THE PERILS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oh And This Too

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:19:00 +0000

Amanda Hess at Washington City Paper has an article today about rape. She makes a (rather weak) comparison to her boyfriend, who was recently struck by a car last month. He was in the crosswalk, in D.C. (Hess also says that he's OK!) She writes:

Now, the driver who hit him did not set out with the intention of running into a human with her car. She didn’t mean to hurt anybody. But she also knew full well that cars are required to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. She was simply so accustomed to her driving privilege that she never dreamed that this could actually happen—and that she would ever be held responsible for her habitual disregard for the law. After all, a lot of motorists act this way, and most pedestrians just stay out of their way. When a pedestrian is hit in a crosswalk, it’s not an accident. It’s the result of the motorist who has normalized her dangerous actions.

Emphasis mine. Clearly.

Just saying.

Headline: One Third of NYC Traffic Deaths are Pedestrians

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:13:00 +0000

Headline: One Third of NYC Traffic Deaths are Pedestrians (Gothamist)

Sufjan Stevens Interprets the BQE

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:48:00 +0000

Sufjan Steven's new album is inspired, and about, New York's BQE. Stevens spent nine months driving and riding the BQE to film a film to accompany his album The BQE. The project was commissionED by the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

(Presumably the album will allow Stevens to check NY off the states list for his 50 States Project. Illinois and Michigan have been completed. But maybe not, since the album is considered a soundtrack to the film. The film, by the way, was shot on super 8 mm and standard 16 mm film!)

Here's a chunk of NPR's article covering the project:

"My job as an artist is to find beauty where there is ugliness," Stevens says. "And I think this project is all about the beautification of a dilapidated object of scorn."
Stevens spent nine months meditating on that object of scorn. The result, he says, is that traffic no longer bothers him.
"I think a lot of this piece is about transcending the mundane elements of everyday life and finding inner peace," he says.
When asked if his quiet corner of solitude happened to be stuck in traffic, Stevens replies with a laugh: "Exactly. It's where I belong."

Make sure you listen to his NPR interview after you read the NPR piece here.

Seatbelt Safety Video

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:55:00 +0000

I saw this video earlier this year on How We Drive, and since its come up in conversation this week with two different people, I thought I would share it here. Before you watch, I want to share the warning accompanied by the video on YouTube:

ADVISORY - This video contains scenes of a graphic nature.
A disturbing new ad campaign has started to encourage people to wear their seat belts. The Government commercial shows graphic images of the fatal damage car crashes can cause to internal organs in a bid to persuade people to belt up. Thousands of people are caught in the North East without a seat belt on each year, and ministers hope the move will make the region's roads a safer place.

And here's the video:

I'm personally not opposed to seat belts. I know I've jerked on the brakes and the belt has prevented me from flying into the windshield, and I hadn't even rear-ended anybody. But that's just me.

Pedestrian Narrowily Escapes Death

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0000

I saw the above video on Buzzfeed yesterday, and [SPOILER] just as the man makes to the end of the street a bus barrels through the crosswalk and several cars begin their passage across the same intersection. And as that happened the air was sucked out of my lungs.

Buzzfeed's Peggy Wang wrote, "this guy pretty much wins at life," but I disagree. First, any success "at life," is generally an overstatement reserved for something rather mundane. For example, when the co-worker I used to carpool with would arrive with a cup of coffee for me, she won at life. She was the best co-worker ever. Etc.

This man doesn't win at life because he narrowly escaped with his life. (And conversely, if he had died, it would be devastatingly disrespectful to call him a "failure at life.") This is not FTW, this is shocking luck.

And with that, I hurl into a wastebasket and vow never to watch again.

SFist Interviews MUNI Fight Videographer

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:52:00 +0000

Have you seen the MUNI fight? I felt like posting it was somewhat gratuitous, considering how incredibly vile the whole fight is. (It's below if you want to see it--you can't talk about a video and not share it, you know?) The video has been the source of much controversy following its publication on SFist. The San Francisco blog interviewed Jonathan Perel, the passenger who videotaped the fisticuffs, and the Perel said he's been attacked on the bus before too. His story is less dramatic, but I thought it was harrowing nonetheless:

SF: Before we dive into the fistfight of note, you mentioned to us that you were attacked while riding the same bus route three weeks ago. What happened to you?

