@capntransit@urbanists.social
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capntransit

@capntransit@urbanists.social

Climate advocate, queer, ranting against bullshit for over a decade.

Here are some reasons to get people to shift from cars to transit:

Reducing pollution
Increasing efficiency
Reducing carnage
Improving society
Access for all

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capntransit, to random
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People have presented congestion pricing as though its only benefits were funding the MTA or reducing congestion, but Sadik-Khan has at least one more:

"To reap a huge street dividend. Congestion pricing is projected to reduce traffic by 20 percent. That means one in five cars will disappear. So there’s an opening for the city to innovate and create separate lanes for e-bikes, scooters, and mopeds that don’t belong in regular bike lanes or mixed in with traffic."

https://www.curbed.com/2023/09/janette-sadik-khan-nyc-congestion-pricing-rollout.html

capntransit,
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So it looks like people are seizing on this specific quote from Sadik-Khan: "If congestion pricing does in fact remove 20 percent of the traffic and you just wind up with underused car lanes, it’s an invitation for motorists to fill them up again. It will harm the program’s credibility irreparably."

Would it? I just don't see it.

I've written myself that we should take advantage of reduced congestion, but I'm baffled by the hand-wringing coming out of this article.

https://capntransit.blogspot.com/2012/10/there-are-worse-things-than-congestion.html

capntransit,
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@enobacon I've said from fairly early on that we should have framed the tolls as people paying for the cost of driving into the city, wearing down our streets and bridges, polluting our air and water, filling the city with noise.

We've had "free" bridges for over a century, plus "free" highways and streets. We shouldn't pay for that with income and sales tax money.

For some reason the people in charge of the toll campaigns never wanted to frame it that way.

capntransit,
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@enobacon Yeah, my charitable interpretation of Sadik-Khan's remark is that she thinks if the program's credibility is harmed "irreparably" (really?) there will never be political support for the market-clearing price.

If that's what she believes, it's just a weird way of thinking about politics.

capntransit,
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@enobacon Transit fares - you mean trains and buses? I hope nobody thinks of them as a mechanism to limit usage!

capntransit, to random
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RT @tiffany_caban: Saying that migrants from all over the world arriving here “will destroy New York City” is repugnant MAGA garbage.

10K a month? In 1907, that many came in a day — and it MADE this city.

Let’s drop this demagoguery and invest in welcoming asylum seekers and getting them work.

capntransit, to random
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Featuring a @streetsblogmass article from 2019, sadly still very relevant today

RT @emfriedenberg: Cars are making NYC's heat waves hotter, cooling drivers at the expense of their neighbors.

A study in Beijing found that cars make the city's summer air 1.8 degrees F hotter.

https://mass.streetsblog.org/2019/08/20/exhaust-pipes-are-making-bostons-heat-waves-much-much-worse

capntransit, to random
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RT @davidzipper: Tire pollution is a hidden menace. Fishing groups are suing the tire industry for destroying salmon populations:

“Coho salmon...are already on the brink of extinction and 6PPD use in tires has now been revealed as a major driver.”

https://thefishingwire.com/us-fishing-groups-to-sue-over-chemicals-in-tires/

capntransit, to random
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RT @mateosfo: I place large share of blame on engineers b/c neither political appointees nor electeds have sworn a code of ethics in engineering. They could write memos "this political intervention in our safe design will kill people." They don't.

…given body count, traffic engineering could be among the most unethical fields in human history. Not even the people who design and engineer weapons of war have killed and maimed as many humans as the people who engineer cars and car infrastructure.

capntransit, to random
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RT @mnolangray : In the time it's going to take LA Metro to do "community engagement" for a single rail subway line, China built a nationwide high-speed rail network.

RT @numble LA Metro staff has released a report to its board, detailing the community engagement on Sepulveda line in early 2023. It says there was more support for heavy rail. It plans to have another round in Fall 2023 and then 3-4 more rounds in the future.
https://boardarchives.metro.net/BoardBox/2023/230825_Sepulveda%20_Transit_Corridor_Project_Update_on_Community_Outreach.pdf

capntransit, to random
@capntransit@urbanists.social avatar

Bike advocate: Here's my proposal for a new bike lane…
Other bike advocates: Woohoo! I'll show up to your rally with all my friends! I created a petition! Build all the bike lanes!

