Parking Space

It’s quite possible you missed it, but yesterday was Park(ing) Day here in New York City. That’s “Park”, as in public green space.

 

The concept is simple: find an empty parking spot on your local street and feed the meter, but rather than steer your ride into the spot, roll out some sod, unfold a lawn chair, open a book and…relax. Voila, instant park!

 

Part activism, part installation and part good use of space, this gesture cleverly illustrates just how much of the public urban fabric is dominated by the automobile, to the detriment of various constituencies.

 

To be fair, New York City has made some promising moves in this regard by requisitioning a few lanes of traffic here and there for use by pedestrians and bicycles, as well as actively promoting the occasional closing of streets for better public use; all of which is hopefully part of a broader civic trend in recognizing that cities exist, first and foremost, for the convenience, pleasure and welfare of citizens, and policies favoring automobiles often run counter to those needs.

 

Funding Transit through Energy

It’s a bit of a pittance in the grand scheme of transportation funding, but the political tide really does seem to be shifting:

 

On Monday, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said a measure that would provide as much as $2 billion in grants and other funding for public transportation appears likely to be included in energy legislation that could be voted on next week…

 

The legislative push comes as high gas prices are spurring Americans to drive less and use public transportation more…

 

The increased demand is straining many transit agencies, which are already coping with higher prices for fuel, steel and other commodities.

 

An encouraging sign, to be sure, that public transportation is finally gaining a greater appreciation from both commuters and lawmakers. Another decade or so of sustained interest (i.e. panic over high gas prices) and we might just be on our way to some first class travel options in this country.

 

More and Faster Trains

From the (shamefully) centrist Progressive Policy Institute comes a very sensible proposal: develop a number of regional high-speed rail corridors in the U.S. to relieve pressure on both roadways and runways:

 

In the short term, passengers have two choices: fly less, or pay more for an inferior service. But if the United States is serious about fixing the air-travel mess — not to mention congestion on our roadways — there is a real, long-term solution: high-speed rail (HSR).

…

With the airline industry cutting routes and raising fares, the cost of a gallon of gas racing past $4, and the unemployment rate rising, the time for a major investment in high-speed rail may finally be here.

 

The realization of any such long term high-speed rail plan is a long way off, but there’s no time like the present for crafting ambitious policy towards that goal. However, translating that into legislation is another matter altogether, and negotiating HSR development with the intractable auto and airline industries will require clear-headed and far-sighted political leadership.

 

(PPI link via Yglesias)

 

Speedier Buses

Giving priority to mass transit with dedicated lanes and preferential traffic signals makes a lot of sense. And it also makes the buses run faster, which makes the people happy!

 

Buses travel in red-painted lanes that are off limits to other vehicles during busy times of day, and additional police officers are deployed to keep the lanes clear. Traffic signals…have been equipped to communicate electronically with the buses, allowing, for example, a green signal to be extended for a few seconds to let a bus through or shortening a red signal’s time.

 

A trip from end to end on the Bx12 route that previously took close to an hour now takes about 12 minutes less, a time saving of 20 percent…

…

“They need to do all the buses like this,” she said. “It’ll make life a lot easier.”

 

Transportation We Can Believe In

 

Brookings has a side by side comparison of the presidential candidates’ transportation policies [pdf]. The differences are quite stark actually, and one candidate seems far more serious than the other on the issue. Guess which.

 

From the section entitled Increased Federal Financing for Transportation:

 

Barack Obama: “Obama will address the infrastructure challenge by creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. This independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation’s most challenging transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to provide financing to transportation infrastructure projects across the nation.”

 

John McCain: The August 2008 edition of Governing (Governing.com) explicitly states that McCain supports cutting ‘pork from transportation spending’ and does not support a larger federal role in the transportation sector.

 

A casual analysis of the major issues facing America – the climate crisis, alternative energy, crumbling infrastructure, economic recession, Iraq war – would seem to suggest that all are at least indirectly related to transportation. This does not seem like an issue best passed off to state and local governments.

 

Another section, this one with direct implications to the economy: Transportation Investments as a Job Creator

 

Barack Obama: “… a robust federal infrastructure investment program today will help strengthen the U.S. economy and provide at least one million more U.S. jobs at a time when the housing and construction industries are slowing … [the Infrastructure Bank] will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs per year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.”

 

John McCain: McCain has not made any public comments on this issue during the campaign.

 

Crickets?

 

Let Them Ride Bikes

In an exciting, if relatively modest, move, the City of New York is increasing bike parking for municipal employees.

 

On Wednesday, city officials said they would expand secure bicycle parking for employees at five municipal buildings in Lower Manhattan in the fall. Three existing bike parking facilities will be enlarged, going to 110 spaces from 46, and two others will be added, creating 24 new parking spaces.

