Grist | Topics | 109 Results

RESULTS		Results 51 – 75 of 109
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
A desire named streetcar Transportation planning with people in mind	Eric de Place	12 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Say what you will about streetcars, they have an unmatched appeal. I mean, there must be a reason why it's hard to imagine a smoldering love affair between Marlon Brando and Vivian Leigh with a bus theme. Or, as the inimitable Dan Savage says: Why is this so hard to understand? ... People like trains. People hate buses. To wit, the Seattle P-I recently interviewed folks about the new Seattle streetcar and elicited what I imagine are fairly ...
Topics: placemaking, public transportation, Seattle (all these topics)

Mass transit in D.C. is a triumph Metro is succeeding, but like all public transit systems, it needs our support	Ryan Avent	19 Nov 2007	Gristmill
It was a bad headline and a bad take on an important issue from a writer at a publication that ought to know better. Last week, M.J. Rosenberg, writing at TPM Cafe, penned a quick post entitled 'Question for Paul Krugman: Why Does the DC Metro Suck?' In the space of a few short words, Rosenberg revealed that arguments in favor of increased public transit shouldn't just be directed at environmentally negligent conservatives. There is a lot of work to be done winning over w ...
Topics: placemaking, public transportation, Washington DC (all these topics)

Hear some trains a-comin' Public transit will be necessary for CO2 reductions	Jon Rynn	12 Nov 2007	Gristmill
At the end of October, both New Jersey Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg and, believe it or not, Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott, passed their cosponsored bill in the Senate to allocate $1.9 billion per year for six years to expand passenger rail in the U.S. According to Parade magazine (yes, the one that's inserted into Sunday newspapers), the main goal is 'to develop high-speed, short-haul rail corridors modeled on the European city-to-city routes. They could ...
Topics: climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, placemaking, politics, public transportation (all these topics)

Transportation and climate get hitched Seattle-area voters tied the knot	Eric de Place	07 Nov 2007	Gristmill
In the Seattle metro region, voters just sank an $18 billion transportation megaproposal that would have built more than 180 lanes miles of highway and 50 miles of light rail. But so far, the mainstream press has missed one of the most important stories of the year. The real story isn't tax fatigue, it's this: perhaps for the first time ever in the U.S., a critical bloc of voters linked transportation choices to climate protection. In the run-up to the vote, a surpr ...
Topics: cars, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, local politics, placemaking, politics, public transportation, Seattle (all these topics)

Maui-Go-Round Hawaii legislature allows Superferry to resume voyages		31 Oct 2007	News
Posted at 3:01 PM on 31 Oct 2007 The Hawaii legislature has approved a bill allowing resumption of voyages by the Hawaii Superferry, halted by court order in August because a state-required environmental-impact assessment had not been completed. The new legislation, backed which is backed by Gov. Linda Lingle (R), will allow the ferry to make its Oahu-to-Maui and Oahu-to-Kauai treks while the assessment is being made. The ferr ...
Topics: Hawaii, legislation, news, placemaking, politics, public transportation, state politics (all these topics)

A hopeful letter from 2034 An electrified transit advocate tries soothsaying	JMG	28 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Maybe too optimistic, but very little untried technology in here, so it's at least a possible future.
Topics: placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Congestion Is the cure worse than the disease?	Clark Williams-Derry	15 Oct 2007	Gristmill
The ever-geekalicious Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute had a great take on traffic congestion a few weeks back on Planetizen. As Litman explains, most congestion studies (such as this annual study, which always gets a lot of press) consistently overestimate the costs of congestion. But even using these relatively high estimates, the costs of congestion are pretty modest, compared with the comprehensive costs of owning and operating ...
Topics: cars, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Velib' liberates Paris A Parisian tries out the city's new rent-a-bike program	Jon Rynn	05 Oct 2007	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay from my sister, Margie Rynn, who has lived in Paris for seven years. ----- It took me awhile to be willing to try Velib', the new rent-a-bike program now available all over the streets of Paris.I love the idea: anyone can pick up a bike at any metro station or anywhere there's a 'borne' (stand) of bikes, ride around for half an hour, and then leave it at any Velib' stand. That first half hour is free, and not only that, the bikes themsel ...
Topics: public transportation, bikes, France, placemaking (all these topics)

