Interesting transportation things

[Cirrus]

MARC has an unofficial party car. Just a bunch of regulars who were always on the same car and started BYOBing. It's still a thing AFAIK.

[Cirrus]

I found Virginia license plate #1.

[M II A II R II K]

Smart Choices, Less Traffic

50 Best and Worst Transportation Projects In the United States PDF:

http://www.sierraclub.org/transporta...n-Projects.pdf

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This report shows that Americans can and should expect the dollars we spend on transportation to contribute to solving environmental and economic problems. Smart transportation investments are already providing Americans with transportation options that reduce our dependence on oil, improve air and water quality and public health, and keep more money in local economies. But, old highway spending habits die hard.

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[M II A II R II K]

Commute to work on the roller coaster train

Read More: http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ter-train.html

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The Eco-Ride train feels like a ride on a roller coaster - and that's pretty much what it is. In a few years' time, this cheap and energy-efficient train could be ferrying passengers around areas of Japan devastated by last year's tsunami.

- Eco-Ride works in the exactly the same way as a theme park roller coaster. By turning potential energy into kinetic energy, it coasts along its tubular tracks without an engine. The train's speed is controlled by aerodynamics and by "vertical curves", sections of track that form the transition between two sloping segments. The Eco-Ride is set in motion and slowed at stations via rotating wheels between the rails that catch a fin underneath the train.

- When fully installed, Eco-Ride would ply a route, ideally circular, at speeds of up to 60 kilometres per hour. The idea is that Eco-Ride will use its own inertia to get up most slopes but may on occasion need to be winched up steeper inclines. If it was first lifted to a height of 10 metres, the train could comfortably cover a distance of 400 metres, says its developer, Yoshihiro Suda, director of the IIS Advanced Mobility Research Center.

- The lack of any engine makes carriages extremely light, so the energy required to propel them is small and the emissions low. Plus there is no need for the expensive, bulky infrastructure that usually accompanies the building of new train tracks.

- "This is probably the ultimate energy-saving transportation system," says Suda. A number of municipalities in Japan have shown an interest in the system, including communities hit by last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region in the north-east, he says. Other uses could be feeder routes between other transportation networks, or communities and college campuses located beyond what might be considered a reasonable walking distance, he added. Suda expects the first Eco-Ride to be in operation sometime in 2014.

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[Wizened Variations]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Commute to work on the roller coaster train

Read More: http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ter-train.html

For a large number of reasons, public transportation is dealt with far more responsibly in Japan than in the US.

I can think of a couple of reasons: a) the historical reverberations of the Tokugaway Shogunate's social discipline; and b) the Confucian moral framework where those with power tend to have more 'social responsibility.'*

The US has no Confucian sense of social ethics.

*WWII is the reason I used 'tend.'

[Cirrus]

This is an actual picture of an actual bus in Sarasota, FL. Worst name in the world.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Wizened Variations

For a large number of reasons, public transportation is dealt with far more responsibly in Japan than in the US.

I can think of a couple of reasons: a) the historical reverberations of the Tokugaway Shogunate's social discipline; and b) the Confucian moral framework where those with power tend to have more 'social responsibility.'*

The US has no Confucian sense of social ethics.

*WWII is the reason I used 'tend.'

They also don't have code requirements that comprise a big percentage of the cost of any us rail system.

[vid]

Well no wonder no one takes the bus.

[DTW]

LOL How could they name their system that? They must not get out much in Sarasota

[brickell]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

This is an actual picture of an actual bus in Sarasota, FL. Worst name in the world.

WHAT? - winter haven area transit


src: http://www.polktransit.org/transit-today/


Apparently Florida transit is so bad we have two SCATs.

Welcome to Space Coast Area Transit
http://www.ridescat.com/

SCAT Beach Trolley Stop by traveling around, on Flickr

[Centropolis]

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townn...review-620.jpg

[vid]

I wonder which one will be the first to embrace green technology and power their vehicles with scat? "Shit! We've run out of fuel! Does anyone have to take a dump??"

Hey it would solve the bus seat poop problem!

[Busy Bee]

x

Complete with meaningless swoosh graphic, truly the worst of both worlds.

Maybe only worse if it was called Sarasota County Area Bus System.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Let's not forget about the innuendo of the University of Alabama's bus system "The CrimsonRide". If you don't understand, go to urban dictionary..

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Smart Choices, Less Traffic

50 Best and Worst Transportation Projects In the United States PDF:

http://www.sierraclub.org/transporta...n-Projects.pdf

ugh, incredibly lame article.

It is so black and white it hurts. Very simplistic / 2D thinking, nothing critical about it.

From what I could see, every single STOP project was a highway / road project, and every single GO project was transit, pedestrian, and cycling.

Nothing wrong with supporting Transit and cycling (I do!) but there is no critical thinking at all in this PDF. Some transit projects are lame ducks, poorly designed, and or poorly implemented, they can not all be GOs. Seems like a very rubber stamp approach.

The same way not all bridge replacements / highway expansions are bad, some are needed and can actually help improve transit via Rapid Bus programs and other transit initiatives (or removing industrial traffic from local roads as commuting patterns and industrial locations change).

Sorry, but I really dislike such obvious bias reports.

[Jonboy1983]

Agreed. There are some transit projects that are/were very short-sighted and not well-thought-out. One that comes to mind is the North Shore extension. Sure, it's a very neat, outside-the-box project for the Burgh, but IMO there are/were better options for crossing to the North Shore and providing service access/extensions to the North and West. In reality, I think the steel city could have had a much better system if they'd actually implemented their initial plan from the 1920s and '30s, which called for an elaborate subway network...

As for highway projects, what about the Bay Bridge replacement in San Fran, or the I-95/PA Turnpike interchange project? I'd say the fact, in and of itself, that that interchange was never built is rather short-sighted. The Bay Bridge is in need of replacement, and the I-95/Turnpike project will fill in a gap in the Interstate Highway system and improve overall access for automobiles...

[bulliver]

Strathcona County (Sherwood Park...suburb of Edmonton) also uses the surprisingly popular "SCAT" acronym for their special disabled service:

http://www.strathcona.ca/departments...tion-scat.aspx

[HowardL]

São Paulo is super hilly. At least two metro stations are built where a train line punches out from one side of a ravine and pokes back in on the other side. This one is Sumaré on the Green Line going out to Vila Madalena. I think I remember another one going south on the Blue towards Jabaquara.

[Innsertnamehere]

There is something similar in toronto where the bloor line crosses the don valley. It runs under a bridge built 45 years before the subway. The geniuses of 1919 actually included a lower level to allow for an eventual streetcar tunnel to cross the valley. It ended up getting used for a subway rather than a streetcar tunnel, but still amazing forward thinking. It is also on a much larger scale than that, I think the bridge is 5-600m long.

[202_Cyclist]

Two of the more interesting vehicles I saw this past year were an electric Coca-cola delivery truck and the Mitsubishi I-MiEV electric car.

Here is a photo of the Coca-cola truck, courtesy of Coca-cola's website:


http://www.coca-colacompany.com/medi...lectric-trucks

Here is the link for the Mitsubishi I-MiEV: http://i.mitsubishicars.com/

My girlfriend and I also drove an electric Smart car when we visited San Diego last summer (photo by taken by me).