our auto-centric development patterns. But what if this assumption is wrong? What if we are near the peak of world oil production? It then follows that our assumptions on construction costs, gas tax revenues, travel and aviation demand, mode choice, and growth patterns are also wrong. It would mean that our fossil fuel-based energy future is in jeopardy and that we are not prepared.

Cook then goes on to provide some quantitative metrics indicating that the global community is indeed already in such a situation. Peak Oil, Cook explains, will yield a problem for transportation energy of a magnitude such that the United States' federal government will have to initiate policies to strongly militate against potential catastrophe.

A more passionately articulated position can be found in J.H. Kunstler, whose website can be found here. His book, The Long Emergency, speculates on this potential catastrophe and demonstrates to readers just how deep runs the modern world's dependence on oil as an energy resource.

-J. Chipman

Open Skies

2008-03-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

This Sunday -- March 30, 2008 -- the Open Skies agreement between the United States and the European Union will take effect. The liberalization process has been in the works for over 15 years and currently involves more than 120 bilateral agreements. And this one between the U.S. and the E.U. has probably the greatest potential for economic impact. With this agreement, U.S. and E.U. airlines will be able to choose their own routes and set their own fares as they choose. Before Open Skies, scheduled air carriers were subject to any and all restrictions placed on them by the countries to which they flew. Governments of any country allowing international flights were required only to adhere to regulations set forth in the original Chicago Convention, which in 1944 led to the establishment of the International Civil Aviation Organization. The current edition (7MB pdf) of this convention, which Open Skies will augment, provided basic guidelines such as:

"The contracting States recognize that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory."
"No state aircraft of a contracting State shall fly over the territory of another State or land thereon without authorization by special agreement or otherwise, and in accordance with terms thereof."
"No scheduled international air service may be operated over or into the territory of a contracting State, except with the special permission or other authorization of that State, and in accordance with the terms of such permission or authorization."

It is the purview of Open Skies to allow airlines to fully compete in a free market. Whether or not this will benefit air travelers remains to be seen.

Image: KLM Cargo

Transit Oriented Book Lending

2008-03-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever gotten to the train station and discovered that you forgot to bring a book to read on your morning commute? Well if your commute starts at BART's Pittsburg-Bay Point station, that will soon be no problem. Simply go to the library book vending machine and check out any one of 400 titles available. The Contra Costa County library system, with grants from the California State Library and the Bay Area Library and Information System, will be installing Bokomaten book vending machines -- made by Distec AB of Sweden -- in three area BART stations. Hold your library card up to the machine to allow it to scan the barcode, browse through the inventory of titles displayed on the screen, select your book and about 20 seconds later out pops a real hard-copy volume in a plastic case which you then return to your local Contra Costa County branch library before the end of the three week loan period. See the machine in action: search for "Bokomaten" at http://www.youtube.com.

Thanks to S.D. Tannenbaum for the heads-up.

Photo courtesy San Jose Mercury News.

The Greening of San Francisco Taxis

2008-03-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

All of San Francisco's taxicabs will be greener by 2011. On March 6 mayor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will authorize a $7.50 surcharge to the "gate cap" in order to facilitate purchase of low emission vehicles. Previously, taxi company owners were allowed to charge their drivers a maximum of $91.50 per 10 hour shift for the use of the cabs. This bill will increase that amount by $7.50. All new cabs must already be hybrids or run on compressed natural gase (CNG).
According to one taxi driver, quoted on priuschat.com, "new taxi medallions issued in San Francisco must be [for] hybrid or alt fuel taxis."

CW Nevius reports on the impact the bill will have on cab drivers. "I am running my ass off for $150 a day," says Bud Hazelkorn of the United Taxicab Workers, "Sometimes you don't make that until 11 or 11:30 in the morning."

The bill also requires taxi companies to reduce average per vehicle greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2012. City supervisors expect to achieve zero gross greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 by permitting only zero emission vehicles in the taxi fleets.

Photo courtesy Athan R. at yelp.com