China to hold no-car day Residents in over 100 Chinese cities urged to walk, bike, or use public transit this Saturday	Adam Browning	17 Sep 2007	Gristmill
China, once famed as a bicycling nation, tries to put the genie back in the bottle.
Topics: bikes, cars, China, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Schwarzengreener, or Transit Terminator? How green is California?	Jon Rynn	05 Sep 2007	Gristmill
The State of California just passed a budget that, thanks to Governor Schwarzenegger and the Republicans in the Assembly, removes $1.3 billion from the public transit budget. Yes, this is the same state and governor that passed a cap-and-trade bill that seeks to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020. But so far, the only thing being cut is the one way to get cars off of the roads. But let me tell you about this car-pool lane ... Photo: house.gov You kno ...
Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, cars, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

A win for buses in L.A. Los Angeles City Council OKs a peak-hour bus-only lane	Eric Mann	31 Aug 2007	Gristmill
An update from me and my colleague Francisca Porchas of the Labor/Community Strategy Center: For the first time in L.A., the car capital of the world, a bus-centered public-transportation system has been given priority over the auto -- a big victory for environmental justice and the reduction of auto-based air toxins and greenhouse gases. On Aug. 15, the Strategy Center and Bus Riders Union secured an important environmental and public-health victory at the Los Angel ...
Topics: environmental justice, placemaking, politics, public transportation (all these topics)

Welp, Back to Swimming		29 Aug 2007	News
Posted at 12:07 PM on 29 Aug 2007 Two days after it began, service on the muchly protested Hawaii Superferry has been suspended indefinitely, for environmental-impact and protester-safety reasons. sources:� Associated Press, WTAE TV, Kauai World From the Archives News You Already Knew. Attack of the Helpful Tomatoes. Radiation breeding of plants is way better than it sounds. Feel the Glass Between Your Toes. News Archives
Topics: Hawaii, news, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Ferry Ferry, Quite Contrary Hawaii's first-ever inter-island ferry service comes under protest		28 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
Ferry Ferry, Quite Contrary Hawaii's first-ever inter-island ferry service comes under protest Hawaii's first-ever inter-island passenger ferry service set off this weekend amidst protests that it could harm marine life, spread invasive species, and worsen pollution. The docking of the ferry's second voyage was delayed by a dozen steamed surfers, while hundreds more protesters stood on the island seawall s ...
Topics: Hawaii, news, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Roads vs. transit Seattle enviros face a Hobson's choice in November	Erica Barnett	23 Aug 2007	Gristmill
This November, those of us who live in and around Seattle will vote on a $17.7 billion transportation package that would expand light rail (by 50 miles) but also include billions for road expansion -- including roads that will primarily serve sprawling developments to Seattle's south and east, making the package a Hobson's choice for environmentalists. (The state legislature tied the roads and transit votes together last year, on the theory that road supporters will on ...
Topics: cars, placemaking, politics, public transportation, Seattle (all these topics)

China and the long-distance runner Will bikes or cars win?	Jon Rynn	22 Aug 2007	Gristmill
China has an environmental problem. No, I'm not talking about weathering huge dust storms, opening one coal power plant a week, surpassing the U.S. as the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, or flooding ecosystems with huge dam projects. I'm talking about something serious: If pollution does not get better in Beijing in time for the 2008 Olympics, the long-distance track events may be canceled. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, 'China's new middle cl ...
Topics: bikes, cars, China, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

How bad is peak oil, really? Would the biosphere care?	Jon Rynn	20 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Recently we've had a couple of discussions here at Gristmill concerning various aspects of peak oil; that is, the assertion that very soon (if it hasn't happened already) the global supply of oil will peak, and even though demand is going up, supply will start to come down, so prices will skyrocket. It seems to me that some of the contention in these discussions boils down to the question: would it really be so bad if the oil started running out? After all, we would ...
Topics: biofuels, climate, coal, energy, oil, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

The traffic is jammin' Fear of traffic snarls led to easier commutes in Seattle	Clark Williams-Derry	17 Aug 2007	Gristmill
We tend to think of traffic as an immutable -- that there's literally nothing we can do in our day-to-day lives to drive less. But Seattle's continued and mostly unexpected free-flowing traffic -- in the midst of a major construction project that some feared would trigger a morass of congestion throughout Puget Sound -- shows that this is simply false. Far from being rigid and incompressible, traffic and travel patterns are surprisingly fluid. Seattle's ex ...
Topics: placemaking, public transportation, Seattle (all these topics)

