Photo courtesy of Washington State Department of Transit (WSDOT).
There are a lot of good reasons to love transit, especially with all the innovation going on lately.
In the Loop is your Friday round-up of what's going on in the transportation world, posted in conjunction with Talking Transit.
MPC Research Assistant Ariel Ranieri authored this post.
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Live-streaming the future: MPC’s roundtable on Intelligent Transportation Systems reviewed how technology is maximizing the efficiency of existing infrastructure through incentive programs, congestion pricing, and asset management, and why value capture matters when it comes to transit funding. In the “era of metro self-help,” MPC’s own MarySue Barrett will co-lead World Business Chicago’s new Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs infrastructure investment team. Plus, how to make Union Station amazing.
elsewhere
Be honest: how often do you wake teary-eyed from sweet dreams of smooth rush hour traffic? CMAP wants to make your dreams come true! Meanwhile, who doesn’t love an infographic? This one by Active Transportation Alliance sums up bus rapid transit. (On an unrelated note, they need volunteers to help revise their Chicagoland Bike Map.) Can Chicago earn brownie points for the country’s “greenest” street? And there’s ten apps for that: which map app is best for you?
Remakes and Remixes: Virginia plows ahead on the Tysons Corner rehabilitation, while The New Deal: The Remix melds classic infrastructure projects with new TIFIA dollars (see Los Angeles’ Crenshaw light rail line for inspiration). And with so much focus on bikes and transit, it’s good to celebrate plain old walking, sometimes. Speaking of bikes, A Better City thinks bike sharing makes Boston, well, a better city. In the midst of all this innovation, it might be time to confront the reality of declining federal transportation funding…
The world at large: Just to put everything in perspective, the Indian city of Vadodara is considered behind the BRT times for not having implemented bus rapid transit in 2008, while Mysore (another large city) is planning to ban vehicular passage around the city altogether, in favor of BRT. And in Chengdu, China, bus rides are free for the next year, thanks to a bid to assuage traffic woes. In Aukland, meanwhile, a band of planners and consultants seeks to redesign the transit system. A transit PPP in Edmonton. And why selling congestion pricing in Chicago is easier than, say, Santiago or Buenos Aires.
Check out the corresponding edition of Talking Transit: Chicago transit gets open payment system