Interesting transportation things

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by Swede

It's taken decades for us to get to this point too. It was realised that the whole thing needed to be replaced in the late 80s iirc, and the first competition to select the new design was in the very early 90s.
The current plan is now about 10 years old from the basic street-structure having a design competition.
So far appeals, obstructionism and political rounds of compromises have set back the whole plan by maybe 4 years (this time! the 90s plan died from not having political backing afaik).

There's still meetings where the people praising the old design have "debates" and try to understand how the politicians and civil servants want to destroy this "world-renowned landmark". They've gone full-on "conspiracy!" now with the usual splintering of believing in different conspiracies.


The plan isn't perfect, but it is amazing compared to the 1930s concrete autobahn cloverleaf currently there.

As an American, I get a calming reassurance when reminded that stupid people are in fact everywhere.

[Swede]

Originally Posted by Yurkek

In most cases public is behind and tries to preserve their surroundings as they are. That's why you need smart people in local governments to push the envelope. Once people see and feel how great it is to not depend 100% on cars, they wouldn't trade for anything else. Obviously feedback is needed, because it is easy for engineers and planners to be carried away. That's how we got in trouble in the first place.

At least I am glad that in US the new trend is trying to build more human scale environment.

I'd say "the public" is mostly uninsterested and are ok with depending on the professionals. In the Slussen case the anti-crowd re-started an old local party (Stockholmspartiet) based only on this issue. It got like .2% of the vote for city council. And in one survey it turned out that Slussen was a decisive issue for iirc .5% of voters when choosing who to vote for.
That much of the paper media made it sound like it was a majority hating on the changes, it was never actually something that most people cared that much about and in the only well-made survey it turned out most people were in favour of the changes.

It isn't usually "the people" who are against change. It is in my experience a small group claiming to represent the vast majority, a small group that tends to be older and longing for being on the barricades.

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

As an American, I get a calming reassurance when reminded that stupid people are in fact everywhere.

The stupid, it's everywhere

[Yurkek]

Originally Posted by Swede

It isn't usually "the people" who are against change. It is in my experience a small group claiming to represent the vast majority, a small group that tends to be older and longing for being on the barricades.

I see, it's the "loudest voice in the room" problem.

[Swede]

Yeah. In this case part of the group was/is the editors of the culture pages of the newspapers. And since the papers for some reason put urban planning under architecture which is under art that's under the culture editors. Plus it always makes for an easy write to make articles where you interview someone who's against a change and don't care to investigate if the claims are true.

[M II A II R II K]

Japan Is Getting High-Speed “Invisible” Trains

Read More: https://www.good.is/articles/japan-invisible-trains

Using a semi-reflective material, designed to mirror back the landscape it traverses, the Seibu Railway Company will debut an impressive new high-speed train in 2018.

- The company contracted Pritzker-winning (often called “architecture’s Nobel Prize”) architect Kazuyo Sejima for the design. "The limited express travels in a variety of different sceneries, from the mountains of Chichibu to the middle of Tokyo, and I thought it would be good if the train could gently co-exist with this variety of scenery," Sejima said in a press statement from Seibu.

- The harmonious melding of man-made functionality and natural surroundings is a hallmark of Japanese design; it’s unsurprising this approach is now being applied to the the train. In addition to the mirror-like outer material, the shape of these trains will have softer curves and a more organic structure than many of Seibu’s more traditional cars.

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[M II A II R II K]

Older cars will be banned from Paris as of July

Read More: http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/1/11818990/paris-old-car-ban-pollution-smog-traffic

All cars registered before 1997 will be banned in Paris as of July 1st, under a new law aimed at curbing the city's chronic smog and traffic problems. As Le Monde reports, the older cars will be banned from the city center during weekdays, as will all motorcycles registered before 1999.

- By 2020, the ban will extend to cover cars that were registered prior to 2010. Those who violate the rule can face a fine of up to €35 ($39), or €78 as of January 1st, 2017. --- Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has implemented several measures aimed at reducing smog across the French capital, including a recent move to ban cars from the Champs-Élysées on the first Sunday of every month.

- The ban on 19-year-old cars will affect around 10 percent of all vehicles in Paris. French business daily Les Echos reported on Tuesday that Environment Minister Ségolène Royal has agreed to a plan that will classify all cars into six categories, based on their pollution levels. Vehicles will be identified by colored stickers placed on their windshields, making it easier for cities to implement traffic restrictions when smog levels spike.

- But the old-car ban has faced criticism from motorist associations such as 40 millions d'automobilistes, who say that it will disproportionately affect lower-income drivers without significant environmental impact. --- "These restrictions don't achieve anything from an environmental point of view," Daniel Quero, president of 40 millions d'automobilistes, said in a statement this month.

