Comments on: Midwest Miscellany

By: John Morris

John Morris — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:04:42 +0000

I don’t know, I thought the Detroit transit film was sad and deceptive. First it implies that the 9 billion in Obama funding will cover the cost of the rail system. It doesn’t come close.

Then, one really doesn’t see much in the way of transit oriented development. The guy lives in what looks like pretty typical surburban type development. Car sharing is supposed to solve most of the usual parking issues. There’s little traffic.

What it does show is the unrealistic fantasy world most people are living in. Real and much more financialy sustainable transit systems are certain to need some pretty big changes in the basic design of cities.

Perhaps, I’m being a little harsh. I have to look again. There’s a lot of drawn in stuff that implies denser development but it’s very much skimed over– as if seeing normal streets would upset people.

I suppose this kind of thing would be realistic with –perhaps 4-5 trillion in government funding for the midwest alone! (Or at least one or two) Perhaps car sharing is a panacea of some kind but since the average family takes something like 7 car trips a day, I’m not too sure about it.

By: Graeme Sharpe

Graeme Sharpe — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:40:06 +0000

@Wad – Thanks for the heads up, I’ll go check it out!

By: Wad

Wad — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:37:36 +0000

Graeme, the post Framework: Transit Ridership turned into discussion of the IndyConnect plan at the end of the comments. It's quite a hot thread on the Transport Politic site as well.

By: Graeme Sharpe

Graeme Sharpe — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:28:33 +0000

Regarding the new Indianapolis transportation plan, what do you think of the new plan? You commented on the marketing strategy but not on the effectiveness of the proposed system. I would definitely be interesting in seeing your opinion of it, as you have previously suggested many ways for improving transit service in other cities.

By: west town ed

west town ed — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:55:57 +0000

Re: CTA cutbacks:

You should have include a link to the ctatattler web site (http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/cta-tattler/) to get first hand reports.

My reading is that while the cutbacks have affected some travel, the effect has not been that great. In Chicago at normal hours, the rapid transit has never been the problem because single 6-8 car trains are operated by a single driver/conductor. Buses are a another issue.

I live near Milwaukee and Chicago Avenues. At rush hour, I’m lucky if I can get on an eastbound 66 bus within 15-20 minutes although 2 or 3 of them have arrived — there is no room. If I’m heading to the Loop on the 56 at the same time, there are only a handful of people aboard.

If the CTA could solve this problem, it may not have a budget deficit.

By: The Urbanophile

The Urbanophile — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:47:36 +0000

Sorry for the error – I got my Midwest papers confused there. Fixed.

The Jim Russell quote is from here:

http://burghdiaspora.blogspot.com/2010/01/las-vegas-migration-hangover.html

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:27:39 +0000

It’s the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, not Post-Gazette. That’s Pittsburgh.
Where’d that Jim Russell quote come from?

By: smh

smh — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:07:18 +0000

I would suggest that a lot of the “malaise” in Kansas City is due to its terribly inefficient and tone deaf government. Not to understate the problem, but beyond that people in the core seem pretty happy with their community, though crime and education are always close to the front of citizen’s minds.