TransitTales

Wasted Time, Wasted Gas

A factoid from Public Transportation.org:

"The Texas Transportation Institute estimates that each American traveling in peak periods wastes an average of 62 hours a year-nearly eight full working days-stuck in traffic delays."

And then there's the wasted gas. Eight full working days idling at over $2.00 a gallon.

American productivity indeed.

Memo to Metro Transit

Safety over speed, please. That, and driver training. And careful maintenance.

April is for Transit Riders

Given that this week feels more and more like March, I'm feeling pleased that I haven't turned in my Metropass yet. Unlike some people, I haven't learned to thrive on self-propulsion in inclement weather.

Perhaps by the end of the week.

Take Them Home From the Ballgame

The Twins played a home game yesterday afternoon. I would have figured the crowd to have been long gone by the time I left the office. But as I got off the bus to catch the LRT at the 'dome, I saw a crowd at the Metrodome platform. But we all fit on the next train, tightly packed.

Evidently, this was not a briskly played game (3 hours, 32 minutes)--and then it went an extra inning, to boot. But the home team won, and the beer, though probably warm and certainly expensive, apparently was flowing: the ride had a much more festlve atmosphere than your usual tired-at-the-end-of-a-long-day-in-the-cubicle ride.

For festivity, apparently, it's hard to beat calling in sick and spending your Wednesday afternoon at the ballpark. Even if it is the 'dome.

Immigration Assimilation

The East African woman in traditional dress, stepping off the 21, sports a LeBron James backpack, 23.

Accessories really do make the statement.

Watershed

Fat drops hit
my ear and forehead
as the bus arrives,
they spill, they spread
on the dusty pavement,
they pool.

Earthworms will dry in the sun
on this sidewalk soon.

Sprlng raln scourlng
the gritty air,
me,
the street sand and salt,
the oily detritus
of wlnter, pushlng it all
in gutter tributaries
to the Big Muddy.

Music Theory 101 on the 53

The blind man with the cane was noodling around on a harmonica as I walked up to my bus stop earlier than usual this morning. I've chatted with him in the past, and so know that he's something of a folk musician--once he told me about playing his electric dulcimer (no kidding) at the Poodle Club (again).

The bus arrived before I could say hello--he immediately struck up a conversation with the driver before I even sat down. Turns out he's been playing the harp for just a couple of weeks. (I've been playing off and on 20+ years since my senior-year roommate in college taught me the basics). He and this driver had clearly talked music before.

Electric Dulcimer Guy: I'm working on some tunes with a bluegrass band. Trying to play the fiddle part on a harp.

Driver: What kind of harp?

Electric Dulcimer Guy: A Melody Maker. It's great for playing in minor keys because the Dorian mode is really easy on it.

Driver: Yeah, that 'll work, but what you really want is the Aeolian mode.

Electric Dulcimer Guy: I suppose, but Dorian works great for the songs we're doing.

Driver: You got a bunch of harps? Make sure you grab the right one. Otherwise you've got polytonal bluegrass.

Electric Dulcimer Guy: (laughing) Clsoe enough for bluegrass.

Driver: Clsoe enough for rock-n-roll. Close enough for the girls I go out with.

Me: (walking past, having just pulled the cord for my stop). Just call it jazz.

Derailing Amtrak--and Great Link

Check this out. It's a fabulous special feature by the Christian Science Monitor called "All Aboard? Amtrak and the Future of Passenger Rail in America."

You'll need a high speed connection. The section called "A Business Wreck" contains a fabulous intreactive map on which you can click on the various Amtrak routes (and also notice how much of hte country isn't served) for comparisons of time and cost among Train, Car, Air and Bus options. You can also see the profitability (or, more accurately, the lack thereof).

The data, and this whole peiece are actually a few years old. But it's sure timely right now.

W: Pulling the Plug on Amtrak

In response to this post, Stacie at Shades of Mediocrity commented eloquently on the frustrations of having no passenger rail connections between cities, leaving Americans little cost effective choice but to drive. Intracity and regional tranist is on the upswing, but intercity/interstate service in this country is the laughingstock of the developed world--probably even parts of the developing world.

