Fuel Cell Buses
Posted: May 29, 2012 Filed under: Environment, Technology, Transportation Leave a comment »PostAuto Schweiz AG has become the first company in Switzerland to deploy fuel-cell technology for public road transport. Since the end of 2011, five Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid models have been serving on routes in and around Brugg (in the canton of Aargau) as PostAuto vehicles. Over the next five years, PostAuto will test the fuel-cell drive, using clean hydrogen as fuel.
I’d like to see these sorts of buses rolling up and down M Street. At one point, we even had a hydrogen fueling station here in Washington. Not sure it’s still open, though.
Bus Shelter as Social Space
Posted: May 21, 2012 Filed under: Transportation Leave a comment »Human Transit writes on the “bus stop of the future,” as conceived in, where else, Paris:
Yes, it’s still a bus shelter, but the idea is to make it both more useful and more of a social space. People may come here for a range of things other than catching the bus, so that social interaction and the life of the street intermix with waiting to produce a more vibrant, interesting, and safe environment.
Something Else to Ponder
Posted: May 18, 2012 Filed under: Transportation Leave a comment »When JFK was president: 50 pct #walked to #school. Now: 13 pct #walk or #bike wny.cc/IJ8FwW—
TransportationNation (@TransportNation) May 12, 2012
Transit Paradox
Posted: May 6, 2012 Filed under: Transportation Leave a comment »Pittsburgh, of course, is far from alone. From Boston — where a 23% fare increase and service cuts were approved a month ago — to Athens, Georgia — where night bus service is expected to be fully eliminated — American cities continue to cut their transit offerings. Friday’s U.S. national jobs report, which showed about 20,000 fewer people working in transit operations in April compared to a year ago (a 5% decline), only reinforced the fact that when it comes to transit service, cuts are the rule of the game.
What a paradox: These cutbacks are enforced even as fuel prices continue to rise and the demand for public transportation seems likely only to increase. Local revenues simply cannot keep up with demand.
I Believe It
Posted: March 30, 2012 Filed under: Environment, Transportation Leave a comment »74% of people prefer living in a walkable neighbourhood cbc.ca/news/yourcommu… #walkability #TO #cities—
(@Walkonomics) March 30, 2012
“Most of the people who suffer road accidents are the poor”
Posted: March 26, 2012 Filed under: Transportation Leave a comment »While I’m car blogging, here’s an interesting video from The Guardian on global road safety.
Lucky Seattle
Posted: March 15, 2012 Filed under: Transportation Leave a comment »Via the Overhead Wire, an interesting look at Amazon’s headquarters:
Located right on the Seattle Streetcar line, the 1.7 million square feet of office space will comprise eleven separate buildings, including two historic buildings that are being adaptively reused. The company’s new headquarters is distributed along a highly connected street grid amidst some 3,000 residential units and a large variety of shops and services, including 100,000 square feet of new ground-level retail within Amazon’s own buildings.
10.4 Billion Trips
Posted: March 12, 2012 Filed under: Transportation Leave a comment »APTA reports 10.4 billion trips on US public transport in 2011, second highest ridership since 1957 (2008 being higher than 2011).—
Railway Gazette (@railwaygazette) March 12, 2012
Eisenhower and Urban Highways
Posted: March 6, 2012 Filed under: Transportation Leave a comment »While others had entertained the idea of freeway construction, and prototypes like the Pennsylvania Turnpike had already been built, it was Eisenhower who pushed the idea as a national system and priority and made it happen. The system now bears his name. But Eisenhower never intended that the Interstates be built through densely populated cities. A memorandum of a 1960 meeting in the Oval Office, available in the archives of Eisenhower’s presidency, makes this crystal-clear.
“Virtually very city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system.”
Posted: March 3, 2012 Filed under: Transportation, Washington Leave a comment »in 1921, GM lost $65 million, leading Sloan to conclude that the auto market was saturated, that those who desired cars already owned them, and that the only way to increase GM’s sales and restore its profitability was by eliminating its principal rival: electric railways.
At the time, 90 percent of all trips were by rail, chiefly electric rail; only one in 10 Americans owned an automobile. There were 1,200 separate electric street and interurban railways, a thriving and profitable industry with 44,000 miles of track, 300,000 employees, 15 billion annual passengers, and $1 billion in income. Virtually every city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system.
…By threatening to divert lucrative automobile freight to rival carriers, they persuaded the railroad (according to GM’s own files) to convert its electric street cars to motor buses — slow, cramped, foul-smelling vehicles whose inferior performance invariably led riders to purchase automobiles.
Here’s how the story is told at the National Museum of American History, in an exhibit sponsored by General Motors:
Buses began replacing trolleys in the 1910s. Many commuters considered buses a modern, comfortable, even luxurious replacement for rickety, uncomfortable trolleys. Buses made business sense for transit companies; they were more flexible and cheaper to run than streetcars. In a few cities, auto and auto-supply companies, including General Motors, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, and Standard Oil of California, bought an interest in transit companies and encouraged the conversion from streetcar to bus. But many cities made the choice to switch without this influence, and by 1937, 50 percent of the U.S. cities that had public transit were served by buses alone.
Most importantly, Americans chose another alternative—the automobile. The car became the commuter option of choice for those who could afford it, and more people could do so.