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[nito]

The Guardian published research by Alasdair Rae of the University of Sheffield showing point-to-point commuter data for a variety of cities across the UK based on the 2011 census. All images and further cities are available to view here on The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/galle...istance-workers-commute-uk-cities-mapped

[M II A II R II K]

Train windows for better mobile reception

Read More: http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/techn...windows-for-better-mobile-reception.html

Siemens has developed a frequency-selective coating for train windows which is to improve onboard mobile reception by enabling better transmission of radio waves of certain frequencies. The windows will be installed in the fleet of 82 Desiro HC double-deck electric multiple-units that are to enter service in late 2018 on the Rhein-Ruhr-Express network. An electrically conductive, transparent layer of metals or metal oxides is applied to the window panes.

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[M II A II R II K]

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/06/20160622-sweden.html

Sweden inaugurated a test stretch of electric road on the E16 in Sandviken, thus becoming one of the first countries to conduct tests with electric power for heavy transports on public roads.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Thanks for the Memories: A Farewell to AEM-7

• Video Link

[Swede]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Thanks for the Memories: A Farewell to AEM-7

Those still have relatives running all over the place in Sweden and some in Iran. Yup, Sweden sold 'em to the US and Iran (after the revolution).
In Sweden the Rc class is still by far the most common locomotive.

[M II A II R II K]

"Straddling bus" starts production in east China

http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0704/c90882-9081198.html

[M II A II R II K]

This awesome plane-train hybrid could revolutionize transportation, but not for another 50 years

Read More: http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/9/12131254/clip-air-plane-train-hybrid-switzerland-transportation

Imagine a future where a plane lands at an airfield that doubles as a rail yard. The cabin — one of three that cling to the underbelly of the aircraft like a baby possum to its mother — detaches, is seamlessly transferred to a nearby train, and then continues its journey toward the city center. Your multi-seat trip (taxi-to-subway-to-airtrain) from home to hotel suddenly becomes a one-seat, hassle-free ride.

- In essence, Clip-Air is a modular aircraft in four parts. There are three cabins, or capsules, which can carry passengers, freight, or fuel. Then there's an aircraft, complete with cockpit and engines, which looks like a stealth bomber on stilts. The capsules can decouple from the aircraft to continue the journey by road or rail, depending on the mission. This would allow for quick rotations on the ground and enable operators to maximize the use of the airframe, the most expensive component. --- The wingspan is just shy of 200 feet, with the fuselage about half that. Each capsule can carry a maximum weight of 30 tons of cargo or 450 passengers, which is similar to an Airbus A320.

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[M II A II R II K]

The Astounding Collapse of American Bus Ridership

Read More: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2016..._and_other_u_s_cities_are_in_crisis.html

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Nationwide, bus trips have fallen from 5.86 billion in 2002 (a peak year) down to 5.11 billion last year, and dropped almost 3 percent between 2014 and 2015.

- What’s to blame? Low gas prices, the recession, investments in rail, competition from Uber and bike-share? A new Bus Turnaround Campaign in New York, undertaken by research and advocacy groups, suggests that the fault lies largely with the bus service itself and that the city—and, implicitly, other American cities—has the power to restore the bus to the urban transportation toolkit.

- A report published on Wednesday by the Transit Center, a nonprofit that studies and promotes transit, notes that New York City buses have an average speed of just 7.4 miles per hour, slower than their counterparts in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, D.C., Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

- From a design perspective, New York’s bus network—like those of many U.S. cities—is a messy relic of the streetcar age, a document of obsolete travel patterns and forgotten contracts. (See how few buses travel between Brooklyn and Queens, for example.) Many routes have stops within a stone’s throw of the next one. Others go on for miles and miles, making it less likely that buses will be properly spaced and on time.

- Buses here and in other cities have been slow to adopt new technology. One-touch payment systems, like those used in San Francisco and London, can cut boarding time by up to 40 percent. (New Yorkers sometimes wait several minutes to board at busy local bus stops.) Estimated arrival times, the Transit Center suggests, can easily be advertised at stops and improve the travel experience.

- Finally, transportation engineers have developed a number of street design innovations that can make bus service faster and easier. These include dedicated bus lanes, sidewalks designed to facilitate boarding, and traffic signals coordinated for buses.

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[M II A II R II K]

[Busy Bee]

^What a stupid graphic. American rapid transit rolling stock has always had a control cab accessed from the passenger area of the car not a separate exterior door. Why that is will have to be explained by someone else though...

[M II A II R II K]

When do Cars Stop Helping a City?

Read More: http://www.spuryyc.org/when-do-cars-stop-helping-a-city/

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Roads are fantastic at connecting cities, towns, and rural communities. They do not require super high usage, and there are no ongoing costs beyond some minor maintenance (in comparison to a train or bus network). This makes roads the only solution in many places.

- The problem is that the merits of highways, roads, and cars as a whole are very sensitive to population density. As a result, the very same features that make automotive infrastructure attractive in one setting, can make them destructive in another. --- When you are designing transit for a city, you are trying to do two things. One is to make it easy to move about within the city, and the other is to let people travel in and out of your city. Both are important, however it is important not to lose sight of what you are servicing: the city itself. You should want your city to be somewhere to drive to not a place to drive through.

