Urban Transport Revolution

The Last Post

2011-06-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

It has been many week since I have written a post. This is due to a variety of reasons.

I am currently working as an intern at the United States Senate. I am involved in variety of projects and activities related to a variety of topics. My primary focus has been active transportation in relation to obesity prevention.

I will no longer be posting in this space because this space no longer has the capacity to reflect my current and full views.

I was initially attracted to writing on the topic of "Urban Transport Revolution" (or initially as "Transportation Solutions from a Burqueño") as a result of trying to follow the ideas and concepts of the existing Streetsblog community. Having an existing blogging network to join seemed much easier than trying to create a following from scratch. While this concept worked well for awhile, it eventually led to posts which were too focused on urban transport related issues vs. larger concepts that I wanted to cover.

I love the Streetsblog community and I find it wonderful. However, I personally want to explore some broader concepts related to transportation, urbanism, history, built environment, government and community. Since the title "Urban Transport Revolution" fails to cover all those bases, I can not post here anymore. The current title also alienates many parties that i would like to appeal to. I have changed the name of this blog too many times already; another name change would be defeating to my overall purpose of this space, as well as make it inconsistent with previous posts in this space.

KEY POINT: I will no longer be posting consistently here. HOWEVER, once I have a better idea of what I want to write about, I will begin writing again, on the Wordpress platform. Once I figure out the logistics of that, I will post the link to my new web log here.

Thank you for reading! Though I will not be posting here anymore, emails, comments and questions are always welcome.

Dan M.

Free Spaces Make for Protest Places

2011-05-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

Gathering space for people is important for human society. Take the example of Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Spain.

I spent a fair amount of time in this incredible space just a few months ago. It is truly the Sol ~ soul of the entire country. Every road radiates outward from this point to places all over Europe. It is the center of everything in Spain. Read more about it here.

In the late 2000's, this site, which had been a busy vehicle filled transportation hub, was converted into a mostly car fee space. The transportation has all been moved underground. It is now THE gathering spot of Madrid, as well as the rest of the country.

"Gathering" also sometimes includes protest. This is fantastic. Having a space where people can gather peacefully and safely in large numbers is crucial to a functioning democracy. We all saw how important this was in Egypt with Tahir Square. We also saw how it all plays out when democracy doesn't exist: China, Tiananmen Square, 1989.

Humans have always gathered. It used to be over a campfire but it has changed quite a bit over time.

Watch the live feed below. As of this posting, it shows the occupation of Puerta del Sol in Madrid. How it all plays out will only be known over time. Twitter has played a role but overall, it's space, place and people.

Free live streaming by Ustream

Video: "Complete Streets"

2011-05-09T23:04:00.000-07:00

In my writings, I frequently mention terms such as "walkability", "livability", mode share", "bus rapid transit", bike friendly" and "transit oriented". Some of you may know what they mean and maybe you've heard them before. However, even if you do know what they mean, it is hard to visualize these words. It is difficult to translate these words into an actual physical space.

Another term I constantly mention is "complete street". I define it as a street for all users: cars, bikes, pedestrians, skateboards, children, transit users, transit vehicles, trucks, you know, everyone and everything.

If you've ever had a hard time visualizing a complete street, today is your lucky day! Streetfilms just released a very in depth video on complete streets.

Watch it right here:

My favorite part about this video is the people they interview. They ask pedestrians about the bike lanes, transit users about pedestrian plazas, car drivers about safer sidewalks. The big takeaway from all of this is mutual benefit. If a street is made safer for pedestrians, it is probably made safer for car drivers as well. Sure, you may have to wait at the light for another 5 seconds but you are also more likely to make it home alive! I think that's something we can all get behind.

In regards to this video, one small caveat: This is NYC they are talking about. This is a city where, as they said, over 50% of people do not own cars! Essentially, it's crazy to think that these complete streets policies are only now being implemented.

What about Tucson? Or Albuquerque? Or even Denver? Most people in these cities a) own cars and b) drive everywhere. Can we even compare these cities with the mighty Big Apple?

I would argue that we can. All of these cities have significant numbers of people who do not own cars. Maybe these people get a ride with friends or buy a car not because they want to but because they feel like there is no other choice.

Gas prices are on the rise again and more people are out biking and riding transit. As communities, will we support these people or continue pushing them to the margins?

I think the video speaks for itself.

A Better 4th Ave: Bike Boulevard Scenario Final Project

2011-05-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

4th Ave. and Elm St.

When I watch people bike around the nationally recognized bicycle friendly campus at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, I see people biking slow, biking fast, wearing flip-flops, talking on cellphones, talking to friends, etc. Some people would identify this as "bad biking behavior"; I see it as something else.

On campus, people can bike without a fear of being hit by cars! Since many perts of campus are closed off to cars, people have the freedom to bike or walk around at whatever speed they want, however they please. Safe, car free (or car lite) streets are ideal for stimulating bike ridership.

For my final project in my 416E: Geovisualization class, my group and I created scenarios for bike related infrastructure. We focused our scenarios on a short stretch of 4th Ave. This street is currently undergoing treatments to become more bike friendly. However, we built scenarios that demonstrated the possibilities for turning 4th Ave. into a real bike boulevard.

What is a bike boulevard? Watch the video below to find out:

To build our scenario, we used Google SketchUp. This is a free object modeling program that is quite easy to use. We then imported our models into Google Earth to provide real world imagery as a backdrop. Here are some screenshots from my Google Earth + SketchUp model:
4th and University, looking North

4th at Catalina Park, looking North

4th and Speedway, looking North

My scenario was a "bike friendly" scenario. Someone else in our group did a full "bike priority" scenario as well. Unfortunately, we could not export our video tours onto YouTube. Apparently, you need to buy Google Earth Pro to do that.

This project was fun because it forced us to learn how to use some useful Google freeware to build a real world scenario. I plan on using this software in the future to create more models.
4th Ave. at Catalina Park

Understanding Bus Rapid Transit

2011-04-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Conversations about mass transit frequently dissolve into a debate about "bus vs. train." Jared Walker from Human Transit talks extensively about this problem here. He also talks about specific differences between bus and rail transit and provides easy to read charts here.

To give a very brief summary of his posts, the perception of rail is generally better only because most rail stops by our house more often (frequency), does not have to share space with cars (designated right of way) and does not stop too often, moving faster. The point he makes is that all of these elements can be a part of a bus network!

Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a new term for a new, but rapidly growing, type of transit system.

If you have never heard of bus rapid transit, or you are not sure how it works, you should watch the video below. It will change your whole perception of bus transportation:

Bus Rapid Transit in Guangzhou, China from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

This video demonstrates that rapid bus networks can work like modern subway train networks. For this reason, bus rapid transit is sometimes called a "surface subway".

It can be hard to envision a system like this working in places such as Tucson or Albuquerque. However, the use of this technology is growing rapidly. One of the primary reasons is lower cost.

Average cost per mile - Light Rail transit: $34.8 million
Average cost per mile - Bus Rapid transit: $13.5 million
(Source: US General Accounting Office, p. 4 - PDF)

A good example of a mid size American city with BRT is Eugene, OR. Learn more about their successful network here.

In an era with limited funds and growing transit needs, Bus Rapid Transit has much potential. Making our busy commercial car corridors into places where someone can walk will be difficult. Bus Rapid Transit can be a strong step in the right direction.

Personal Updates:
This post is Post #50 on this blog. I will try to continue posting frequently. I have recently learned that for a portion of this summer, I will be working for NM Senator Jeff Bingaman in Washington DC. I am excited to spend time exploring the new DC bike sharing network, as well as the wonderful mass transit system in the area. I have continued working with the Living Streets Alliance; it has been fun and rewarding. I look forward to the bright future.

Thanks for reading!

A European Hill Town in Southern Arizona

2011-04-25T00:56:00.000-07:00

Bisbee, Arizona is a unique town. According to local lore, a century ago, Bisbee was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. Built on mining, it was also very wealthy. It followed the same pattern as many American mining towns: the mine closed and the city began to dissolve. However, Bisbee was saved from extinction by artists who visited and fell in love. Many decided to move there and the town became a tourist destination. On the other hand, it still has problems. With a constantly declining population and an economy dependent on tourism, abandoned lots and buildings litter the local landscape. From a purely economic and demographic standpoint, Bisbee, AZ is a place long forgotten.

If you look a little closer, the town is filled with life. This lush oasis in the Sonoran Desert, just ten miles from the Mexican border, offers neat and unique shops, colorful houses with lush gardens and a very walkable environment. In fact, I would say that this is the most pedestrian friendly place I have ever visited in Arizona. Narrow winding streets and pathways connected buildings and neighborhoods. Bisbee is an explorers paradise. It reminded me of small towns I have visited in Europe.

View Larger Map

Look at the series of pictures below. I have included pictures of Bisbee and pictures of Spanish and Italian towns.

They are different, but the parallels are noticeable. The reason?

All of these places were created before automobile dominance. When cities and town were built in the past, most places were accessed by foot. Therefore, places were connected by footpaths and narrow streets instead of multi lane roads. Local geography also played a role. Since the town is surrounded by huge hills, it made more sense to build up instead of out. Parts of Bisbee resemble older portions of San Francisco, California.

Americans spend large sums of money every year traveling to European hill towns that are similar to Bisbee. In Europe, many of those towns have failed from an economic standpoint; however, the governments understand the historic and intrinsic value of these places, spending large sums of money renovating these towns and attracting tourists.

Bisbee has potential. With a bit of a boost, I feel Bisbee could really become a thriving place. Right now, it is rocking between success and failure.

Bisbee is a good model for a place built for pedestrians. It is accessible by car, bike and transit as well. This is great. It means people living in Bisbee can truly choose how they want to move around. There is an important lesson here:it is easy to integrate cars into places built for people; it is hard to integrate people into places built for cars.

All places should be accessible by all modes: driving, walking, biking, and public transit. Then, people can truly have freedom of choice. Some people prefer to bike; others prefer to drive. We should build our cities, towns and suburbs to reflect these different preferences.

Summary: City Council Meeting Regarding Transit Fare Increases

2011-04-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

On April 12, I attended a City Council meeting hearing where SunTran transit fare increases were being voted upon.

The reason for a fare increase in the first place was a decline in SunTran funding --> a result of City of Tucson cuts --> a result of the Great Recession. Basically, it came down to service cuts vs. fare increases. Most people, including me, agreed fare increases were a better compromise than service cuts.

The meeting was quite crowded. Many people spoke at the meeting, with the vast majority complaining about the increase of the low income fare from 40 cents to 60 cents. They argued that all the other fare increase were only by a margin of 25%, while the lower income fare increase was by a margin of 50%. The City Council, after some debate, agreed and decided to raise all fares across the board by 25%. However, this means that there is still a budget gap to be filled.

Two other important items arose:
1) Many city council member discussed the need for SunTran to do more advertising so they could gain more advertising revenue. The city councilors agreed that this was a good idea.

2) Councilor Romero recommended the development of a long term, 5 year plan for SunTran. This is a fantastic idea and it is hard to believe a long-term plan for SunTran does not currently exist. This is also a fantastic opportunity for the Living Streets Alliance to influence progressive long-term transit policy in Tucson.

Google MapMaker: Edit Your World

2011-04-21T10:51:00.001-07:00

Today I read about a new feature of Google Maps called Google MapMaker. I originally read about it here on the Transportation Nation website. This feature allows people to add aspects of their local area that are missing from the existing Google Map. According to the into video for this feature, you know your neighborhood better than anyone else. This is true. Google is using the power of crowdsourcing (crowd + outsourcing) to build and create a more effective product for everyone. They retain control because they will make the final approval on all the changes.

After looking at the Tucson portion, I intended to add portions of bike paths that my group and I had created for our UA Campus Bike Geovisualization. However, it appears as if other people have already added most of these routes! They are currently pending approval by the Google team.

I am thrilled to see Google moving into this new phase of openness on Google Maps. I can see these crowd sourced maps becoming very robust and filled with tons of useful localized information.

The future is truly here.

What Do We Want?

2011-04-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

Every day, I continue to learn more about the world. While I could easily write for pages about the infinite universe we inhabit, I will stick to the topic of transit today.

A few weeks ago, the website Next American City wrote about a study documenting the effects of technology upon people who decided to give up their cars for a week to use transit instead.

This 3 part article series, titled "Tech for Transit" (link for Part 3 + links to Part 1 & Part 2) was filled with fascinating information, but one chart really stood out:
Click to enlarge graphic
It describes very well why people choose cars over transit and vice versa. Understanding this chart is crucial if we want to understand the direction to take regarding urban transit development in regards to modern technology.

Then, I saw this article on the main page of Streetsblog. It shows just how much ca$h money is involved in maintaining corporate car culture! In essence, entire business models are dependent upon car retailer advertising. And we wonder why opposition to transit expansion exists...

Finally, this video:

In essence, smart phones + QR codes + historical videos and pictures of Central Park NYC = a more robust, educational and interactive park experience.

How can we relate this all to making our transportation systems better and more useable?

In life, we are frequently motivated by rewards. For example, many hours working = more cash money. Turning transit into a rewarding experience is possible. As shown by the Next American City article series, technology is helping to make transit into a more desirable option for transportation. Realizing the amount of money used for the auto industry made me realize how important it is to work closely with the auto companies in order to accomplish long-term efficient urban transport goals.

Please post any thoughts or ideas about this post in the comments section.

Looking Past the Present

2011-04-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

It feels like 2008 all over again. Gas prices are on the rise and suddenly everyone is dusting off the bike or the fuel efficient four door. SUV's have gone back out of vogue and in some metro areas, transit use is on the rise. Of course, transit use has not risen nearly as dramatically as it did in 2008; this is a result of continuing high unemployment and massive service cuts as a result of the Great Recession.

I find it fascinating. Many are surprised over the increases in gas prices. This speaks volumes to the reactionary political policies in place regarding transportation, energy and the economy.

High gas prices are a great opportunity. They always stimulate great conversations about "sustainability" and creating a "post petroleum economy". Then, soon enough, prices decline again life returns to the car oriented status quo.

My hope is that this time, it will be different. Uncountable numbers of independent research groups and scientists have voiced concern over our oil addiction. Turmoil in the Middle East, as well as massive structural problems with our national economy, have only fanned the flames, feeding fear of failure. Without any political support for a gas tax increase, we may have major difficulties simply maintaining our existing infrastructure over the following decade, much less building new infrastructure. Just this week, all high speed rail funding for the next year was cut. I have a hard time understanding how long term infrastructure investments suddenly became partisan issues.

However, there are certainly reasons to be optimistic.

