A great day in Kirkland -- but someone was missing

©MMXIV The PRT NewsCenter

Saturday's Cross Kirkland Corridor Advanced Transportation Symposium ("the Symposium") was, in this participant's estimation, a smashing success in terms of establishing policy gravitas and as a successfully planned and executed event.

Held February 8 at Google's Building B in Kirkland, the Symposium drew federal, state and local lawmakers, business people, transportation officials, and a variety of vendors and activists from the field of high-technology transit, for an all-day program of presentations and panel discussions.

A wrinkle in the CRC debate

Every so often I turn my attention to the Columbia River Crossing project, the plan to -- among other things -- replace the Interstate 5 bridge between Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington.

Because the plan is to include the means to send Trimet MAX light rail across the river to Vancouver, I suppose it's been easy to lean toward support of this freeway enhancement program, while dismissing the (voluble) opposition as north-of-the-river manifestation of right-wing, anti-government, anti-transit resistance to progress.

But now comes The CRC Mega-Highway Project, a three part series beginning today at the Seattle Transit Blog.

Validation of our views on Masdar PRT plan error

The backpedaling typical of massive capital projects continues.

A recent Fast Company state-of-the-effort article on Masdar City includes these conclusions by project managing director Dr. Sultan Al Jaber about the city's 12-pod Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), scaled back from a huge citywide pod fleet --

"We’re not in any way saying the PRT solution will not be a viable solution going forward. Based on our lessons and experience, the development of PRT technology is going to take a little longer than we originally anticipated..." -Fast Company

So get cranking with the bike lanes already

The Washington Post reports on a study that finally confirms: more bike lanes leads to increases in cycling ( wapo.st/HL32Ne ).

Seattle takes another big transit step

(TWIP mobile post) Construction work is about to begin on Seattle's next streetcar line ( http://bit.ly/HAomKJ ), between downtown and First Hill.

Not only does the project mean better transit in the state's densest neighborhood, it will also improve road safety with installation of a cycle track on Broadway, and a kickstart of a local streetcar manufacturing industry.

Not another agency

(TWIP mobile post) West Seattle Blog is reporting today about plans to revive elevated transit in 'Seattle's west side transportation corridor' -- http://bit.ly/GLs1Rn

I have been aware for a few months that this organization -- 'CenTran' -- has been in the works. However I had been under the impression what it's about is Son Of Green Line.

Instead, it looks like they're intending a 16-mile monorail+PRT (pod transit) system in the West Seattle to Ballard corridors.

Seattle streetcar deal

It means jobs. Will it expand the official vision of which technologies belong in which corridors? Let's hope so.

These are known as Outcomes

The esteemed emeritus Prof. Jerry Schneider recently posted a link in the Transport-Innovators group to a piece by the editorial board of the Oregonian newspaper in Portland. Here it is in full:

September 05, 2011
Binding the community together

The doors open. We step inside, a little groggy, newspaper tucked under an elbow, latte in hand.

Celebrate this fact, Portland: After 25 years, the MAX light-rail system is so integral to our lives that we don't stop and think about it very much.

We don't have to stop and think about it very much. That's the beauty of it. MAX is just there, moving quietly in the background from 3:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. -- 22.5 hours a day.

The 6 Surrenders Of Vukan R. Vuchic

Something the pro-transit environmental movement has been advocating for decades is the idea of the intermodal transit system of trains and buses. Some of us would like to add Personal Rapid Transit to that short list.

Such a system, if pervasive enough, would allow people to travel around cities without driving. And if deployed in conjunction with thoughtful land use planning, redevelopment, and urban growth boundaries, the transit system could assist in correcting decades of sprawl made possible by, and in service of, the automobile -- or as I call it, the Private Travel Appliance.

Video: In & Around Masdar City

From Al Jazeera:

Is this how your city does Bike Lanes?