I've been driving to visit my parents in Illinois a lot this year, as I've been moving into that caring-for the-parents phase. You'd think there might be passenger train service to Rock Island of all places (wasn't the Rock Island Line a mighty good line, after all?), but no. Given the way Ameriican families are more and more dispersed across the breadth of this continent, I'd make the case that a good rail system would strengthen families. Would that gain any traction with the family values and anti-tax crowds?

Anyway, congressional hearings on Amtrak are supposed to happen soon. Wish Amtrak luck, since W has proposed starving it to death.

Better yet, we should all make some noise about it.

Messing With the Blog's Look

I've been experimenting with the Moveable Type stylesheet in fits and starts over the past month, customizing one of the off-the shelf templates provided by U-Think.

I'm not much of a web-design kind of guy, so any feedback on the reader-friendliness of the current look is welcome.

Chicken and Egg: Transit and Development Density

Like LA, much of Minneapolis developed along streetcar lines (my neighborhood of modest bungalows originated as a working-class, ride-the-trolley place to live). In that "LA Rails" post, Atrios references the necessity of significant population density in order to have a viable urban transit system. But developing the system can help develop the density.

When the Twin Cities' streetcar system was dismantled in the interest of cars, the Twin Cities were stuck in car-mode.

It has taken the Twin Cities 50-some years to start to recover. The new Hiawatha light rail line and impending Northstar commuter rail line are the start of re-building a lost rail transit infrastructure that is already starting to encourage more dense re-development. Early predictions called for "7,150 new housing units" and millions of feet of new retail space along the Hiawatha LRT coridor. I haven't seen any figures, but I have already seen new condo/apartment developments near the 46th St. and 38th St. stations. Also new small-scale retail developments nearby.

If you build it, they will come--if you can get government to make a long-term investment.

Energy Efficiency: Rail vs. Air

According to the National Association of Rail Passengers "Intercity (Amtrak) trains are far more efficient than airlines (2441 Btu's per passenger-mile vs. 3999 for airlines in 1998, according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory)."

But of course, most people choose their travel mode based on speed, convenience, and comfort--underfunded as it is, passenger rail service in this country typically is a third or fourth option at best.

I intentionally didn't include "cost" in my list of what people consider when choosing a travel mode, because if Americans ever stopped to consider how much we spend, as individuals and a society, on our cars, the financing, fuel, maintenance, insurance, roads, licenses, tabs--not to mention environmental and social costs--we'd see that cars are a very expensive way to get around.

End of sermon.

More on Supporting Wind Power

Jim at Oil is For Sissies raised a great question in a comment to yesterday's post about the Windsource program from Xcel Energy:

"I don't quite get it. They say they have 10 turbines that each produce 3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. That seems like a relatively fixed value - i.e. how does your $2 a month increase that amount? Are they just grounding out the generators that are producing electricity over and above what Windsource participants are "buying"?

"From what I understand, Xcel has an obligation to the state legislature to generate annually increasing percentages of its gross power output from renewable sources. This is in return for dry cask nuke waste storage privileges at Prairie Island. Is Windsource over and above the legislative mandate?"

As I understand it, yes. My $2 per 100 kilowatt hours is supposed to help fund XCel's purchase of wind power as well as their own further development of wind power in Minnesota, beyond the 10 turbines at Buffalo Ridge that XCel was required to build as penance for their storage of hot waste.

Here's how the Sierra Club (SC) explains it.

"According to Xcel Energy, Windsource will fund the program costs associated with Xcel Energy purchasing wind power from private owners of wind turbines and new wind generation facilities in Minnesota. 'All Windsource wind energy will be separate from and in addition to any other wind energy requirements or mandated wind energy purchases (ex. Prairie Island related wind requirements)" (Xcel Energy's FAQ for Windsource).'"

And so of course, signing up for Windource doesn't mean I'm now hooked up to a pipeline from a wind generator. "Going off the coal-nuke grid" is a metaphor for trying to help make that a possiblity some day.