JP: I got on the bus around 9:45 at Stockton/Columbus and sat in one of the rear facing seats on one of the articulated buses. I did notice that the guy sitting in the seat in the isle across from me was a little sketchy looking, but I sat down, minded my own business and started checking my email. As I was wearing sunglasses that obscured my peripheral vision, I didn't see the punch coming in, and it landed squarely on my neck. Luckily, I caught the end of the punch as he punched my while sitting down across the isle from me.
There was NO warning. I jumped up stunned and yelled out "What the FUCK" several times at him. He stayed sitting and started saying something about "a genie in my phone" and that "it would bring alcohol out of my phone". I realized the guy was probably drugged or schizophrenic (or both) and decided that the best thing to do would be to talk to the bus driver.
I made my way across the bus (it was moderately full) and got to the bus driver as we got to a stop. I told her that I had just been attacked and that the guy was not "right in his head". The bus driver continued on her route. I had to repeat several times to her that I had just been attacked before she started taking me a little more seriously, and she picked up a phone of some sort and to call in "central". Apparently, nobody picked up and she kept driving past the final two stops in Chinatown, across the tunnel, past Sutter Stockton, and to my stop at Union Square. The guy got out there and walked away, west on Geary Street. I gave the bus driver the top of one of my checks (with my contact info) and walked to a block to work to lay down (I'm pretty sure I was in shock).

I just hope that a Baltimore driver would have a better response (considering how drivers take to inappropriate language, I have some confidence it would play out better than the situation above).

In regards to the infamous MUNI fight, Perel says the bus driver and another employee did nothing about the incident during his time on the bus. (He exited one stop after the video's end, which concludes at a stop itself.)

Here's the video. You can find a translation at Muni Diaries.

Darn pedestrians are gettin' in the way of my car

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:37:00 +0000

I'd usually give you the link and say "You have to be [expletive] kidding me," except I can't, because Tom Vanderbilt would never kid! Certainly not that someone would would write that more people are killed walking drunk than hit by drunk drivers. Drunk pedestrians! They'll get themselves killed by your car!

When one considers Tucker Max and the Super Freakonomics one can conclude anyone can have any shit published. At which point I ask, gosh darn, where is my book?

A Tale of Two Cities

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:33:00 +0000

As you may have noticed, I have a soft spot for Baltimore. I was planning to tell one of these stories before I visited Baltimore last month, but faced with a startlingly different approach to pedestrian activity, I feel compelled to tell both stories together.

Gaithersburg
Like most 9-to-5ers, I've started going to the gym directly after work. As such, I drive down the street, park, and hit the gym. Most of us are harried, stressed out, and visibly irritated as we approach the facility, and I admit that in this state, I've provided the bare minimum in pleasantry.

I was approaching the main entrance last week when a minivan, driven by a woman in her 40s tore through the lot before coming to an abrupt halt at the small crosswalk connecting the gym's entrance to the lot's premium crossing. The van stopped short to two older women carrying yoga mats. They looked up and hurried across the width of the van's bumper as the driver honked and yelled at the women. (I didn't get the exact words, but it was along, "GET OUT OF THE WAY.") The passenger, a young woman in her teens, gestured wildly and yelled too.

Everyone in the lot stared, and when the woman sped past we stared at each other for a few moments before the women asked us, the crowd, what they had done wrong, and why the woman was upset.

Another gym-goer said, well, obviously, we're in the way.

I'm slowly getting used to this way of thinking, by the way.

Baltimore
A roller derby player and I park, separately, on a city street near the 83 overpass and begin walking, separately, to Bourbon Street for the Baltimore City Paper Best of Baltimore Party. (I'm a sometimes research assistant.)

We wait for the lights and take to the crosswalk when it's our turn, crossing in front of a large, shiny SUV. It has one tire just over one of the crosswalk lines, and because it is so shiny (and large) I'm careful not to get too close. (I was raised to be careful about scratching cars. That episode of Mad Men where Don gets the new car? That's my childhood.) Just as the woman in front of me passes the bumper, the driver leans out of his car and says, "I'm so sorry ladies."

I told him it was no problem, I could walk around.

NY Cops Saw Bikes

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:41:00 +0000

From Gothamist (be sure to check out the story there), we have this video of NYC cops sawing bikes on Bedford Avenue in Greenpoint:

Gothamist's Billy Parker writes:

While [Ben] Running said that the bikes looked like ones that were currently in use, an officer from the nearby 94th Precinct in Greenpoint told the Post that the bikes removed have been there for at least three months. Officer Cole Pletka said, “From a distance, they might have looked like they were rideable, but the bikes were on top of each and both wheels were bent."

