Breakfast links: Lies, damn lies and statistics

by David Alpert • May 26, 2009 7:47 am

Photo from MIT SENSEable City Lab.

Bus stop 2020: A team at MIT has designed a bus stop of the future. "Riders can plan a bus trip on an interactive map, surf the Web, monitor their real-time exposure to pollutants and use their mobile devices as an interface with the bus shelter. They can also post ads and community announcements to an electronic bulletin board at the bus stop, enhancing the EyeStop's functionality as a community gathering space." Called the EyeStop, it even looks like Apple designers had a hand. (Boing Boing, Jaime)

Traffic counters for DOD ignore bicycles: Gorove/Slade traffic consultants counted traffic for NNMC, but had no instructions to count bicyclists. Some counters were treating them as cars if they rode on the street, others as pedestrians only if they were walking their bicycles, and others ignored them entirely. (Two Black Tires)

LaHood Rebuts George Will: USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood fired back at George Will for criticizing the idea that some people want to travel by other modes than driving. "We have to create opportunities for people who want to ride a bike or walk or take a streetcar," said LaHood. "The only person that I've heard of who objects to this is George Will." (Boston Globe, JB)

Think of the children: Much of the growth in VMT over the last few decades stems from non-commuting trips, especially trips with children. This suggests that carpooling, HOV and toll lanes, and ending free company parking are much less important than smart growth policies to promote 5-minute living. (Ken Archer)

Downtown back on top: Extrapolating from the current demographic trends, downtown is on the rise as a desirable location, especially for retailers, argues Newsweek, while our nation has more retail than demand in exurban mall locations. (Cavan)

Carless households down: More households in DC don't own cars, but region-wide, car ownership is up, with about 1% fewer households going carless and more households owning three cars or more. (Examiner)

Transit not part of Post's analysis: The Post writes that close-in house prices have held up better than exurbs because "there was a higher proportion of recent sales in those fast-growing suburbs, leaving them more exposed to the subprime mortgages." The article makes absolutely no mention of transit, gas prices, or the resurgent popularity of urban living.

Baltimore bike map: A nice Google map shows Baltimore's bike lanes and on-street signed bicycle routes. It also shows how few bicycle facilities there are downtown. (Baltimore City Paper, Jeff)

Yeah, where are the flying cars?: Paul Krugman notes that while once writers and artists imagined a future full of soaring, tall buildings, it instead turned out to look like Atlanta. (NY Times)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

14 comments Share	— tags: Baltimore, bicycling, bike lanes, bus shelters, car dependence, commuting, families, gas prices, links, Maryland, press, Ray LaHood, retail, sprawl, technology, traffic, transit

15 cents a mile for no traffic? (May 19, 2009)
Study says bike lanes really work (Oct 20, 2008)
Transit quiz 2: how many are within five minutes of transit? (May 9, 2008)
Are protected bike lanes actually more dangerous? (Jan 14, 2008)
DDOT may restore two-way traffic on 15th Street (Jan 10, 2008)

Comments

You know what's missing from that bus stop? Gang tags and a LOT of big booty club fliers.

I don't think the electronics would last overnight in a downtown bus stop. It would have to be enclosed in an ATM-style vault to keep people from trying to steal it with a crowbar. Not to mention the cute street urchins and their spraypaint cans.

by monkeyrotica on May 26, 2009 8:18 am

It would be important to get the exact wording of this survey. A bicycle is a vehicle. Did the survey ask about vehicles, about motor vehicles, or about cars and trucks?

by Ben Ross on May 26, 2009 8:34 am

As a life long conservative I'm happy that many Republicans are coming on board with transit. I'm happy that LaHood is a Republican supporting sensible transportation policy, and there are a lot of good conservatives supporting it as well, its only the squeaky wheels of the old guard holding out on this one.