This week, thousands of students converged upon Washington, DC for the 2011 Power Shift Conference. This conference was put on by Energy Action Coalition. From the Power Shift website:

Energy Action Coalition is a coalition of 50 youth-led environmental and social justice groups working together to build the youth clean energy and climate movement.
Working with hundreds of campus and youth groups, dozens of youth networks, and hundreds of thousands of young people, Energy Action Coalition and its partners have united a burgeoning movement behind winning local victories and coordinating on state, regional, and national levels in the United States and Canada.

This huge group of young people are spending the week training how to communicate with lobbyists, as well as constituents back home in their respective communities. Communication and education are two crucially important gaps that this conference is attempting to address.

Tucson is improving as well. Between Cyclovia, the Living Streets Alliance, Tucson Velo, the Tucson Modern Streetcar, and the University of Arizona, sustainable transportation and awareness is growing.

The pace is too slow. The issue is always funding. Our bike routes are terribly paved; road work money is always prioritized on high capacity automobile routes. I do not think that money for high capacity arterials is bad; far from it. I simply believe that the quality of our bike routes will only improve if there is a dedicated funding source (more on this issue here). Until then, biking as a form of transportation in Tucson, and elsewhere, will continue to be second tier.

Amsterdam has not always been the most bike friendly city in the world. In the 1950's, the streets were choked with automobile traffic so the city decided to pursue a policy of transit and bike oriented transportation policy. That's it. That's all they did. It took years and decades but it started with political action; it was not some random occurrence. The same goes for Portland, OR or Davis, CA. These cities decided that investments in alternative transportation were more beneficial than investments in car dominant infrastructure.

The American people have spoken: there is large demand for walkable urban development. How will the government and the private sector react to this news?

What do you think?

Book Review: "Joyride" by Mia Birk

2011-04-13T22:39:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading a great book titled "Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet" by Mia Birk.

Who is Mia Birk?

Mia Birk is the current CEO at Alta Planning + Design, a consulting company that works with various local governmental agencies across America to create safe streets for all users, especially bicyclists and pedestrians. Before she started this company,

Mia was the City of Portland Bicycle Program Manager from 1993-99, where she led a period of rapid growth of Portland's bikeway network.

This book is primarily about her painful struggles and inspiring successes during the process of transforming Portland, OR into the world class bicycle city it is known as today. Before reading this book, I naively assumed that Portland had been a bicycle friendly city for a long time. Therefore, this book was really eye opening. Mia provides a good framework and process for transforming the average American city into a city for people. Throughout the book, she provides footnotes with links to many useful websites and advocacy agencies, both within Portland and nationally. Reading about the very specific projects which were most difficult to implement, such as compromises with railroad companies on railroad right-of-ways, really taught me about the extreme complications involved with building a world class bike network.

Her motivation is inspiring to read about. It paints a realistic picture for me, a modern day livable community advocate.

Long story short: though much has been accomplished, there is still a very long way to go. This was a fact I was already aware of, of course, but now I know which aspects of the advocacy framework have been more developed and which have not. For example, she spoke frequently about editing the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

You may not have heard of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD or, simply, the Manual), but it is a major player in your daily life. The Manual dictates the signs, markings and signals that govern your travel behavior... It is referred to as the traffic engineer's bible. Unfortunately, very little bikeway design guidance is found in the Manual.

Though this is still an obstacle to quality bikeway design, a lot of progress has been made on this front since the early 1990's. For more examples and great information about the whole process, read this book.

Conclusion: Overall, this book was wonderful. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is in need of any sort of motivation in their life, as well as people who are interested in the long process required to transform our current car-dependent cities into cities for people and bikes.

If you would like to know more about Mia and the work she does, here is a link to her great blog. Here is link to one of her posts where she discusses Tucson.

Road Diets + Streetfilms and the Streetsblog Network

2011-04-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

When I am having conversations with people about "complete streets" or "road diets", I sometimes wish I had Streetfilms videos on me at all times.

Streetfilms is a part of the massive national alternative transportation blog network, Streetsblog. This giant blogging network had humble beginnings in New York City in 2006. It was created by Transportation Alternatives, a well known transportation advocacy group in NYC, along with a couple other groups. Since then, it has since become the predominant online presence within the livable streets community. The Streetsblog network includes hundreds of blogs and writers all over America. Currently, four metropolitan areas are covered by the blog itself: "NYC", "LA", "SF", and "Capitol Hill". There is also a section of the blog titled "Network", which covers stories from other areas.

Anyways, there is a section of the Streetsblog website featuring short videos about the livable streets movement: Streetfilms. These videos are professionally produced. They are short enough to be interesting and long enough to be educational. Recently, Streetfilms began a series of videos called "MBA: Moving Beyond the Automobile." They post a new video every Tuesday. Each short clip features information about Bus Rapid Transit, Car Sharing or some other aspect of alternative transportation.

Today they posted a great video about Road Diets:

Moving Beyond the Automobile: Road Diets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Enjoy watching and check out the rest of the Streetfilms website for more of these great videos.

Tucson Transit Task Force and Imagine Greater Tucson: Methods of Shaping Our Future

2011-04-08T13:03:00.001-07:00

April 6: First Tucson Transit Task Force Meeting - I met with small group of people from the Living Streets Alliance and from other local groups to brainstorm a strategy for addressing issues of transit funding, expansion and awareness. I learned much about the history of transit in Tucson, from the relationships between the various governing agencies down to the relationships between bus drivers and riders.

The primary reason for our meeting was the discussion of proposed transit fare increases that will be enacted within the coming months. Basically, SunTran has two options: 1) increase fares or 2) cut routes. Increased fares seems like best option but this can sometimes lead to less people using the service, creating even less efficiency overall. However, the propposed fare increases are relatively small and they are probably a better alternative to cutting service.*

Another big discussion topic was the relationship between SunTran and the university. The proposed fare increases would have the most dramatic effect on the discounted annual U-Pass for University of Arizona students. After the meeting was over, it was clear that the future of quality transit in Tucson depended on a close relationship between the university and SunTran. I will continue to drive home this important point within this group.

Last year, I prepared a presentation/proposal for free transit in Tucson for university students. This is a common policy in college towns across the nation, including my home town of Albuquerque. I tried to push my message for a few months but it always fell onto deaf ears. Now, with this new task force, I have a better opportunity to create constructive dialogue with the university.

April 7: Imagine Greater Tucson; The Big Reveal - I attended the "Big Reveal" presented by Imagine Greater Tucson.

What is Imagine Greater Tucson? From the website:

Imagine Greater Tucson is a rapidly growing, community-based effort dedicated to protecting and enhancing our quality of life in the greater Tucson region. Our goal is involve the people of greater Tucson in creating a shared vision for our region’s future, and catalyze the development of strategies to realize this vision.

What does this mean? I had a hard time deciphering it. The event and presentation was interesting but not very groundbreaking. The concepts presented were commonly understood regional goals, such as job growth and quality education. All the attendees appeared to be passionate individuals with a lot of great ideas on how to improve the direction of growth in the Tucson/Pima County region. However, they presented no possible methods that could be used to accomplish the goals they presented. Apparently, these issues will be resolved in future community meetings. Only time will tell.

April 8: Featured on Tucson Velo - As previously discussed, the geovisualization created by my project group and I, "UA Campus Bicycle Geovisualization", appeared on local bike blog Tucson Velo. It was a well written post and I thank Mike for posting our unique Google mashup.

Thanks for reading and feel free to write comments. The more feedback I receive, the better.

*If you are personally interested in the bus fare increases, here is a list of the current fares and the proposed fares. The decision on these increases will be made at a City Council meeting next week. More information on this meeting can be found here.

Tuesday Night Community Bike Ride

2011-04-05T23:14:00.001-07:00

On the evening of April 5, I participated in the Tuesday Night Community Bike Ride for the first time.

This ride, in one form or another, has been occuring for years. In the past, it has appeared in the local news, receiving both positive and negative press.

I had known about the existence of it for awhile but I had never attended until this week.

First off, it was a blast! Riding in the street with so many riders (I would estimate about 150) was exhilarating. There was also the "saftey in numbers" factor, which made the ride even more enjoyable. I was surprised by the diversity of the group, both of people and bikes. There was a large crew of BMX bikers, a few fixie kids, a bunch of mountain bikes, some calm beach cruisers and plenty of other types. Spanish and English, old and young, loud and quiet all interspersed throughout the beautiful Tucson evening.

Though parts of the route were narrow considering our large numbers, the whole thing was scenic and enjoyable. I have mapped it out based on what I remember below:

View Tuesday Night Bike Ride, 4/5/11 in a larger map

This ride was a fun hybrid between a standard critical mass and an LSA style Family Fun Ride. The pace was mild but we definitely were not following all the traffic laws. We took up lanes, blocked traffic and the BMX riders were all over the place. However, all these aspects of the ride were really fun and interesting, making the ride exhilarating, exciting and fun.

I am glad I went and I am excited to attend another one soon.

Rethinking the Automobile: Communal Carsharing

2011-04-05T01:13:00.000-07:00

American transportation, and especially "alternative" and "sustainable" transportation, is sometimes framed in a black and white, "car vs. everyone else" context. This type of framing is especially prevalent among certain portions of the population that only uses single occupancy vehicles to travel around. Since single occupancy vehicles use the majority of public road space, some (and let me emphasize the word "some") car users feel obligated to the road. As a result of this mindset, blowback can occur when space for cars disappears. This phenomenon has been most visible in recent weeks in the conflict over new bike infrastructure being constructed in New York City.

These arguments always confuse me. After all, more space dedicated to biking/walking/using transit usually leads to higher usage of these modes. Higher usage of these "alternative" modes leads to lower car traffic within the road network. This is a direct benefit for users of single occupancy automobiles.

A great way to reframe this argument could be through car sharing. Car sharing changes everything. "Car v. other" becomes "always using a car v. sometimes using a car."

Car sharing is not a new concept. It has been around for a long time in some regions, through it has experienced dramatic growth in recent years. Zipcar is the US leader in developing car sharing as a viable alternative for people who want to use a car occasionally.

However, car sharing is about to change and grow dramatically. This article, from the website TheCityFix, describes a new form of car sharing service appearing in Paris, France. The name of it is "Buzzcar" and it has potential to change the entire auto market. The reason for the appearance of this new type of car sharing are many, but technology and public policy both play large roles. This new type of car sharing is known as peer-to-peer or communal car sharing. It functions in the same way that peer-to-peer file downloading, or torrenting, functions. Basically, there is no central governing body; no one single entity controls the system. It is by the people and of the people. With communal car sharing, you control how much you want to charge for people to use the vehicle, how long they can use it, what condition it should be in, who the person is and much more. This has recently been facilitated through high ownership rates of smart phones and ubiquitous WiFi internet.

As of right now, communal car sharing is mostly restricted to small companies and areas where government regulations support the system. Auto insurance laws have historically restricted the growth of communal car sharing. Now, at least in Oregon and California, this is beginning to change. Since cars sit unused 95% of the time, this market has massive growth potential. Increased fuel prices will only feed this trend.

My recent endeavors
This evening, I attended my third Living Streets Alliance board meeting. We are finally making progress in creating a framework for this group. Trying to figure out how to best manage and divide the tasks we want accomplished will be difficult. Progress was made tonight with the creation of many task force groups, including a transit task force. I will be serving on the transit task force. I aim to address and research the proposed SunTran fare increases, as well as research the relationship between SunTran and the University of Arizona.

I am excited to begin formulating a tangible direction for the transit arm of the Living Streets Alliance. Now it's time for me to stop writing and begin researching.

All Things Tucson, Tech and Transport

2011-04-01T17:49:00.001-07:00

Much has occurred in the past couple weeks since my previous post.

1. Cyclovia Tucson 2011. The event was amazing and everything operated very well. The estimated turn out was 10,000 people. I worked at an information booth on 4th Ave. and 30th St.

I do not frequently spend time in South Tucson so it was a great experience. I ate fresh tortillas, practiced speaking Spanish, listened to the blues band playing yards away from our booth and assisted people trying to navigate the 5 mile event route. Jorge, another bike ambassador, helped me staff the booth. We provided water, maps and advice to every spectrum of biker, older advanced riders to young enthusiastic beginners. I also rode the length of the route a couple of times.
I had a great time and I can not wait until the next one. For more Cyclovia Tucson 2011 coverage, visit Tucson Velo.

2. I have been working on another project for my GEOG416: Geovisualization class. For one of our assigned labs, my group and I decided we wanted to create a Google based geovisualization of various bike infrastructure within Tucson. Our focus was bike facilities in and around the University of Arizona. To collect data, we rode around the various pieces of bike infrastructure. We captured locations using photos and video. After the data collection was complete, we integrated the pictures and videos onto routes we had drawn on Google Maps. Here is the final product:

View UA Campus Bicycle Geovisualization in a larger map

As you can see, we have included a large quantity of data. However, if you zoom in on the map, the data quantity is less overwhelming. In the future, this geovisualization may be posted on Tucson Velo. I will report on this if it occurs.

3. At the request of Tucson BikeFest 2011 coordinators, I have designed a Google MyMap mashup to highlight events for the upcoming Bike to Work week, April 4 - 8.

View Tucson BikeFest: April 4th - 8th, 2011 in a larger map
As you can see, it is a relatively simple map with businesses listed and geolocated using various colored place marks. It is now live on the Bike to Work website and it was a fun project to work on. It also allowed me to discover which businesses are providing discounts and free stuff for the upcoming Bike to Work week.

4. I have joined a local non-profit startup called Open Tucson. The primary focus of this group is

to promote web and mobile technologies to foster civic participation through apps that facilitate communication between citizens and government, between citizens themselves, and that generally improve the quality of life in our community.

At my first meeting on Tuesday, we discussed a wide variety of topics including government and public policy, how to integrate technology with the government, local vs. state level data, transit data and much more. We are currently working on a project that includes live real time bus tracking data, QR codes, and bus stops. I will write more about this project once it is underway.

That is a brief summary of the projects I am either currently working on have recently completed. As always, i am working with the Living Streets Alliance on a variety of items. We will be having a meeting again soon. My search for a summer job or internship continues. However, the process continues to be fun, educational and exciting. I will be posting again soon with more information and ideas as they arise.

Please comment or email me with any questions or comments.

Thanks for reading!

On Public Process: The Interaction Between Local Government and Citizenry

2011-03-16T15:44:00.000-07:00

Last week, I attended a city council zoning commission hearing. I attended this meeting with other members of the Living Streets Alliance. This was the culmination of weeks of efforts on the part of Tucson Velo, the Living Streets Alliance and a variety of other local activists.

