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The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread


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24 minutes ago, AronG said:

I got an electric cargo bike a year and a half ago and it's been amazing. Most of them are like 4 grand but I bought a radwagon from radpower bikes for $1,600 and it's been great. They're super versatile, and my kids (4 & 5) love it. I've gotten all over town on the thing; it's so much more fun when you can twist the throttle whenever you want. Now we just need more bike lanes!

Definitely need some more bike lanes. Considering how people in cars think the road is their's alone. A PSA campaign wouldn't hurt either.

On a separate note, I passed the Harding Lane/Franklin Pike intersection that is getting turning lanes this morning. And not a sidewalk in site, I know there aren't any other sidewalks in that area but why is the city even building roads now without sidewalks. Are they contributing to the mythical sidewalk fund? 

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3 hours ago, PaulChinetti said:

Definitely need some more bike lanes. Considering how people in cars think the road is their's alone. A PSA campaign wouldn't hurt either.

On a separate note, I passed the Harding Lane/Franklin Pike intersection that is getting turning lanes this morning. And not a sidewalk in site, I know there aren't any other sidewalks in that area but why is the city even building roads now without sidewalks. Are they contributing to the mythical sidewalk fund? 

I’ve never seen anyone walking there. There’s just not much density. Nothing between there and the interstate on Harding, spaced out single family homes down battery lane, big houses with huge lawns and schools is all you get for miles down Franklin road both directions. 

3 hours ago, AronG said:

I got an electric cargo bike a year and a half ago and it's been amazing. Most of them are like 4 grand but I bought a radwagon from radpower bikes for $1,600 and it's been great. They're super versatile, and my kids (4 & 5) love it. I've gotten all over town on the thing; it's so much more fun when you can twist the throttle whenever you want. Now we just need more bike lanes!

Picture from the internet (that is not me):

Image result for radwagon

From what I understand, when the new regulations for dockless providers are finalized in a few weeks we're going to have several new participants, both scooters and e-bikes. It's pretty exciting, and I hope we can start upping our game in terms of the street network.

How long does it take to charge one of those bikes, and how far is it’s radius?

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35 minutes ago, Pdt2f said:

I’ve never seen anyone walking there. There’s just not much density. Nothing between there and the interstate on Harding, spaced out single family homes down battery lane, big houses with huge lawns and schools is all you get for miles down Franklin road both directions. 

How long does it take to charge one of those bikes, and how far is it’s radius?

Mine is advertised as 25-45 miles, but I guess it varies quite a bit depending on how much you peddle, how steep the terrain is, etc. I've gone all over the city with it and never run it empty. There are models with much bigger batteries/longer range, and they (along with the motors) get better and cheaper every year. I don't know the charge time but it's at least vaguely similar to my phone/laptop, maybe 2 hours?

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https://www.weforum.org/reports/reshaping-urban-mobility-with-autonomous-vehicles-lessons-from-the-city-of-boston   (downloadable pdf on the page)

"In suburban and other areas outside the city proper, our analysis found that mobility-on-demand will mainly replace personal-car usage. In urban areas, it will replace the use of both personal cars and mass transit, to equal degrees, with the shift creating a risk of increased congestion. Policy- makers must assess and address the potential challenge and identify the right policy levers to in uence this transition."

In the summary (it's a big study, don't have time today to read), but the summary of the paper says that AVs will increase congestion in the downtown area because people will take them for short trips instead of mass transit. It will decrease travel time in the suburbs. The biggest take away for me is..

"With the new modal mix, Boston will require roughly half as many parking spots, including those on streets and in parking structures. AVs present an opportunity to rethink the overall design of the city’s streets."

So little parking!

I just read the first few page or two, but definitely want to dig into this when I have some time.

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1 hour ago, PaulChinetti said:

AVs will increase congestion in the downtown area because people will take them for short trips instead of mass transit. It will decrease travel time in the suburbs.

There's been a lot of pontificating, but we're finally going to start finding out for real this fall in Phoenix. Gonna be fascinating to see how it plays out.

I think AVs make the most sense in the suburbs (which is where they'll be launching), but will people jump in quickly? Maybe if it's really cheap?