I can't really tell, but I don't like that videographer Running was asked by the cops not to tape the scene because the video might end up on the Internet. Because we know how the last cop vs. bike incident on tape ended!

Still, the reasoning leaves me with a few hypothetical questions: What if a cyclist parks in the same spot every day? For example, I might lock up my bike in front of my job every day, or maybe I have a regular post-work hangout and lock up there. Or, in a real life scenario, I always locked my bike in the same spot in college, and I know a very beautiful cruiser on campus locked up in the same spot year-round. I only know it moved because I was on campus after midnight working one night and the cyclist had finally left for the day. (Clearly, the cyclist was also a summer classes double major like myself. Or a very dedicated professor if it's still there.)

The incident also reminds me of the letter I read in Chicago one year when a moron asked for mayor Daley to remove bikes without seats because, clearly, they were dilapidated! I almost fell off my stool at Starbucks over that one! (I was caught by a lovely man.)

why.i.hate.dc and Alice Swanson

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:34:00 +0000

Note: I accidentally put the wrong last name here why.i.hate.dc's author Dave Stroup. I'm sorry, Dave, I thank you for not lambasting me and taking it so well. (Because I know I wouldn't.) Did you know, Internet, that while I was in college, students failed the entire course for messing up a person's name? Yeah, you think I would have picked up on that. Again, I'm very sorry! There's two lessons here lazy journalism, isn't there? I think I fixed all of the errors, but just in case, I'll be available for stake burning tonight after I finish watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Since The Washington Post ran an essay by staff writer Ian Shapira bemoaning the blogging treatment, wherein bloggers blockquote the heck out of original content, I've tried to copy + paste blog less. (It certainly makes for boring posts.) In short, Shapira logged hours in research, transportation, and article construction to have his article reduced to a few paragraphs by Gawker. I felt for Shapira. And I felt lazy, too. He worked hard, and Gawker swept his article into its rug, to receive payment over his work in page views.

So with Shapira's essay and experience in mind (plus my own admitted laziness) I hesitate to break down why.i.hate.dc's hours of work into a few block quoted sentences. Suffice to say, Dave Stroup went to a lot of work to obtain documentation and find the source of the removal of a ghost bike last month. After weeks of speculation and finger pointing, Stroup has the definitive time line as to who asked for the removal of Alice Swanson's memorial, a request for the bike's lock to be cut, but otherwise not removed, the back and forth between various offices, and a lot of finger pointing.

I'm really impressed with Stroup's work (especially considering my own lack of work in the last few months), so please, do read his blog post and lend your support.

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:55:00 +0000

Dear Legba Carrefour,
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.

XO,
Katherine

p/s Sorry I keep typing your name wrong.

IZ the Wiz

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:34:00 +0000

(video and death notification via Gothamist)

New York City Subway graffiti artist Iz the Wiz died earlier this month. Born Michael Martin, Iz tagged every line more than any artist. He died at 49 June 17 in his brother's home in Florida as the result of a heart attack. Iz suffered severe kidney trouble, which is believed to be the result of inhaling toxic paint fumes and tunnel dust.

Iz is quoted by the Telegraph as referring to his norotoriety with some disdain: "I would trade it all back for perfect health." And though the grafiti and art world is at a loss for losing him, we've probably received a greater gift from his work than he ever realized. And I'm saying a lot, because Iz appeared in 1983's Style Wars and Wild Style, and videogame Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.

Iz's career in 1972 at the age of 14. He worked his way through each subway line, sometimes completing up to, or more than, 100 throw-ups a night. Iz sometimes worked alone, covering the full length of a train, covering the area from top to bottom (see above video), but he sometimes worked with other artists, covering the entire surface of a subway car. (You can read an interview detailing more here.) When MTA took a hard line in the 80s to these infractions, Iz took on freight trains and (presumably blank) wall space in Queens. The following decade Iz was "instrumental in the development of the Phun factory as a place where writers could paint legally, allowing many writers to emerge from retirement."

I can't endorse this activity—it is illegal, and for good reasons, plus bad grafitti brings down the value of the property people are riding, and degrades the image of transit—but I can certainly appreciate Iz's work, both as a amaetur artist myself, a serios transity rider, and hip hop culture enthusiast (is there a better way to say that and sound less pretentious?). I know my favorite stretches on the Light Rail were over and under bridges, when the sun shone brights, illuminating the city, and large stretches of brightly painted concrete.