The reason we were at this meeting was bicycle parking policy. The city was trying to pass a revision to the city zoning code that would push bike parking to the periphery of certain developments. The specific section of code states that in certain situations, business owners could push bike parking as far as 75 feet away from the front door. The current maximum is 50 feet; 50 feet is the national standard. Locating a bike rack 75 feet from the door of a business could could result in bike racks being placed in an unsafe side of building location. The lack of visibility would probably result in much lower usage of these facilities as well, making them a waste of money.

Picture from Tucson Velo; taken at the City Council meeting

First, the good: the city council voted to extend the vote for another two weeks so the needs of the bicycle community could be discussed and met. As Tucson Velo later reported, this resulted in a compromise between the city and bike representatives.

Now, the irony: this zoning code was primarily about reducing parking minimums! I was unaware of this fact before walking into this meeting. After hearing this zoning revision discussed, I could only imagine how the city council felt: here was a group of stakeholders who probably wanted these parking minimums to begin with, protesting the passing of a really progressive zoning policy. I hope, and think, they understood where we were coming from.

Why pass an imperfect policy if we could make it better? This, after all, is the whole point of the democratic process. However, the city council was wondering why this problem wasn't hashed out during the multi-month long process of the development of this zoning amendment. This process included many bike related stakeholders as well.

One theory: Jason Wong, a developer who was pushing really hard for the city council to pass the zoning revision that very night. Some believe that he stuck in the regressive bike parking exemption at the last minute.

Whatever the reason, the city council meeting was fascinating. The whole process, from the introductory Pledge of Allegiance to colorful local city residents speaking up about various issues, was eye opening. This was my first Tucson city council meeting and it probably will not be my last.

It was encouraging to see democracy work effectively to resolve conflicts between stakeholders. I think we sometimes forget that the ineffective federal Congress is not the only governing body in the country. Local level government is filled with passionate people who intimately understand the local issues. I am happy to report that the Tucson city council, at least in this example, is of the people, by the people and for the people.

The Central Avenue Corridor, Albuquerque, NM

2011-03-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

In my GEOG 416E geovisualization class, we recently completed a lab. The premise of this lab was based on comparing the properties of Google Map/Google Earth vs. ArcGIS as geovisualization tools. For my project, I decided to do a cultural and spatial interpretation of the Central Avenue corridor in Albuquerque from a urban planning perspective.

Here is the result:

View Albuquerque's Central Ave. Corridor in a larger map

If you click on the "View Albuquerque's Central Ave. Corridor in a larger map" link, you can gain a better sense of the context of the route. I put place marks along the route on intersections I felt were relevant to the history of Albuquerque. Each of the place marks contain some sort of information about that specific intersection and its relevance.

My main goal with this lab was to show all the different types of land uses that exist along Central. One important aspect of this is the fact that Central used to be a part of Route 66, a historic highway that traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles before the interstate system was constructed. Much of modern day Interstate 40 = old Route 66.

My main motivation for creating this map was my memory of a round table discussion I attended last summer in Albuquerque. A large diverse group of stakeholders gathered in a downtown Albuquerque hotel to discuss the future of the Central corridor. Our primary reason for gathering was the desire to acquire a federal TIGER grant. The grant was to fund transportation and land use improvements along this vital and historic corridor.

After a few meetings, however, it became clear that moving in one single direction would be challenging. This makes sense, as Central is quite possibly one of the most diverse single corridors in the United States. It includes Downtown, Old Town (top tourist attraction), UNM (major university), Nob Hill (art district), the State Fairgrounds and much more.

A conclusion was never reached but the discussions stuck with me.

One group in Albuquerque, The Zipper, has tried to address the diversity of this corridor. They have marketed the Central corridor as a unique and fun place to shop, live and explore. Though they only address a portion of this amazing corridor, they should definitely be included in the process of developing this corridor in the future.

So now I have created this map. I wonder: would the existence of this map benefited the planning process? The ability to visualize place in a project can be quite valuable in these situations.

Look at my map. Click on the place markers. Is it user friendly? Is it educational? Let me know.

Thanks for reading!

My Appearance on the Local News, Discussing Bicycle Parking Policy

2011-03-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

As discussed in the previous post, here is the news story about bike parking that I was interviewed for. I am on the video next to the article as well.

I appear about one minute into the video version of this story.

Thanks for watching!

Recent Developments: Back in Tucson and the Living Streets Alliance

2011-01-20T17:21:00.000-08:00

NOTE: This was a post I had started a few months back before spring semester commenced. Since then, things have become infinitely more busy. However, now I have a better idea of the direction I want to move in. This post is a combination of the old material I had previously written and newer updates on my life.

---

It has been a long while since I last posted. This is due to the fact that I have been traveling around various countries in Europe. I was traveling for a few weeks and I saw some incredible European cities.

I had previously read extensively about many of the countries I visited. However, physically visiting these places was an entirely different and wonderful phenomenon. I was able to see, first hand, how a city could be organized around bicycle transportation (Amsterdam, among many others). I saw how high speed rail has become the new normal in Europe and changed the face of long and medium distance travel for the better (Germany, among others). I was able to easily walk or take public transit to every destination I desired everywhere I went.

It was truly wonderful.

Returning to Tucson, AZ for the spring semester I am now involved with sustainable transportation on the local level. Currently, I am working with the Living Streets Alliance.

As of late, I have decided my new career focus is education and advocacy.

---

Newer material; written 2/28

In the vein of education being my newest interest, I recently became a bike ambassador for Pima County. This means that I will be participating extensively in bike events (such as the upcoming Tucson Cyclovia) as well as assisting with other bike education and safety programs.

Another interesting development recently occurred as well. A prominent local bike blog, Tucson Velo, held a letter writing contest. This contest stated that everyone should write letters to the mayor encouraging him to vote against the proposed city zoning code revision that would decrease the accessibility and quality of bike parking in the city.

I ended up writing a letter, which was published on Tucson Velo. When this occurred, a local news woman, Larrisa Wohl, decided she wanted to interview me for a weekly news segment called "2 Wheelin' in Tucson".

Today I was interviewed for this story. I will be posting the video segment as soon as it is released.

On a more local level, I am currently living at 1st Ave. and Linden St. This is in close proximity to the 4th Ave./Fontana bike boulevard currently under construction. The completion of this facility will profoundly affect my neighborhood, as it connects many portions of the denser urban portions of Tucson with each other. Overall, this is a very positive development and I look forward to its completion towards the end of the spring semester.

As previously mentioned, I am very involved with the Living Streets Alliance. I am now an official board member as well. I have met many incredible people through this group and I continue to make many great connections.

Now, the blog itself.

I definitely want to continue blogging. I am currently planning on developing some different blogs with a wider variety of topics. I have changed the theme of this blog too many times to justify continuing with it in the long run. However, until I start those other blogs, I will continue to use this blog as my primary platform for updates on my life and work.

MANIFESTO

2010-11-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

This is a long post.

However, you should still skim through it because it is in easy to read outline format!

This is basically my structured methodology about how to create an actual transportation revolution, one street at a time.

So, here it is:

Key to a Social Revolution: Transportation Equity

Transportation equity follows one basic tenant: we should build our cities for people instead of cars.

Currently, most urban areas are being developed with only cars in mind. This phenomenon is occurring in both the developed and developing world. It is especially apparent in the United States, the first country where car became king. This pattern of development has created problems, including, but not limited to:

A. Middle class families going broke paying for a car oriented lifestyle
B. High bike and pedestrian fatality rate from collisions with cars
C. High fatality rate from car collisions in general (#1 killer of young children)
D. High pollution levels as a result of the majority using a vehicle for transport

There are many more problems, but I will focus on these for now. There MUST be a better way for humans to live, don't you think? For centuries we have lived in actual communities where we knew our neighbors and interacted with them more frequently, where walking down the street wasn't a danger to ones health. Wouldn't it be nice if there were people actually using the sidewalks we have paid so much money to build? What if people could actually survive and thrive in modern society without having to buy a car for every family member?

I believe we can create this society- if we really want to. This is my first attempt at creating a template for the process needed to make this change occur. For this template, I use the neighborhood surrounding my old elementary school as a potential case study. Nothing has actually been done in this neighborhood, but this template serves as a guideline for what could be done if one wanted to make change happen in this neighborhood.

I desire this kind of change because having more people interacting in neighborhoods leads to cumulative positive benefit. When you know and are comfortable with your neighbors, when you feel better at the end of every day because you have been walking or biking, when there is quality public space in the neighborhood and less car traffic, cities improve. Better health is acquired. Quality conversation about real local issues is had. Safety improves with more "eyes on the street". Transportation equity is, in some ways, the most significant way to begin the process of necessary transition in our society.

So, how does it happen?

I. Community Support: Without community support, little will happen. Some change could occur (using eminent domain, for example) but overall, with community support, one has much more flexibility with a project. Plus, connecting with people who have different opinions is an educational exercise that allows one to think outside the box and acquire new ideas.

A. How to Acquire Community Support: First, when talking with community members, assert the desire to retain the assets that already exist, assets that make the place nice. These people are already living here (usually by choice) due to existing assets. Discuss these assets, and ask community members what other assets they appreciate about the area. Then, and only then, should you get into things that they don't like/ things that should be changed. Generally, change is not a word with a favored opinion by community members (especially older community members). Based on what they said in these two exercises, you can begin to shape your argument.

B. What Will They Say? In many suburban areas, high amounts of traffic and speeders are looked upon unfavorably. However, community members also enjoy the easy automobile access that causes these high speeds. Approval for projects will depend on striking a balance between these two concepts.

Another point that community members may want to discuss is the issue of emergency response time. Emphasize in your response that no emergency access will be taken away from any part of the neighborhood; the only change will simply be a reduction in average speed. Emphasize how this reduction will make everyone SAFER.

C. How To Strike that Balance:
1. Focus On Neighborhoods With Multiple Access Points: Neighborhoods built recently in the classic sprawl style are less likely to be successful multi-modal access areas, simply because many of them are dependent on a single access point. This means that all traffic can only go through one street, limiting the utility of the street network; basically, it's hard to accommodate multiple modes (biking, walking, transit, etc.) with a single access point. Neighborhoods with a grid system are ideal, but not necessary. Multiple access points are a very important factor. Multiple through roads in the neighborhood are also essential; if there is only one road connecting the entire neighborhood, accommodating various modes will be difficult as well.

Ver Lower Manitoba Bike Boulevard en un mapa más grande

CASE STUDY: Lower Manitoba Bike Boulevard
My proposal: Turn Manitoba Dr. between Juan Tabo and Tramway into a bike boulevard/multi-use corridor. This innovative project would connect the existing Bear Canyon Arroyo Trail, which currently ends at Juan Tabo, to Tramway, which has one of the busiest multi use trails in the state of New Mexico.
The existing plans call for a new paved multi-use trail to cut through land that is currently open space, housing many native animals and plants. My plan would mean no disruption to this unique, relatively wild area. It would also help to reduce auto speeds and increase safety in a neighborhood that contains an elementary school.
The reasons for potential success of this project are many and varied. They include:

A. the neighborhoods opposition to the current plan with the paved trial through the open space (and therefore the desire for an alternative)
B. the neighborhoods desire to reduce thru traffic and traffic speeds in the neighborhood (speed bumps have already been installed on Manitoba for that reason)
C. the design of the street layout in the neighborhood, which includes two parallel through streets. Though only one of the streets (Manitoba) actually cuts through the entire neighborhood, the other street (Key West) parallels Manitoba for the vast majority of the route
D. the desire by the city to make all of Albuquerque more bike friendly, while providing a multi-use connection between the current end of the Bear Canyon Arroyo Trail and the Tramway Trail
E. the desire by the city to accommodate all users, including handicapped individuals, walkers and bikers on existing roadways. The sidewalks in this segment are not currently ADA accessible so this could be another justification for the project.

The other very important aspect of this plan includes the existing elementary school, SY Jackson. Much of the traffic in this neighborhood is generated by parents dropping off and picking up their kids at this school. If more of these kids were walking or biking to school, this neighborhood would not need the existing traffic capacity. With a multi-faceted, comprehensive biking and walking education system at this school (involving the faculty, the students AND the parents), a very different neighborhood structure could emerge.

The big barrier to the success of this education program is parents fearing for the safety of their children. This is a legitimate fear, as the existing network of streets and roads are dangerous for a child. However, if you explain the project that is proposed, and its potential to make the streets safe for walking and biking, opinions can change.

How Can One Change Opinions?
A. Start Small: before hosting a big, public community meeting about this project, talk first to people in small groups. For example:
1. the teachers lounge
2. neighborhood association meetings
3. high ranking individuals, such as the principal of the school
4. low key PTA meetings
If you start at these smaller venues, and then begin to acquire larger pools of support, this plan has far more potential to work. Most rational people AGREE with the basic tenants of this plan (safer streets, less traffic, community building, revitalizing existing infrastructure, healthier kids and healthier neighborhoods in general). Support for these types of projects is always hard to find due to lack of EDUCATION. If you educate the stakeholders about all the potential benefits of this project, success is very attainable.

What are the potential benefits of this project and other similar projects?
This project is considered a "traffic calming" project. In this situation, the term "complete street" could also be used. The term complete street refers to a street that is arranged to accommodate ALL potential users (opposing to incomplete streets, which only cater to cars). What benefits have been observed from other projects such as this?

A. Safety: Auto speeds decline; accidents are reduced; noise is reduced; through traffic/ traffic volume is reduced. Ironically, the major factor that make walking and biking dangerous for the kids in this neighborhood are the parents who are driving their kids in and out of this neighborhood. This is why the involvement of the school AND parents in this plan is so crucial.
B. Economics: This could be a big selling point to the parents. There is a significant economic cost to driving and picking up their kids every day. There would be significant gas and time saving over a long period if parents did not have to do this.
C. Health: this is a selling point to teachers AND parents. Many studies have shown that when kids exercise before class (walk or bike) they perform far better in the classroom. They focus better because they released some energy before coming in and sitting for a few hours. They also sleep better at night, and these are just some of the benefits that come with exercise. In addition, walking and biking can help to solve the obesity crisis. Just a small amount of exercise every day can really help this problem move in the right direction.
D. Freedom: this will be a hard point to get through, but certain demographics may be quite partial to it. American ideology dictates that cars = freedom. The open road and a full tank of gas have become a very important parts of our modern culture. Recently, in some circles, the conversation has been changing. People are beginning to realize that the car is a consumer item. If you live in a community where the car is the only option (or where it is treated like it is the only option), you are NOT free; you are restricted. Creating areas where one has the ability to bike, walk, skateboard, ride transit or use anything else outside of a single occupancy vehicle to travel = OPTIONS for residents. America is about options and freedom; an environment where one can CHOSE how to travel is more free and equal than an environment that only provides one single option: driving.

