Some stories from the wire..or, my Google Reader.

Local Vegas News

On the quest to burn the ring, an alliance of dwarfs, elves, hob…oh sorry, wrong story. But this is a story about an alliance. The Sun reports that Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Arizona have created the Western High-Speed Rail Alliance dedicated to building high-speed rail between all four states’ major cities. What about California, you say? Well, you can thank them for tanking Nevada’s economy, so proposals are underway for an impenetrable wall on the western most lines of Clark County. (Just kidding about that past part )

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So, if you’re like me and walk around downtown a lot you know that the current Downtown Transit Center pretty much sucks. That’s why they’re building a new one! At $17 million, the RTC is building a multi-modal transit center for pedestrians, bikers and busers.

Neighbor News

Weary Angelenos may say goodbye to this ethnically ambiguous, scantily clad “hot babe:”

I know you’ll be sad. I see her everywhere, even in my dreams. But NO MORE! says LA city councilman Dennis Zine. He’s proposing a ban on these roving billboards that he says block views, clog traffic, and give people the creeps. This sort of thing has been up for legislation at least twice in the last couple of years in Vegas. Nothing has been done, yet. God speed, Mr. Zine.

Food for Thought

Carbon Trace asks an interesting question about statutes that forbid anyone under 21 from texting while driving:

“Do you suppose that people older than 21 are capable of texting and driving?”

If you think you can, please play the NY Times’ game to be sure.

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Tom Vanderbilt has some thoughts on the existentialist dilemma of being a pedestrian.

“The irony, of course, is now that it’s driving that’s become pedestrian, and walking which is novel.”

CLAP.

Today we have a guest blog post from the theoretical physicist over at Gravity and Levity. Please show him some love with some comments!

Being stuck in traffic is frustrating in a way that few other things are.  Something about the helplessness of it makes us extremely irritable, and we become inclined to think that the people around us are idiots.  The guy who just cut you off, the lady talking on her cell phone with her blinker left on, the construction workers standing around and looking at a hole in the ground instead of actually fixing the road.  Everyone seems incompetent and unintelligent when you’re stuck in traffic.

Not uncommonly, this line of thinking extends to the people that decided how and where to build the roads.  Their (lack of) planning can seem like pure idiocy, and the solution for fixing the terrible gridlock can seem painfully obvious.

I understand this type of thinking all too well.  My very first job was in the heart of Washington DC, which meant that I spent about an hour and a half stuck in traffic every day.  And during that time I thought about traffic, how terrible it was, and how it should be a solved problem by now.  It seemed to me that after decades of intense mathematical research and super-powered computer simulations we should understand traffic.  After all, we know where people live, where they work, and when they work.  Why can’t we “solve” for the most efficient pattern of roads and intersections?  Why do the world’s most modern cities still suffer from terrible gridlock?

During the eight years since then, I have thought off and on about traffic from a scientific perspective.  And the more I think/read/hear about it, the more difficult it seems to understand.  In this post, I’ll give a few reasons for our continued inability to “figure out” traffic patterns.

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A lot of hullabaloo is being made about a light rail system that would go down the Virginia Street corridor from Meadowood Mall to the university. The Reno-Gazette Journal reported this at the end of April along with another article detailing more bus route cuts, and I hope you take a look at my own homage to past bus routes lost. Also, a fellow J-school student created this map of bus route ridership and neighborhood economic background:

View Larger Map

RTC Washoe is looking at Portland, Ore. as a model because they built a 2.4 mile long stretch of streetcar tracks. Portland is a good model for all the reasons stated in the article (increased ridership, residential and commercial developments along the line) but Portland proper has half a million residents, while Reno has barely 300,000 in its metropolitan area.
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It’s been awhile, but I’ve been working hard to consolidate a bunch of information for you all. Here are some motion charts, just because I’m in a motion chart mood, of bus ridership and traffic accidents around the UNLV campus.

Here is a chart showing the ridership increase from 2004 to 2008 on the three bus lines surrounding the university. Just hit play!