The SC continues: "Xcel Energy will be held accountable for using Windsource funds appropriately: it must file annual reports with the Minnesota Department of Commerce and Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, accounting for program revenues and expenses and wind generation and sales. In addition, all wind facilities supplying the Windsource program will be certified by the Minnesota Department of Commerce."

Again, this sort of "green pricing program" is far from ideal, and certainly isn't an end in itself. It's a mechanisim to demonstrate (tangible) support for clean and renewable energy sources, and needs to be coupled with political pressure on the state for something like what the SC is proposing: a 20% renewable energy standard. Windsource isn't "the answer" or anything, but for me it is another tangible thing I can do, in addition to conserving energy around the home, using transit, and driving less, to help the environment and try to nudge this culture away from its pathological addiction to cars, fossil fuels and, increasingly, oil wars.

Amtrak's Acela Hits the Brakes

Another setback for Amtrak.

But credit someone for noticing the problem and acting before something terrible happened. I mean, it's how maintenance is supposed to work, but it wouldn't have been surprising if thye'd missed it, being seriously underfunded and all.

You Can Use Wind Power

Or, Heading Off the Coal-Nuke Grid

Last night I signed up for Xcel Energy's
Windsource program

It's a program whereby an energy customer (me or you) buys blocks of wind-generated electricity. You can buy as little as 100 kilowatt hrs. per month (at a cost of $2), or 200 kilowatt hrs. per month for $4, and so on. Xcel says the averge residential customer usage is 700 kilowatt hrs.

I signed up for 300 kilowatt hrs at $6 per month--meaning that from now on, about half of our home's elctricity will come from wind generation. I can increase the amount later. It's annoying that the energy market is such that I have to pay extra for a renewable source, and that I had to hunt around to find out about this after hearing about it by chance. But it's one way we can demonstrate demand for clean energy while using clean energy ourselves.

Windsource is endorsed by the Sierra Club (kiss of death for conservatives, no doubt), which emphasizes that the program is a good start, but shouldn't let Xcel off the hook. We need more renewable sources and options.

My Comment on Transit Cuts

Here is the text of an e-mail that I just sent to the Met Council:
_______________________________

I have been a Metro Transit rider for the nearly eight years that I have worked at the University of Minnesota.

In that time, I have endured numerous cuts to bus service, as well as fare increases.

I used to take the 20 from my home in the Longfellow neighborhood to the West Bank. First, stops were eliminated every other block on 34th St., where I would catch the bus and disembark. Then stops were eliminated on 25th St. near my kids' school, where I would also sometimes get off the bus.

With the coming of LRT (which has otherwise been fabulous), the 20 route was eliminated, and "replaced" by the 24, which doesn't go to campus. So, I now take a 21 or 53 to the Lake St. LRT station, and then a 50 or 16 from the Metrodome to campus. I now have two connections to get to campus when I used to have none.

I'm sure that these inconveniences pale in comparison to the hardships faced by other transit riders. But the general trend of less convenient service at greater cost is not an encouraging one.

I urge the state to fund transit so that it can grow rather than shrink. With gas at $2.30 per gallon, air quality alerts where there used to be none, and road congestion increasing, no to do so is short-sighted. In particular, please support the Transportation Choices 2020 bill.

Thank you.

Sprawl-O-Rama

How long until I-94 east of the Cities becomes as thoroughly clogged as it is northwest of the Cities?

Looks like the Met Council doesn't have any clout across the St. Croix, nor do they have a designated "transit corridor" identified in that direction.

Sprawl is like air pollution: it's no respecter of state or other political boundaries.

Transit Cut Hearings

The Strib reports that Metro Transit is getting an earful.

Here's an excerpt:

"So far, riders have made more than 1,000 comments in the public record about the proposed changes. In Hopkins Tuesday, 169 people attended the first hearing.

St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly and the City Council sent word opposing the cuts and the fare increase.

Tom Triplett, Kelly's senior policy adviser, said 50 percent of the cuts affect Minneapolis and St. Paul, hitting 'the seniors, the disabled, the students and the poor.'

