Posts Tagged ‘light-rail’
China’s idea of the future
China is dreaming up some pretty radically innovative ideas for the future of it’s cities. The latest idea is this “bridge bus,” which I’m not even sure exactly how to describe. Here’s an attempt: Basically you take a bus and make it 15′ high or so – just a hair shorter than whatever the standard [...]
Cable-Propelled Transit
Via Houston Strategies, I found this article about modern cable-propelled transit systems very interesting. Say the words “cable car” and most people think of trolleys being towed up and down San Francisco’s hilly terrain. Most view them as a charmingly antiquated heritage system for the tourists, not as modern mass transit. But cable cars are [...]
Metro and FTA disagree about cost of Light Rail
This, from the River Oaks Examiner, is pretty interesting… Letters to the Metropolitan Transit Authority from the Federal Transit Administration place the baseline price of building both the North and Southeast light rail lines at almost $1.58 billion. Based on the correspondence, dated Aug. 17, that would place the cost of the 11.84 miles of [...]
A tiny step in the right direction
I was pretty excited to be quoted in the Chronicle two days ago. With regards to the passage of the Transit Corridor Streets ordinance, Mike Snyder reported the following: The changes drew support from real estate organizations including Houstonians for Responsible Growth, which generally resists new development regulation. But others who have followed Houston’s efforts [...]
From the Newswire: January 7, 2008
Two other articles worth taking a look at today come from Kuffner and Christoff: RIP, TTC The Little Line that Could
A thought experiment on Urban Corridors
Tory Gattis over at Houston Strategies was talking urban corridors a few days ago, and had this to say: Had a conversation this week with Josh at HRG about the Urban Corridors initiative moving forward at the Houston Planning Commission, which involves encouraging dense development near Metro rail stops. There are debates about the right [...]
McGowen Green
So, over the years there has been a lot of discussion about what to do with the “superblock” at McGowen and Main. Lots of people have wanted to see a major mixed-use development go in there, and I think that would be an acceptable use of the land. However, as we’ve recently seen with Discovery [...]
Reasons 1, 2 and 3 why we need transit!
This article in the LA Times got me thinking… I generally enjoy reading about transportation related issues, it’s fun seeing all the different perspectives, people who have ‘evidence’ that transit saves money smash their heads against people who have ‘evidence’ that it costs money. Everything costs money, get over it. All transportation is subsidized, congratulations. [...]
Good concepts for Washington Ave
From Swamplot today, landscape architecture students reinvision the Washington Ave. corridor. I wholeheartedly agree with the concept here. Making Washington Ave and Center Street a one-way pair would tremendously help with traffic in that corridor. Volumes are manageable today, but development potential is really limited by the capacity of Washington Ave. Plus, we’re not talking [...]
Commuters instead of circulators? Bad idea.
Houston Strategies today suggests abandoning three of the planned light-rail lines in order to free up funds for other projects. In place of those lines, he suggests improved bus service, and investment in the commuter rail and improvements to the commuter bus system. His suggestion is that we cannot afford the investment in the north [...]