47 Replies to “Sunday Open Thread: Africa’s Future Rail Network”
Why isn’t the US offering to build high-speed rail networks in other countries? Don’t we offer airplanes? Wouldn’t we want to be competitive in all transportation sectors?
You mean provide assistance and economic development to developing countries while simultaneously strengthening and diversifying our economy as well as our status in the region? Who do you think we are, China?
No, we mainly sell them guns and then wring our hands when they end up using them. A “Marshall Plan” for Africa or the Middle East or even Russia (right after the end of the Cold War) would have made a lot of sense (and would make a lot of sense for some areas fight now) but that just isn’t our style anymore.
Fun fact: A recent African summit in DC had zero African participants because all their visas were denied under Trump’s new visa policies. This is stupid because Africa is rapidly growing and American companies could stand to make a lot of money there partnering with African companies, but no, we have to hang on to the stereotype that Africa is still backwards and colonial.
A recent African summit in DC had zero African participants because all their visas were denied under Trump’s new visa policies
First of all, you don’t need a Visa to attend a conference. All you need to visit a country is a valid passport. A Visa is for a long term stay. Anyone legitimately attending overseas conferences would hold a valid passport. If people are applying for a Visa just to attend a conference then yes, that would be denied.
What’s disturbing in the link is that it appears NPR is propagating this fake news! Of course it’s not that hard to spoof a web link. Hopefully this isn’t NPR retaliating for the Trump promise to slash their funding.
Also suspicious is that the original post said the “summit” was in DC and this link is for an event in California (District of CA?). It appears to have a legit website brought to you by the USC Black Alumni Association. But there’s no follow-up on proceedings or complaints. Mmmm?
And this has what to do about Seattle Transit?
Bernie yes, you absolutely do need a visa to enter the US unless you’re visiting from one of the countries who are part of the Visa Waiver Program.
None of the countries in Africa are in the Visa Waiver Program.
Or, I don’t know — call me crazy — but maybe, just maybe — these news organizations know what they are talking about and you don’t. Maybe you *do* need a visa if you are visiting the U. S. from most African countries. I know, I’ll look that up. Oh man, those guys are good — they spoofed the entire internet! Even Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_United_States_citizens
Oh, and there is nothing “suspicious” about the fact that Bob thought the conference was in DC instead of L. A. I may forget the day that men landed on the moon, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t land there (unless you think that is fake news, too).
Don’t need a visa? How much have you traveled? I haven’t traveled much, only seven countries and I needed a visa to enter two of them. I know for a fact the US requires citizens of many countries to have a visa just to enter the US.
Typical Trump voter… doesn’t care about travel bans or laptop bans on airplanes because they rarely leave their county let alone the country.
I stand corrected. Someone traveling from any country in Africa needs a travel visa to enter the US. Strangely, US citizens can travel to a number of African countries for 30-90 days with just their passport. You’d kind of think the visa wavier program would be reciprocal.
DC vs LA. There was a Powering Africa: Summit, 9-10 March 2017 in DC. Lots of Africans listed as keynote speakers. If you’re on Facebook you can connect with some of the attendees and see if they’ve notice some sort of African Ban since Trump has taken office. Some of the stories quote the LA conference leader Mary Flowers:
This is not the first time the summit has struggled with visa problems, according to Flowers, who has been organizing the event since 2013. In past years, she said, roughly 40% of interested African participants were denied entry.
40% is a pretty high number. One person seemed shocked that the process took more than 30 days. That’s news? Maybe Trump just wants to keep people from traveling to California :=
The website for the event has as much info as a flyer for a garage band playing a nightclub in Seattle. None of the usual things you’d expect like who the speakers are, a calendar of events, nada. The parent company for the event is The Global Green Development Group with a glitzy website but again no specifics like links to any actual projects they’ve consulted on. And links to past events [they skipped a year] are the same quick flash promotional flyer format.
call me crazy — but maybe, just maybe — these news organizations know what they are talking
They are all running the same story. No fact checking, no news. Maybe its just a well placed press brief as they’ve certainly managed to generate a lot of free publicity for an event that was previously off the radar.
@Bernie Note that before Trump, there was never a year where all visas for the conference were denied. And visa programs aren’t always reciprocal.
No argument that the Trump administration has directed applications for visas to be screen more carefully. It’s logical that this is going to increase wait times. Legitimate conferences even post instructions on how to apply and what to expect. This particular “conference” seems to have had extraordinary issues in the past. Why? Impossible to know from their website which has none of the usual information you’d expect. You’d think that they’d at least post a meeting calendar and some highlights from previous years. Again, legitimate conferences will already have dates advertised for the following year because it really does take that long to plan and execute.
