Month: December 2010

Culture Wars Nonsense around the HSR and a Technocratic Answer « Sustainable Cities and Transport

| David Levinson

Lisa Schweitzer takes on Ryan Avent on HSR: Culture Wars Nonsense around the HSR and a Technocratic Answer
Among other good points …

Secondly, Avent’s whipping out the 100 million population growth number made me laugh. That means we need inter-regional HSR instead of building urban subways or heavy rail? That’s what that number means? It doesn’t make sense. Yes, there will be greater demand for inter-regional travel, but there will be much greater demand for within region travel-there always is. That means if we are gong to spend billions on transit, the resources should be going to urban transit systems first.

Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines

| David Levinson

From the NY Times: Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines
Disney isn’t reducing lines (through congestion or reservation pricing) much, (there is the occasional added capacity), mainly it just sends entertainment out. Maybe we should have jesters at long traffic lights to entertain drivers.

Did public transportation send Cliff Lee to Philly?

| David Levinson

Did public transportation send Cliff Lee to Philly?

If only the state of Texas has spend more money on infrastructure they might still have one of the best lefthanders in the game.
Kristin Lee, wife of Cliff Lee, says she can’t wait to use the public transportation in Philadelphia.
Writes Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Kristen Lee wanted her husband to return to the Phillies because of “how easy it is to get from point A to point B” in Philadelphia, she (told) the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Phillies play three miles from City Hall. The stadium is a $1.85 ride from downtown on the Broad Street Line, plus a three-block walk.
…”Even in Dallas,” Kristen Lee was quoted, “(from) where we were staying, it was hard to get to the ballpark.”
…Kristen Lee’s fondness for transit isn’t limited to commuter rail.
She’s also happy to be a 1 1/2-hour train ride away from road games in New York or Washington.
“We liked the easy travel on a train for our kids to other cities.”

Transportation Convergence: Masdar City PRT system

| David Levinson

Masdar opens its first PRT, as shown in this CNN report hosted on the prtconsulting.com website. Alas the report says the system is being “scaled down”. (I would have been curious to see this thing scaled up, and whether cars that work in isolation still work in a more complex environment).

Nevertheless, it is interesting how PRT and autonomous vehicles are now almost the same thing. It looks like we have transportation convergence between cars and transit.

Debunking Theories of a Terrorist Power Grab

| David Levinson

Network Reliability on the Electric Grid (from Miller-McCune Debunking Theories of a Terrorist Power Grab

Hines and Blumsack’s study … shows that the most vulnerable points are the ones that have the most energy flowing through them — like huge power stations or highly connected transformers.

Article Do topological models provide good information about electricity
infrastructure vulnerability?
I think there is something to learn about generalizing network reliability and vulnerability across fields (electricity, transportation, etc.). Network structure, and the underlying technology, matter.