They're less of a game changer in urban areas where they'll sit in the same traffic jams as everybody else. They might be a new cheap door-to-door option that initially competes with transit, but if they start to get popular at all they'll just bog down in the same space constraints as current traffic. Cities without dedicated ROW for public transit (i.e. Nashville) will probably see their already-tiny transit share dive even lower. If a Waymo ride and a bus ticket cost the same thing and they both sit in the same traffic jams, few will choose the bus.

I personally have high (perhaps delusional) hopes that they'll knock loose some of the dysfunctions around how public land is managed in American urban areas. In many cities more than 50% of land is devoted to car lanes & car storage. If AVs re-open some of the broken assumptions that led us there, they could conceivably open the door to reallocating some of that space towards much more efficient transportation options, not to mention other purposes (more parks, storefronts, etc.). If little scooters are popular and the roads are bogged down in monster traffic jams with people commuting for hours in driverless "office cars", will people be less rabid and kneejerk about adding dedicated bike/bus lanes? Or will they still think that's some hippie, European thing and double down with Diane Black so we can shoot for 60 or 70% pavement?

All of that is really a psychology question more than a math question, as these consultant studies often treat it, so we're going to have to wait and see how people react.

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CSX Transportation preparing to re-open hump at Radnor Yard in Nashville

Whether or not Metro Nashville  could have acquired the CSXT Radnor Yard, as casually considered in a now rather distant proposal, has become moot, if not simply academic at best.  And while CSXT indeed has unloaded some of its deemed-surplus facilities as of late, no longer can Radnor be considered a prospective on-the-cheap or even viably tenable acquisition for transit or redev proposals.  Some might have argued whether or not Radnor might have become obtainable at a cost less than the overall amount proposed for the stillborn transit plan defeated last May.  Now that the governance of CSXT has been transformed to more traditional and perhaps favorable auspices, since the sudden passing of its previous CEO just prior to the official start of last winter, "normal" operations at the automated hump (gravity) yard at Radnor are expected to resume in the foreseeable future.

In itself, a transfer of Radnor to Metro would ramify into many other undisclosed and arguably prohibitively collateral costs and requirements for the local and regional transportation infrastructure  ─ for both transit and freight ─ since Radnor has been a vital kingpin of the entire CSXT network, and an asset not easily relocated from its current site, much in part due to historic land-granted property and to highly topographical regional constraints on possibly alternative rail bypasses.  While Radnor was never "up for sale" to start, I always had reservations that cessation of hump operations at Radnor or at the other CSX hump yards (changed from gravity-based [regulated downhill rolling] to manual or "flat" switching for classification and routing of freight cars) would become permanent, given the untold end error-prone  inefficiency of system-wide handling of vast amounts of freight with already maxed-out congestion.

Besides, what in the world would an ex-Radnor have ended up becoming, when all the dust settled within one or two terms of administration?  Possibly not much more than it becoming nearly all sold off as parcels.

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https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/3/17530232/self-driving-ai-winter-full-autonomy-waymo-tesla-uber

"As self-trained systems grapple with the chaos of the real world, experts like NYU’s Gary Marcus are bracing for a painful recalibration in expectations, a correction sometimes called “AI winter.” That delay could have disastrous consequences for companies banking on self-driving technology, putting full autonomy out of reach for an entire generation."

Doesn't sound like particularly rosy outlook. An entire generation!

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7 hours ago, PaulChinetti said:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/3/17530232/self-driving-ai-winter-full-autonomy-waymo-tesla-uber

"As self-trained systems grapple with the chaos of the real world, experts like NYU’s Gary Marcus are bracing for a painful recalibration in expectations, a correction sometimes called “AI winter.” That delay could have disastrous consequences for companies banking on self-driving technology, putting full autonomy out of reach for an entire generation."

Doesn't sound like particularly rosy outlook. An entire generation!

This is the kind of thing they CAN NOT rush.  If they force these out onto the road too early and people start dying in droves...this technology could be set back even longer.  I know I would not get in a driverless car right now.  It's gonna take possibly years before I would trust the technology completely.

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1 hour ago, samsonh said:

Yeah she wants BRT and subsidized bus routes. I’d say she is for a transit plan of some sort. Dale, are you trying to misrepresent her position?

Did she or did she not say that she opposed the recently rejected transit plan ? That was my point. Obviously, she uses transit.

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