If and when these arguments are successful, and the community embraces positive change, one can then move to the hardest part of this project: how to pay for it.

II. Capital
Without cash, nothing happens. Ideas are fantastic, but unfortunately, they go nowhere without financial support. For projects like this, where social equity is a main selling point, cash can be found in many different places.

A. Government: Historically, for projects such as this, government was the primary, if not the only, source of funding. Since streets are a government funded project to begin with, this makes sense. However, there are many different levels of government to choose from:

1. Local-City of Albuquerque: Since this trail network is a city based project, CABQ would be the most likely to fund this project. As of right now, though, there is no money available. There is no telling when money will be available, and with the current Republican mayor, it is unlikely for taxes to be raised any time soon. So, it may be necessary to look for alternate sources of funding.
2. Metro-MRCOG (Council of Governments): These are regional planning agencies, required by federal law to exist in large metro areas. In ABQ, MRCOG is responsible for innovative projects, such as the Rail Runner and long-term regional traffic planning. They may be willing to help provide support for an innovative project such as this.
3. State: The state frequently gives money to transportation projects (including the Rail Runner). With the delivery of a convincing argument to certain state leaders, it may be possible to acquire money from the state.
4. Feds: With the current administration, alternative transportation is finally coming back in vogue. Innovative projects, such as TIGER grants and Safe Routes to School campaigns have been receiving national attention. This project would fit the criteria of many of these innovative programs, allowing an opportunity for federal funding of this project

B. Non-Government: This would be a game changing proposal, but this project could possibly acquire money from non-governmental groups. Who would be interested in such a project?
1. Local Small Businesses: Many small donations from local businesses could add up. For example, Flying Star contributes heavily to the local community every year and there happens to be a Flying Star adjacent to this neighborhood. They could give a heavily advertised donation, and then ask people to make donations in turn. Though this would probably add up to a small amount of money, this could be a way to close some gaps if needed.
2. PTA: For items such as new bike racks at the schools, the PTA could help to pay and fund-raise. This would be difficult because it would require a lot of political support. However, it would not be impossible.
3. Cutting edge tech companies (think Google): In a future with limited public funds, private organizations may take the place of government to fund certain things. This already happens: think charter schools, the Pepsi Refresh Challenge, the competition for Google broadband, etc. Since this is an infrastructure project, it would be a bit of a harder sell, but there may be companies out there who are looking for just this kind of creative project to put their name onto.
4. Non-Profits
a. Local: There are many local groups that specialize in doing projects that initiate social equity. However, in a city like ABQ, the need is far greater in other, less wealthy neighborhoods. Competing against these other, poorer neighborhoods would not only be challenging, but unjust.
b. Non-Local: There are many large groups in existence (both nationally and internationally) that LOVE these types of projects. For example, there is a group on Portland, OR called Depave that rips up unneeded asphalt (usually old parking lots) and puts in gardens. Sure, they may not have any funding, but they might be able to rally up some people who could get some money, or maybe some volunteers who would help with the project. Essentially, the whole idea is that there are people out there.

and finally….

C. The INTERNET! Yes, the Internet, that virtual world filled with… everything. There are many ways that the Internet could be used to help accomplish this project, but the best example I can think of right now is Kickstarter. It works like this: you post a video, say how much cash you want for the project, and wait a few months. If at the end of the set period you make it to or past the amount you wanted, you keep the cash. If you don't make it to your set goal, everyone who donated gets the cash back. If a well made video were posted on here, and money was made, this could be enough to get this project rolling into high gear (more money = more capability to acquire more resources).

With some research, some spunk, some confidence and a high speed Internet connection, this project (and many like it) is entirely possible.

In summary, getting massive social change to occur is NOT easy. However, with a solid game plan and a reliable template, ideas can grow and flourish, while positive change can occur.

I am not saying this template is an end-all, be-all solution to the problems currently facing our society; I simply see it as a very important part of a new transition, along with a TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION.

Who's with me?

New Title, New Vision, New Ideas

2010-10-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here I am, back again.

I have not written in a very long time. This is due to the fact that I am in España (Spain)! I will be in Europe until early January and then return to the University of Arizona for one and a half more semesters.

The first item I would like to address is a project I have been working on with Parking and Transportation Services at the University of Arizona. Last year, I noticed an interactive map on the PTS website. It had some neat features, such as traces for various buildings on the campus, maps of parking zones and CatTran routes. However, the map left me wanting more transportation information, especially for SunTran, the Tucson city bus.

I visited PTS and talked to the person who created this map. He liked my ideas so much that he decided I should add the things I wanted to the map! How about that for innovative collaboration?

Though I made quite a few changes, the major ones were adding more SunTran stop icons (all stops within close vicinity of the U of A campus) and adding stop information to all of the stops (both SunTran and CatTran). Also, this map is now linked directly to the U of A home webpage. Here is the current live version of the map as it exists now. I am now listed as a collaborator. Though I have more ideas about things to add, I will wait until next semester to address them.

So, back to the title of this post.

New Title: I decided to change the title of this blog (yet again) to "Urban Transport Revolution: Ideas for a More Intelligent Future". Why the name change?

The new name is more broad because my posts and ideas have become more broad. Though I am primarily interested in transportation, I am also interested in EVERY facet of urban life.

In addition, transportation does NOT exist in an isolated bubble; its success or failure depends on a huge variety of factors, with walkabiltiy being a huge part of the equation. Changing the current paradigms of American transportation policy will truly require a revolution. Though some cities and states are beginning to understand the work necessary, there is a long struggle ahead of us.

New Ideas: Maybe there are not new, but they are important.

Walkable mixed-use density = successful transit. This equation may look simple, but it is incredibly complicated. Some think density is the primary factor in transit success, but it's only one part of the equation. If these dense areas are:

a) dense single use and not mixed use (miles of apartment buildings without a grocery store)
OR
b) dense and not walkable (divided up by lots of fences, walls, major busy streets, etc.)
OR
c) walkable but not dense (dense is a vague quantifier, but basically anything with only single family homes)
OR
any other combo, transit is not guaranteed success. Sure, there are a few examples of these outlier patterns leading to quality transit ridership, but they are not easy to find.

Jarrett Walker, in his blog Human Transit, goes into these issues with more depth.

Once the governments controlling the cash understand the connections between all these things (plenty of other people [PDF] already do), the revolution can begin.

Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully, I will be posting more often now.

Ciao!

ART or GRAFFITI?

2010-09-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have just completed my short five day stay in Madrid, España and am now in Alcala de Henares to begin my actual studies.

Though I usually write about transportation, I am interested in anything remotely related to urban form and development and this topic is definitely related.

During my adventures through Madrid (by foot and by Metro), I noticed a large amount of paint on the walls of the buildings around me. Some of it was quite ugly and would be considered vandalism by most:

Other examples were more colorful, but would be considered "tags" by many:

However, a "tag" is a pretty negative term to describe the colorful work posted above.

There were many pieces that had tags on top of art on top of tags and onward. Everything became a multilayered piece of work:

And then there was this piece. It is obviously a tag but it made me laugh (value of positive emotional response) due to the resulting geographical juxtaposition of a boutique clothing store + the symbol of anarchy:

Then there were the residents/store owners: some mornings, they would be cleaning the scribbled text off the walls in front of their storefronts. Other retail establishments seemed to embrace the work done on their facade, or maybe they encouraged it in the first place. The store I saw with the most creative solution had a portion of their sign that said "Please do all graffiti here" with an arrow to a portion of the wall.

In the end, this entire situation leads to a question: How do authorities and governments pursue the issue of "street art"? Do they promote some of it and condemn other parts of it? Who makes that judgment call about what should stay and what should not? Does allowing paintings on buildings lead to "taggers" thinking they can mark the walls of the city as well? How much money is the Madrid police spending every year to "clean up" the ugliest of the tags?

In these specific neighborhoods (specifically Malasaña and Chueca), there seemed to be a good balance of the authorities respecting what looked like art and cleaning up the uglier tags.

In my personal opinion, the street art really enhanced the neighborhood. The vivid colors really brightened the narrow streets. It provided me with insight and perspective about the residents of the area. In addition, it helped me to understand the culture in existence without going inside a single residence.

However, I do not live in these neighborhoods; I am simply a visitor. I have a feeling a lot of the residents hate the graffiti, especially the older residents. I also thought about my parents house in Albuquerque; my parents would probably be appalled if any of these colorful forms of expression started popping up in upper-middle class Glenwood Hills.

This whole discussion goes back to the events that occurred just a few weeks ago in Albuquerque.

A few months ago, this beautiful piece of work popped up on the side of a Downtown building.

A couple more similar works popped up around town, but no one talked much about it. The small amount of local discussion I heard about it (through the comments on this post) was mostly positive (Why can't he paint my house?).

Then, the artist, nicknamed the "Rainbow Bandit" for his colorful pieces of self expression on private property, was arrested by APD. This occurred days after a great anonymous interview about him ran in a local "alternative newspaper" called the Alibi.

While I understand the motivation behind his arrest, I have no idea why APD was focusing on him. There are so many other taggers in the ABQ metro area that do some really ugly, crappy work. His colorful drip paint rainbows all over town were beautiful; one of them appeared on a post-crash half-build ugly skyscraper, making this eyesore that much prettier.

So, art or graffiti?

Goodbye ABQ Ride, Hola España

2010-08-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

I have not posted for a long time. This has been due to the fact that I have been extremely busy working at the ABQ Ride offices and preparing to study abroad in Alcala de Henares, España.

This summer, I had a paid internship at ABQ Ride. During my time there, I managed to accomplish my major goal: to resign the ABQ Ride System Map. To give you an idea of the major changes I made to the system map, here is the old one:

As you can see, it is hard to read, cluttered and complicated. Here is my new one:

If you want a direct link to the map on the ABQ Ride website, here is the location.

My priorities for the revised map were an easy to read key and cleaner, less cluttered lines. Another priority I had was showing a better distinction between the lower frequency routes and the higher frequency routes.

Interestingly enough, almost as soon as I was done with the new map, Jarrett Walker of Human Transit wrote a great post about the importance of frequency-based transit maps. Local blogger John P. of Carfree in 'Burque wrote a post in response to the Human Transit post; it included an ABQ Ride Frequency Map. Johns map happened to include many of the elements I added to the new map. This entire situation highlights the potential power of the interconnected Internet to influence ideas and policy.

Though I admit my new map is not perfect, it was the best I could do with the time and resources provided to me.

In addition, this summer I also created 4 other ABQ Ride maps for each of the major system transfer/transit centers: Alvarado, Uptown, Northwest and Central & Unser. Other than the Alvarado map, none of these maps previously existed in any form. I hope these documents can help people more easily navigate the ABQ Ride system.

This summer, I learned many things about life in the office, transit planning, politics, bureaucracy, transit funding, the City of Albuquerque, ABQ Ride and many other things. There is one very important point I would like to write about at this juncture; it is a major difference between the transit system in Tucson (SunTran, which serves an average of 13,534 daily riders) and ABQ Ride (which serves an average of 7,948 daily riders).*

Since both metro areas have a very similar population (and similar demographic indicators as well), one would expect similar ridership. What gives?

Local geography helps to explain the differences: in Albuquerque, the city is divided up by 2 major interstates (1-25 and I-40) + Paseo del Norte + the Rio Grande river basin; in Tucson, the street grid is relatively well connected, with the only major freeway (I-10) skirting the edge of town.

There is also another reason for the difference:

Regional vs. local.

Tucson has a single REGIONAL transportation system. This means that there is one service provider for all the local transportation needs. This makes sense, as Tucson is a relatively small isolated metropolis.

Albuquerque, on the other hand has both a REGIONAL and LOCAL transit provider: ABQ Ride is local, while Rio Metro (the group running the Rail Runner) is regional. This means that funding is DIVIDED between these separate agencies.

How can Albuquerque expect to create a seamless, efficient network when the cash is split up between two different agencies? Though this issue may not be the deciding factor behind the ridership differences in these two cities, I believe it is an important issue that should be discussed by local leaders. After all, I'm not sure Tucson would have received federal dollars for their modern streetcar project without the unified force of a REGIONAL transportation system.

This was my major observation about ABQ Ride vs. Tucson/Suntran vs. regionalism/localism vs. transit networks in general.

Anyways, that all has come to an end and I am now in Spain. I will be here for the remainder of the year, studying Spanish and other assorted things. I will try to blog as often as possible, but I will be studying full time so we shall see.

So, as always, IT'S TIME FOR A TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION!

---

*All the data used was acquired from the Brookings Institute website from the interactive State of Metropolitan America Indicator Map. If you have not played around with this incredible interactive data set DO SO NOW! It is chock full of interesting, interactive demographic data from across the United States. Have fun!

The Layers of NYC

2010-07-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent the day touring New York City. I saw many interesting bits of urbanism, from the World Trade Center construction site (which, after years of delays, is finally being reconstructed) to the High Line (an old raised urban railroad that has now been turned into a spectacular park/public space).

New York City is a place like no other, especially in the context of America. Its density and population is unrivaled by any other urban area in these United States. It's transit system is not only extensive, but it is also used by a majority of the population. The city has recently received positive attention from the urban planning world as a result of the new planning director in NYC Janette Sadik-Khan. Her new policies on creating bike friendly and pedestrian friendly infrastructure have caught the eye of planners across the globe.

When I visit places like NYC, I try to figure out what exactly makes the city such an interesting and desirable place, both to live in and to visit. Parts of the answer may be obvious (such as Central Park), but some aspects of the city seem like true turn-offs. The streets are filled with speeding, stinky cars. The subway stations are old, dirty and hot. The traffic is terrible, and it is almost impossible to find one peaceful, quiet spot in the entire city.

So why go?

For people who live there, the simple answer might be employment. But in my opinion, time is the thing that truly makes this place fascinating.

Since people have been living on this little island for such a long time, layers and layers of culture, history and urbanism have been created over time. One could walk for 3 blocks and hear 20 different languages, We were sung to by an African-American trio on the subway (they were pretty talented). There were 4 different bands playing at one single relatively small park we visited (Washington Square Park).

This kind of culture can not be created overnight.

The people who argue about the urban/surburban divide never touch on the issue of time. Cities are usually more interesting places than suburbs simply because the cities have existed for a longer amount of time.

Mix of use is also incredibly crucial. When buildings have a mix of uses (basically residential + anything else) they allow people more options about where they live and work. This allows for a variety of transportation options: walking, biking, roller-blading, skateboarding, bus riding, train riding or even automobile driving. People are always clamoring for more options in life; auto dependent development does NOT provide many options.

