Jamie Buss's Blog

Transportation For America � New poll shows Americans strongly support public transportation; more walking & biking April 1, 2010

Transportation For America � New poll shows Americans strongly support public transportation; more walking & biking.

The understanding that we can’t build our way out of congestion through more lanes of highways is slow, but it is coming.

Progress toward the next federal transportation bill March 22, 2010

Federal Transportation policy (and funding) go in six year cycles, and it is time to renew. (Past time actually — but the last bill was extended for another year at the end of 2009.) From Wired magazine, here’s a particularly succinct and readable account of the issues involved, for people who aren’t transportation policy geeks. Fun Times Ahead as Transportation Bill Takes Shape

Biking in Mpls — Some interesting factoids and cultural tidbits March 14, 2010

Biking in Minneapolis, historically and culturally

Artfully presented tidbits on how biking works in Minneapolis. Most interesting piece for me — a count of various kinds of bike “sightings”. I can’t tell where or when these sightings take place, but the graphic claims that somebody spotted these numbers of bike types. (The ratio is what’s interesting to me.)

Unicycles — 5

Recumbents — 537 — that’s one in 20!

Mountain bikes (and hybrids?) — 3158

OOOOOOOld bikes — 2. Unbelievable.

Cargo bikes — 85 — that’s almost one in a hundred!

Racers — 6825

Then when you’re done with that graphic, click on the title area to go to this very interesting site — www.good.is.

Atlanta transit is hosed — Yikes! March 14, 2010

Transit in Atlanta: Wholesale restructuring

“The popular refrain among some Atlantans is that MARTA is a bloated bureaucracy that wastes money. The truth is far different. MARTA enjoys the lowest cost per-mile of passenger rail service for any heavy rail system in the United States, and survives on a penny sales tax from two counties, with no dedicated funding stream from the State of Georgia. They are the largest transit agency with no such dedicated funding source in the country.”

New Transit-Funding Rules Make Streetcars More Desirable January 22, 2010

To those who don’t know why we spend time clarifying goals, here’s a case-in-point. If your goal is strictly moving people far and fast (so they can live in suburbs), then Bush rules follow naturally. If your goals includes reducing driving, containing sprawl, providing jobs, connecting people with jobs and housing and each other, then different projects look better. This is another decision that builds on the administration’s direction for coordination between housing, transportation, and jobs efforts. AND this new policy improves the profile of the Central Corridor between St Paul and Minneapolis.

“The Obama administration said it was revamping rules on federal transit funding to funnel more of the money to streetcars, bus routes and other projects that promote “livability.”

“The new policy announced Wednesday, part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to use transportation and housing programs to reduce driving, contain sprawl and create transit-related jobs, could lift the fortunes of makers of light-rail and other transit equipment sold to states and cities. “

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704675104575001560050211080.html

How walkable is your neighborhood? January 13, 2010

Well, more like “How close are various amenities and shops to your home?” The website walkscore.com scores addresses based on proximity to neighborhood amenities, a simplistic version of “walkability”. Of course, other factors are key to actual walkability — access to transit, design of public spaces, connectedness of streets, condition of sidewalks, and many others. These are not currently factored into the website scores. But it is a start. More and more people, companies, ideas are launching and developing concerning walkability, alternative transportation, and place-making. This is very good!

www.walkscore.com

Inspiring work in sustainable transportation December 29, 2009

I am deeply inspired by the latest issue of “Sustainable Transport”, from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (www.itdp.org). Great stories of successful bike sharing programs, governments lining up land use policies with sustainable transportation planning, wildly successful place-making efforts in places spanning the globe (including NYC).

Was Copenhagen a success? December 28, 2009

Washington Post published an interesting collection of views on the meaning of the climate conference, from Elliot Diringer, Kenneth Green, Fred Krupp, Christine Todd Whitman, Robert Shrum, John Kerry, Jim Inhofe and Douglas E. Schoen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/19/AR2009121901428.html

Are biofuels good for the planet, on net? December 10, 2009

United Nations Environmental Programme released this extensive, well-researched report in November.

Toward Sustainable production and use of resources:  Assessing Biofuels

http://www.unep.fr/scp/rpanel/pdf/Assessing_Biofuels_Full_Report.pdf

“What are the likely contributions to climate change from different crops and what are the impacts on agriculture
and croplands up to freshwaters and biodiversity from the various options available?

“The report also underlines the role of biofuels within the wider climate change agenda including options to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by means other than biofuels – fuel
efficiency standards for vehicles and the development of hybrids and electric cars are a case in point.

“Meanwhile the assessment outlines options for energy generation from biomass at dedicated power plants
and combined heat and power stations as an alternative approach to converting crops or crop wastes into
liquid fuels.”

Transportation strategies that reduce GHG, save money November 27, 2009

Urban Land Institute brought together LOTS of relevant stakeholders in transportation — industry, environmental groups, government agencies — to study policy and practice options for doing both of these simultaneously: reducing greenhouse gases, and saving consumers money. The result is an interesting report.

Summary (press release):  http://movingcooler.info/Library/Documents/Moving%20Cooler%20Final%20Press%20Release.pdf

Full report:  http://movingcooler.info/

Summary analysis from Fresh Energy’s Lynne Bly:  http://fresh-energy.org/index.php/blog/Moving-Cooler-report-transportation-st.html?blogger=lynne

Thanks, Lynne.