Get on the Bike Bus!
In Sydney, Australia multiple groups of commuter bicyclists have gotten organized and adopted routes with scheduled stops calling themselves a "bike bus". The brilliance is the purposeful combination of the age-old tactic of safety in numbers, social interaction, and... [read on...]
Posted at 11:00 AM | Please feel free to comment (3)
Google Transit
There's little I can say about this other than it's awesome. A welcome maship from google.... [read on...]
Posted at 10:12 AM | Please feel free to comment (3)
Washington University Gives Free Metrolink Passes to Students
One of my biggest complaints about my alma matter, Washington University in St. Louis, was the severe lack of interaction between the students and the city of St. Louis, which was always just a stone's throw away. St. Louis is... [read on...]
Posted at 10:16 PM | Please feel free to comment (0)
Milwaukee Connector
The Milwaukee Connector is a project to build a decent - Caen style transit system in Milwaukee. It looks like a darn good idea, and ought to be considered. I worry that this time of transit system won't be a... [read on...]
Posted at 06:11 PM | Please feel free to comment (3)
Muni Haikus
This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen regarding transit. Muni Haikus. A website devited to Haikus about the various bus lines in San Francisco. Some of them are brilliant, some are painful. Kind of like Muni.... [read on...]
Posted at 03:11 PM | Please feel free to comment (1)
Eads Bridge Metrolink Re-Use
St. Louis: The Eads Bridge was one of the first ever built across the Mississippi, and it's one of the most beautiful, both in terms of grace and engineering. With the coming of freeways, however, the bridge fell into disrepair... [read on...]
MKE Amtrak Station Opens Tuesday
Milwaukee: In a nationally significant move, Amtrak is scheduled to open a new station at Milwaukee's Mitchell Airport on January 17th. It's a great move for a lot of reasons, but the idea is to capitalize on Chicago's frustration with... [read on...]
Bart - Oakland Airport Connector
Oakland: Though it may be a while before it's actually built, a project to put an "airtrain" type of connection between Oakland Airport and the Colliseum BART station is well underway. Right now, you have to take a clunky bus... [read on...]
Improving Amtrak Where it Counts
Milwaukee: Amtrak continues to writhe in debt and taxpayer subsidies. A certain amount of this is ok, but at the same time Amtrak should be focusing on areas where it can actually profit as well as provide a popular and... [read on...]
Posted at 08:53 AM | Please feel free to comment (4)
Seat-side Plugs
Northeast Corridor: It's still a far cry from onboard WiFi, but at least Amtrak is providing power for people who desire to use their laptop for more than a short period of time on board. What would it take for... [read on...]
GPS Bus Tracker
Boulder, CO: Brilliant. This amazing GPS bus tracking system shows you the current position and speed of busses in Boulder, Colorado. It's only a matter of time before these things are at every bus stop.... [read on...]
Posted at 01:16 AM | Please feel free to comment (3)
Support for High Speed Rail
Chicago: Our nation's lack of decent intercity train service continues to both baffle and dismay me. Even so, support coninues to build across political and economic boundaries, shattering the myth that only geeky euro-wannabe types support inproved rail service. Take... [read on...]
Posted at 05:12 AM | Please feel free to comment (4)
TombBus
Barcelona: "Tomb" means round-trip in Catalan, and the TombBus (don't have a nice photo yet) means brilliant shopping solution. Basically, its a really nice bus, with cushy seats that face each other, lots of storage space, relaxing music, and tables... [read on...]
Metra Rail to Milwaukee
Milwaukee: Looks like Chicago's Metra-rail commuter trains will finally be extended to Milwaukee. [article here] there's a ridiculous amount of bureaucracy involved so who knows when it will actually happen, but it's a major advancement toward both regional cooperation and... [read on...]
Posted at 11:19 AM | Please feel free to comment (3)
LimoLiner
New York: There's a new way to travel between New York and Boston called 'LimoLiner'. For about the same price as a train ticket, LimoLiner is a bus featuring rather comfy looking seats and the big draw - internet access... [read on...]
Posted at 05:15 PM | Please feel free to comment (7)
Forgotten Cincinnati Subway (website)
Cincinnati: Midwestern cities are generally not known for their subways, although several have them. Cincinnati, back in a more golden age, started building one, and for a variety of reasons never finished it. This website explains it all and gives... [read on...]
Posted at 02:25 PM | Please feel free to comment (1)
The Caen Twisto
Caen, France: Here's a neat combination of bus and light rail. The 'twisto' system in the Norman city of Caen runs on rubber tires but has a single central rail that keeps it on course. It runs on overhead electrical... [read on...]
Posted at 02:27 PM | Please feel free to comment (4)
Commuter Centers
Waukesha, WI: It's obvious that shops and other businesses benefit by being near a popular transit stop, but can the opposite effect work? Officials are planning to add shops and other services to existing and planned "Park and Ride" bus... [read on...]