Overall, time has led to the creation of city filled with layers. It has layers of culture and layers of infrastructure. It is an organically growing place with constant movement and evolution. Some call it the City that Never Sleeps. What allows the city to stay awake all night?

One important aspect of that is the 24/7 subway network. When you have a transportation network running all day and all night, people will use it all day and all night. This is especially true in a city such as NYC, which has high density and a robust diverse economy.

How can we create incredible places such as NYC? Time is one very important ingredient.

A great public transportation network also helps.

Biking in the Cape: Some Lessons and Ideas

2010-07-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today, my family and I enjoyed a long bike ride through Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This ride was made possible by a national program called Rails to Trails. The program is pretty self-explanatory: previous rail lines are converted into bike and/or multi use trails. It is great program that has led to the completion of many fantastic trails across the nation.

The Cape Cod Rail Trail was very well designed. All of the road crossing points were well constructed, making both the trail and the road crossings easy to traverse for both cycles and motor vehicles. Part of the reason the crossings were so functional was due to the fact that all the at-grade crossings involved only two-lane of one lane roads. All the wider roads had grade separated crossings (usually tunnels, with the occasional overpass). These crossings helped to illustrate a larger point of cycling: people will be far more comfortable cycling if there are grade separated crossings. Yes, this point has been made, and yes they are expensive, but they go a VERY long way towards making life easier for both bike riders/pedestrians and drivers.

So who was using this trail? Since Cape Cod is primarily a tourist destination, I expected to see mostly recreational riders. Predictably, after traversing this trail for its entire length over a period of 7 hours, I saw very few people on the trail who seemed to be locals. This was understandable, considering the wealth of the residents of Cape Cod. But then, I thought about all the service workers in the towns on the Cape; the children who attended the local schools; the people who lived a short, bikable drive away from their place of work: why were these people not present on the trail?

Lack of connectivity is the answer.

Since the trail was built primary for recreational purposes, the planners made very little provisions for commuters. The trail was required to follow the rail right-of-way, which means it doesn't necessarily go close to many of the major towns. In fact, there is only one major town that it passes through. In this town, the whole area around the trail is filled with parks and businesses that cater to bikers. Why can't the other towns in the area have this?

I envision a future where the Cape Cod Rail Trail is the spine of a larger, regional network. There would spurs that would go to every nearby town and every nearby school, along with every nearby major employment center. All of these spurs would have way-finding signs from the main trail. Currently, the majority of the Cape (along with the majority of the USA) is very auto oriented, with little to no commuter bike infrastructure. The development of the peninsula is not necessarily suburban, but it is sprawling and spread out in nature.

My main point is this: having long, recreational trails are beneficial to large portions of the population, but they do little to reduce intra-urban journeys. This type of trip (within an urban area, and usually a short distance, no more than 2-8 miles) is by far the most common trip type in America; it is also the easiest type of car trip to replace with a bicycle.

If we really want to reduce traffic, reduce emissions, reduce auto fatalities and reduce obesity, we MUST focus on the low hanging fruit. In this situation, the low hanging fruit is the potential to replace short car trips with other modes, such as bikes.

If we can build great recreational trails, we can also build quality commuter networks. It's time to stop wasting money on subsidies for car trips that are wasteful and unnecessary.

It's time for a transportation revolution.

Capping Freeways vs. Taking Them Out: Lessons from the Big Dig

2010-07-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

Today, I spent a lot of time ambling around a recently built park in Boston. It is called the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and it is a nice public space. It is diverse, containing fountains, benches, flowers, lawns, long walkways and sculptures. The greenway is surrounded by densely populated areas, providing a green space for many who previously did not have one. The linear aspect of it makes it an ideal place for walking, running, biking and other forms of recreation.

Why is this park so unique?

It is located on top of I-93, a major interstate highway.

The Big Dig, completed in 2006, was the most expensive public works project in recent American history. At the cost of $15 billion dollars, a major raised freeway was torn down, placed underground (with added lanes), and covered with a greenway/park. The results speak for themselves: when cars once flew by at 70 mph, people now run and play frisbee.

On the other hand, $15 billion dollars is a lot of cash. What if there was a cheaper solution? What if all that money was used to restore and refurbish every decaying Boston subway line instead?

Though this project is unarguably a major benefit for the city of Boston, it is truly just a small Band-Aid upon many gaping freeway scars. One of these scars occurs just steps from my hotel, where I-93 continues uncovered. This section of freeway is surround by decaying buildings and homeless people. The cars flying by are loud and polluting. Even where the highway is covered, there are smaller connector roads where the car speeds are still high. Taxi drivers recklessly fly around corners, causing pedestrians to run in fear. There are no bike lanes in this area, forcing bike riders to dodge pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Beyond this, there are vast parking garages surrounding this new park. There massive buildings do not contribute to street life, and their presence encourages people to continue driving.

What am I getting at?

Freeways are only one small part of the problem; all of the car based infrastructure is the real wound.

What if instead of covering the freeway, the freeway had been removed instead?

Some would argue that absolute chaos and gridlock would instantly occur; I disagree.

If this freeway had been removed, than vehicle drivers would learn that driving in this area would no longer be pleasant or efficient. They would either drive to the edge of it and park, sit in traffic, or bike, walk and take public transit.

Did I mention that there are multiple subways stops that directly border this park/freeway?

What if that money had been used to improve the aging metro system instead?

Here is what would occur:
Time after time, when road capacity is reduced, less people drive. As a result, less road capacity would mean less parking structures would need to be constructed. Instead of a ten story parking structure, a ten story mixed use building could be built in its place.
The people living and working in this building would not be as interested in driving since driving would be challenging in this freeway free area. Their use of a new transit system (built instead of the buried highway with the same $15 billion) would further enforce the idea of transit being a wise investment.
They could also use the new state of the art bike network (built with an extra few million leftover form the original $15 billion) to get where they need to go. Bike sharing systems would provide options for people who would prefer not to buy their own bike (more news on global bike sharing systems here).
The variety of options provided to them at all hours of the day would more than make up for the lack of a car. Zipcars and other car sharing systems would help to fulfill the desire the take a spontaneous weekend trip or a jaunt to Ikea.

How should we spend our precious transportation tax dollars?

I have some ideas...

Beantown: Urban Form and Function

2010-07-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

Density: The part of Boston I am staying in (Back Bay) is quite dense, especially compared to the rest of the United States. This makes sense as Boston is one of the oldest American cities. It is also very diverse and educated, being home to a massive number of universities.

The city itself is different from many of the other older American cities (Philadelphia, NYC, Wash. DC) because it is not planned on a grid system. Its streets are chaotic and ancient, creating an interesting urban area with many urban layers. Much of the current city is also built on landfill, causing adjacent neighborhoods to be sometimes completely different.

As with most major American cities, Boston went through a serious decline/ urban renewal process a few decades ago. This led to the construction of some notoriously ugly modernist buildings (Boston City Hall). However, many locations that recently were open lots/surface parking have been transformed into lofts and other new/New Urbanist developments. A major project, called the Big Dig, recently covered a major freeway with a park. Though this project has been beneficial, some residents are unhappy about the quality of the new public space and the price of the project. However, it is really encouraging to see this city recovering from a period of serious urban decline. This success is in no small part due to the previously mentioned large number of universities.

All of this information goes to the back of my head as I witness an urban battle over space occur in Boston: cars vs. everything and everyone else.

This is not a new battle; it is constantly occurring everywhere. It happens to be especially fascinating to witness in Boston due the contrast of an ancient city and a relatively modern freeway network.

As recently mentioned in this Streetsblog video, the city of Boston is quickly becoming more bike friendly. It is astounding that this city was previously bike unfriendly (did I mention how many universities are located here?!?) and the city continues to have plenty of elements of a bike unfriendly city. Looking out my hotel window, there are encouraging symbols of the future to come, with brand new bike lanes, sharrows and bike boxes all visible from my room.

Just yards away form hotel exists a major freeway. This freeway is surrounded by properties in continual decline and areas that feel dangerous at night. The continual negative externalities of a surface freeway system continue to haunt many once beautiful Boston neighborhoods. Cars continue to speed by on wide urban arterials. Drivers continue to ignore pedestrians and bicyclists. Car sharing vehicles (Zipcar, etc.) are rarely if even seen, and a bike sharing network that was supposed to be up and running is nowhere to be found. Suburban style development rubs elbows with historic neighborhoods. Some metro stations are found outdoors under double tiered freeways, creating a dangerous and unfriendly pedestrian environment. Others are found in dark, old dirty tunnels, filled with squeaky trains that frequently break down.

How do we want to develop our cities? What do we want our future cities to look like? How much sense does it make to continue heavy subsidies for a network that depends upon finite fuels and massive amounts of valuable real estate?

It's time for a transportation revolution.

ABQ to Boston: Taking the T*

2010-07-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

*Note: This is the first of a series of posts originally written in June as I vacationed across the East Coast.

After arriving at the Boston airport with my family, we boarded a shuttle bus to get to the subway. I at first saw the lack of a direct connection between the airport and the subway as a large restriction. However, the shuttle arrived very quickly, and the ride was short. It did leave me to wonder the frequency of this shuttle during off hours.

After getting to the station, we purchased a pre-paid transit card, scanned it for each family member and walked to the platform. The train (the Blue Line) arrived almost as soon as we got there, and we were off. After a couple of stops, we got off and transferred. The transfer was relatively painless: we simply walked upstairs and boarded the next train that arrived.

However, this new train we boarded (the Green Line) quickly became more and more crowded. Halfway through the trip, the train was very packed and borderline uncomfortably crowded.

We then realized that we were on the train line that served Fenway Park, just an hour or so before a Red Sox game.

The only really negative part of this whole experience was when the train stopped and the power went out for just a couple seconds. The power quickly came back on and the train started moving again, but this should not be occurring on a major subway line in a major American city.

So how is the Boston T? In my short experience of riding it, the frequency seemed pretty good (especially since it was the afternoon on a Saturday) and the train was pretty quick. The brief power outage was inconvenient, but it quickly ended, causing no harm.

Some of the stations and trains looked pretty old and in dire need of some financial assistance. I am not aware of any pending transit cuts in the Boston area, but if anything, this system could use a large financial boost.

This is the same story across America: when will we realize the true value of our transit systems and provide the cash they need instead of just barely letting them slide by?

The Boston T system is a fine example of many American transit systems: old, working relatively well, but just barely hanging on to the edge.

More transit funding NOW!

Back At It from Urbanquerque

2010-07-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

After not posting for over one month, I am trying to get back into it. I have had so many ideas and adventures that it has been hard for me to figure out how to turn them into some sort of written form. Alas, without trying there would be no success.

My living situation for this coming month is urban and unique: I am spending the month living yards away from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in a 1950's style suburban house in the Nob Hill neighborhood. My reasons for living down here are
a) my downtown summer job at ABQ Ride and
b) the fact that I am starting summer school tommorrow at UNM. I have no car for the summer so living in the far eastern part of theNE Heights with my family would be impractical.

The cost of living here in Albuquerque is extremely cheap. Since I am living so close to transit and bike-friendly areas, my transportation costs are ZERO. This is due to the fact that I am working at ABQ Ride this summer (they provided me with a free bus pass) and the fact that my father is letting me borrow his fantastic old-skool road bike.

My quality of life down here is amazing. I bike pretty much everywhere and go on long bike rides every evening as the sun sets and the earth cools down. I buy groceries (mostly from the nearby Sunflower Market) and cook almost all my own food, saving lots of cash. Basically, my only expenses are rent and the occasional grocery trip.

Most people believe that living carfree in burque is impossible; I am proud to say that it is entirely possible (in certain parts of the city) and continues to get easier.

ABQ Bike Planning Open House: Some Great Ideas

2010-05-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (May 19, 2010), I attended a meeting that discussed Albuquerques long-term plan for bikeways, trailways and other non-automotive infrastructure improvements (ABQ Bike Map [PDF]).

The Albuquerque Bikeways and Trails Master Plan Update is a series of meeting that will be occurring throughout the next year. They will be a series of discussions about the future of Albuquerque's bike and trail network.

The meeting yesterday took place at a library (Erna Ferguson Library for all you Burqueños). The format of the meeting was really good. Instead of some city officials just telling the citizens what they were going to do with our tax dollars, there were a series of interactive workshops. These workshops were staffed by the members of the consulting group hired by City of Albuquerque, Gannett Fleming West Inc. This consulting firm has teamed up with another firm, Alta Planning and Design. The people associated with this group, based in Portland OR, seemed to really understand how to create a comprehensive bike and trail network.

I remember one of the consultants from Alta discussing Albuquerque's potential to be a world class bike city. He listed these reasons:
1. Mild year-round weather
2. Lots of sunshine
3. A consistent grid-based street system (at least in the Northeast Heights)
4. Relatively flat terrain
5. The current existence of some great bike network elements

I have to say, the plan they have is pretty good and comprehensive. If they could fast-track many of these projects, I could see the mode share of bikes increasing by a large amount.

However, this will only occur if there are incentives not to drive instituted as well. Currently, Albuquerque, like the vast majority of American cities, is filled with developments surrounded by large free parking lots. As the great Donald Shoup once said, "There is no such thing as free parking." We all pay the costs of an automobile oriented built society. These costs include high bike and pedestrian fatality rates and long distances between places.

Having great bike infrastructure is essential, but in some ways, good planning and land use should be far more crucial long term goals.

Land Use AND Transportation: The Importance of Understanding the Connection

2010-05-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when people discuss transit and transportation, they discuss the issues of transportation as if they were separate from land use policy and zoning. The truth is, these two things are linked very closely.

For example, if you wanted to walk or bike to the store from your house, would you be more likely to use these modes if there were many multilane roads/highways to cross to get there? What if a bus stop you needed to access was located on the other side of an interstate? How likely would you be to use these modes?

Good luck getting across this by foot or by bike.

If we do not start to realize the link between land use and transportation, we are in for a rude awakening when gas prices begin to rise again. Luckily, the Obama administration recently announced that there would be a partnership developed between HUD and DOT to build "sustainable communities".

Though I doubt any fully sustainable communities will be created in the very near future, this partnership is a great first step towards developing walkable, bikable livable communities. Lower income housing should also be more closely developed in conjunction with transportation. A recent study, the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, showed that affordability of housing goes way down in exurban areas when the cost of transportation is added in. Data for the Albuquerque metro region is here, and data for the Tucson metro region is here.

This link has been documented for years, but having this great new interactive data set will allow people to see the link between land use and transportation more closely.

