Jampacked transit systems running on fumes

[Lunican]

Jampacked transit systems running on fumes
Underfunded buses, subways, trains strand some passengers by the wayside



By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC

Transportation experts who have pushed mass transit since the 1970s are getting their wish as soaring gas prices persuade Americans to abandon their cars for buses and trains in record numbers. But as the adage says, be careful what you wish for.

Mass transit ridership is at its highest point in 50 years, according to research by the American Public Transportation Association. For many riders, it just got too expensive to drive.

“I do it to save gas whenever I can,” said Cody Nunez, a student at Pasco High School in Kennewick, Wash. “I don’t want to be paying $50 every week.”

No room on the bus
One of those places is Washington, D.C., where officials of the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, serving the nation’s capital and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia, are studying contingency plans to deal with weekday ridership that is up during every part of the day over this time last year.

The authority’s subway system, already under pressure from riders to add a fifth line, recorded an 8.5 percent increase in ridership in April over last year. Transit officials project that a fifth line could swell ridership by another 40 percent in Maryland.

Full Article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25010939/

[Lunican]

JTA has the cure for transit overcrowding. Hey NY and Chicago, give Jacksonville a call... they'll show you how it's done!

[thelakelander]

While many major cities cities have invested heavily in mass transit over the past 15 years, many more have not. Now that people are demanding service, there isn’t the infrastructure to provide it.

“We’re seeing it in a lot of other metropolitan areas where there just [aren’t] viable transit options â€" places like Indianapolis, Orlando or Raleigh,” said Robert Puentes, a transportation and urban planning scholar with the Brookings Institution, a public policy association in Washington. “They haven’t put the money into it. They haven’t put the resources into it.”

Hello Jacksonville! 

Right now, Jacksonville is screwed and no true relief in sight for at least another decade.

During the American Planning Association's awards luncheon last week, a gentleman asked how do we start, which led to a long answer that really never got around to answering the original question.  Imo, the real answer is to start immediately on something.  Don't let or wait on the FTA determine how we should develop mass transit in our community. 

Get a feasible, affordable starter rail line up on the table and figure out how to get it up and running, even if its a demostration project (ex. CSX "A" or City owned "S"-Line ROW, etc.) using used rolling stock.  Let the public personally benefit and reap the assets of such a system and we'll find, it will be much easier to expand or ask for future tax increases to expand on a more massive scale.

[gatorback]

I agree Stephen.  The JTA has done a brilliant jobâ€"it’s just the job they did was building an empire that serves only the good ole boys.  Bravo JTA!  Maybe the fix is out source the bastards. 

[gatorback]

The back 9 at the Players in Ponte Vedra. You know the one, with the free drinks.

[Ocklawaha]

I understand the board is made up of developers, NOT transit professional. Thus, they only know what they have been told. This certainly qualifys as an easy situation to manipulate, a few highway dollars here and a few there, and badda bing...badda biff... Bus, Bus and more BUSES! Even a bus that THEY think looks like a trolley. Frankly, they simply don't have a clue. If we could get City Council and JTA's board onboard a DMU for a FAM TRIP to Palatka and return, I think they would see graphic demonstration of their errors. I would even beg the charter of two or three JTA buses, to arrange the transfer to train, then announce "This is what is called Inter-modal".

So while we resort to gimmicks and gags to give JTA a temporary fix, with toy "trolleys", Other City's large and small are leaving us in their ozone charged air. Look at what we have planned right now, a Skyway station next to the Times-Union in Brooklyn, (a project that MIGHT see daylight). Another PCT "Trolley" route or two. Wow, I guess they don't think we are smart enough to buy regular shuttle buses? Do they believe the "dolly trolley" is REALLY needed to attract someone to JTA? Next thing we know we'll be fixing skyway cars to look like the Dog-Van in Dumb and Dumber...

Meanwhile in Colorado:

Lakewood Sure has Arrived

Ann Schrader, The Denver Post

Plain vanilla doesn't cut it for Lakewood, which has an ice-cream-sundae vision for the Wadsworth Boulevard light-rail station.

