The Last Post

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.

What Do We Want?

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.

Road Diets + Streetfilms and the Streetsblog Network

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.