Power to the People: Take Power from the States and Give It to the CITIES!

2010-05-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today, I came across this great article from the site Next American City.

The article basically discusses the problem with federal money being distributed to state governments:

Indeed, the strength of state governments in making transportation decisions is one of the primary culprits for the highway-dependent state of the American landscape, in addition to the federal urban renewal policies and Interstate Highway legislation that are more typically singled out for blame. This fact comes to the serious detriment of metropolitan areas, which lack the fiscal ability and legal right to make full decisions about their transportation futures.

Why does this occur?

That’s because the politics of almost every state are dominated by rural and suburban constituents, or, in other words: car drivers. The urban transit users, pedestrians, and bike riders are typically at the back of the pack when it comes to representation.

The author of the article, Yonah Freemark, calls on Washington to "stem that state power". However, he offers no alternative way for distributing federal money. He seems to be in favor of the Feds having more power in distributing the money.
This issue is also covering in this blog.

I agree with Mr. Freemark: urban areas should have far more power. Money should not even be funneled in to the Feds in the first place; more tax money should be staying within localities. The amount of money each locality has would be based on the amount of economic activity occurring in each given metro area. In the case of money being distributed from a Federal level, it should work the same way: the more valuable the metro area to the economy, the more money it gets.

However, since I am talking about this issue purely from a transportation standpoint, I can see many problems with money being distributed in this manner. Since everything is so road and highway oriented, how could anyone guarantee all the money would not just be used for building new highways?

One solution could be the idea of Federal matching of funds: the more money localities would contribute to non-road projects, the more money would be provided by the Feds for transportation.

Overall though, the main point:
The Feds can not just keep throwing money at states for whatever transportation projects they want. State governments will continue to prioritize road and highway projects because that is the popular thing to do in many jurisdictions (especially the rural ones).

Let the majority be represented. Give urban areas far more political power.

Update (5/8): Here is another blog that discusses this very issue. It suggests giving the power to MPO's (Metropolitan Planning Agencies). All metro areas with a population above 50,000 are required to have MPO's, so it makes sense to distribute federal money through these organizations. In Albuquerque, the MPO is MRCOG, and in Tucson the MPO is PAG.

These groups do a lot of regional transportation planning, so it makes a lot of sense to give these agencies more money, and power.

Update 5/12: Here is great article about the history of road funding. It discusses how the acceleration of the car based transportation system led to money being taken from local control and given over to state and federal control. This [PDF] is the longer article that this previously linked article was summarizing.

We MUST focus on getting our transportation money back to the local authorities. State leaders generally do not understand the idea of "sustainable transit". Metro regions do and they need the money now, more than ever, to invest in sustainable transportation options.

CNM and ABQ Ride: Working Together?

2010-04-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

For everyone reading this post not from Albuquerque, CNM is the local community college in the Albuquerque metro area. ABQ Ride is the local transportation agency in the city of Albuquerque.

CNM and ABQ Ride do not have best relationship.

Sure, there are a few ABQ Ride routes that access the CNM campuses. Sure, ABQ Ride acknowledges the existence of CNM. However, compared to the amount of support received from ABQ Ride by UNM, almost no attention is payed to CNM. After all, the 3 Rapid Ride routes all pass by UNM.

How many CNM campuses are served by even one Rapid Ride route?

Hint:0

A closer partnership between CNM and ABQ Ride should be a no-brainer:
1. CNM is the largest secondary education institution in the state
2. CNM students, just like UNM students, have free access to transit. One reason the Rapid Ride has been so successful has been the fact that it serves UNM, a huge bank of citizens with free transit passes.
3. Community college attendees generally have average lower income than UNM attendees, making them perfect candidates for improved transit access.

The reasons behind the lack of a partnership between CNM and UNM are understandable. First, UNM has one major campus; CNM has many campuses scattered across the city.

Here is a map of the CNM campuses:

As you can see, there are many campuses with many locations. This is significant because many students take classes at multiple CNM locations. For the purposes of this post, I will focus on the three largest CNM campuses: Main, Montoya and Westside.

Connecting Montoya and Main: The Montoya campus is currently poorly served by bus service. Main is also lacking significant connections.

The current bus situation for Montoya: Two routes nearby (the #1 and the #5), but none that are even close to the front door of the campus.

The current bus situation for Main: Two bus routes-the 96 Zuni (which only runs on weekdays, stopping at a frequency of once per hour) and the 16/18 BUG (which has an extremely inefficient convoluted route). Solutions to improve the 16/18 are discussed here as well.

My solution: 1 new bus route and 1 enhanced bus route.

The enhanced bus route would follow the current route of the 96 Zuni route, but it would be enhanced by having a significant amount of distance added to it. The majority of this added distance would be the continuation of this route along Morris until it reaches the CNM Montoya Campus.

The route would look like this:

View 88 Morris/Zuni in a larger map

The two place marks on here are the two existing CNM campuses that this route would serve.

The benefits of this alignment are discussed in further detail in this previous post.

The other route I propose is a Rapid Ride route along Montgomery and University Blvd. The southern terminus would be the airport and the eastern terminus would alternate between CNM and the Montgomery/Tramway Park and Ride (on weekends, all the Rapid Ride trips would end at Montgomery/Tramway and on weekdays, the terminus would alternate between trips).

The route would look something like this:

View 725 Montgomery/University Rapid Ride in a larger map

Once again, the place marks designate CNM locations. This route also serves UNM and the UNM Hospital, which is growing very rapidly. This route would complement the current #5 route along Montgomery. This is similar to a route I proposed on this Duke City Fix post, which was then later discussed on this post.

Connecting the Westside campus to the ABQ Ride System: Currently, the Westside campus is served by zero bus routes. This is understandable, considering the sprawling nature of its location. However, it is relatively close to the Northwest Transit Center, making it a good candidate for the terminus of a regular weekday route with half hour frequency.

The route would follow this alignment:

View 101 McMahon/Ellison in a larger map

The marker on the left is the Westside CNM Campus, and the marker on the right is the Northwest Transit Center. This route would be guaranteed success, based on the theory of anchoring transit lines discussed in paragraph five of this post:

So transit planners are always looking to anchor their lines. Anchoring means designing a line so that it ends at a major destination, so that there will be lots of people on the vehicle all the way to the end of the line. A line with strong anchors at each end will have more uniform high ridership over the whole length of the line, and a much more efficient use of capacity overall.

Let's review:

Currently, all CNM students, and all UNM students, have free ABQ Ride bus passes.

CNM needs to have a closer relationship with ABQ Ride.

Three (3) new bus transit lines would vastly improve this connectivity.

Cyclivia in Tucson: The Posibilities for the Future

2010-04-22T16:02:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Tucson had its first cyclovia event.

On Sunday, from 10 AM until 2 PM, four sections of different streets were closed off to automobile traffic, freeing the streets for non-motorized activities for miles. This page has more information, and this blog has a good write up of the event.

The purpose of a cyclovia is to allow all uses other than automobiles on the streets. The problem with doing this in Tucson is the quality of the pavement. Most sections of the route were not smooth enough to allow for skateboarding, long-boarding, roller blading and other activities that require smooth pavement. This is unfortunate because some members of the community really enjoy these activities and would love to have an entire street to participate.

Overall though, it is hard for me to be pessimistic about this event. There were a lot of people out participating and interacting with the built environment in a more sustainable way. When people move more slowly through a place, they can interact with it better. They can see how bad of condition the streets are in and contact the city, demanding improvement. They can find neat restaurants and cafes they never previously noticed.

The best thing about cyclovia is taking street space away from cars. Though it was only for 4 hours on one day of the year, it represented an opportunity to take back the streets. For too many years, American transportation policy has dictated that cars are the only way to get around efficiently.

This is simply not true. Plenty of places in America are easily accessible by foot, bike or transit.

For the places that are not yet accessible,efficient land use policy can help to change this unfortunate reality.

It is also telling that much of this cyclovia route will soon be home to the route of Tucson's first modern streetcar. Construction will begin this fall (Oct./Nov. 2010), and according to project managers, the project will be complete in about 15 months. This means that next year on April 18th, the cyclovia route will look very different.

In five years, the route will probably be very different as well. Construction on the streetcar will have been completed for a long time. Development will probably be occurring along the route, and the recession will hopefully be far over.

However, the real question should be what will the first Tucson cyclovia route look like in ten years? Only time, and progressive planning policy, will tell.

The Urban Solution vs. the Rural Solution: The Internal Conflict Within the Green Movement

2010-04-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

When environmentalists talk about the sustainability/green movement, many times you hear two different solutions:

Solution #1
One side discusses the benefits of urban density. Everyone must live in dense walkable areas that stimulate community connectivity. We need to reduce automobile dependence by living close to most of our daily services and ideally, close to our jobs as well. This is the best and most logical solution to our current problem.

Solution #2
The other side uses terms such as "locavore" and "permaculture". This side discusses the benefits of everyone producing their own food. Everyone should have a beehive, three chicken and a vegetable patch in their backyard. Everything you eat, or possibly even use, should be produced within ten miles of your home. Native plants and animals can and should be utilized for food, instead of exotic and foreign plants and animals. Off-grid solar panels, rainwater harvesting and natural design should be top priorities.

This weekend, I spent a large amount of time on one of these backyard production sites. It was fascinating and amazing. I learned about all the valuable flora and fauna that exists in the deserts around the city of Tucson. I drank delicious prickly pear lemonade. I was one with the Earth.

My average day takes place in a more urban setting. I bike to school and spend the day walking around the University of Arizona, one of the densest sections of Tucson. I survive pretty well without a car and get to have interesting unique human interaction all day, every day.

Here is the question: which method or technique is better? Which one is better for me? The environment? The community? Humanity in general?

These are important questions that are partially covered in the book Green Metropolis by David Owen. This book discusses the many benefits that result from living in a urban setting. In fact, Owen goes as far as saying that the green ideal of "living in the country" has resulted in suburbia itself. It makes sense: everyone wanted to live out side of "the city", so they created a place that is not quite urban, but not quite rural: suburbia.

This argument would suggest that the people who support Solution #2 are actually stimulating the growth of suburban sprawl. This may be true, but this issue is not just black and white.

Most modern suburban dwellers have very little connection to the natural world, the origin of their food, the benefits of sustainability and the concept of "walkability" in general. Then again, many urban dwellers are in the same boat. In general, few people understand the interconnected systems and supply lines that keep us alive and wealthy.

Though I agree with many tenants of this book, the key to finding great solutions to our long term problems are education.

There are no high school classes called "urban planning", "sustainability", "the modern economic systems", "the future of urban form", etc. Many of these classes do not exist in college as well.

Maybe if people understood the connection between sprawl, the natural world and the innate desire for nature among humans through education, there would be more momentum for creating an urban system that benefits everyone instead of just car owners.

What Methods Can We Use to Prevent People from Buying a Car in the First Place? 1. Carsharing

2010-04-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

I would like to start this post with a disclaimer: I am not an anti-car person, and I never will be.

Motor vehicles are amazing inventions. They increase mobility for the users and allow owners of cars to go wherever they want whenever they want.

However, there are a few drawbacks to a car oriented society: not everyone can afford one because they are expensive to maintain. Also, since our entire build world has become so motor vehicle centric, not owning a car has become a major disadvantage. Our roads are overcrowded, so how can we prevent people from needing to buy a car?

I say "need" because many times, cars are not bought on a "want" basis. Though many times they are, plenty of people buy cars based on "need".

People buy cars if their transportation needs are not adequately met by transit, walking, biking or car sharing. Most of America fits into this category, so it makes sense that most Americans own cars.

Why do I want people not to buy cars?

Well, this is how it usually goes: once someone buys a car, all they use is a car. They no longer consider using buses, bikes or walking because a car is such a large investment. It doesn't make sense for someone to make a large investment for something they will use occasionally. Also, our modern build world reinforces high intensity vehicle usage. When someone buys a car, they reinforce this entire cyclical system.

Though the solution to this problem is multifaceted, I see car sharing as the most important solution to this problem.

I would like to use my own personal life as an example.

I do not own a car. Though I had one when I attended high school in Albuquerque, my brother now uses that car so I have no car out here in Tucson. I have no problem with not owning a car. I enjoy biking to school most days because it stimulates my mind and gives me exercise. On the days when I do not feel like biking (sick, raining, windy, lazy, etc) a bus route passes very close to my house and takes me directly to campus. This bus route is pretty good, as it comes every half hour on weekdays from 5 AM to 10 PM. Since most of my time is either spent on campus or at home, the bus and bike connections work very well for my commute.

But what about everything outside of my daily commute?

Most American driving miles are no longer the simple commute to and from work or school. People need to get to baseball practice, the mall, Baskin Robbins, the movie theater, concert and a billion other locations and events. In most cities, since everything is so spread, you sometimes truly do NEED a car to get to many of these locations.

For example, I need to buy groceries once a week. I prefer going to Trader Joes, which is too far to bike to and inaccessible by bus. Luckily, I have some awesome roommates who let me borrow their car once a week for this journey.

Alas, most people do not have my awesome roommate situation. It is at this point when most people decide that they must own a car. It is these kind of journeys that need to be tackled in order to reduce car purchases. Car sharing is the answer.

How does car sharing work? The most popular car sharing program in the nation, ZipCar, works like this: cars are distributed in a given area. People in this given area sign up for a membership. When members want to use a car, they get on the Internet (or iPhone), find the closest one, scan the car with key less entry, and go for as long as they want. The longer they go, the most they have to pay so there are incentives for people to bring the cars back ASAP.

Now, if there was a bank of these cars in my neighborhood, I would totally sign up. I would not be the only one, as my neighborhood is filled with lower income car free dwellers. The problem is, Zipcar is still a for-profit company. They will only expand into areas where profit margins are high and risk is low. Central Tucson is probably not high on their expansion list.

This is why Ray LaHood and livability proponents need to start doing more work to get local car sharing programs jump started. I am so happy to see the federal DOT give so much more credit to bikes, pedestrians and transit, but these solutions will only go so far. Car sharing should also be a big part of their push for livability.

Though car sharing still involves cars (which I am not a huge fan of) they are an essential part of any solution in society that has only been building car based for at least 70 years. Honestly, they are the most realistic solution to getting cars off the road. Just look at this infographic, and this article (both from FastCompany), for proof.

Let's stop the cycle of people needing to buy cars; add car sharing to a growing list of great solutions.

Q: Why Does Nobody Walk?

2010-03-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

A: There is nowhere to walk to.