Oak Street - the next station to the west on the 12.1-mile West Corridor line - also would get a few extra dollops of design in plans discussed last week by the City Council.

And Lakewood officials are willing to pay - an estimated $2.8 million - for what they call "betterments" to RTD's standard light-rail designs.

They want riders of the Denver-to-Golden train to know they've arrived in Lakewood.

Lakewood also sees the Wadsworth station - with a crystalline canopy that flows like clouds across the platform - as a statement that the state's fourth-largest city has arrived.

"It is very, very innovative," said Councilman Ed Peterson. "It is a signature piece. ? It gives a sense of place."

At 400 feet in length, the Wadsworth station will straddle the road when the line opens in 2013. Passengers will board and depart trains 25 feet above the street, where 50,000 vehicles pass each day.

Ocklawaha

[thebrokenforum]

Not to be a broken record but this is just another HUGE issue the so-called mayor could be spearheading. We could try an get an editorial into one the papers. This issue is just going to get getting bigger because you're right, with gas the way it's going, this city is in trouble transportation-wise. California is already seeing violence at the pump.

[gatorback]

The leadership team from the JEA?  We love the job the JEA does.

[thelakelander]

I know we jump on JTA a lot, but the city council and mayor's office carry just as much weight on this issue.  For example, it wasn't JTA who approved money to turn the S-Line rail right-of-way into a jogging path.  They were also no where around early on when people on this site started showing up at JTA's public hearings to rail against the BRT proposals to turn downtown's streets into a smog filled bus expressway.  One of these groups needs to be willing to step up and advocate for a change.....now.  Want to place bets on who it will be?

[thelakelander]

easy answer......screwed.

[thelakelander]

Who do we throw eggs at first?

I don't think we have enough eggs.  We just have to find a way to give everyone a swift kick in the pants of reality without hurting their feelings, which in this town results in nothing getting done and the public continuing to suffer from inaction. 

[thelakelander]

All of the above, plus:

A. Raise awareness to the situation through the local media

B. Win over local corporations to help advocate.

C. Attend CPAC, MPO and JTA meetings on mass transit to help shape future agenda.

D. Be problem solvers instead of JTA/city hall critics.

This means we'll have to be the entity that provides sound realistic answers to the continuing excuses that keep everything from moving forward.

[thelakelander]

who else would care to join a group appearance before council?

From my experiences, city hall is reactive.  We need to stir the public to demand changes and accountability.  If we can do that, they'll listen.

[Driven1]

 

All of the above, plus:

A. Raise awareness to the situation through the local media

B. Win over local corporations to help advocate.

C. Attend CPAC, MPO and JTA meetings on mass transit to help shape future agenda.

D. Be problem solvers instead of JTA/city hall critics.

This means we'll have to be the entity that provides sound realistic answers to the continuing excuses that keep everything from moving forward.

Yes, it is the same as with every issue in this city.  And, actually, I think it is the same in a lot of cities across the US.  The squeaky wheels get the oil.  That is - you have to find the proper balance between criticism and creative problem solving suggestions.  One without the other is like salt without pepper.  If you aren't critical, the masses (who don't have time to delve into the details of corruption and incompetence) just assume everything is okey dokey.  And if you just rattle off criticisms without suggesting feasible alternatives, then you are just a gonging cymbal - a saber rattler.

Lake is correct.  He, Steve, Lunican and I have had success with this kind of pattern with the BRT issue before JTA, with showing the lamebrainess of the "Big Ideas" of Peyton, with the 1st Timothy issue (just search for it on this site) and with quite a few others. 

IMO, "A" above is the most important.  Without that, the powers that be know that you can be safely ignored. 

[Coolyfett]

In fact, we are still arguing whether or not to install rail of any kind.

Its this kind of backwards ass non planning that makes this city always have to struggle for relatively easy things.

Boy..do I feel your frustration!!!! As much as I hate the "turtles" stephen, how could any city predict this gas problem? It only happened twice in the past right? I think? Correct me thanks.