Articles from the week...

Image via Wikipedia From the Mobilizing the Region Blog out of the New York area comes this:

Highway Removal Olympics: Who Will Win the Gold?

San Francisco became famous for becoming the first area to remove a freeway after the 1989 Earthquake did serious damage to the largely completely freeway along the Embarcadero. Instead of a stub freeway they now have a beautiful pedestrian friendly boulevard with streetcar service.

Sadly, here in Utah we went the old direction with the rebuild of I-15 so we lost all the potential that could have been done with putting the freeway in a ditch and then a cap on top of it.

From Light Rail Transit Online comes:

TOD vs."TAD"

This has some good information about TOD developments. We are starting to see some developments coming on line and will see more in the future. I have noticed that more advertisements for housing stating that they are close to a TRAX line.

From the Denver Infill Blog:

The Denver Union Station Story

A great story about the history and future of Denver Union Station. While Salt Lake City let Boyer have their way with the Union Pacific Station, Denver is working to rebuild their magnificent Union Station. While it will not be a perfect situation (the light rail tracks will be about a block away from the completed station), it shows the what can be done.

That article was referred from the Denver Transit Stop Blog which has this story:

Sprawling From Grace

This talks about a video that is going to be shown at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week. What I found interesting is the part of the video that talks about preventing gentrification and keeping character and diversity in a neighborhood.

From the Transit Sleuth comes this entry:

Last Night Wondering

Adron talks about his day doing things in Portland after work including how transit played a pivotal role in his activities. What this really points out is how Portland has become a city in which you can leave the car at home and hopefully Salt Lake will be there soon.

From Transit Miami comes:

UM: Wising Up To Transit

Apparently freshman are welcome at the University of Miami but their cars are not. The university is located on a Metrorail line and like the U Of U has their own shuttle service around the campus. When I was attending Railvolution last November I made a trip over to Coral Gables which included transferring from MetroRail to a bus to head over the Biltmore Hotel to take some pictures. In the 10 minutes I waited for the Metro Bus I counted at least six U of M shuttle vans stopping at the transit center on their trips around the campus.

From Streetsblog comes this:

The Parking Cure, Step 1: Diagnose the Problem

Previously I talked about how new school guide lines have made new schools walking unfriendly over the course of the last several years in this entry: Schools and Sprawl.

This situation in New York is very similar in that regulations have been enacted over the years that are pedestrian and transit unfriendly and need to be changed.

From the Seattle Transit Blog comes:

News Stands

Could news stands at certain TRAX stations help the newspaper and magazine businesses? They seem to work well in some of the major cities (obviously Seattle is not one of the them...yet), but what about Salt Lake City? Can't use the weather argument because cities with worse weather than us have them.

From the RT Rider comes this information from Sacramento:

RT's worst-case scenario at a glance

RT's current $2.00 fare may go up to $2.25 and severe bus cuts may be necessary. Once again Sacramento like most California systems are dependent on funding from the state and the Govenator is busing trying to transfer funds from transit to highways so they transfer that to other programs.

From Portland Transport:

Streetcar Loop Moves Forward, Your Input Needed on Future Routes

Portland is looking to extend its streetcar line across the Willamette River to the east side of Portland. Portland has been dealing with the federal governments bias toward buses over rail for in trying to get the streetcar off the ground.

From Cap' Transit Rides Again comes:

Cities are Born in Moments of Transition

Interesting perspective on why downtown areas died including highway bypasses.