The proposed transit cuts have generated more calls and letters to City Hall than any other issue facing the city right now, Triplett said."

Of course, it's the anti-transit crowd in the government that ultimately needs to get the message. Send those calls and letters to that other center of power in St. Paul.

Free Parking Isn't Free

I've added a new feature that I hope to update semi-regularly: The box just under the banner image of the train is now called "Featured Reading," and the first installment is the Executive Summary of a publication by Transit for Livable Communities called "The Myth of Free Parking." The full publication is available on the TLC site as a PDF.

It points out that parking is one large but often unrecognized way in which cars are subsidized, and transit is thereby diasadvantaged, in our culture.

Transit for Livable Communities

One of the best things I learned at the Transit Cuts meeting is that an organization called Transit for Livable Communities exists.

These are the folks behind the Transportation Choices 2020 bill that recently passed a Senate commitee. This bill would give stable funding to transit, so that it can expand rather than contract. Passage of this bill would mean, among other things no fare increases.

The centerpiece is a .5 cent sales tax increase. yes, that's right--a tax increase. Soem things that are in the common interest just have to be paid for.

This is exciting news for Minnesota--if we can put enough pressure on the no-new-taxes governor and his legislative allies.

Comment on Proposed Transit Cuts

Over the lunch hour, I attended a Metro Transit Informational meeting on campus about the proposed cuts.

Some of the people in the audience didn't understand that Metro Transit doesn't want to make these cuts--they have to because transit is underfunded by the state government.

At any rate, if you'll be impacted by any of the proposed cuts (one very angry woman at the meeting said she would need to leave home at 6:15 am rather than 6:49 am, plus make a transfer downtown in order to get to the U by 7:30 if her express bus were ut as proposed), the thing to do is tell the Met Council and tell your legislature how the cuts will make it harder for you to get where your going--or how the fare increase might drive you away from transit.

To comment online:

By email: data.center@metc.state.mn.us

By phone: 651-602-1500 (leave a message).

By fax: 651-602-1464

This is our chance to be heard. The squeaky wheel gets the grease--and might not get cut.

What Did I Just Say?

On the 53, the express version of the 21 that has been running on Lake St. for 10 months now, the drivers still frequently remind riders that stops are less frequent.

Yesterday, approaching the Minnehaha stop, the driver announced: "Next stop, 36th Ave. No stops until 36th Ave." He said this slowly and loudly, with a practiced cadence.

Not ten second later, at about 29th Ave., a woman at the front of the bus asks: "Can you stop at the next corner? It's an emergency."

Driver: "They tell me only to stop at designated stops." Something in his tone says that he saw this coming, and has had this conversation, with the same woman, before.

Woman At The Front Of The Bus: "I need to see my mother this is an emergency why don't you tell people when they get on what the stops are? I need to see my mother and you're going to make me walk back and if I fall and break my leg it's your fault why don't you tell people when they get on what the stops are?

Me: (Pull the cord for the 36th st. stop, exit via back door).

Woman At The Front Of The Bus: (exits via front door) Now I have to walk back why don't you tell people when they get on what the stops are? (incoherent shouting).

A Free Market of Trash

(Lake and Hiawatha Shelter)

Cigarette butts
crayons sand
candy wrappers
pistacchlo shells
leaves newspaper scraps
pbj crust ln a baggle
straw corrugated cardboard
chewed gum bottle cap
torn bus transfers
used kleenex paper towel
the wealth of nations

Doughnuts and Stadiums

Since I get off the LRT right at the Metrodome, and since I'm a baseball fan (although with a greater and greater sense of guilt, given the obscene salaries and steroid-enhanced play) I thought I'd grab Breakfast at the Plaza--the occasional Twins give-away--today in honor of the home opener.

But the line for a doughnut and coffee was stupidly long. It didn't give me hope that they'll have their act together for the free rides home from the game tomorrow night.