Transit advocate: Here's my proposal for a new train line…
Other transit advocates: That'll never work! The politicians don't want it. The transit agency isn't interested. The neighbors will NIMBY it. Nobody's going to fund construction. If somehow your proposal were to get built, nobody would ride it. You suck!

capntransit,
@capntransit@urbanists.social avatar

Car advocate:
Governments: Woohoo we're building this new road, and widening that road, and building a parking garage, and making this developer build a parking lot, and installing electric vehicle chargers, and bailing out car makers, and giving you tax breaks for buying this car, and fighting this war for cheap oil, and allowing this unsafe drilling project, and prosecuting this pedestrian who got in your way, and requiring an environmental impact study for that train line, and…

capntransit,
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Transit advocate: Here's my proposal for a new train line…
Bike advocates: Ooh that would be so perfect for a rail-trail! I'm bringing all my friends to a rally for the trail. Nobody wants to ride your silly train. Trains are for rich white people, anyway. Real transit riders are poor, and you should fight for "BRT" which is just as good as a train if you ignore the fact that it lurches and that every level of decision-making will take away a feature until it's just a new paint job.

capntransit,
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Transit advocate: Here's my proposal for a new train line…
Bike advocates: That'll never work! It should be a bike trail (closed at dusk).
Transit advocate: What makes you say it'll never work?
Bike advocates: Your fellow transit advocates in this message board! They said the politicians don't want it. The transit agency isn't interested. The neighbors will NIMBY it. Nobody's going to fund construction. If somehow your proposal were to get built, nobody would ride it. They also said you suck.

capntransit,
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@jcriecke I think you've got the best of the "not all bike advocates" takes I've read so far. I don't follow Denver very closely, so I'll take your word for it.

Here in the NYC area I've seen those exact same arguments from bike advocates on two separate rail-trail proposals. @BenRossTransit has documented the same bullshit for the Purple Line.

Of course not all bike advocates, not even here. But this is depressingly common, and self-proclaimed "transit advocates" are partly at fault.

capntransit,
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@Alon @jcriecke @BenRossTransit Two proposals, one for the Rockaway Beach Branch and another for the New York and Greenwood Lake and Bergen Arches rights-of-way

capntransit,
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@Alon @jcriecke @BenRossTransit Streetsblog and TA are officially neutral on the Rockaway Branch

capntransit,
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@Alon @jcriecke @BenRossTransit I haven't heard anything that wasn't dismissive, but maybe there's some compromise

capntransit, to random
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RT @kduggan16: At a breakfast talk, Adams says the city's rethinking its "antiquated" zoning regs like parking requirements

capntransit, to random
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"The three-term mayor also advocated for the state to invest more in the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. He would pay for it by diverting the $10 billion earmarked for the turnpike extension that he came out against early this year."

RT @hudsoncoview: Mayor @stevenfulop holds virtual forum on his statewide transportation plan

https://hudsoncountyview.com/jersey-city-mayor-fulop-holds-virtual-forum-on-his-statewide-transportation-plan/

benfulton, to random
@benfulton@urbanists.social avatar

Speed limits don't matter

"While crash frequency and severity did correlate with higher speeds, the most statistically reliable trends that emerged had nothing to do with property damage or personal injury. It was enforcement outcomes that were most demonstratively impacted. In other words, when speed limits go up, fewer people get tickets; when they go down, the opposite happens."

https://www.autoblog.com/2023/08/23/speed-limits-dont-matter/

capntransit,
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@benfulton "85th percentile speed is the average speed at which 85% of drivers travel on a given stretch of road (or one just like it, for the purposes of new construction)."

The article makes some good points, but that is actually incorrect.

capntransit,
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@benfulton "If the city simply adhered to the 85th percentile rule and raised the limit back to 35 mph, citations should return to normal (something AAA's study actually established to a statistically significant degree) without any detriment to driver, pedestrian or cyclist safety."

And more importantly, this is not supported by the case. It's not true that cyclists and pedestrians are just as safe when people are driving 35mph around them, even if they have bike lanes and sidewalks.

capntransit, to random
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RT @davidzipper: “We don’t ask everyone to filter their water at their home. We build it into the system.”

Good analogy by @DaveEderer showing why road safety should focus on safer streets/vehicles & reliable enforcement -- not placing all responsibility on drivers.

https://www.governing.com/transportation/how-a-public-health-approach-to-road-safety-could-save-lives

capntransit, to random
@capntransit@urbanists.social avatar

As I've written before, we need to stop calling it a "stick" when what we're doing is taking away a sugar lump that's not really healthy for the donkey! @carltonreid

RT @RationalTrnsprt: Transit is great but even the best only gets us so far. We also need to make clear all the ways driving isn't "free." (h/t @TheOverheadWire) Sticks Not Carrots Needed To Get Drivers Out Of Cars, Say Climate Scientists

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2023/08/17/sticks-not-carrots-needed-to-get-drivers-out-of-cars-say-climate-scientists/?sh=1f69a88929af

capntransit, to random
@capntransit@urbanists.social avatar

"Local officials in Allentown, Pa., for instance, are exploring a project to reimagine a series of one-way streets that were originally designed to get motorists to the downtown shopping district as quickly as possible — until that district shuttered its doors 25 years ago, leaving behind a dangerous maze of fast roads with little congestion to slow drivers down."

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/08/21/how-a-new-program-is-helping-small-cities-transform-their-transportation-systems

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