The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[WebberThomas4]

18 hours ago, SoundScan said:

The best thing that could happen for the pro-transit referendum push is that traffic throughout the city on Monday-Tuesday next week is atrocious.

 

[volsfanwill]

2 minutes ago, WebberThomas4 said:

 

I literally just came on to post this. 

This will take months to fix. 

[KJHburg]

One more thing and that photo above of the truck crash made me think of it.  Charlotte's LYNX lightrail provides reliable commute times no matter what is happening on our interstates or city streets.    This fact alone gets more and more important as your city grows.  We have over 100,000 workers in our uptown area plus lots of special events.   (Nashville has even more conventions and visitors who would find it easy to get around with some kind of rapid transit)  

[PruneTracy]

1 hour ago, volsfanwill said:

This will take months to fix. 

There are low clearance signs not 600 feet south of this bridge:

Where was this guy going? This isn't even one of the low clearance bridges, it's at 15 feet. Even if he'd made it onto I-40/I-65 the 12th Avenue bridge is at 14.6 feet, Broadway is at 14.5 feet, and Church Street is at 14.2 feet. He hits the 12th Avenue bridge like this and it's liable to come down.

This guy has the right response:

 

[PaulChinetti]

1 hour ago, volsfanwill said:

I literally just came on to post this. 

This will take months to fix. 

From the looks of those bridges they weren't in the best shape to begin with I bet they just go ahead and replace both of them there. Maybe like a few weekend scramble.

Preds game tonight, Marathon tomorrow, Preds game Sunday. What a awful time for this to happen, yeesh.

[Pdt2f]

....conveniently, just in time for the transit vote...  

[BnaBreaker]

Back up in your ass with the resurrection!

[Nashhole]

10 hours ago, nashvylle said:

As a New Yorker, I will say if you think driverless cars alone will save Nashville’s traffic woes, it won’t, and I believe it will make it worse. 

Cabs/Uber/lyft/via are all essentially driverless cars... and 2 or 3 people per car and that’s it will make traffic a nightmare. 

How are cabs/uber/lyft essentially driverless cars?

[Tennessine]

9 hours ago, Rockatansky said:

I think it'll be longer than this if the May referendum doesn't pass. It'll likely take a Mayor in their second term before a new plan can be submitted. That's at least 4 years away, and possibly longer.

Wasn't half of China addicted to opium back in the gunboat diplomacy days?

Yeah, the Brits hooked em. 1830s I think.

 

I'll revise: worst drug crisis in American history. I say that with no statistical backing, but I'd like to think it has never been this bad or affected so many people (even as a percentage of the population). Could even be that alcoholism was the worst crisis in the late 19th/early 20th century. I should read more about our health history

[MidTenn1]

12 hours ago, KJHburg said:

We had a combination of sales tax .5% which was the local share, Federal and state funding.  And I am not trying to say it wasn't controversial here is a recap from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_Blue_Line  

In the future for more  rail lines all kinds of ideas for funding are being proposed including tax districts around the lines to capture that value that has been created, increasing the half cent sales tax but remember our sales tax is much lower than Nashville's.   But most people in this area do support the transit especially in the core county of Mecklenburg (like Davidson county)  However we do have suburban counties now connecting their intra-county bus service across the county line to the LYNX stations most notably Cabarrus County to the NE of Charlotte.  

On budget depends on whom you ask? the latest line they are saying it was on budget but others are saying no not really. 

That was an interesting read. Nashville is experiencing the same discussions over impact and feasibility from many of the same sources.

It does explain that the development of a final estimate was an ongoing process and increased significantly until thorough engineering began and as land prices and construction costs were  increasing. And it seems the final estimate was thoroughly researched and developed.  The final costs ($462.7 million) were (just)  8.4% above the final estimate ($427 million). That may be a little out of the comfort zone for estimate purposes, but there are often legitimate, unforeseen circumstances that require a better and slightly more costly engineering changes.

But I know everyone is going to see that 8.4% number differently. I don't see it as an overrun because the final construction costs are what they are. Estimates are expertly done, but still imperfect.  An 8.4% difference does not tell me there were numerous add-ons and costly plans revisions.

If the Charlotte example tells me anything, it tells me what the Nashville has estimated plus the significant built-in contingency will easily stay within the stated budget.

[NashvilleObserver]

The fact that someone showcases drug users from a city on the west coast as a reason to oppose Nashville transit..... Seriously, how far-fetched will people become in their opposition support? 

