Transportation
War on cars is a war on lower-income Californians
Recent research focusing on Los Angeles finds that the city’s poorest neighborhoods have the largest percentage of “hyper-commuters” – people who commute 90 minutes or more one way to work. The preponderance of those long-distance commuters – often construction workers and laborers who drive from inner-city Los Angeles to far-flung …
Private Sector High Speed Rail Moves Forward While State Bullet Train Cost Estimates Climb
It has been called a dud, the train that couldn’t, a train that went off the rails, a train wreck, the train to nowhere, and a crazy train. The high-speed rail is also a financial fiasco, its cost now almost four times the initial estimate Californians based their votes on …
Mass transit in America: Pipedream or possibility?
A few years ago, when I taught at a university for a term in China, we lived in Changsha, a city of 7.5 million people. Because we didn’t have a car, we depended upon public transportation to get away from our campus and shop downtown. Especially attractive was the gleaming …
California Chooses Flashy Projects Over Quality Transit
(Image Courtesy California High-Speed Rail Authority) Do California government officials want more public transit riders? If the decades-long decline of even local public transit ridership or the state’s continued funding of its infamous $113 billion and counting fantasy train from Los Angeles to San Francisco is any indication, the answer …
San Diego Fires Latest Salvo in Government’s War on Cars
Not too long ago, San Diego was, if not a haven of conservatism with a libertarian flavor, at least a break from the stifling progressivism of Los Angeles. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to tell the differences between, though. The latest shift to the left: San Diego is at war …
Latest Reasons Why Residents Continue to Flee San Francisco
“Budget shortfalls pose an existential threat” to the “long-term viability” of transit services across the state. “Bay Area operators,” says a group of six state senators and seven assembly members, “face significant annual shortfalls,” leaving agencies such as BART no choice but “to cut multiple lines of service as early …
Private options could reverse transit ridership drops
One way to measure a city’s greatness is the ease of getting around: Does its public transit system improve or undermine its quality of life? In the 20th century, New York, London, Paris, Chicago, Berlin and Chicago were generally held in high regard for efficiently and quickly moving people through …
Bullet train won’t improve urban transportation
(image courtesy California High-Speed Rail Commission) Even on its best day, California’s high-speed rail project was always going to struggle to deliver on its grandiose promises – a best day that was unfortunately Nov. 4, 2008. That was the day California voters approved a modest and fantastical version of what …
Urban flight: Removing cars won’t revive our cities
As happened in the 1960s and 70s, America is witnessing a great exodus from some, but not all, of its cities. This time, even West Coast cities, with their sublime weather and ports on the Pacific Ocean, also are seeing residents flee paradise. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, in …
Another San Francisco Treat
The network is in such straits that local transit agencies are looking at a grim scenario in which BART cancels weekend service and closes “nine stations just to keep the lights on elsewhere,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports. When they do run, trains won’t arrive in 15-minute intervals – instead …
War on cars is a war on lower-income Californians
Recent research focusing on Los Angeles finds that the city’s poorest neighborhoods have the largest percentage of “hyper-commuters” – people who commute 90 minutes or more one way to work. The preponderance of those long-distance commuters – often construction workers and laborers who drive from inner-city Los Angeles to far-flung …
Private Sector High Speed Rail Moves Forward While State Bullet Train Cost Estimates Climb
It has been called a dud, the train that couldn’t, a train that went off the rails, a train wreck, the train to nowhere, and a crazy train. The high-speed rail is also a financial fiasco, its cost now almost four times the initial estimate Californians based their votes on …
Mass transit in America: Pipedream or possibility?
A few years ago, when I taught at a university for a term in China, we lived in Changsha, a city of 7.5 million people. Because we didn’t have a car, we depended upon public transportation to get away from our campus and shop downtown. Especially attractive was the gleaming …
California Chooses Flashy Projects Over Quality Transit
(Image Courtesy California High-Speed Rail Authority) Do California government officials want more public transit riders? If the decades-long decline of even local public transit ridership or the state’s continued funding of its infamous $113 billion and counting fantasy train from Los Angeles to San Francisco is any indication, the answer …
San Diego Fires Latest Salvo in Government’s War on Cars
Not too long ago, San Diego was, if not a haven of conservatism with a libertarian flavor, at least a break from the stifling progressivism of Los Angeles. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to tell the differences between, though. The latest shift to the left: San Diego is at war …
Latest Reasons Why Residents Continue to Flee San Francisco
“Budget shortfalls pose an existential threat” to the “long-term viability” of transit services across the state. “Bay Area operators,” says a group of six state senators and seven assembly members, “face significant annual shortfalls,” leaving agencies such as BART no choice but “to cut multiple lines of service as early …
Private options could reverse transit ridership drops
One way to measure a city’s greatness is the ease of getting around: Does its public transit system improve or undermine its quality of life? In the 20th century, New York, London, Paris, Chicago, Berlin and Chicago were generally held in high regard for efficiently and quickly moving people through …
Bullet train won’t improve urban transportation
(image courtesy California High-Speed Rail Commission) Even on its best day, California’s high-speed rail project was always going to struggle to deliver on its grandiose promises – a best day that was unfortunately Nov. 4, 2008. That was the day California voters approved a modest and fantastical version of what …
Urban flight: Removing cars won’t revive our cities
As happened in the 1960s and 70s, America is witnessing a great exodus from some, but not all, of its cities. This time, even West Coast cities, with their sublime weather and ports on the Pacific Ocean, also are seeing residents flee paradise. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, in …
Another San Francisco Treat
The network is in such straits that local transit agencies are looking at a grim scenario in which BART cancels weekend service and closes “nine stations just to keep the lights on elsewhere,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports. When they do run, trains won’t arrive in 15-minute intervals – instead …