“Brought to you by the USC Black Alumni Association” but no hint of any affiliation on their website. No mention of the event on the USC Events calendar. Other than this press release there doesn’t seem to be any footprint of this conference existing. That could raise red flags in a visa application.
We don’t have a railway sector to speak of, and we haven’t really had one since the ’70s.
What expertise does the USA have to offer? We haven’t ever built a successful HSR system.
Does Acela not count? It might be short, and slower than European and Asian HSR, but competitive with air travel in its market.
Acela meets USA safety standards, and is too heavy unless your goal is to discourage rail travel.
Not to mention Acela was built by a joint Canadian/French company IIRC.
We do offer quite an assortment of freight locomotives. GE is all over South America and Africa.
Exactly: Allow free movement of goods, not people. That is the American Way.
Best posting yet, Brent. Fifty years ago my father helped Ethiopia’s three southern neighbors, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika, now Tanzania to help set up a credit union. Fifty years later, in 2014, my brothers and I got back for a visit.
The video shows the most important of the thousands of pieces of truth so few Americans get because so many of us don’t feel like knowing:
The people shown are excellent examples of the East Africa I saw three years ago. Sharp, well-traveled, and ambitious enough to eat our lazy government contract supported corporate lunch.
Long as the world’s Alka Seltzer supply lasts.
We’re lucky that the world’s young people, especially places like what the Brits called Iran and its own expats in Sweden call Persia, have a powerful affection for the United States of America.
Because now that the rest of the world needs railroads more than they need private prisons, top echelons governing the United States of America are working their hardest to put us First in a line nobody else long.
Though I bet Chinese electric rail carries fair share of St. Louis Car Company Patents.
Mark Dublin
We don’t have the expertise. There are no true HSR systems in the USA. California has one under construction but even there they’ve needed to bring in consultants from overseas, and the trainsets will be built by European companies (though likely assembled in California). It would be very smart for the USA to develop an HSR sector, but that would require government support, which in this decade is not happening.
I saw several things this weekend that point in the same direction.
1. I changed cell carriers and had to get a compatible phone, and got an LG. I asked, “LG is a Chinese company?” The agent said it’s a Korean company. I said, “Then I’ll worry less that it has a backdoor.” But then I started wondering, why aren’t there any American phones available? There’s Apple’s, but they’re made in China and I don’t like Apple’s vendor lock-in policies. In the 80s there was a saying, “The United States used to make televisions.” Now it doesn’t make televisions or phones or many other things.
2. This video. We don’t make HSR, or commuter rail or metro rail networks. And we certainly don’t build them in other countries. I guess there’s no international market for them.
3. US border agents have started demanding visitors’ social-network usernames and passwords to check their online presence and friends, and seizing their mobile computers/phones to search them for weeks. The policy is not set yet so it’s just a trickle now but the DHS secretary told Congress, “If they really want to come into the country, they’ll give us the passwords,” indicating that it will become widespread. Besides the violation of privacy and the risk of agents impersonating people, it sets a precedent for repressive countries to demand the same. And dual US-Canadian citizens and US citizens are being subject to the same or having their citizenship doubted, and citizens in visa-waiver countries like Ireland are getting worried about it. This is just adding to the decrease in tourism, business and cultural visits to the US, or in Americans being willing to go abroad.
All this points to a country losing ground in the world and becoming less competitive. Or to rephrase a recent slogan, making America ungreat.
Admin question: What is the time limit to comment? I was going to comment on the Page 2 “Queen Anne Restructure” post from April 1st, but comments appear to be closed.
It appears to be about a week, which seems way too short. If I’m engaged in a friendly debate, it seems like someone is going to have unanswered questions. Someone says something, I respond a couple days later, they respond a couple days after that. When I finally notice the response, it is too late to say anything. It’s not the end of the world, but it just seems a lot shorter than it used to be (and way too short in general).
What did you want to say? This is an open thread.
Lots of stuff, it just makes more sense to reply to the original post or comment instead of referencing it here. But yeah, I will probably say something about the 31 and 32.
@RossB, comments were closed at 7 days. Per your request, and another, all comments are now open for 14 days.
Does anyone have data on how the I-85 freeway collapse in Atlanta has affected transit ridership, or what the local/state governments have done to keep transit moving?
MARTA ridership experienced a boost in ridership as a result of the collapse.