NBC 4 is driving me crazy

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:38:00 +0000

There's been a horrific Red Line collision on DC's Metro (my coverage here and here). Naturally, everyone is covering it. This is the "deadliest" accident in Metro's history, with four fatalities and more than 100 riders injured. (There have been accidents in the past, this is just the "first of this magnitude.")

Unfortunately this means sticking two, mildly irritating news anchors, and hoping they behave with some shred of journalistic integrity.

Totally not happening.

First, Pat Collins is sent to the scene. If I'm in the news, for any reason, the last person I want reporting is Pat Collins. His slow annunciation forces a weird, sad, sensationalist presentation.

An anchor is harping that this crash will make traffic bad. Because that people will sit in traffic is SO MUCH WORSE than FOUR DEAD PEOPLE, which includes a TRAIN OPERATOR.

The same anchor is harping that the accident must be because there was track work, relying on Tweets as a source of information. People riding a train do not know the reason there is slow activity. This is rush hour, so delays would be natural.

She speculates and asks every person she can to confirm track work. Surely, this is track work!

But NBC 4 and riders are forgetting that Metro does its track work and maintenance on the weekend. That way riders will have less delays to deal with and no one will be late for work. Metro has said that while it may be possible, it is ridiculous to assume that track maintenance would be the cause of the accident. Metro says that a train was stopped, waiting to pass a platform, when the other train hit it from behind.

Pat Collins and the in-station anchors are using slang words as adjectives, including "slammed," (something you might slap on a desk) "plowed" (pedestrian at best) and "rammed." While they are probably accurate, it's speculative as no witnesses have been sourced or interviewed. This is a sensational report for NBC 4, not a fatal accident. Dicks.

Correction! At 7:46 p.m. Collins interviews someone who explains the sound of the noise. Still no eyewitness account, so my immature name-calling still stands.

Until we know from a reliable source what happened and have a more official account it would be best NOT to speculate.

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:29:00 +0000

Dear Bike,

I can't wait to see you again. My new helmet finally arrived in the mail, and as soon as it's nice out during the daylight, we will meet again. Maybe we will meet tomorrow, weather provided, presuming physical therapy doesn't wear me out so much that I want to roll over and die.

We might not make it to the end of the street, but maybe we will. We might not make it all the way to our beloved cows, but maybe we will! If we do, we probably won't make it back, but we'll figure it out.

I miss you terribly. I'm also a little fat and a little lonely. But with you in my life again, I know we'll be okay.

All my love,
Katherine

She was unbearable

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:46:00 +0000

Dear Kelly,

I knew I didn't like you before you boarded the Red Line train to Shady Grove at Union Station. Before we reached Judiciary Square, I learned what a rude young lady you are, only confirming my suscpicions. In short, you think you are better than your brunette companion because you go to "White, conservative AU," wanted to go to a private elementary school, but suffered through a public school before ending up a better high school, which with all its AP courses, "was on 20/20 like all the time, didn't you see it?"

You're also a better person because you wanted to "help" New Orleans (you didn't go), are "super" close with your parents, and love DC off-campus, even if it's dirty and full of minorities! And totally scary! Gosh, you are a trooper. I've maken a note and intend to nominate you for your willingness to ride the Metro, which must be super scary.

There's a lesson here, Kelly. If you weren't so LOUD I wouldn't know how mean and judgemental you are when forced to commute and intend conferences with your peers, or feel compelled to mock you by way of blog post, while sitting on the train.

Regrettably there is a second lesson. I know your name because you wildly flung your limbs with reckless abandon to the dismay of those around you. And all of your personal information was in your left hand. Gee, thanks! Now I know even more about someone I was trying to avoid.

Anyway, best of luck to you in this scary city, Kelly! Please be more mindful on your future off-campus excurions.

Cheers!

Katherine

(also posted here)

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:30:00 +0000

Brooklyn dude Peter Brett wrote a 400-page novel, on his phone, riding the New York subway (the F train, to be specific). I hate him almost as much as Gothamist does, who points out most of us are "checking out possible candidates for a Missed Connection post and listening to your podcasts."