Another great video from Streetfilms:

Seattle hold-out house to become 'public'

It was her home, an anti-corporate symbol, and then a tattoo. Now Edith Macefield's house in the Ballard neighborhood will become a kind of park (Seattle P-I):

The literal elevation refers to [real estate "coaching firm"] Reach Returns' plan to elevate the home to the height of the surrounding commercial building and create a two-level open space underneath. The open space would feature plantings and water features and be available to the public during business hours. People can pay $250 to $5,000 (depending on the size) for a tile on which they can write their credo, according to the Credo Square Web site. The tiles would then be installed on the site. The project is also charging $75 (for an individual or family) or $200 (for a company) to have names etched into a wall on the site.

= = = = =

Credo Square Update: Buyer has criminal history (+ links)

Rrrrowrrr!

What do we think of the PUMA, from GM and Segway?



NY Times story
ABC News video

I am particularly impressed by the tie-in with OnStar as a "v2v" (vehicle to vehicle) control system. To my mind, this makes the long-term PUMA concept doable, something more than a splashy gimmick that will magically disappear once GM gets its bailout money.

While not public transit, I believe Neighborhood Electric Vehicles don't require licenses to operate, so it lowers one access barrier to better transportation. I could easily see local transit agencies contracting to rent fleets of PUMAs to expand rail station ridersheds.

The major hurdle PUMA has to overcome is how they will safely mix in traffic with regular automobiles. I wonder if they could be so popular that onstreet bike lanes would have to be converted to Bike/PUMA lanes.

Tattoo parlor honors woman who resisted

Remember Edith Macefield of Seattle, who wouldn't budge when developers wanted her home for part of a Trader Joe's?



A business in the neighborhood has created a unique product in her honor. Link

MIT's CityCar project

Proposed for an unidentified Asian city. Read about it at the Boston Globe.

Germs

November, for all the joy the presidential election brought, ended up being lost time for me. I spent much of it flat on my back with pneumonia.

Based on average incubation times, I figure the nasty little bacteria took up residence in my lungs on or about Halloween. A big reason for the lengthy recovery was that it wasn't until the second week that I stopped treating it as the flu, and got my hands on some serious antibiotics.

I spent the second week musing about how and where I picked up the bacteria. The odds were pretty low that it happened at home. Not that I'm a cleanfreak -- my partner used to be a surgical assistant and workplace OSHA supervisor. She set up some simple procedures around the house that allow us to easily avoid things like cross-contamination in the kitchen.

Stuff I noticed in France

It's good to be home, lame attempts by Danny Westneat to whip up a tax revolt in Seattle notwithstanding. I see America continues to be economically bloodied yet unbowed.

Nonetheless, having had two weeks to see the land of Binoche, escargot and Sarkozy up close and personal, I have to say that France has it all over America in many important ways.

Cityscape. Tired of high speed, high volume traffic in city neighborhoods and on arterials? Then stop facilitating it! France has expanded its freeways, but retains the traditional configurations of its surface streets in cities and villages.

Court ignores environmental factors

I have received word that a state appeals court has struck down King County's "65/10 rule," requiring property owners retain 65% of forest and limiting impervious surface to 10%. This rule is critical to the issue of reducing stormwater runoff, which is a major source of pollutants that enter Puget Sound.

65/10 is meant to comply with Washington State Growth Management regulations, but my source has told me the appeals court has held the rule to be an illegal fee.

More as it develops.

Update (1518 PDT): The Seattle P-I has the first media report on the ruling. (since updated and extended)

Update (08 July 0926 PDT): King County's rural-land restrictions go too far, court rules -

Sustainability is People

Seattle experienced a passing this week: Edith Macefield, 86, a longtime Ballard resident who loved animals and the opera, and may have been a spy in World War II. But she is best known as the person who dug in her heels and made a developer build around her little house:

Edith's story always made me smile, and she was always a popular figure in the media and blogosphere. I think it gives everyone a little charge to see someone fight ‘progress,’ or at least keep the powerful at bay. I suppose it's Davida v. Goliath.

A little extra effort, please

I bet there are a lot of stark, unfriendly pedestrian routes in your town. One of my least favorite is the corner of Pine & Boren (satellite view) in downtown Seattle.