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America needs passenger rail
Jonathan Specht, Tiger Weekly (Louisiana State University)
President Obama recently unveiled his plan for bringing high speed passenger rail service to the U.S. The proposal includes a Gulf Coast corridor connecting Houston and Mobile, by way of Baton Rouge, and service from New Orleans to Washington, DC. This plan is great news for America, but is only the first step towards necessary changes in how we get from place to place.
My grandpa likes to tell a story about rail travel a century ago. When his father, a farmer in rural Iowa, had a recurring minor health problem, he would visit a doctor in Chicago. Why go so far for a small problem? Because he could hop on a train to Chicago from his small town in Iowa and be there and back within a few hours.
The moral of the story, as my grandpa says, is that traveling by train then was easier than traveling by car now.
It’s easy to forget that we used to have comprehensive passenger rail service in America, both between and within cities.
(22 April 2009)
Optimizing Transportation Infrastructure in a Changing World
Stuart Ramsey, P.Eng. and J. David Hughes, Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
In ancient times, the job of predicting the future fell to the Oracle at Delphi. Today, this type of work is done by economists, modelers and many others. Questions about the future infrastructure needs of our cities are explored by transportation planners through means that seem as mysterious as those of the ancient Oracle.
For all of its mystery, modern-day traffic forecasting is usually based on the assumption that the future will look like the present. For example, it is commonly assumed that:
- the same people will drive the same vehicles;
- faced with a given level of congestion, they will make the same choices;
- the (inflation-adjusted) cost of everything will be the same as it is today;
- cities will continue to grow; and
- people will have the same values that they have today.
There is strong evidence that the future will not be a linear extrapolation from the recent past. Two relevant transportation-related reasons are oil supplies and greenhouse gases. As a result of these looming issues, utilizing a “business as usual” model in a changing world puts the optimization of future transportation infrastructure at risk…
Whether due to peak oil or the implementation of effective policies to address global warming (such as a carbon tax or emission cap-and-trade system), the result for the transportation profession is the same: a dramatic change in transportation as it is currently practiced. Potential responses include:
- Reduce activities that consume oil. The quickest and least expensive way to reduce oil usage is by modifying transportation consumption patterns. Given the high percentage of oil that goes to transportation (67 percent in the United States), any change to oil consumption patterns must clearly include dramatic changes to how people and goods are transported.15 Increased transit, cycling, walking and relocalization are obvious possibilities. Rail is more than three times as energy efficient as trucks, and ships are twice as efficient as rail.
- Switch to other energy sources. Several options exist, including electric vehicles such as plug-in and other hybrid vehicles that are viable today. The so-called “hydrogen economy” is much further away (except for niche applications) due to issues with the storage, distribution and manufacture of hydrogen, as well as technological and cost issues associated with fuel cells.
- Improve efficiency. All vehicles can be made more efficient by creating more efficient engines and smaller vehicles, as well as using lighter materials. It has been noted that 25 percent of total global oil consumption today serves only “…to satisfy a certain vanity attached to the car as a status symbol.”
Stuart Ramsey researched energy issues to write the first peak oil report to be received by any government in Canada (http://postcarboncities.net/burnaby-bc-global-peak-oil-production-munici…). His presentations and writings are available at www.TransportPlanet.ca. He is a Fellow of ITE.
David Hughes is one of Canada’s most authoritative petroleum geologists. He has over 35 years experience studying the energy resources of Canada, having worked both at the Geological Survey of Canada and in the private sector. He is a Fellow of Post Carbon Institute.
(February 2009)
The article at the ITE site is behind a paywall.
The article is available as PDF on the author’s website: HERE
Recommended by Daniel Lerch of Post Carbon Institute.
Making Streets Safer For Seniors (video)
Elizabeth Press, StreetFilms
Transportation Alternatives’ Safe Routes for Seniors campaign started in 2003 to encourage senior citizens to walk more by improving their pedestrian environment. Funded by the New York State Department of Health’s Healthy Heart program, this was the first program of its kind to address the needs of elderly pedestrians.
In 2008, the City of New York launched its own Safe Streets for Seniors initiative based on TAs Safe Routes for Seniors. Focusing on 25 areas with high senior pedestrian fatalities, this program is paving new ground. Yet, some including seniors not in these zones are asking, is it enough? Stats released by Transportation Alternatives show that:
- People aged 65 years and older make up 12% of the population, yet they comprised 39% of New York City’s pedestrian fatalities between 2002 and 2006.
- The fatality rate of senior pedestrians is 40 times greater than that of child pedestrians in Manhattan.
This video is an overview of what Transportation Alternatives, New York State Department of Health, NYC DOT, community groups, and elected officials are doing to promote safe streets for seniors.
(22 April 2009)
Also at WorldChanging.
