The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[donNdonelson2]

42 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

I bird’ed all over Pie Town this afternoon. Did anyone feel a disturbance in the force? 

Did you find any places baking or selling pies? (What a stupid f*€#ing name for a neighborhood.)

[Mr_Bond]

On 9/12/2018 at 2:10 PM, grilled_cheese said:

A fart bro got pulled over by metro for driving on Ellington with one and he had a case of Bud Light with him.

This evening I drove past two guys on Birds at the corner of 8th and Division and one of them had a 12 pack of Bud Light on the scooter.  They had been to Frugal McDougal's.  Apparently, fart / frat bros are also in The Gulch!

[AronG]

Wife & I took lime scooters to Mas Tacos this weekend. It was pretty fun, but man do those things need better shocks. Never been so aware of which roads have been resurfaced recently...

[markhollin]

Music City Star is to cut Friday evening service.  Overall, the route is growing, up to nearly 300,000 passengers in the past fiscal year.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/09/17/heres-what-is-coming-down-the-tracks-for-the-music.html

[CenterHill]

3 hours ago, AronG said:

Wife & I took lime scooters to Mas Tacos this weekend. It was pretty fun, but man do those things need better shocks. Never been so aware of which roads have been resurfaced recently...

That's why everyone rides them on the sidewalk.    LOL

[markhollin]

Officials with the Federal Transit Administration announced Tuesday that WeGo Public Transit will receive a $9 million grant to improve and modernize the city's bus fleet. Nashville is one of 107 cities receiving a grant from the FTA's bus-improvement program

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/09/25/nashville-receives-9-million-transit-grant.html
 

[MLBrumby]

Wow! That's a billion big one$$$... wonder which of the bus/truck manufacturers worked this deal from Congress. 

[samsonh]

1 hour ago, MLBrumby said:

Wow! That's a billion big one$$$... wonder which of the bus/truck manufacturers worked this deal from Congress. 

I am guessing Proterra, but haven't looked in it at all. Electric buses are the future

[PaulChinetti]

How does one charge an electric bus? Do you just replace a whole pack? Is it regenerative braking? Just constantly recharging at night?

[PruneTracy]

4 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

How does one charge an electric bus? Do you just replace a whole pack? Is it regenerative braking? Just constantly recharging at night?

The Music City Circuit buses recharge at the corner of Rosa Parks and Harrison if you want to see it in action. They use quick charges of 10 minutes to go 26 miles.

The Chattanooga buses roll around with their windows down because the air conditioning takes too much juice.

[PaulChinetti]

1 minute ago, PruneTracy said:

The Music City Circuit buses recharge at the corner of Rosa Parks and Harrison if you want to see it in action. They use quick charges of 10 minutes to go 26 miles.

That has to be some serious voltage going through that plug! I'll have to check that out.

[smeagolsfree]

There is no plug as it seems to be a wireless charge.

[Pdt2f]

6 hours ago, markhollin said:

Officials with the Federal Transit Administration announced Tuesday that WeGo Public Transit will receive a $9 million grant to improve and modernize the city's bus fleet. Nashville is one of 107 cities receiving a grant from the FTA's bus-improvement program

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/09/25/nashville-receives-9-million-transit-grant.html
 

I saw one of the newly painted buses last week on Shelby and I actually really love the new scheme. I thought this was just an idiotic waste of time and money when it was announced, and it may be, but the purple and silver just looks really good. 

[Mr_Bond]

4 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

There is no plug as it seems to be a wireless charge.

There's another charging station at the Riverfront Rail Station next to the pedestrian bridge.  Riding the Music City Circuit for free is a stress-free way to see downtown.  We like to do this with visitors.

[NashvilleObserver]

2 hours ago, Mr_Bond said:

There's another charging station at the Riverfront Rail Station next to the pedestrian bridge.  Riding the Music City Circuit for free is a stress-free way to see downtown.  We like to do this with visitors.

 

6 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

There is no plug as it seems to be a wireless charge.

I've seen this Riverfront charging station too, as well as the one one at Rosa Parks and Harrison, but I thought the busses back up, and connect, to a device that slides into the large bulging thing on top of the busses. 

Either way, the new WeGo purple busses look great.  At first glance, it looks like a fancy company-sponsored bus, like Roku or Yahoo! busses.

[dmillsphoto]

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/09/25/the-koch-brothers-are-behind-a-phony-grassroots-effort-to-kill-hight-rail-in-phoenix/

[rookzie]

On 9/25/2018 at 2:00 PM, MLBrumby said:

Wow! That's a billion big one$$$... wonder which of the bus/truck manufacturers worked this deal from Congress. 

.........

On 9/25/2018 at 3:05 PM, samsonh said:

I am guessing Proterra, but haven't looked in it at all. Electric buses are the future

With $9 M, and from Steve Bland's tweet, the reference to "Hybrid-Electric" implies that these are likely what you already have been seeing ─ new hybrid diesel-electric, versions of what Nashville has been purchasing since the early 2010s.  I can't yet see the Proterra buses coming out of this, except perhaps to supplement the existing free-ride route.   Many older Gillig Low-Floors in the existing fleet are straight diesel and are approaching their EOL (end-of-life), without a costly rebuild.  I found that out personally during winter 2016, when a sizable proportion of them were out of commission.  Most of the newer units (beginning with 2008 delivery locally) can be identified with their single stainless-steel rectangular exhaust diffuser affixed to the top left-rear corner.  The more effficient Hybrid series have those strange-appearing roof-mounted pods containing battery packs.  In addition to Proterra, Gillig also has entered the all-electric (onboard battery-electric, or BEB [battery-electric bus]) market, but it will be a bit before the 40-foot/40-passenger series buses have become proven in regular use, particularly for hilly terrain, stop-and-go traffic patterns.