Brett makes me feel like total crap. I started the blog more than a year ago to collect my pathetic stories about cars swerving into puddle on York Road on rainy afternoons in effort to splash me (usually successful, it's a miracle I never caught pneumonia), ward off predators at darkened bus stops, and extol the virtues of riding with a man who will board the Light Rail at the Lutherville stop and down a 40 before exiting at the next. And that was before I remembered my extraordinarily long commute to and from Rockville on an MTA commuter bus.

"Dark, demonic fantasy" The Warded Man is now in bookstores.

(Daily News article)

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:29:00 +0000

Via Gothamist, I present the singular, clear evidence why Denmark was named the happiest country last year:

(I think this video would also be a good way to guilt someone into a helmet in America.)

In America police cars, motorists, and delivery trucks park in the bike lane and motorists open their doors without looking (which is DEADLY). This is a huge difference from last summer's Critical Mass incident in New York. And while the cop was found to be guilty, a lot of non-cyclists took his side.

Denmark, I'm coming over right now.

Canton hates public transportation

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:25:00 +0000

Canton, which The Baltimore Sun describes as a “model of urban chic where million-dollar townhouses overlook the harbor and destination night spots surround O'Donnell Square,” is opposed to an “east-west transit line” because it will mar the neighborhood.

The MTA-sponsored line in a notoriously transit unfriendly city is planned to run from Woodlawn to Bayview. The Light Rail currently has two lines. The primary line runs North to South from Hunt Valley to Glen Burnie (the line splits at the Linthicum stop—separating to either Glen Burnie or BWI airport). A second “line” splits off the main line, running from Penn Station to Camden Yards. All stop on this “line” are on the main line with the exclusion of Penn Station. Trains run the following “routes”: Hunt Vallet to BWI Marshall, Timonium to Cromwell, Penn Station to Camden Yards.

MTA’s bus routes and subway stations cover travel from the suburbs to the city, but the routes are flawed, sometimes confusing, and largely inconvenient. Though I’ve given MTA and light rail a serious beatdown since starting The Perils of Public Transportation, my love for the light rail is no secret. That it seems to cover a larger area with greater ease than the subway and bus through just one, sad line proves both its efficiency and MTA’s dire need to provide more service to the city.

Residents (and visitors) can’t take light rail to destinations east and west. I took cabs when responsibility called—and it wasn’t without desperately trying to make the trip work taking the bus or subway. MTA once advised I take a cab, because I might wait “a very long time” for my return trip. The best option using MTA for that trip included three connections.

There are a bevy of options for a general project, and nothing for this—which is considered the red line—is official. But something is necessary, so the for the purpose of the following content, the plan is an underground rail with additional above ground rail in Canton and other neighborhoods. This argument is not assuming that the plan is the best, flawless plan ever, but recognizing that the city needs better transit, and mildly flawed, expensive transit is better than no transit.

But that doesn’t matter to Canton. “In fact, Canton would simply rather Baltimore not improve its mass transit at all rather than face a light rail in their neighborhood,” Mobtown Shank wrote. According to The Baltimore Sun, Canton worries that the line will “cut off Canton from the water, drag down property values and compound the area's already serious traffic and parking problems.”

If I were motivated to visit Canton (unlikely) I’d rather take light rail than drive. So would others, and the presence of public transit in general would help alleviate traffic problems. There would be less fools trying to park, because there would be less fools trying to drive.

Traffic is, unfortunately, the side effect of living in a city. It’s not that I want to marginalize the “struggle” a motorist faces in Canton, but I want to highlight dumbassery in Houston (via How We Drive):

Ever since the city of Houston allowed the partial closure of a neighboring street — against the wishes of more than 1,200 nearby residents, school administrators and a growing cadre of state representatives — she has lived in fear.

…Neighbors in Rivercrest, who lived for years on a long, straight street with no curbs, sidewalks or stop signs that had turned into something of a racetrack for cars trying to avoid rush-hour traffic on Westheimer. They had tried for more than a decade to get some help from the city, only to continually bump up against the will of their neighbors and a bureaucratic morass at City Hall.

The neighborhood had a street partial street closed to traffic and in turn, funneled the traffic to neighboring streets, causing chaos to everyone else. How We Drive’s Tom Vanderbilt summarized the situation, “Everyone wants a.) to drive, and b.) wants quick access to fast roads, but no one wants traffic on their street. But you can’t have one without the other, unless, of course, as in the story above, you redistribute inequitably.”