(Change the color, size, x and y axes!)

Although ridership has increased, it’s also important to note that the population has increased too. What I’m hoping to do over the summer is do a “deep dive” into the transportation habits of the Maryland Parkway community (please don’t doubt that there is one). I’ll be looking more closely at how students, faculty and staff at UNLV use the bus (if at all).

This chart of traffic accidents from 2004-2008 at five intersections surrounding UNLV comes after serious re-engineering. There was a lot of data and my computer screen is tiny!

There are a lot of variables to play with here. I suggest playing with it to glean the info you want. You change the color of the bubbles, the size of the bubbles, and the x and y axes. The variables are: number of accidents, vehicles involved, fatalities and injuries.

Tell me what interesting things you discover in the comments!

I don’t know the rules on this, but check out the comments on these stories on the proposed light rail system, the $1 billion price tag for toll roads and $85 million bonds sale that would fund Union Park.

I get it, Nevada is a tax haven and everyone wants to keep their SUV. Politicians lit torches and shook pitchforks at a proposed $836 million tax hike by splattering TV screens with anti-so-and-so-legislator ads. Should they approve the “largest ever tax hike in Nevada history,” they will be pinned with a scarlet letter “L” for liberal-tax-thirsty-cannibal.

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The lovely and prompt people at Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) got me the statistics on the top twenty crash sites in the Vegas valley in 2007. Needless to say, they’re all along the Flamingo, Tropicana and Sahara corridors – the heart of downtown.

In the core of downtown, buses come between 10 and 15 minutes. However, at the intersection with the highest number of accidents, Sahara Ave and Decatur Blvd, it comes maybe every 20 minutes. Crossing that intersection is like crossing the Sahara Desert (pun intended). Eight lanes of traffic and 20 seconds to run across in 100 degree isn’t the answer. Fewer lanes and more buses is.

Click on the dots near your home and see how many accidents happen. I wanted to make a heat map but I’m not a code monkey .

I interviewed Boston’s new Bike Director, Nicole Freedman (Nicole.Freedman.bra@cityofboston.gov) about her intention to implement a bike-share program in Boston. All in all, it could work, with minimal tax dollars.

“Boston could see up to 1,500 bikes and 150 stations,” says Freedman.

Mayor Menino appointed Freedman with the goal of transitioning Boston into the next generation of eco-friendly urban transportation. Freedman’s bike-share program is slated to launch in the spring of 2010. It could potentially eliminate 315,000 car trips annually, reducing 750 tons of greenhouse gases officials estimated.

What are the details and what could this mean?

Where are the Bikes? – Officials are looking for a regional program that includes different neighborhood corridors and neighboring towns. Residents are hoping this will likely include boroughs like Brighton, Allston and JP.

What’s the Cost? — Freedman claims that “we’re waiting to hear back from our respondents, although we expect the first 30 minutes to be free for members.” What a bonus, but how much does it cost to be a member?

Who’s Pays for the Program? — “A turn-key system that self-finances” says Freedman. The city is looking for a cost-neutral program. Models that can do this include advertising based plans, subscribers fees and private capital investors.

So how would it work exactly once in place? Residents would buy memberships which would allow them to swipe a card and take out a bike at any rack around the city and then return it to any rack. Though the first 30 minutes would be free, extended trips would require usage charges. Bike supplies would be monitored by the company, who’s main responsibility would be to shuffle bikes so racks are full at all times.

I love the idea but what about stolen bikes? Bike-share programs seem to the wave of the future if we look at Europe, but many of those aren’t entirely successful. What will be different about Boston? I’ll keep you posted. Regardless, I’d be first to alleviate myself of the worry of owning/locking/storing my personal bike and most definitely sign up for the program!

Though this video depicts women drivers, and I am a woman driver with a good record, it’s still hilarious. A case and point that some drivers out there shouldn’t be driving… and what’s the best way to avoid them? Pick up you’re two wheeler and get in the bike lane.