In my neighborhood in Albuquerque (Far Northeast Heights), I just went on a walk. As I was walking, I decided to estimate how large each house lot was: 33 of my steps. This means that only about 2-5 people live within 33 steps worth of street frontage. In this situation, a lot of street frontage is required to create enough density for any business to be successful. Though there are nice smooth wide sidewalks throughout my neighborhood, nobody uses them unless they are walking their dog. The closest services are located in a strip mall at the bottom of a large hill.

People will not walk if there is nowhere to walk to.

In contrast, my neighborhood in Tucson has no sidewalks, but many people walk through this area. This is because there are places to walk to. There are two bus routes that intersect a block away. There is a taco shop, offices, a haircut place and two food stores on this same intersection. The lot sizes are smaller, and the roads are arranged in a grid, which allows for easier walkability.

Even though my neighborhood in Tucson does not have the proper facilities for walking, MANY people walk through it because there are places to walk to.

Sidewalks are not important. Destinations are.

A Gas Tax Solution: Not All Urban Areas Are Created Equal

2010-03-08T18:17:00.001-08:00

Let's face it: our infrastructure is broken. As population and road growth increases every year, less and less money is dedicated to essential infrastructure. As a country and people, what should we do? How can the government help?

I have read many articles recently discussing the idea of a gas tax in order to pay for our currently broke infrastructure system. I personally think this is a great idea; after all the gas tax has not risen much since the 1970's and since then, we have added a lot of infrastructure (especially roads) to our national network.

However, a blanket gas tax is so politically unpopular (especially in "tough economic times") that it will probably not happen for a long time, if ever. Therefore, I have a different solution: a gas tax based on zip codes.

The United States is not built in a uniform manner. Therefore, it should not have the same gas tax everywhere. For example, let us compare Manhattan, NYC with rural New Mexico. Both places have the same gas tax. However, virtually all the people who are driving cars in New York City are wealthy; most of the car drivers in rural New Mexico are car dependent and probably middle class or poor.

Based on this analysis, the gas tax should be different in different areas based on car dependency. If the gas tax goes up by 20 cents in NYC, it would hardly impact how people traveled around. If the same amount of taxation was applied to rural New Mexico, it would dramatically affect everyone who lived there on a wide variety of levels.

The gas tax should be raised incrementally based on where people live and work. This may sound complicated, but it can be made easier by the wide usage of zip codes. Zip codes comprise a small enough area that they could be used for this sort of analysis. If you live in an area with no public transportation, low density and low walkability ratings, you would have a small gas tax increase. If you live in an area with good public transportation, you would have a larger increase, and so on.

One of the biggest problems with this would be people traveling outside of their city to find area codes with lower zip codes. This could be countered by the use of credit cards. Since most people use credit cards for gas anyways, the card reader could scan where you live and charge you accordingly. Since this system would be costly and problematic, the easier solution would be to have very little initial difference between prices in the different areas. If a rural area has a 4-5 cent price difference from the urban area, there would not be significant numbers of people traveling to the rural areas for gas.

The advantage of this type of gas tax would be the ability to reward areas with more transit options. The extra tax dollars would go towards enhancing transit and livability in whatever urban area the zip code correlated with.

The most important part of this plan would be development incentives. New development approval would be tied in part to the gas tax in the given zip code. If the gas tax is low, development taxes would be high. If the gas tax is high, the development taxes would be low. It would create an incentive system for creating livable communities. Through this system, gas taxes could be used to make livable and walkable area more livable and walkable, as well as encourage non-livable and non-walkable areas to develop differently.

Though this idea is still a work in progress, I think it has potential to become a blueprint for change. Though I think the gas tax should definitely be raised, this kind of taxation would affect different people differently. Income taxes are applied based on how much is made; let's look at gas taxes based on how much, and where, gas is needed.

Let's Review:

Gas tax increase is a must

Should not be applied the same to everyone

More taxes for people who depend on gas the least

Less taxes for people who depend on gas the most

Taxation based on zip code

Still just a moderate increase for everyone at first

What Kind of Neighborhoods Do Americans Want?

2010-02-11T16:25:00.000-08:00

All day, I read blogs and studies citing the importance of progressive planning policy. These articles discuss all the benefits of creating developments that are walkable and "New Urbanist" in nature.

I do not disagree with any of these statements or opinions. In fact, I agree with the vast majority of them. These are not the important articles, though. I think most people can agree that building sprawlburbs for the next 30 years does not make a lot of sense for many reasons.

But what should the alternatives be?

This is a valid question because I don't think most people really know what they want. America has not built anything other than sprawl for a very long time. It's important to start thinking about and discussing alternatives now before people get jaded with the entire debate (remember health care?).

By talking to people, I get a pretty good idea of what people want in the future (and right now). I see people wanting a hybrid of sorts: New Urbanism + the suburbs.

The kind of areas I visualize would be similar to the neighborhood I currently live in: mixed housing densities/incomes (single family on the inside of the block, higher density multifamily housing on the outside), with multiuse on the edges of the block (commercial, retail). My neighborhood also has 2 bus routes (north-south, east-west) that come every half-hour on the weekdays, along with bike routes throughout the neighborhood.

This kind of urban diversity provides many benefits to residents. While driving is still the favored transportation choice by the majority of neighborhood residents, the design of this neighborhood makes it easy for residents to walk, bike or take the bus. Therefore, many residents (including myself) choose to use alternative modes of transportation.

At the same time, it is not a choice but a necessity for many residents as a result of income levels. This point demonstrates how everything zoning related is interconnected: since my neighborhood has a diversity of transportation choices, it supports a variety of income levels.

The main point here is that automobile dependency is not freedom: it is oppression. A diversity of transportation choices supports a diversity of lifestyles. It is easy to create places that are car accessible and not car dependent.

My neighborhood is proof of this ease of coexistence.

The Extreme Importance of Zoning Policy

2010-02-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

The cities we have created today are relatively unsustainable. By unsustainable, I mean a place that can not easily survive for a long period of time. The primary reason behind this is zoning policy.

There are two major issues with current zoning policy:
1) Subsidizing Sprawl: We continue to pour money into developments that make our city weaker instead of stronger.

We can even look at this kind of development from a purely economic standpoint: In the long run, it is far more expensive to construct and maintain new infrastructure than it is develop areas that already have infrastructure. For this reason, local and national government should give major tax breaks to infill development, opposing to greenfield sprawl. In places where infrastructure exists, other services (such as shopping, workplaces, schools, etc.) are likely to exist as well. This not only creates lower longer-term prices for taxpayers, but it also encourages and stimulates walkable development. As many studies have shown (the most recent one from the NRDC), walkable areas retain value much better than non-walkable areas do.

2) Single Use Automobile Dependent Zoning Policy: Most new development in the United States continues to be single use and car dependent. This kind of development is a major reason why the obesity rates in the United States have skyrocketed. Creating areas and communities where people do not have the option of walking, biking or using public transportation is detrimental to the health of this country.

America prides itself on the freedom and independence car ownership provides, but car ownership should not be (and is not) a necessity for everyone. In my opinion, freedom means building areas where people have the freedom to use any transportation option they want.

Federal and local governments MUST revise zoning policies that encourage single use car dependent developments. Continuing to build these spaces will just lead to more pollution and congestion on local roads, and the eventual collapse of local transportation systems. Only so many lanes can be added to a road; eventually, the right of way ends.

Let's Review:

We must fight to end tax subsidies for sprawl.

We must subsidize infill development instead.

Car dependent development weakens our country.

Freedom means transportation options, not automobile dependency.

Revising zoning policy is crucial to the future of this country.

In my next post, I will address a balanced solution for future suburban growth that embraces the tenets of progressive urban policy.

Designated Bus Lanes on Central + A Light Rail Line Proposal

2010-01-25T14:34:00.000-08:00

Central Avenue in Albuquerque is the spine of the city. This is where the city started and this is where many activities continue to occur. In recent years, Central has also become the core of the Albuquerque transportation system. Currently, all three Rapid Ride routes run along Central, as well as a number of other regular routes. This corridor has by far the highest ridership anywhere in the city.

At the same time, it is not perfect. Buses do not run on time. They are slowed down by being in mixed traffic and they bunch up along the corridor, causing congestion. What should be done?

"Bus Only", or bus priority lanes are a great idea. They have been instituted in places across the world with great success. These lanes would be painted a different color and divided from regular traffic with dividers in some places. They would also double as right turn lanes at intersections, as well as queues for people trying to parallel park on Central. Initially, these special lanes should be implemented from Downtown to San Mateo. Central should have designated "Bus Only" lanes for a variety of reasons:

1. Less Space for Cars: The Central corridor most likely has the lowest rate of car ownership in the city of Albuquerque. The majority of cars in this corridor are from people commuting from other parts of the city. Many people residing on this corridor depend on alternative transportation modes. They should be rewarded for their transit usage. Also, if a bus priority lane is created, less people will have the desire to drive due to less space for cars being available; this study covers this concept.

2. Less Speeding/Safer Roads: When there are two lanes available next to each other, they encourage people to speed and pass the people in front of them. If only one lane is available, people will not have the option of passing people traveling the speed limit. This would make Central safer for drivers and pedestrians equally.

3. The Creation of a Transit Corridor: Making this kind of designation would enforce Centrals importance as a transportation corridor. If ridership increased enough, this corridor could eventually go though a comprehensive planning process to become a...

Light Rail Corridor

Having a light rail corridor along this route would be a great idea. It makes far more sense than trying to build a modern streetcar that would only connect Downtown with the airport. My idea for a light rail line would be in 4 phases:

Phase 1: Old Town to UNM (Central Corridor)- This corridor has high density, lots of students and great potential for light rail transit.

Phase 2: UNM to Uptown (central and Louisiana)- Though density along this corridor is quite a bit lower, the city could rework the zoning code along this route to create a denser corridor. Before this line is built, the city could rezone the entire Louisiana/Central edge of the fairgrounds to be medium density commercial and residential development. This would create a lot of potential ridership for this corridor, along with creating an active street edge.

Phase 3: Airport to Central- This spur would essentially connect all of Albuquerques major activity centers with light rail. This would also allow visitors to Albuquerque a reasonable alternative to renting a car.

Potential Phase 4: Old Town to the Southwest Transit Center- This could work, but only if the city rezones this entire stretch of Central as medium to high density. Creating a light rail line along this entire corridor would dramatically increase transit ridership and create a huge amount of investment.

This is a project that would take years to plan and implement, so the city should begin working on this idea as soon as possible.

Let's Review:

Designated bus lanes along the Central corridor from Downtown to San Mateo

Bus lanes would encourage/stimulate transit ridership

Bus lanes would double as right turn lanes

The development of this transit corridor would encourage the eventual construction of light rail along this route

Why Is Biking Important?

2010-01-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

Bike.

This single word carries weight in the modern world of transportation planning. While the United States currently has a very low percentage of people using bikes for commuting or errands, the humble bicycle continues to be the number one personal transportation option for the world.

This phenomenon of high bicycle ridership occurs in both developing, undeveloped and highly developed countries. The universal use of the bicycle across the world makes sense because bikes are extremely efficient. Most energy used in cars is not used to move the passenger, but to move the heavy vehicle itself. That means that most fuel used in cars is essentially wasted because very little of it is being used to transport the passenger.

Since bikes are light weight, compact and small, most energy expended by the rider is used to simply move the rider. This makes for a very efficient transportation system. While some may argue that a bicycle can only carry one person (versus a car, which can carry up to 5 people) the vast majority of car trips in the United States are done by vehicles carrying one person.

The best advantage of biking as a transportation alternative is that most people in the United States own a bicycle. Though bicycle commuting is not very popular in the United States, bicycling as a recreational activity is extremely popular. This is a major advantage because:

1. Creating alternative transportation is usually expensive: The top reason any proposal for alternative transportation is shot down (new buses/ bus lines, new train lines, etc.) is due to cost. Focusing on creating major intercity bike networks is relatively cheap. Many time no new pavement needs to be layed; many times the lines just need to be reconfigured. Bus networks require the purchase of new buses every 15 years; bike routes simply require the repainting of lines. Since most people already own bikes, there is a vast amount of potential for successful bike networks across America. No necessary additional investment = much higher success rate.

2. The highest growth regions in the United States have perfect bike weather: Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Texas, California, Florida: these states/cities not only have the highest population growth rates, but they also have great weather all year round! Though year round great weather is not required to create a successful bike network, people are far more likely to bike if there is nice weather.

Though cars are the best option in many transportation situations, there is plenty of room for alternatives. If we can make it easy for people to bike to the store, people will bike to the store. The numbers for bike travel in the United States are inaccurate because they fail to capture how much biking occurs.

For example, lets say the bike commute rate for Albuquerque is around 1%. This 1% number represents the number for the entire metro area. But what about the areas by the university? What about the parts of town that actually have bike infrastructure versus the parts of town that do not?

The percentage of people using bikes is far higher in areas that actually have quality bike infrastructure. If all of Albuquerque had the same level of bike infrastructure/ density that is present in the university area, the numbers would change dramatically.

In this situation, I truly believe the mantra of "if you build it, they will bike."

Building Bike Connections at Journal Center

2010-01-15T12:04:00.000-08:00

Journal Center is one of the core employment centers in the Albuquerque metro area. It is not only one of the biggest employment centers in the state, but it is also growing at a rapid rate. As with many office parks developed in the past few decades, it is very car oriented. It is only served by a couple but routes and it is not well connected to the city bike network.

One advantage Journal Center has is that it could very easily be integrated with the city bike network. What is the major barrier that has prevented these connections from occurring?

I-25.

Many bike routes and trails from the Northeast Heights terminate on the east side of I-25. Currently, the northernmost bike trail access from the east side of the freeway to the west side occurs at the North Diversion Channel Trail underpass, just south of Montgomery. This means that for anyone who lives north of Montgomery and east of I-25, there is no easy way to bike to Journal Center (or anything west of the freeway). There are 3 places where a crossing would be viable.

1. Bear Canyon Arroyo-Osuna/Brentwood: This location may the most viable for a number of reasons. The current bike access in this area consists of a trail spur off of the North Diversion Channel trail on the west side of the freeway and a marked bike lanes on the east side on Osuna. One reason this section would be viable as a crossing point is the spur off of the North Diversion Trail (labeled Bear Canyon Arroyo Trail West on the CABQ Interactive Bike Map) goes all the way to frontage road of the highway. This means that no new right of ways or trail construction would need to occur on the west side of the freeway.

On the east side, there would be a few issues to sort out. All the land on the other side appears to be privately owned, but much of this land is currently underutilized parking lots. If the city acquired a small strip of land, they could easily connect the crossing with Osuna. The reason for this easy connection is a small cul-de-sac called Brentwood Ln. NE. This is a short, low-traffic commercial access street that would be ideal as a bike route. If this plan was used, the city should work on making the bike lanes on Osuna extend all the way to the intersection, along with making the Brentwood/Osuna intersection safe for cyclists (using bulb-outs, speed bumps, etc.).