 

“Bike commuting in New York has grown more than 75 percent since 2000, but one of the most frequent complaints we hear is that there’s nowhere to put your bike once you get to work,” said the city’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan. “As our bike network expands and more New Yorkers make their commutes in this sustainable way, we need to do more to provide City employees a safe, secure place to lock their bikes.”

 

People Power

Literally:

 

Boesel recently showed off the Human Dynamo prototype, an exercise machine consisting of four spin bikes attached to a small generator. As he pedaled one of the human-powered bikes, a digital readout showed the amount of watts, a measure of power, that he was producing by pedaling and turning an arm crank that strengthens the upper body, he said. As many as four riders can propel the prototype system, which can produce 200 watts to 600 watts of energy an hour.

 

…

 

Most gyms are energy hogs, with sweeping floor space, high heating costs and hot showers always steaming in the locker rooms. Boesel doesn’t know how much energy the solar arrays and human-powered equipment will produce, but he expects his fitness center to use about half the energy of most gyms its size by providing as much as 40% of its energy needs. His goal is to have the gym run solely on the energy it generates.

 

There’s something undeniably poetic about using the pedestrian bits of our lives to keep the lights on. But these kinds of things remain on the fringe, more in the realm of novel, high-end gadgetry than viable technology. And they have yet to be transferred to a larger scale where they could actually have some impact and influence. This is where government comes in, or should. As Matt Yglesias says:

 

… But the trouble is that at the moment the incentives exist primarily as a means of doing marketing to a niche market of upscale consumers. That’s nice, and it’s produced some clever notions, but what’s really needed is smart policies that drive incentives in a bigger and broader manner. [Emphasis mine]

 

Second that.

 

Amtrak Veep

 

 

Word.

 

Especially in this moment when rising gas prices have set Amtrak ridership records, having one of the rail service’s supporters handed a bigger soapbox creates a real moment of potential. This country needs more public transit — more miles of service, funding to repair and upgrade equipment, … and, as Atrios tirelessly points out, we need public transit to become an organizing principle of new development of residential and commercial areas. This is one of the most important components of improved energy policy.

 

 

Street Bacchanal

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow is this summer’s final installment of the inaugural and very cool NYC Summer Streets program.

 

This event takes a valuable public space – our City’s streets – and opens them up to people to play, walk, bike, and breathe. Summer Streets provides more space for healthy recreation and is a part of NYC’s greening initiative by encouraging New Yorkers to use more sustainable forms of transportation.

 

Get out there and take back the streets, as it were. Here’s some video for inspiration.

 

Update: Image above replaced with documentary evidence of car-less streets.

 

Pay as You Drive

 

 

This concept seems like a winning idea.

Many of the ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will require major changes in behavior and/or impose serious costs. However, there is one mechanism that could lead to substantial reductions in emission with no cost: pay-as-you-drive auto insurance.

…

The impact would be large. The average cost of insurance per mile driven is close to 8 cents. This means that if insurance were paid on a per mile basis, for a car that gets 20 miles to a gallon, pay-as-you-drive insurance would provide the same disincentive to drive as a $1.60 a gallon gas tax. This can easily lead to reductions in gas consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from the auto sector of 10 percent or more.

As gasoline remains comparatively inexpensive, pay-as-you-drive insurance, combined with smart ideas like car shares may begin to shift people’s driving habits. Add to that vigorous investment in transportation infrastructure and a long-needed shift in community planning toward increased densities, and we may actually be onto something.

Adding, obviously driving disincentives of any kind, including higher gas prices, risk disproportionately affecting rural and exurban residents due to a generally woeful lack of alternatives. The solution: more and better infrastructure.

 

Clever on Wheels

I am obsessively coveting this bike.

One Track in Front of the Other

The Times had an encouraging piece last week about American cities re-investing in streetcars, a form of transportation abandoned long ago in favor of single occupancy autos.

“Today, young, educated workers move to cities with a sense of place. And if businesses see us laying rail down on a street, they’ll know that’s a permanent route that will have people passing by seven days a week.”

All Politics is Local

Bob Herbert’s column yesterday in the Times illustrates a quietly infuriating aspect of life here in America. Namely, that our infrastructure is woefully underfunded and perhaps worse yet, under-imagined.

This includes the scope of transportation alternatives, community services like police and fire, but also things like high speed internet access: all things that make communities feel safe, rooted and relevant. Investment in a broad combination of infrastructure will more than pay for itself in healthy, creative and productive communities.  

PS – And why is it that so often U.S. Mayors are at the forefront of big ideas?