Is there a comprehensive list anywhere of surface entrances to Link stations? Google Maps gives an approximate location of the entire station, but not specific entrances. Metro, but not Sound Transit, has a map of each station in the DSTT (e.g.http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/tunnel/pdf/WestlakeMap.pdf), but it’s hard to overlay that map onto a street grid. And I can’t find anything for stations outside the DSTT (e.g. Capitol Hill)
It’s really helpful when navigating to or from an unfamiliar part of the city. For instance, which side of the street I should be walking on, should I be looking for the entrance an an intersection or in the middle of a block, is the entrance on a main street like Broadway or around the corner on a side street like Nagle?.
Interior maps of stations would be nice too, especially given that half of the escalators in them are broken at any given time. It would be nice to know which alternate routes would be fastest, for instance.
That would interesting if Google Maps gave a level of detail to direct to a specific entrance to a station, rather than the station in general. It doesn’t matter much in Seattle, but it can matter a great deal with systems like the London Undergound, where the entrances tend to be spread further apart.
Another related feature would be telling you which car to aim for when you board the train, so you’ll be closest to the exit pointing towards your final destination when you get off. In systems like the New York or Washington D.C., whose trains are much longer than ours, this effectively allows you do some of the walking at the destination end of the trip, while you wait for the train, using time that would otherwise be wasted. I’ve talked to multiple people who live in these cities that have the practice down to a science, at least for the specific trip of their everyday commute.
The pink areas are the underground stations and the entrances are labeled with numbers. But if you get directions, it won’t tell you the entrance number to use (but will direct you to a specific entrance). Tokyo subways also have something posted on platform walls to tell you which car to use for different stations which is quite helpful.
Google Maps in Japan licenses data from Zenrin, which is Japan’s biggest mapping company that has all that info. Whereas there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent in the US, which is why Apple had to go collect that information themselves.
Apple Maps Transit is the best, they show actual station entrances. I believe City Mapper does as well.
The only one I know of is the DSTT, but here it is overlaid on a street grid:
While I was waiting for the bus at Kent Sounder Station the other day to go to class. I noticed a large group of people that were around the info board. Wondering what was going on, one of the station helpers told me that all these people were refugees and were being taught how to use the buses. Which brought a smile to my face and ended up thanking the lady who was teaching the group.
As a daily transit user, it’s great to see people being taught how to use transit who really need it. Most of them likely don’t own a car and their only means of getting around is likely by bus.
Even more heart-warming, Zach, is that like vast majority of the world’s people, this group was learning how to use our system in particular. While wondering how Metro can make ends meet with so few people on the bus, and nobody on the roof.
Though in ever more places worldwide, increasing number of automobiles join existing buses in traffic jams that, sorry to say it, surpass our worst spilled fish truck. Guess US example is world’s most powerful persuader. Book for you:
Second most incisive part is visit to the morgue owned for its own busy use by the Mumbai commuter rail system. Well, King County DOES have a medical examiner….!
But mainly: People stampeded off moving trains, bald tired buses falling off mountains, airlines that crash more than land, ferries gone down with hundreds…Author found none of them as depressing as trip-ending Greyhound ride from San Francisco to New York.
Only thing worse than an economy moving its holdings from transportation to private prisons is a company turning its buses into them instead.
The comments have a good thread started by Glen Bottoms about light rail lines in the Banlieu since 1992. These run crosswise to the radial Metro and RER lines. They’re now building higher-capacity subways along the LR lines (although there’s disagreement how much they duplicate them). Also, the highrise housing projects are less dense than the lowrise apartments that are replacing them.
Los Angeles is a spaghetti of 88 cities. (The Atlantic) “[From Venice I bicycle] south on a 16 mile route that traverses the unincorporated streets of Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey (a beach-side community in the city of Los Angeles), and four incorporated municipalities: El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach. All lovely places. But if you’re intending to visit, I’d suggest driving or biking, because every time someone has tried to explain the various bus systems that connect them, and the rules for transferring among them, I’ve experienced that same feeling I had in the class that convinced me to stop taking math.”
In general the tail of the 31 and 32 aren’t great. Not nearly as good as the shared section. The 32 is a bit redundant and the 31 is flawed in a subtle way. While the 31 looks like it has great connections (https://seattletransitmap.com/app/) it really doesn’t. As someone pointed out to me before, to get from the 31 to the Ballard bridge (headed either direction) requires a substantial walk.
So the first thing I would do is change the 31. It would go on 15th (like the 32) then turn and cross into Magnolia on Dravus (then head south as it currently does). Such routing would have seemed silly a few years ago when I was one of a dozen or so people living in Interbay. But that number has grown considerably since then (https://goo.gl/maps/GqiVCVwZCQL2). Those numbers will continue to increase, as other, similar buildings are built in the area. The value of this routing isn’t so much that people have a shorter walk (although that is one benefit), but that they have double the frequency from Interbay to either Fremont or the UW (15 minutes to 30 minutes).