What’s noticeable about Houston’s flabbergasting mistake and Canton’s position against the new line is the attitude shared between the two neighborhoods. The Houston residents wanted quieter streets. Canton’s opposition is represented by lawyer and waterfront property owner Ben Rosenberg. He told The Baltimore Sun, "I have yet to find somebody [in Canton] who says they're in favor of this thing," he said. "The feeling in Canton is whatever you do, do it underground. ... If that breaks the bank, wait till the bank fills up."

Rosenberg means he hasn’t overheard anyone and probably wouldn’t socialize with someone in favor of the line. I doubt Rosenberg is knocking on any doors with answers he hasn’t prepared for. I love that Rosenberg sees a bank like a reservoir. Next time it rains, the bank will be flush with cash. In this economy? In this city? Rosenberg, do you really live in Baltimore? (Also, the property value argument makes me laugh. Like Canton is worth so much money, and the deteriorating housing market hasn’t impacted the value already, and the million dollar homes aren’t overvalued.)

Canton, why can’t you swallow your tomfoolery and deal with it? You’re party central for residents in their 20s, you have more bars than you know what to do with, and you have almost no way to get there. (Now that the buses have been re-routed it’s marginally easier to reach the neighborhood if you come from areas north of the city.)

Is this because you’re white and affluent, Canton? The Baltimore Sun pointed to deep racial tension—the other end of the line is in a less affluent area of the city, and if the line goes underground for Canton, it has to go underground for West Baltimore, too. Because a decision can’t be made just because white, affluent yuppies want it that way. (Or it has to be hidden better, and people have to get paid appropriately, which is what Houston did.)

And I doubt the only problem with Rosenberg’s “go underground” suggestion is failproof. Constructing underground rail is likely to tear up Canton’s streets, which will doubtlessly hinder—gasp!—traffic and parking. And for the sake of angering a few Cantonians (Cantonites?) subway construction in the Bronx in the 1970s was (and still is) to blame for a rash of violence over the summer of the construction. (And in a snowball effect, the angst led to the rise of hip hop!) And, Cantonites, the neighborhoods were targeted because they were poor, non-white people. Or, as Yonah Freemark said nicely on The Transport Politic: “But anyone who’s seen the relatively minimal impact of light rail trains along streets in Portland, Dallas, or Minneapolis knows that there’s really nothing to fear.”

If the line isn’t built traffic will worsen citywide and specifically in the eastern neighborhoods. It will negatively impact and irritate Canton. The red line can help traffic and tourism and shouldn’t be dumped, ignored, or prevented.

Mobtown Shank says it best in Sunday’s introduction to the quagmire: “It's heartening to know that there are plans to update our transit. But it's also disheartening to see that in this era of global warming, one neighborhood's prejudices can disrupt better mass transit plans.”

And then we start a moshpit on the streets of Reykjavík!

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:15:00 +0000

Have you read the Vanity Fair article about Iceland? It's long, and the writer's tone is grating (the superior tourism paired with the "let me dumb this down for ignorant Americans" made my skin crawl) and the emphasis that Icelandic men are brutes straddled the line between offensive and ignorant until this part:

The best way to see any city is to walk it, but everywhere I walk Icelandic men plow into me without so much as a by-your-leave. Just for fun I march up and down the main shopping drag, playing chicken, to see if any Icelandic male would rather divert his stride than bang shoulders. Nope.

I have to have a little love for a writer who eschewed a cab for the full trip and admitted to playing chicken on the sidewalk. Michael Lewis, you wanna go to Target on a Saturday afternoon? You take every demographic but old people and the yoga ladies, and stand on my left side, I've only got one shoulder to work with.

I've always wanted to see Iceland, even though it's frigid and a little dark. I'll have to work on my drinking tolerance before I go, at the very least because one drink would do me in.

It's time to think less selfishly

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:57:00 +0000

Hey Yonah Freemark! Go fuck yourself.

I've always thought that it might be better, for pedestrians, those who can't use stairs, and cyclists, if the stairs in stations were replaced with a ramp. No hauling a bike up and down the stairs, no problems walking up and down the stairs when the escalator is out, and an easier descend and ascend from the platform. This is flawed, and I'm working on tailoring this idea.

But honestly, fuck this bullshit that because the elevator goes out and A Lot of People Are Walking so we should ignore the people who are handicapped. What if everything were designed for the handicapped? What if we just did it in the initial design? Wouldn't, in many cases, everything be better accommodated for everyone?