Posted at 12:37 PM | Please feel free to comment (1)
Trottoir Roulant Rapide
Paris: Moving walkways are quite helpful devices at airports and train stations, but they don't really move much faster than a slightly brisk walk. The problem is that making them go any faster would require a transition zone between no... [read on...]
Posted at 12:54 PM | Please feel free to comment (2)
Tube Etiquite Blog
London: I regret not posting enough about other websites devoted to transportation and other related things. (I've been particularily lazy in general lately, but that's another story). Anyway, for your entertainment, I bring you The Mole's guide to Tube Etiquitte.... [read on...]
Books in Transit
Reykjavik: Iceland's capital city has a decent bus network, as is expected in Scandinavia, with an interesting twist: On several seats on each bus, there is a popular paperback book attached by a cord to give passengers something to read... [read on...]
London City Airport Extension
London: One of London's best kept secrets is London City Airport, a brilliant shortcut for air-travelers heading to the continent. LCY is already faster to get to from east London than most of the other airports, but you have to... [read on...]
'Slugging'
DC Burbs: In a brilliant coincidence of free market meets restrictive road-rules meets hitch-hiking, a phenomenon known as 'slugging' has taken off around Washington. (NYtimes article). In order to use special 'high occupancy vehicle' lanes on the freeway, you need... [read on...]
Posted at 10:06 AM | Please feel free to comment (1)
BART to SFO starts June 22
San Francisco: Now taking bets as to whether this will actually happen, but a date has finally been announced for the BART extension to San Francisco Airport: June 22. Thank god. Unfortunately, only one train out of four will actually... [read on...]
Posted at 11:35 AM | Please feel free to comment (3)
Channel Tunnel Rail Link
London: The last stage in bringing the Eurostar to it's full potential will be bringing it to Kings Cross/St. Pancras station instead of it's current terminus at Waterloo. Apparently, this will shave at least 40 minutes of the London-Paris Journey,... [read on...]
Posted at 11:24 AM | Please feel free to comment (2)
Spider Maps
London: The original London bus map [pdf] is almost impossible to navigate because rather than showing lines for routes, you have to find little numbers on the map in much the same way as finding hidden words in a scramble... [read on...]
Crossrail
London: Crossrail is a massive project that will dig two deep rail tunnels under London. One will run east to west, the other will run on a diagonal from SW to NE. As it now stands, crossing London takes about... [read on...]
Cell Phone Tube Maps
London: Finally, something truly useful for fancy mobile phones: Downloadable tube maps, in full color, that you can use to navigate the system. Other cities [Paris] already have this system for PDAs, but putting it on a phone is a... [read on...]
Vegas Monorail Extension
Las Vegas: Las Vegas has finally begun to expand its monorail system. The current system is a pretty useless novelty that runs so far behind the MGM Grand that it's usually not worth walking to the station. The new system... [read on...]
Posted at 01:37 AM | Please feel free to comment (2)
Bus Rapid Transit
Curitiba, Brazil: Given a budget that made rail transit impossible to implement, the city of Curitiba famously cordoned off some traffic lanes and started running stretched buses between stations as a cheaper substitute. The system runs just like a rail... [read on...]
Posted at 01:18 PM | Please feel free to comment (1)
New SF Transbay Terminal
San Francisco: This thing is going to be fantastic! It's the biggest and most ambitious multimodal transit facility I'm aware of, and will probably be one of the most useful and best looking. This facility, when completed in 2007 (hopefully)... [read on...]
BART to SFO
San Francisco:Well, the idea is really common sense, but the fact that this long-awaited plan is finally nearing completion is pure brilliance. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is a commuter rail system that fans out from downtown San Francisco and... [read on...]
The Eurostar
Le Manche: Eurostar was fabulous. A near-perfect success! There is not much more to say than 'brilliance!' when regarding a 180mph train than takes you effortlessly from London to Brussels in 2 1/2 hours right to the center of the... [read on...]
Posted at 04:50 PM | Please feel free to comment (1)
California High Speed Rail
THE I-5 CORIDOR: It's about time someone at least attempted to organise a consortium toward getting high speed rail, pardon the pun, on track in the US. And although it's mired in bureaucracy, California seems to be moving ahead nicely.... [read on...]
London Busses
LONDON: I can't bad-mouth London so badly in the right-hand column without mentioning something good: London busses rule. They're reasonably fast, reasonably comfy, and the fare collectors are actually nice. There is an amazing GPS system which tells you when... [read on...]
Honor System Busses
BUDAPEST: Aside from traffic, the biggest cause of delay for a bus is the loading and unloading of passengers. Mainly, this is because everyone has to line up at the front door and show their pass or pay their fare,... [read on...]
Posted at 06:14 PM | Please feel free to comment (3)