Being in favor of transit doesn't make one a big government statist any more than supporting freeways does.

by Boots on May 26, 2009 9:03 am

I agree with you 100% boots. Most conservatives and republicans who are swayed into being anti-transit are told that it is always pork and gov't waste and succumb to the political games when pro-transit people get labeled as liberal socialists and yuppies and don't want to associate with that crowd. I think a lot of center-right people believe that transit is generally good, as long as there's a good mix, as are developments that are navigable by other means than a car or SUV and are favorable to parks, sidewalks and ample local services around. A lot of people on this site are a bit more anti-car than most but I, too, am glad that there is more bipartisan support for a more sensible transit system and smarter-designed development. I hope we see support pick up steam in this area.

by Vik on May 26, 2009 10:43 am

That growth in VMT is in part due to trips with children is (another) reason why charter schools, and all the related doing-away-with-traditional-local-public-schools privatization-ish ideas that are commonly mentioned as part of schol "reform" aren't, perhaps, the best of directions to go in if we hope to find solutions that work for all students.

Or at the very least, it should remind us that TDM needs to be a part of all school plans, and that permitting schools by right in residential-zoned neighborhoods isn't always appropriate if those schools are going to draw from unwalkable distances.

by thm on May 26, 2009 10:52 am

[The growth in VMT due to trips with children] suggests that carpooling, HOV and toll lanes, and ending free company parking are much less important than smart growth policies to promote 5-minute living.

Well, not just generic smart growth, but specifically family-oriented smart growth. That may entail focus on a different mix of retail and offices (for instance, families with children probably make more trips to the dentist and to childrens' clothing stores than to bars and late-night diners); an increased emphasis on pedestrian safety, so parents feel better letting their children walk or bike; etc. Hopefully parents can get more involved in issues like this in their PTAs, neighborhood associations, mommy groups, etc.

A really interesting feature for GGW might be guest columns from people in various walks of life, talking about what's good and bad for them about urbanism in DC. For instance, it'd be interesting (for me) to hear from a family with children, a retiree, and a handicapped person. (I'm guessing the demographics of GGW contributors and commenters are almost all working-age adults, most without children.)

by Gavin Baker on May 26, 2009 1:47 pm

The bike map for Baltimore is a nice start, but it is missing a lot of the sharrowed road network. I managed to add a few bike parking areas (my garage at work has one that wasn't listed) but couldn't figure out how to add marked lanes.

by blarg on May 26, 2009 3:13 pm

Ben,

I don't care what the exact wording of the survey was. What matters is that of the two workers I spoke to, neither was specifically counting bicycles. When SHA is saying there are no cyclists in the area and a survey is being done that can't count cyclists, we've got a problem.

by Huck Finne on May 26, 2009 4:04 pm

Huck - My comment wasn't directed at the NNMC survey. You found out how bikes actually got counted. I was talking about the Gazette article that equated vehicles to motor vehicles.

by Ben Ross on May 26, 2009 6:57 pm

Was the traffic survey in an area where the number of bikes on the road would have an affect traffic?

by hugnuf on May 26, 2009 7:06 pm

Um... if you think that people get belligerent when it is suggested that they take a bus to work, you're not going to believe how they'll be when you start telling them how to raise their kids.

Just sayin'.

by mike capitol hill on May 26, 2009 8:47 pm

@mike capitol hill:

I'd imagine that the idea is to not to go around telling other people "how to raise their kids" but to answer their questions (including invitations to post on blogs) about how you are raising your own, as an example of the available options. I've similarly spoken about commuting by bus or by bicycle with people who've asked. (None of them, in either context, have gotten belligerent.)

by david on May 27, 2009 12:25 am

david,

You're right & I agree. But a previous comment mentioned that charter schools aren't helpful.

Ask any parent on Capitol Hill if we should get rid of the charter schools, and you'll see what I was trying to say.

by mike capitol hill on May 27, 2009 5:15 am

mike--

I am, as it happens, a Capitol Hill parent whose kids went to DC public schools all the way, and I have no use for the charter schools. Most of the Hill parents I know are the same on both counts -- but, of course, the way I know them is as the parents of my kids' classmates. It's too bad you apparently haven't yet knowingly met any of us, but if you stay on the Hill long enough you will.

If you actively want to find them, you could start at:

www.capitolhillclusterschool.org

by david on May 27, 2009 10:17 pm