We can't design everything based on money. This is not a world where cheap and shoddy workmanship can reign supreme. I want to save the deficits too, but looking at people with more needs and saying, Fuck You is selfish and flawed.

And doing that in transit is ignoring that many handicapped people rely on transit to get around. When you can have the monetary and physical freedom it's rude to ignore the needs of others.

We are so over, Freemark.

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:29:00 +0000

Good job, Maryland!

You’re getting $53 million for green projects and that includes public transit! From Baltimore Business Journal:

The money that Maryland will receive is on top of the $113 million the state was told it would receive earlier this month.

Baltimore County will get $7.4 million, while Baltimore City will get $6.4 million. Another $9.5 million will go to the state’s energy department.

The funding will support energy efficiency programs, transportation programs that conserve energy and projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Recipients had to “report the number of jobs created or retained and how they plan to save energy” to get the money. I hope the Old Line State did both. Maryland is joined by the following states receiving money and putting at least some of it into transit: Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Ohio. At press time more states were popping up with their plans, so surely there are more states.

Replacing bulbs in traffic lights with LEDs seem to be a popular program too. Vermont has an incentive program for carpooling/taking the bus.

Football player kills man as a DUI, but it's no big deal

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:03:00 +0000

Lovely. A football player for the Cleveland Browns drove, drunk, and hit a pedestrian who was on his way to his bus stop. The full article, from WUSA9:

MIAMI (AP) -- Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte' Stallworth was driving drunk when he struck and killed a pedestrian, according to published and broadcast reports Thursday. WSVN-TV reported Thursday that unnamed sources with knowledge of the investigation said Stallworth's blood-alcohol level was between .08 and .16. The legal limit is .08. The Miami Herald also cited an unnamed source as saying that Stallworth's blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit.

The Miami Beach Police Department refused to confirm the reports. Ed Griffith, spokesman for Miami-Dade County prosecutor Katherine Fernandez Rundle, would say only that the investigation is focusing on whether alcohol was a factor in the death of 59-year-old Mario Reyes.

Reyes was struck and killed by a Bentley driven by Stallworth about 7 a.m. Saturday morning. Reyes, a crane operator, had just gotten off work and was trying to catch a bus when he was hit.

No charges have been filed against Stallworth, 28. His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, nor his attorney, Robert Switke, returned calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. Stallworth issued a statement Wednesday saying he was "grief stricken" over Reyes' death.

If Stallworth was drunk, he could be charged with DUI manslaughter which carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

Stallworth signed a seven-year, $35 million contract with the Browns as a free agent before last season but was injured much of the year. He previously played for New England, Philadelphia and New Orleans in the NFL and played college football at Tennessee.

Seeing as the victim was 1) a pedestrian 2) possibly not white 3) working class 4) approaching his bus stop and the driver 1) inflicted homicide but 2) is a football star (plus 3) "everybody makes mistakes") I'm sure his career will remain strong, even though the crane operator's will not. Even replacing alcohol with speed I'm sure "manslaughter" wouldn't factor into the outcome.

Here's the thing. It's not on the evening news. It's not in the two daily papers I read, it's not in my twitter or RSS feeds. It's not in Google News, and since it's not a dog fighting scheme, I won't be surprised when it remains that way.

Gumble grumble grumble.

Le Sigh

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:17:00 +0000

The President we elected, Barack Obama, and enticed us with promises of a more transit-friendly future is still aboard the train to a transit-based utopia.

From Track Twenty-Nine, who got it from Transportation for America and C-Span:

It's imagining new transportation systems. I'd like to see high speed rail where it can be constructed. I would like for us to invest in mass transit because potentially that's energy efficient. And I think people are a lot more open now to thinking regionally…

The days where we're just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody… recognizes that's not a smart way to design communities. So we should be using this money to help spur this sort of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation.

That will make a big difference.

Oh, wait! We lost the funding in the stimulus bill and most of it that was left went to sprawl in the form of brand new highways. ""Huh. How about that?

Quote of the Day: Share the Good News! via Track Twenty-Nine

"The days where we're just building sprawl forever, those days are over" via Transportation for America

ew

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:52:00 +0000

i have to drive by myself to work (40ish miles? traffic=suck) tomorrow until the 23rd.

yuck.