So That's What Those Trains Are For Beijing enacts four-day ban on vehicles, pushes public transportation		17 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
So That's What Those Trains Are For Beijing enacts four-day ban on vehicles, pushes public transportation Today marks the start of an experimental four-day vehicle ban in Beijing, China. While the motivation for the scheme is finding ways to clear the air for next year's Olympics, its execution is a lovely reminder that change is possible. Home to 16 million people, Beijing has about 3 million registered ve ...
Topics: China, news, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

NYC subways: One kilowatt-hour per trip Subways are the best	Jon Rynn	10 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Recently I tracked down an article on the annual electricity use of the New York City subway system: 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh). To put that in perspective, the entire U.S. economy uses about 4,000 billion kwh annually. According to the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, there were 1.499 billion trips made on the subway in 2006. So it takes a little over 1 kwh to move one person on trips, of varying length, in New York City. That's 4.1 million riders p ...
Topics: New York, New York City, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

SpotBus The next generation of riding transit	Eric de Place	07 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Riding transit just got way, way, easier. A new website called SpotBus is wildly better than existing online trip planners. For one thing, you can enter destinations like a normal person -- 'Ballard,' or 'Ikea,' or 'ferry,' or whatever -- not some arcane intersection. It's so much faster and more intuitive that it feels like giving up your old gimcrack five-disc CD changer for an iPod. It only works in the Puget Sound area, but there's no reason something similar co ...
Topics: green living, placemaking, public transportation, websites (all these topics)

Coach buses provide long-distance, low-emission convenience Greyhound gets some competition from Megabus.com	Gar Lipow	02 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Buses, on average, get low passenger miles per gallon in the U.S., because they stop often and don't use most of their capacity. Coach buses -- providing prebooked travel between cities -- don't suffer from these limitations. Megabus.com, a new niche player in this market, provides cheap, comfortable travel between nearby cities with travel time comparable to driving or taking commuter airlines (in a very small portion of the U.S.). Efficiency is 184 passenger miles ...
Topics: fuel efficiency, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Congestion pricing saves more than it costs Bloomberg�s law: Environment equals economic growth	Grist	28 Jul 2007	Gristmill
This guest essay comes from Steven Cohen and Jacob Victor. Steven Cohen is executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and director of its Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs. Jacob Victor is an intern at Columbia's Earth Institute. After overcoming numerous obstacles in Albany, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial congestion-pricing plan finally appear ...
Topics: cars, green living, New York, New York City, placemaking, politics, public transportation, urban planning (all these topics)

Jam Plan Is Toast NYC mayor's traffic-reducing proposal shot down, for now		18 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Jam Plan Is Toast NYC mayor's traffic-reducing proposal shot down, for now New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion-fee proposal, reportedly down to the wire on Monday, is now just down, period. The plan would have charged a fee for Manhattan-bound vehicles during peak hours, but the state Senate adjourned without voting on the measure after Democrats made it clear that th ...
Topics: New York City, news, placemaking, public transportation, urban planning (all these topics)

No Rush Hour New York hems and haws over Manhattan congestion fees		16 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
No Rush Hour New York hems and haws over Manhattan congestion fees Today is a make-or-break, do-or-die, fish-or-cut-bait, poo-or-get-off-the-pot, we-wish-we-could-think-of-more-hyphenated-clich�s day for New York, as state legislators, Governor Eliot Spitzer, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrestle over Bloomberg' ...
Topics: climate, health, innovation, New York City, news, placemaking, politics, public transportation, state politics, urban planning (all these topics)

Fighting transit racism: Building the environmental movement on the buses of L.A. A perspective from Eric Mann	Eric Mann	12 Jul 2007	Gristmill
A Latina woman addresses the board of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). She is part of a crowd of 1,500 people opposing the agency's proposed bus-fare increases. She holds her 3-year-old child up to the board and says, 'What would you like me to do? Take the clothes off his back or the food out of his mouth?' L.A., with 10 million people and 7 million cars on the road, is the freeway capital of the U.S. For more than 14 years, the MTA on o ...
Topics: environmental justice, Los Angeles, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

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