There is no free lunch, though, as folks north of Dravus on 22nd have no service for this route, and Fisherman’s Terminal has no service at all. But the better connectivity seems like a worthy trade-off. Suddenly getting from SPU to Ballard is fairly trivial. Just take a 31 or 32, get off at Dravus, walk across the street and you are done. This also greatly frees up the 32, as the transfer from the D to the 31 becomes much better (a same stop connection at Dravus to the 31 works just fine).
This opens up the possibility of simply not branching the buses. Send them both to Magnolia Village. This might be a bit hard to justify, but doesn’t seem crazy to me, and makes things much simpler. It also isn’t very far, meaning that it might actually save a little time overall.
But if we still want a split, one possibility would be to send the 32 up Gilman, then head to the top of the hill. This would provide a bit of coverage for riders, and provide a better connection from Queen Anne to Ballard. But it still wouldn’t be a great connection to Ballard, as it would mean a two seat ride. Making matters worse, it wouldn’t work great if you are actually staying on the bus, as this is kind of a weird way to get from the top of Queen Anne to Fremont (or the UW). Rather than head north, you head west, then curl around.the hill. People might still take it (to avoid a two seat ride) but it is less than ideal.
But that is basically the argument for sending the buses to Magnolia. If you go to Queen Anne, you are either doubling back on yourself, or being redundant. Personally I would sent both buses to Magnolia. If folks balk at losing serving in the Fisherman’s terminal area, I would keep service there, but change the way it works. Have both buses cross Dravus, but then go different directions. One would head south to Magnolia Village, while the other goes north to Fisherman’s terminal (layover space should be easy find there). A similar variation would be to send the northern Magnolia bus towards Discovery Park on Gilman. Don’t go all the way into the park, but stop somewhere close to it to pick up more of the apartments along the way. You would only lose one bus stop on Emerson, which is on 21st, and only a couple blocks from a bus stop on Gliman. That way, you have a one stop ride for a lot of folks from Gilman to Fremont or the UW and you also double up service with the 33. This means that if you are headed downtown and miss the 33, you would take the 31, and just transfer at Dravus to the frequent D.
Thinking of the planned owl service KC Metro restructures, is there any chance of ST 550 becoming a 24-hour route?
If there exists any route on the eastside that would warrant 24-hour service, the 550 would probably be it. There even used to be night-owl service between Seattle and Bellevue before, in form of the 280. But, to go from Bellevue to Seattle, you had to detour all the way to Renton. During the latest recession, the 280 was one of the first to be canned.
But, as far as I know, there exists no agency willing to pay for such service and, given the choice, I would rather see 15-minute service during the earlier part of the evenings, plus all day Sunday, first.
Why isn’t the US offering to build high-speed rail networks in other countries? Don’t we offer airplanes? Wouldn’t we want to be competitive in all transportation sectors?
You mean provide assistance and economic development to developing countries while simultaneously strengthening and diversifying our economy as well as our status in the region? Who do you think we are, China?
No, we mainly sell them guns and then wring our hands when they end up using them. A “Marshall Plan” for Africa or the Middle East or even Russia (right after the end of the Cold War) would have made a lot of sense (and would make a lot of sense for some areas fight now) but that just isn’t our style anymore.
Fun fact: A recent African summit in DC had zero African participants because all their visas were denied under Trump’s new visa policies. This is stupid because Africa is rapidly growing and American companies could stand to make a lot of money there partnering with African companies, but no, we have to hang on to the stereotype that Africa is still backwards and colonial.
Fake news alert!
Got a link, Bob?
Not fake news: http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/03/25/521402446/what-if-you-held-an-african-summit-and-no-africans-could-come
First of all, you don’t need a Visa to attend a conference. All you need to visit a country is a valid passport. A Visa is for a long term stay. Anyone legitimately attending overseas conferences would hold a valid passport. If people are applying for a Visa just to attend a conference then yes, that would be denied.
What’s disturbing in the link is that it appears NPR is propagating this fake news! Of course it’s not that hard to spoof a web link. Hopefully this isn’t NPR retaliating for the Trump promise to slash their funding.
Also suspicious is that the original post said the “summit” was in DC and this link is for an event in California (District of CA?). It appears to have a legit website brought to you by the USC Black Alumni Association. But there’s no follow-up on proceedings or complaints. Mmmm?
And this has what to do about Seattle Transit?
