Transportation

Mag-Lev May Be Dead; TX HSR on Life Support

California_HSR_train.jpg

A Maryland circuit court judge >ruled last week that the Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail Company did not have the >power of eminent domain and could not stop a development on land that the maglev promoter needed to use for its proposed line.  read more »

Comparing the World Before 1900 to Today

Buggy.jpg

For thousands of years before 1900, the population of the world hovered around one billion on the entire planet. In the short 120 years since 1900 the world population has “exploded” to the current 8 billion now living on this planet. What caused that quick growth from 1 to 8 billion?  read more »

San Francisco Muni's Difficult Choice

crockermckesson.jpg

The city of San Francisco provides additional evidence illustrating the hollowing out of downtown areas from the pandemic and policy responses. The city did a remarkable job in keeping its death rate low, despite its density.  read more »

The Failure of Dallas TOD

transit-oriented-dev.jpg

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), the transit agency serving Dallas and a dozen other cities, is proud of the fact that it has built the longest light-rail system in the country. It is almost as proud of the many transit-oriented developments (TODs) built near light-rail stations.  read more »

The Working Poor Need Workhorse Vehicles

Family-loading-pickup-truck.jpg

With more than forty percent of the EV’s in the entire country being in California at the end of 2020, the EV popularity in California has gotten President Biden so excited to want the rest of the country to follow California’s lead that Biden issued a new executive order that pushes for half of all new cars sold in America by 2030  read more »

The World's Finest Railroads

major-rail-network-North-America.png

The United States has the most efficient and productive railroads in the world. Not coincidentally, the United States also has the most private railroads in the world. Other than Canada, almost every other country that has railroads has nationalized them.  read more »

June Transit 50% of Pre-Pandemic Ridership

Light-Trails.jpg

Transit ridership reached 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels in June, according to data released late last week by the Federal Transit Administration. This leaves transit well behind Amtrak, which carried 63 percent as many passenger miles  read more »

Subjects:

International Traffic Congestion Extinguished by Pandemic and Remote Work

DFW DTN.PNG

The 2020 TomTom Traffic Index reflects a huge drop in worldwide urban traffic congestion levels. Congestion levels (rated by the percentage of additional time required for auto travel during “rush hour”) dropped in 387 urban areas while increasing in only 13.  read more »

Electric‌ ‌Vehicles’‌ ‌Raison‌ ‌d’être‌ ‌Loses‌ ‌its‌ ‌Charge

ernest-ojeh-aEytUoE1Tkc-unsplash.jpg

I’ll start this commentary by observing that I am not a climate skeptic. As an environmental scientist/engineer by training, I think climate change is real, but it’s like every other environmental issue: a more-or-less routine engineering challenge, rather than a world-altering disaster justifying the fever-dreams of the radical greens.  read more »

Record Low Congestion Levels – Seattle, LA, San Francisco: The 2021 Urban Mobility Report

TRIBOROUGH_BRIDGE_EXCHANGE_PLAZA_ON_RANDALL'S_ISLAND._-_Triborough_Bridge,_Passing_through_Queens,_Manhattan_and_the_Bronx,_Queens_(subdivision),_Queens_County,_NY_HAER_NY,41-QUE,2-21_(cropped).jpg

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute has released its 2021 Urban Mobility Report, which provides traffic data for the pandemic year of 2020. Throughout much of the year, traffic congestion fell materially. This is confirmed by the 2021 Travel Time Index, which the report defines as the “The ratio of travel time in the peak period to travel time at free‐flow conditions. A Travel Time Index of 1.30 indicates a 20‐minute free‐flow trip takes 26 minutes in the peak period.”  read more »