Speaking of the Metrodome, Shane at Greet Machine is expressing some optimism about a possible Twins stadium. I'm one of those baseball fans who doesn't think a public dime should be spent on a pro stadium. But my heart does go all pitter-pat when I think of taking my kids to a Twins game at an outdoor park actually designed for baseball. Less so for a St. Paul site, in part because Minneapolis will soon have the Northstar commuter line as well as the Hiawatha LRT for fans to ride--just like they do in Boston and New York.

As for the Vikings: I'm just not much of a footbal fan, and will say again that the franchise deserves its plastic and teflon home as purgatory for all of those lost Super Bowls.

The Sound of Spring

Through the open windows of the 16, I heard The Accordion Guy busking outside the Village Wok.

Rock and roll.

Living Green: 10 Transportation Ideas

This Top Ten List doesn't save the best for last:

Item #1 on the list of how to reduce air pollution: Get out of your car and onto your feet/bike/bus/train.

This year's Living Green Expo will happen:
Saturday & Sunday, April 30 & May 1, 2005.
10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Minnesota State Fair Grounds, Grandstand Building

Admission is free.

More from their Press Release:

The 2005 Living Green Expo will feature over 200 businesses, food organizations, state and local agencies, and environmental groups showcasing environmentally sound products, technologies, information, and practices. You'll find many ideas for how Minnesotans can reduce their environmental impact.

The Expo will also include workshops on everything from how to compost and reduce toxicity in your home to using the latest energy-saving technology and cooking with organic, locally grown food. This family-friendly event features art displays, children's activities, food, and musical entertainment.

Parking is free, secure bike storage is available, and the Expo is accessible by bus.

Cognitive Hummer Dissonance

Seen from a bus on Washington Ave.:

A Hummer with Minnesota's special "Critical Habitat" license plate.

Sigh.

Twins and Trains--Free Rides

Metro Transit is offering free rides home from the April 10th Twins game

Last summer, when the LRT started up, there would be huge crowds on the Metrodome East platform, waiting for trains after the games.

By the end of the season, they seemd to be doing a better job of having extra trains queued up for the end of the games. Will they have extra buses ready as well?

You'd hope they're planning well for this event.

Fun and Games on the Train

A group of three teens were playing an exuberant little game on the LRT a couple of days ago. As the Cedar-Riverside stop approached, one of them said "Yeah, let's go back to the other train." They ran out the door. I assumed by "other train," they meant the northbound.

But they meant the other car on this train, because at the Frankilin Station, they bustled back into our car, laughing and shouting.

As I exited at Lake Street, they again raced out and headed up to the front car.

It was the old stop light fire drill adapted to the train.

Looking North

Time for another Midwest hazecam view from Grand Portage on Superior's North Shore, out in the direction of Isle Royale.

Just because, for me, Lake Superior is the center of the universe.

Duluth-Twin Cities Bus Running

Jefferson Lines has started a daily bus run between Coffman Union and UMD.

This is a good thing. The Minnesota Daily's article about it yesterday suggests a large potential student ridership.

Now imagine a high speed rail line between the two campuses/metro areas.

Color-ful People Bother Her

So the other day, I (a white guy) and a woman (a white woman) dashed up to the bus stop after getting off the train at Lake St.--only to have the driver of the 53--the Lake St. express--pull off without us.

But not to worry--a 21 was pulling in right behind it. We boarded the fairly crowded 21.

Apparently, since we had shared the experience of just missing the 53, she felt OK sitting down next to me.

Me: "Good thing the 21 was right behind."

She: "I prefer the 53."

Me: "Yeah the 21 will probably stop at every corner between here and the river. How far are you going?"

She: "Just to Cretin Avenue. But there's not as many...colorful people on the 53."

Me: Stunned silence (looking around at all the non-white folks on the 21, and thinking, "Did she really just say that?"). I pull the cord for my stop, pleased to extend her uncomfortable ride on the "colorful" 21. Exit stage right, still non-plussed.

Speak Up About Transit Cuts

Here's a chance for U of M transit riders to tell Metro Transit how the proposed cuts might affect your ability to get to and from campus.