The funds most likely will be for additional Gillig Low-Floor purples you now see.  MTA ─ now WeGo ─ seems to have a strong affinity for (Gillig) first, and New Flyer (second) ─ New Flyer only because of their 60-foot articulated buses ear-marked for the stillborn East-West BRT ("Amp").  Transit buses, even the 40-foot jobs are not cheap, to boot.  The city-wide fleet as a whole needs to be protected constantly with newer vehicles, and the fleet as a whole needs a dramatic increase in overall quantity, in order to ever justify any eventual advanced-capacity rail-based solution in the urban districts.  WeGo needs to focus on that IMO, to reduce headways and to increase breadth of coverage.

 

On 9/25/2018 at 3:38 PM, PaulChinetti said:

How does one charge an electric bus? Do you just replace a whole pack? Is it regenerative braking? Just constantly recharging at night?

Recharge is performed by the driver remotely from within.   Shown is the charging station at the SE corner of Rosa Parks Blvd and Harrison St.   In fact, riding the Proterra units to the State Mall, when I was in a hurry, occasionally would make me late for appointments, because the driver had to recharge.

Edited September 30, 2018 by rookzie

[titanhog]

Channel 4 now taking on "empty buses."

https://www.wsmv.com/news/empty-and-near-empty-city-buses-cost-taxpayers-millions/article_a7adafda-c1e2-11e8-b87e-4ff5c9eea0a0.html

There's something Linda Henderson can't help but notice about her daily commute.

“There's usually less than 5 people on it,” Henderson said.

And a News4 I-Team investigation found her situation isn't unique.

Route after route with empty seats. All while taxpayers pay millions for these routes.

“There are many times when I was coming back from a play at TPAC and I’m the only one on the bus,” said Rae Keohane who was against the transit plan.

News4 found one bus, which runs along West End avenue empty for more than 30 minutes.

On the Grassmere-Edmondson route, it was empty for 19 minutes before someone finally got on. And that was during morning rush hour.

The transit authority is currently examining routes to see which routes may have too few riders. But then there's this problem. Take away the route, and what happens to the riders?

“That's still a service those people, and they may only be the one or two people on that bus but they rely on that bus,” said Clelland.

Of course, there are times when the buses are packed.

Like the bus running along Dickerson Road on a busy Friday afternoon.

[smeagolsfree]

This is WSMV's way of trying to remain relevant after the crap they have pulled over the last year as they are in several lawsuits with former employees. I stopped viewing channel 4 about two years ago and if they are the only local news on, I don't tune into that station. I know of a lot of others that feel the same way.

 

As far as the busses go, they are not going to be packed all the time. This is a service like garbage collection, police, fire, parks, etc. that is needed, but as soon as you take the service away folks will complain too. There are many people that cant afford a car or do not want the hassle of driving. I am not sure what point they are trying to make here as this could be done in any city, USA.

[Guest]

It is instructive to measure the effectiveness of Metro services and refine where needed. Independent of this news report Metro should record and publish avg. ridership on busses and routes. If somevdrop below sustainable thresholds, other transportation alternatives (subsidized Urber/left) contracted van service, etc...) become feasible and much more efficent. 

[Tennessine]

3 minutes ago, nashville_bound said:

(subsidized Urber/left)

I'm much more of an Urber guy. Left can stick it!

Edited October 1, 2018 by nativetenn

[Guest]

Ha

 

; )

Edited October 1, 2018 by Guest

[Pdt2f]

Well yeah, hourly service will result in low ridership due to inconvenience for anyone who has an alternative means of getting where they’re  going. Increasing frequency would make it more convenient and more alluring to those who don’t ride the bus currently. The question is whether the cost of that is 1. Something Nashville has the stomach to pay for, and 2. Worth the cost.  

[12Mouth]

1 hour ago, nashville_bound said:

It is instructive to measure the effectiveness of Metro services and refine where needed. Independent of this news report Metro should record and publish avg. ridership on busses and routes. If somevdrop below sustainable thresholds, other transportation alternatives (subsidized Urber/left) contracted van service, etc...) become feasible and much more efficent. 

I see what you are saying, and perhaps this can be helpful, but this can also provide fodder to people who don't know what they are talking about. It is easy to say, "hey - look at these stupid empty buses...why are we paying for these things." WeGo has already shrunk down to mini buses on the less utilized routes. I am certainly not a transportation expert and there are many on this board who know more than I do, but my understanding is that for ridership to significantly increase, there needs to be a tipping point of frequency of service and connections to where people want to go. 

The idea is that for people to rely on public transit, they need to know that they can just jump on a bus within 15 minutes whenever they need to. This means that there are going to be a bunch of semi-empty buses riding around. But this is kind of the case with the model. Vanderbilt's parking shuttles run back and forth all day long, and they often are empty or have only a couple of people on them. But their entire model would fall apart if they suddenly started running shuttles every hour.

The economics are also complicated here - what is the cost of not having service, both for employers who need employees to access their job who can't afford a car, for the riders who decide to drive instead, put another vehicle on the road, utilize a heavily subsidized parking spot downtown? I just don't think your average channel four viewer is going to go this far in their mind.

Edited October 1, 2018 by 12Mouth

[grilled_cheese]

Did Nancy also do a report on the empty state highways and bridges that we are still paying for in opioid land?