Pedestrians are moving targets

noreply@blogger.com (Katherine) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:16:00 +0000

Disgusting. A Jersey City cop was driving drunk and hit two pedestrians in the crosswalk last week. Marilyn Feng, a recent graduate from NYU was killed, and her boyfriend was seriously injured. Yesterday's Gothamist reported that the mother of the driver is a complete asshole (emphasis and links from Gothamist, entry starts with "After" and ends with "pay"):

After Jersey City cop Martin Abreu was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated, after allegedly striking two pedestrians—killing one and injuring the other—his mother defended him. The Daily News reports that a woman who identified herself as Abreu's mother said, "It was her fault," referring to 26-year-old Marilyn Feng, who died while crossing West Street at Albany in Battery Park City. The woman added, "So my son went out and had a couple of drinks. He deserves to have a good time now and then."

Feng and boyfriend Dennis Loffredo (both pictured at left) were walking to Feng's apartment at 3:40 a.m., after a night of tango dancing. The News reports, "Cops pointedly refused to say whether the couple had the light or not." Feng, who had recently graduated NYU Law school, was about to start a job at the Chinatown Manhpower Project helping immigrants find jobs, according to the Post. Feng once interned in Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's office; Stringer said she "had a great future."

Jersey City chief of police Tom Comey said, "The charges surrounding this incident are most serious and this type of activity will not be tolerated by the JCPD, which led to Mr. Abreu's immediate suspension. While Mr. Abreu was in no way representing our department when this incident occurred, our primary thoughts are with the injured and the woman who perished. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families." Abreu has been suspended without pay.

Yeah. Classy. If your son wants to pay a bar to get smashed, that's great. How about he walks there? And he goes with sober people willing to put up with him and make sure he gets home okay? What if your son were drunk, and he walked out into traffic? I bet that wouldn't be his fault. Or if he was drunk and smashed some windows? The businesses should clean it up, right? We all deserved a good time but no one deserves to die because of it. Your son is not owed a sacrificial lamb because he works hard. This woman had her life ahead of her and now she doesn't anymore. The community and family have lost her, because, you say, she dared to cross the street while your son was intoxicated.

Yes, if the light is green, a car gets to go. But a car does not get to hit pedestrians.

For me, the problem with my accident—getting his by a car in a crosswalk—is not that I spent almost two weeks in the hospital, missed work and pay, have had my life and health derailed, am looking at my plans to travel disappear, have lost most of my friends because they're lazy incompetent twits, and am now viewed as a child after years of convincing those around me that I'm a mature adult capable of making my own decisions, but that people I don't know--doctors with nice big cars, medical professionals, strangers, think that I willingly flung my body into traffic. That because I dared cross a street that I am incompetent and unable to cross a street, despite years of navigating the notoriously difficult MTA system unharmed. Traffic in Rockville

is terrible but the drivers in Baltimore County are generally dangerous and I wasn't a danger to a speeding car. I was in an accident, in which both parties failed to see each other. I'm still not pointing fingers at the car, but I'm pointing my finger at assholes who think a four-wheeled vehicle rules the road and areas it covers. Drivers as a whole tend to believe that their swiftly traveling vehicle takes precedent over smaller objects: compact cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycles are not targets on the road, and we need to change these principles or our society can never move forward.

It's ignorant thinking that's polluting air, tangling our roads, destroying the stimulus, and killing people. Lady, I hope your cable goes out during the next airing of your favorite show. And I hope it happens the week after. And I hope you never have to go through the turmoil these families, and mine, had to go through when their children were hit by vehicles. I hope this post hasn't upset my family. Discussing the accident in general makes people uncomfortable, but I really can't swallow this attitude quietly, and I would probably rail like this if I had driven to work that day instead of taking the bus. I do want to applaud the JCPD, for trying to convince me that Jersey City is not where dreams go to die, by making a statement about this behavior. When I drove to New York in October I revealed to my sister that Jersey City scares me, mostly because of the lore (and the song), and she told me, shape up kiddo, that's embarrassing.

Update: Gothamist has an unrelated pedestrian accident (the victim is "okay"), plus an older unrelated story where a van was left idling/on and reversed through traffic and hit a group of children in the crosswalk, two of which died. (This has been talked about on this blog before.) The police have charmingly called it an "accident," in a way that implies it's no big deal.
Finally, there's a white bike for sale at Macy's, which is absolutely inappropriate. Someone had to have seen this before it went on the floor and spoken up, right?