- If you have free parking, things get less dense. Less of the population chooses to walk, and more use cars, which only further increases the demand for free parking. Things are spread out enough until your entire city is car dependent. You city is driven towards sprawl instead of density. This is the crux of the problem, if you do not fight automotive infrastructure you cannibalize the city. This is driven, almost entirely, by the size of a car. They are extremely space inefficient, and in a dense city, spatial efficiency reigns supreme.

Considerations for a Road Network:

• Travel time
• Speed of vehicles
• Pedestrian Safety
• Width of Road
• Parking
• Pollution
• Environmental impact
• Noise
• Capital/Maintenance costs
• Width of sidewalks
• Incorporate non-automotive transport
• Connectivity
• Fuel/Food stops

Considerations for a Rural Road Network:

• Minimize Travel time
• Maximize road speeds
• Minimize lifetime costs of road
• Connect well with population centres (towns etc.)
• Ensure sufficient fuel infrastructure is in place

Considerations for an Urban Road Network:

• Prevent road from being too wide – takes up valuable land
• Ensure speeds are not too high so as to harm pedestrians
• Consider noise and emission pollution for roads in close proximity to people
• Cannot cannibalize the city
• Safe for cyclists, mopeds, and public transit

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[M II A II R II K]

Superblocks, Barcelona Answer to Car-Centric City

Read More: http://www.citiesofthefuture.eu/superblocks-barcelona-answer-to-car-centric-city/

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A Superblock is defined by a grid of nine blocks where the main mobility happens on the roads around the outside the Superblock, and the roads within the Superblock are for local transit only. The one-way system inside the Superblock makes it impossible to cut through to the other side of the Superblock. That gives neighbours access to their garages and parking spaces but keeps the Superblock clear of through traffic.

- In the first phase of the plan, which is now being implemented in a few areas, the maximum speed on the roads within the Superblock is limited to 20 km/h (12.5 m/h). Phase one of the Superblocks can be implemented easily, at low cost, mainly through the changing traffic signals. Rueda estimates that Barcelona can implement phase one across the city for less than € 20 million ($22 million). --- Phase two is more ambitious. It will transform city life and the way people use public space. Curbside parking within the Superblocks will disappear (by building off-street garages), and the maximum speed will be 10 km/h (6 m/h), allowing people to use the streets for games, sport and cultural activities, such as outdoor cinema.

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[M II A II R II K]

Transit of the future needs smarter routes, not more gadgets

Read More: http://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/real-transit

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A recent nationally representative survey of transit riders from TransitCenter, a New York–based foundation focused on improving urban mobility, indicates that high-tech gimmicks are a very low priority for the people who actually use mass transit.

- People who are likely to recommend their local transit service are very likely to say that it is sufficiently frequent and sufficiently fast. People unlikely to recommend it are very unlikely to feel this way. It’s easy for politicians to give short shrift to these measures because they’re not readily visible from the outside. A dingy bus and a shiny new bus look very different within an instant, but you need to regularly use a bus line to get a sense of how frequently it comes and how fast it travels.

- Houston’s successful ridership-boosting redesign of its bus system is a perfect example. The city’s leaders decided that they wanted to increase bus ridership without increasing spending too much. To get the job done, they eliminated a whole bunch of bus lines and repurposed the vehicles to create a citywide grid of lines that offered consistently frequent bus service. --- The downside is that this meant some people were now further away from a bus line or had to make a transfer to get to their destination. But offering fewer lines meant Houston was able to make the remaining lines better, with buses arriving much more frequently.

- Many routes around the country, including in Washington, DC, where I live, stop incredibly frequently. This is nice in the sense that nobody has to walk very far to a stop. And it works okay during late-night hours when most stops are unused and can be easily skipped. But during any reasonably busy period, frequent stops mean that buses travel much slower than private cars, since they’re constantly starting and stopping. Better infrastructure and better payment procedures can speed this up, but there is a fundamental trade-off: A fast bus can’t stop every two blocks.

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[electricron]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

^What a stupid graphic. American rapid transit rolling stock has always had a control cab accessed from the passenger area of the car not a separate exterior door. Why that is will have to be explained by someone else though...

I'm not sure I have the real answer, but a possible answer is the single class seating arrangements in the States on transit vehicles vs historic first, second, and third class seating arrangements in Europe. First class is usually placed on one end of a train, and all h3ll will break loose if the driver had to access the control cab by walking through the first class section.

Additionally, in the States open seating is very common with that single class while in Europe seating was partitioned, with several partitions per car. So the driver got his/her own partition and door, just like every other partitioned area in the car.

Therefore, in the States, there was no need to have a separate outside door for the driver because there was no partitions. With open seating, and the aisle running the full length of the car, all that was needed was an inside door to reach the cab. America's single social class where everyone is born equal is why there are no outside cab doors on our transit vehicles.