From the U's Parking and Transportation Services:

"PTS invites you to attend a Metro Transit Fare and Service Proposal information meeting. Metropolitan Council staff will give a presentation on the proposed plan and be available to answer questions afterwards. Here are the details:

TUESDAY, APRIL 12
NOON  1:30 PM
COWLES AUDITORIUM at the HH HUMPHREY INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
WEST BANK

This meeting is NOT an official public hearing and will not be recorded. Attendees can fill out written comment cards at the informational meeting which will be collected and made part of the public record before the Metropolitan Council as it considers proposed fare increases and service adjustments."

Pothole Haiku

Under the gray bridge
Spring troll of I-Ninety-Four,
Wakes up, grabs my wheel

--Scott Hvizdos

(originally published, less than adequately, in the StarTribune, March 22, 2005).

Whoops

Just when Amtrak could use some good PR, this happens. It's not exactly what I had in mind when I was talking about creating the political will for a decent national rail service.

This is a train wreck.

Here's hoping the injured are OK.

The First Iced Coffee of the Season

A sure sign that spring, and the return to self-propelled commuting, is at hand.

In a week or two.

Early Earth Day

My daughter and I spent the better part of an hour Saturday morning picking up litter around the bus shelter on the north side of Lake by the Hiawatha station. As I said earlier, she didn't want to wait until Earth Day.

The area was quite a pit. We brought gloves and gabage bags, but not a rake for the hundreds of cigarette butts and tiny scraps of litter.

So we got the big stuff, including quite a few booze bottles (there's a liquor stoe adjacent), and planned to return in a week or two with the proper tools to finish the job.

My daughter asked "Why do people use the world as their litter can?"

After we discussed that one a while, I asked her: if she were an anthropologist, and had to make a hypothesis about the what the people who left all this garbage seemed to value, she said "liquor and cigarettes."

Here's a shot before:

and after:

More pictures if you click "continue reading."

Before2

After2

Bags o' Trash

Shadow of Triumph

Crude Above $57 a Barrel

And gas is heading for $2.25 a gallon.

This is getting serious folks. Serious profit for the Haliburtons of the world, at least.

Cars Just Don't Make Economic Sense

According to the AP, there are a lot of car-owners out there who are upside down on their loans. Cars depreciate so fast, and loan terms are getting so long, that more and more cars are worth less at trade-in than their owners are still on the hook for on their loan.

Transit, anyone?

A Slow Train Indeed

About the possibility of "a functioning passenger rail network in the U.S.," Evan over at Coffee Grounds says "Building a network of interstate highways wasn't easy either, but it got done."

Indeed. But the interstate highway system had: Eisenhower; a military justification just as the Cold War was starting to dominate policy; and a nation in love with cars.

What does Amtrak have? Bush; no military justification even as the War on Terror has come to dominate even domestic priorities; and a nation in love with cars.

But here's to hoping. And trying to create the political will.

Red State Rail Plans

Looks like Georgia, that bright red state, has some pretty big commuter rail and other transit ideas.

Of course, ideas don't become tangible reality without potical support and money, so who knows what chance such ideas have of being enacted.

Northstar Route Maps

Here's a map of the entire Northstar Commuter Rail route (only the first 40 miles are at stake in the recent legistative action--St. Cloud will need to wait).

And here's another map showing where the Northstar and Hiawatha lines will meet in downtown Minneapolis.

When this first leg of the line is done, people from Elk River and Anoka won't need a car at all to get to and from work in downtown Minneapolis, to and from the Minneapolis St. Paul airport. or even the Inferno of America.

The United States of Automobiles.

Jim at Oil is for Sissies has a nicely understated post referencing an article that suggests ways to save gas--without even mentioning Not Driving.

That article, though, is a perfect example of a mindset that can't even imagine something outside the given status quo. It's a set of ideological blinders. We all wear our own. But the blinders about cars-as-a-part-of-the-God-given-natural-order are very widely worn in the United States of Automobiles.

Keep up the good work of helping us remove that set of blinders, Jim.