Monthly Archives: June 2012

The Urban Geography of Park-and-Rides

Posted on 2012/06/29 by

The urban geography of transit cities and of car cities is relatively well-understood. In a transit city, there will be a strong CBD surrounded by residences with spiky secondary centers, all quite small geographically but dense, centered around train stations … Continue reading →

Posted in Cars, New York, Regional Rail, Transportation, Urbanism | 7 Comments

Core Connectors and In-Between Neighborhoods

Posted on 2012/06/27 by

In some American cities, new or proposed transit lines are either core connectors, i.e. city-center circulator streetcars built for development purposes, or far-flung commuter rail extensions with few urban stops. Both are present in Providence, with the South County extension … Continue reading →

Posted in Incompetence, Politics and Society, Providence, Transportation, Urban Transit, Urbanism | 35 Comments

Pedestrian Observations from New Haven

Posted on 2012/06/26 by

I don’t normally pedestrian-observe cities that I’ve been to so many times, and New Haven is the US city I’ve spent the most time in other than the two I’ve lived in. But my last visit, in which I looked … Continue reading →

Posted in Development, Pedestrian Observations, Urban Design, Urbanism | 25 Comments

Commuter Rail Ridership Distribution

Posted on 2012/06/22 by

As a followup to my claim that the Northeast Corridor in New Jersey had a more outer-suburban ridership than the Morris and Essex lines, I decided to tabulate the ridership distribution of various commuter lines. This tells you what percent … Continue reading →

Posted in New York, Regional Rail, Transportation | 5 Comments

Providence: Busy Versus Frequent Buses

Posted on 2012/06/20 by

While trying to come up with a good proposal for upgraded buses or streetcars in Providence, I tried to base route decisions on RIPTA’s most frequent buses. But as it turns out, there’s a substantial difference between the most frequent … Continue reading →

Posted in Incompetence, Providence, Transportation, Urban Transit | 12 Comments

Regional Rail for New York: What Can Be Done Now

Posted on 2012/06/18 by

MTA Chairman Joe Lhota recently proposed to through-route commuter rail lines in the New York area, as was proposed in the past by the RPA, the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility, and more recently myself. Lhota proposed other, less flashy … Continue reading →

Posted in Good Transit, New York, Regional Rail, Transportation | 59 Comments

Followup on the Providence Regional Rail Shuttle

Posted on 2012/06/13 by

Peter Brassard’s proposal for a very frequent-stop mainline train in Rhode Island received comments both here and on Greater City, dealing with issues from rolling stock to station choice to scheduling. Some are fairly trivial, some aren’t. The upshot is … Continue reading →

Posted in Freight, Providence, Regional Rail, Transportation | 9 Comments

Netroots Nation and How the 99% Talk Hurts Consensus

Posted on 2012/06/10 by

For the first time since 2006, I went to Netroots Nation, as it’s held in Providence. There was one panel about public transportation, entitled “Saving Public Transportation,” whose speakers included Larry Hanley, who dominated the discussion; a moderator; and three … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Labor, Politics and Society, Transportation, Urban Transit | 20 Comments

Commuter Rail, Urban Infill Stations, and Shuttle Train Rapid Transit

Posted on 2012/06/06 by

This is a proposal by Peter Brassard, who comments here and on Greater City: Providence. It was published on Greater City first, and is mirrored here as the site is experiencing server problems. Rhode Island’s commuter rail service as currently … Continue reading →

Posted in Providence, Regional Rail, Transportation | 61 Comments

Quick Note: 77 Cents on the Dollar

Posted on 2012/06/05 by

The headline numbers for how much federal spending each state gets per federal tax dollar it sends to Washington come from the Tax Foundation and are almost a decade out of date. However, using IRS numbers for tax receipts per … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Society, Providence | 7 Comments