Another reason this would be a good route is because of the recent completion of the Academy Rd. bike lanes. There are now many ways for bike riders in this area to get to the freeway. Now the city must focus on getting them over the freeway.

2. Pino Trail-San Antonio/Ellison: The Pino Trail currently traverses a large part of the Heights and then terminates at I-25. This is one of the primary reasons this would be a great crossing point. One of the drawbacks is the lack of infrastructure on the west side of the freeway. The city would have to build new trail in order to connect the path with the bike lanes on this segment of Jefferson. Ideally, the trail should be extended all the way to the North Diversion Channel, which would require even more new trail construction.

One of the major advantages of putting a crossing on this route is that the existing Pino Trail is one consistent route from Eubank to I-25. This is significant because a crossing at this point would connect a large number of Heights residents with Journal Center.

3. South Domingo Baca Trail-Paseo del Norte/Lang Ave: The situation at this potential crossing point is similar to the situation of the Pino Trail: a long trail that goes through much of the Heights and no existing infrastructure on the west side of the freeway.

One advantage of this route would be the ability to connect this route with the Paseo del Norte trail. This trail currently parallels Paseo from the Diversion Channel to Coors on the other side of the Rio Grande. If an overpass was built on this part of the freeway, a trail could be paved along El Pueblo Rd. from the Diversion Channel to Jefferson. There is already a bridge crossing the Diversion Channel next to El Pueblo Rd. From Jefferson, the Lang/Jefferson crossing would have to be improved (signaled crosswalk, "Watch for Bike" signs, etc.). Lang could be designated a bike-friendly street for it's entire length.

A disadvantage of this route is the fact that this large amount of infrastructure would need to be built in order to properly connect this crossing to the network.

At this juncture, I think very high priority must be put on these crossings. If these crossing are not built, Journal Center will continue to be extremely car oriented. This would be unfortunate because this area has potential to be a nexus of bike commuting.

The 2 most viable options at the point would probably be routes 1 and 2. The Pino Trail especially has a lot of potential to add a large amount of bike commuters.

Let's Review:

More bike overpasses must be built over N. I-25.

This would connect North East Heights residents with a major growing employment area: Journal Center.

Two crossing are very viable: San Antonio/Pino Trail and Osuna/Bear Canyon Trail.

Bike Networks in Tucson vs. Albuquerque: A Brief Analysis

2010-01-10T23:48:00.000-08:00

Since beginning college in Tucson, AZ, I spend most of my time residing there. One of the main things I enjoy about living in Tucson is how bike friendly it is. There are bike routes that connect all of the major activity centers. There are always people biking, especially around the campus, and the city has invested quite a bit of money on the bike network.

However, it is not random that Tucson has high bike ridership. Tucson has quite a few advantages: it is flat, the weather is always nice, and there are no major barriers separating the the main core activity centers: Downtown, 4th Ave. (similar to Nob Hill in Albuquerque) and the University of Arizona. Also, there are no highways, rivers or any other major barriers dividing up the core of Tucson.

This is Tucson biggest advantage. Since few bridges needed to be built over major arteries or rivers, the cost for bike infrastructure was, and continues to be, relatively cheap.

In Albuquerque, the situation is a little different: there are many barriers. The city is divided up by the Rio Grande river valley, I-25 and I-40. To some extent, Tramway, Coors and Paseo del Norte are also barriers, but they all have plenty of signaled crossings and Tramway even has bike/ pedestrian bridges in many areas.

To give an example of how Tucson is more fortunate than Albuquerque when it comes to bike connections, I will focus on the "core" corridor: Central. Central includes Nob Hill (similar to 4th Ave. in Tucson), UNM and Downtown. The Silver Bike Blvd. is the city's attempt at connecting all these districts, but at this point it is ineffective: it does not offer a consistent connection between these core areas. It is blocked by the railroad tracks and I-25.

The same area in Tucson is connected by a two lane road that has a "suicide lane" in the middle with biking lanes and car parking on the sides. This street configuration occurs along the entire stretch of road between the University and Downtown. This road is great for biking because it has little car traffic, has lots of space for biking and has a slow speed limit. The only barrier dividing Downtown and the University is the railroad tracks. This year, the City of Tucson completed a reconstruction of the underpass that connects the University and Downtown. It now has wide bike lanes and even wider sidewalks. Another advantage that Tucson has is that all of these areas are much closer together compared to these equivalent areas in Albuquerque.

These advantages, along with other bike friendly measures built by the city, lead to higher bike ridership in comparison to Albuquerque.

Let's Review:

Tucson is blessed with certain natural advantages.

These natural advantages allowed the city of Tucson to cheaply and easily build a great bike network.

The ABQ bike network is restricted by three main barriers: Rio Grande, I-25 and I-40.

In future posts, I will address specific infrastructure improvements that must occur in Albuquerque in order to transform our current bike network (which is not bad) into a great network.

CNM Westside + the 155 Coors ABQ Ride Route

2010-01-08T12:20:00.000-08:00

In my previous post, I discussed the possibility of creating a bus route that would connect many of the CNM campuses. One of the disadvantages I listed was that this route would not connect with the Westside CNM due to the fact that the Westside campus is automobile oriented and far from most of the city. However, the 155 Coors route could provide this connection.

As stated in my previous post, the ideal southern terminus for the 155 Coors route would be the South Valley CNM campus. This would be the ideal terminus because:
A. It is a designated Park and Ride facility.
B. All CNM students have free transit passes, making them ideal potential transit users.
C. It is just down the road from the current terminus of the 155 Coors.

So, it has been established that a southern terminus for the Coors route at this facility would be ideal. What about the northern terminus?

Currently, the northern terminus is at the Northwest Transit Center. This is a great terminus for any route because it provides connections with a plethora of routes (including the Blue Line Rapid Ride) and provides other amenities such as free parking. However, if the 155 Coors route was to continue further from the transit center, where could it go?

One possibility for this route would be for it to continue from the transit center to the Westside CNM campus. The best route for this connection would travel down Ellison to McMahon. Ideally, this route would go down McMahon to Universe. According to Google Maps, McMahon does not yet connect to Universe, so for now, the route would cut through the neighborhood adjacent (following Kayenta Blvd. to Avenida Madrid to Universe/ CNM).

Why should this route travel down McMahon versus Irving?

McMahon currently has higher population density then the parallel Irving corridor. Also, McMahon has lots of adjacent vacant land, which means the population of this area will continue to grow. In addition, a portion of this segment of Irving turns into a narrow road with houses facing the roadway. It would be harder to convince residents along this route to accept a bus route.

This route extension would be great not only for CNM students, but also for residents along this route. Providing residents along this route a direct connection to the Northwest Transit Center would create a great new commuting option. From the Northwest Transit Center, one can travel to most of the city of Albuquerque.

Another option for this bus route would be to create an entirely separate bus route that would just connect CNM to the transit center. This could be a better option, since this corridor probably would not attract as high of ridership as the rest of the Coors route. However, with proper bus stop construction and advertising of this route extension, this segment of the Coors route has high ridership potential.

Let's Review:

The southern Coors 155 terminus should be at the South Valley CNM campus (using Gun Club Rd. and Isleta).

The northern Coors 155 terminus should be at the Westside CNM campus (using Ellison, McMahon and eventually Universe).

CNM, ABQ Ride and a New Improved Bus Route

2010-01-05T00:51:00.000-08:00

The CNM Montoya Campus is not easy to get to without a car. Though it is in close proximity to many bike routes and bus routes, it does not interact well with each of these modes. What if the Montoya Campus had better transportation options? How would this work?

Let us examine the facts:
1. CNM is now the largest provider of higher education in the state of New Mexico.
2. All UNM and CNM students in Albuquerque have free access to the ABQ Ride transportation system.
3. There are currently no routes that quickly and directly connect the Montoya/ Eastside Campus or the South Valley Campus with the main CNM campus.
4. Many students take classes at multiple campuses.
5. The 97 Zuni route is one of the lowest ridership routes in the ABQ Ride system.
6. Morris St. has good potential for an ABQ Ride route due to it's proximity to a diverse density of housing and connection potential to other bus routes.

My proposal: Create an ABQ Ride route that connects most of the CNM campuses in Albuquerque, along with connecting other important parts of the metro.

My route concept would basically combine two currently existing routes (the 97 Zuni and the 53 Isleta) and then add a spur at the east end of the Zuni route that would go east on Central to Eubank, north on Eubank to Lomas, east on Lomas to Morris, and then the route would follow Morris north until it terminated at the Montoya CNM Campus (TVI Road NE and Morris St. NE on Google Maps).

This route alone could provide a great service to the students who currently attend CNM, but in order for it to be truly great route, some other adjustments must be made.

1. Currently, only Main Campus requires an annual paid parking pass. This makes sense, as Main is in a denser area and well connected with bike routes and bus routes. If the Valley and Montoya Campuses charged a small amount of money for a parking pass (maybe $20 per year) and this bus route was added, there would be a better incentive in place for students to use alternative transportation. Also, the money could be used to construct transit improvements (bike racks, bus shelters, etc.)

2. In this same vein, the 155 Coors route must be extended all the way down Gun Club road and terminate at the South Valley CNM campus. This route extension makes sense for a variety of reasons, one of the more obvious reasons being that most people attending the South Valley campus don't live anywhere near the current 53 route, the only route currently serving the campus. Also, it makes sense for a route to terminate at a Park and Ride facility (the South Valley CNM campus) instead of halfway down a street (Gun Club Rd).

3. Zuni Road must be reconfigured. Currently, it has two lanes in each direction with no middle turn lane. This is not only dangerous, but also inefficient. Every time a car has to turn (left or right) all the traffic in that lane must stop. This puts pressure and stress on the turning driver and causes lots of congestion. The improved Zuni Rd. would have a middle "suicide lane" and a single auto lane and bike lane on each side. Since Zuni/Lead/Coal parallel Central, this is a great potential bike route. Also, this kind of improvement on 4 lane streets has been done successfully across the city of ABQ and in cities across the nation. Less car lanes means less traffic, more bikes, more pedestrians and most likely more bus riders.

4. The terminus of the route at the Montoya Campus should be a transit center instead of just a simple bus stop. This terminus has great potential to be a plaza/ transportation hub because of it's location next to a major multi-use path (the Bear Canyon path). Currently, the connection between CNM and the multi-use path is dangerous and is not bike/handicapped friendly. If the CNM campus could eliminate 33 parking spaces, they could create a nice decorated bus shelter and a plaza with trees, benches, tables and bike racks. If this kind of visual (bike and bus transportation) greeted every student at the front door everyday, there would definitely be a different mindset about alternative transportation on the campus. This plaza would be connected with a bike/ handicapped ramp to the multi-use trail, proving ease of access for walkers and bikers. This station would also be labeled as a Park and Ride facility on city bus maps, cementing the importance of this stop and creating another use for the pre-existing parking spaces on the CNM campus.

Also, in order for the Bear Canyon trail to get a use increase, Manitoba between Juan Tabo and Tramway should be designated a bike route. This would connect the Tramway Trail to the Bear Canyon Trail/ Montoya Campus. This connection would be advertised within the school.

5. The current CNM campus stop on Lead going west must be moved off of Lead and onto Coal Pl. (different from Coal eastbound, which is labeled as Coal Ave. SE). The advantage of moving this stop is that it would:
A. Bring students to the front door of the campus instead of a block away from campus.
B. Create an opportunity for visual interaction with the CNM campus through the bus stop (decorated bus stops, students driving seeing other students using the bus, etc.)

6. The route must be branded and advertised. Though this sounds unorthodox, this is an unorthodox bus route. The most important advertising must take place within the actual CNM campuses themselves. The walls of the campus would be covered with posters and fliers advertising this bus route. The posters/fliers would emphasize three important facts:
A. the city bus is FREE for all CNM students!
B. this is a NEW bus route
C. this new bus route connects students with 3 of the 4 main CNM campuses, along with the Alvarado Transportation Center, the zoo, the Hispanic Cultural Center, etc.

Another good place to advertise the new route would be a temporary sign screwed to the bus stop signs ("The bus now stops here! Visit the88abq.gov or call ABQ-RIDE!").
Branding is also important. My idea for a route name would be The 88: CNM Connector. This is a work in progress, but the advantage of this number is it's symmetrical (88), easy to say, rhymes with lots of words and the words accurately describe one of the primary functions of this route. Putting a new number/ name on the route allows people to forget about the old routes that used to run on Isleta and Zuni and establish a new opinion about the route.

7. The bus along this route must run at least as frequently, if not more frequently than the current route 53 Isleta. This route runs every half hour and runs until at least 6:00. The new route should run later, such as until 9, at a minimum. The average CNM student has a very fluid schedule. Every half hour is often enough that it will attract new ridership.

8. The route must run along Lead and Coal all the way through Downtown to 8th St. This would add more consistency to the route.

ADVANTAGES
The advantages of this new route would be:
1. Automatically High Route Ridership: All these students have free transit passes; enough said
2. Less Traffic in the Entire City: Who wouldn't want this?
3. More Transportation Options For Residents Along the Route: Options benefit everyone.
4. CNM Spending More Money on Classrooms Instead of Parking Lots: More efficient use of taxpayer dollars and tuition money
5. A Student Body That Can Save Money on Transportation and Use The Money for Other Things: This money could be invested in higher education and job training.
6. Less People Driving on the Crowded Roads, More People Using Underutilized Trails, Sidewalks and Buses: Creates more balanced traffic flows.

DISADVANTAGES
1. Costs Money: Though the upfront costs may be high, this kind of route would have many long-term benefits discussed above.
2. Direct Valley/ Far Northeast Heights Connection: Some NE Heights residents may not want people from the Isleta and Zuni corridor in their neighborhoods.
3. Does Not Connect All CNM Campuses: Does not serve the Westside Campus, the CNM Technology Annex, or the CNM Workforce Training Center. The Westside Campus is very far from everything, very automobile oriented, and mostly serves students who live on the Westside. The other two facilities are small and are already served directly by other bus routes that would connect to the future 88 route.

Let's Review:

The 88: CNM Connector

Serving Isleta, Zuni/Lead/Coal, and Morris

Bike lanes along Zuni

Transit center/ Park and Ride at the Montoya CNM campus

Bus stop moved closer to CNM Main on Lead section of route

Connects 3 CNM campuses, Downtown/Alvarado, the Zoo, the South Valley, the Hispanic Cultural Center and mucho, mucho mas!