It's like saying: "There are people in the Philippines who have embezzled money. This means Nashville doesn't need trains." 

Also brings to mind the ridiculous "The Corvette museum fell into a sinkhole. This means Nashville shouldn't build a tunnel."

And again I say "Waffle House was shot up. Trains will make this happen more."

The mindlessness of the opposition is approaching unbelievable levels. 

[fishsticks176]

I haven't seen this posted on here yet. 69% of early voters were aged 50+. I know I'm stereotyping,  but that does not seem good. Let's hope that we're able to get the younger crowds out en masse on May 1st. 

[Tennessine]

36 minutes ago, fishsticks176 said:

I haven't seen this posted on here yet. 69% of early voters were aged 50+. I know I'm stereotyping,  but that does not seem good. Let's hope that we're able to get the younger crowds out en masse on May 1st. 

While older, more ladies voted than men, and there were also more Democratic-partisan ballots requested. That may be favorable, right?

[Tennessine]

This article was published yesterday by CityLab, which is owned by The Atlantic. It outlines everything we already know, but provides perspective on which events in our transit debate have caught the eye of journalists outside Nashville.

 

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/04/nashvilles-transit-fight-just-got-weird/559085/

 

[Pdt2f]

57 minutes ago, nativetenn said:

While older, more ladies voted than men, and there were also more Democratic-partisan ballots requested. That may be favorable, right?

I requested republican ballot (never again, nobody gets the votes to even qualify among the judges and whatnot). I voted for transit, hopefully a few of my fellow conservatives did the same.  

[BnaBreaker]

4 hours ago, fishsticks176 said:

I haven't seen this posted on here yet. 69% of early voters were aged 50+. I know I'm stereotyping,  but that does not seem good. Let's hope that we're able to get the younger crowds out en masse on May 1st. 

 

Even more concerning to me is where 31% of the ballots have been cast... yes... it's the land of the "AMP will bring... those people to my neighborhood"... 

[Dale]

Maybe the Megan Forever crowd will make th difference

[BnaBreaker]

I feel like the oldest a 35 year old has ever been asking this, but is there a way to embed a tweet on here?  I don't see a place on Twitter that gives you the bbcode.  Thanks in advance!

https://twitter.com/humantransit/status/989612954172600320.

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by BnaBreaker

[e-dub]

I hate that, too...

https://twitter.com/humantransit/status/989612954172600320?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

[BnaBreaker]

3 minutes ago, e-dub said:

I hate that, too...

https://twitter.com/humantransit/status/989612954172600320?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Haha I appreciate it!  I was trying to test different things hoping it would post the tweet directly on here, but maybe there isn't a way?

[e-dub]

I think there is, @BnaBreaker, I just haven't figured it out...

Edited April 29, 2018 by e-dub

[PruneTracy]

11 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

I feel like the oldest a 35 year old has ever been asking this, but is there a way to embed a tweet on here?  I don't see a place on Twitter that gives you the bbcode.  Thanks in advance!

All you have to do is post the straight link. Ka-chow!

 

[BnaBreaker]

2 hours ago, PruneTracy said:

All you have to do is post the straight link. Ka-chow!

 

What.  WHAT?  That's it??  Wow, I could have sworn I tried that, but apparently not!  I've wondered how to do that for quite some time now so this old geezer says thanks a ton! 

[Nathan_in_DC]

On 4/27/2018 at 2:33 PM, WebberThomas4 said:

 

Something has to be done done about oversized loads transiting urban areas... There's no reason this should ever have been downtown in the first place. I hope the driver, escorts, and owners are prosecuted and billed for damages. Seems like every week I get stuck behind an oversized load on the Beltway here in DC in rush hour, going 40mph and positioned so that no one can pass it, causing huge traffic backups.

I understand that semi traffic can't just be banned, but I wish it could be sometimes... Perhaps a toll system would force through trucks to use 840?

[Pdt2f]

36 minutes ago, Nathan_in_DC said:

Something has to be done done about oversized loads transiting urban areas... There's no reason this should ever have been downtown in the first place. I hope the driver, escorts, and owners are prosecuted and billed for damages. Seems like every week I get stuck behind an oversized load on the Beltway here in DC in rush hour, going 40mph and positioned so that no one can pass it, causing huge traffic backups.

I understand that semi traffic can't just be banned, but I wish it could be sometimes... Perhaps a toll system would force through trucks to use 840?

I didn’t read the article (I did, however get stuck in traffic right after this happened), did it say if his final destination was in Nashville or not? I wish they’d move stuff like this at night, in any case.