Bernie yes, you absolutely do need a visa to enter the US unless you’re visiting from one of the countries who are part of the Visa Waiver Program.
None of the countries in Africa are in the Visa Waiver Program.
Stop spewing bullshit.
They also spoofed The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/20/no-african-citizens-visas-california-annual-trade-summit
Man, those guys are good. Spoofing top notch American and now British news agencies.
Or, I don’t know — call me crazy — but maybe, just maybe — these news organizations know what they are talking about and you don’t. Maybe you *do* need a visa if you are visiting the U. S. from most African countries. I know, I’ll look that up. Oh man, those guys are good — they spoofed the entire internet! Even Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_United_States_citizens
Oh, and there is nothing “suspicious” about the fact that Bob thought the conference was in DC instead of L. A. I may forget the day that men landed on the moon, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t land there (unless you think that is fake news, too).
Don’t need a visa? How much have you traveled? I haven’t traveled much, only seven countries and I needed a visa to enter two of them. I know for a fact the US requires citizens of many countries to have a visa just to enter the US.
Typical Trump voter… doesn’t care about travel bans or laptop bans on airplanes because they rarely leave their county let alone the country.
I stand corrected. Someone traveling from any country in Africa needs a travel visa to enter the US. Strangely, US citizens can travel to a number of African countries for 30-90 days with just their passport. You’d kind of think the visa wavier program would be reciprocal.
DC vs LA. There was a Powering Africa: Summit, 9-10 March 2017 in DC. Lots of Africans listed as keynote speakers. If you’re on Facebook you can connect with some of the attendees and see if they’ve notice some sort of African Ban since Trump has taken office. Some of the stories quote the LA conference leader Mary Flowers:
40% is a pretty high number. One person seemed shocked that the process took more than 30 days. That’s news? Maybe Trump just wants to keep people from traveling to California :=
The website for the event has as much info as a flyer for a garage band playing a nightclub in Seattle. None of the usual things you’d expect like who the speakers are, a calendar of events, nada. The parent company for the event is The Global Green Development Group with a glitzy website but again no specifics like links to any actual projects they’ve consulted on. And links to past events [they skipped a year] are the same quick flash promotional flyer format.
They are all running the same story. No fact checking, no news. Maybe its just a well placed press brief as they’ve certainly managed to generate a lot of free publicity for an event that was previously off the radar.
@Bernie Note that before Trump, there was never a year where all visas for the conference were denied. And visa programs aren’t always reciprocal.
No argument that the Trump administration has directed applications for visas to be screen more carefully. It’s logical that this is going to increase wait times. Legitimate conferences even post instructions on how to apply and what to expect. This particular “conference” seems to have had extraordinary issues in the past. Why? Impossible to know from their website which has none of the usual information you’d expect. You’d think that they’d at least post a meeting calendar and some highlights from previous years. Again, legitimate conferences will already have dates advertised for the following year because it really does take that long to plan and execute.
“Brought to you by the USC Black Alumni Association” but no hint of any affiliation on their website. No mention of the event on the USC Events calendar. Other than this press release there doesn’t seem to be any footprint of this conference existing. That could raise red flags in a visa application.
I happened to come across this. These Are The Most Powerful Passports In The World
We don’t have a railway sector to speak of, and we haven’t really had one since the ’70s.
What expertise does the USA have to offer? We haven’t ever built a successful HSR system.
Does Acela not count? It might be short, and slower than European and Asian HSR, but competitive with air travel in its market.
Acela meets USA safety standards, and is too heavy unless your goal is to discourage rail travel.
Not to mention Acela was built by a joint Canadian/French company IIRC.
We do offer quite an assortment of freight locomotives. GE is all over South America and Africa.
Exactly: Allow free movement of goods, not people. That is the American Way.
Best posting yet, Brent. Fifty years ago my father helped Ethiopia’s three southern neighbors, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika, now Tanzania to help set up a credit union. Fifty years later, in 2014, my brothers and I got back for a visit.
The video shows the most important of the thousands of pieces of truth so few Americans get because so many of us don’t feel like knowing:
The people shown are excellent examples of the East Africa I saw three years ago. Sharp, well-traveled, and ambitious enough to eat our lazy government contract supported corporate lunch.
Long as the world’s Alka Seltzer supply lasts.
We’re lucky that the world’s young people, especially places like what the Brits called Iran and its own expats in Sweden call Persia, have a powerful affection for the United States of America.
Because now that the rest of the world needs railroads more than they need private prisons, top echelons governing the United States of America are working their hardest to put us First in a line nobody else long.
Though I bet Chinese electric rail carries fair share of St. Louis Car Company Patents.
Mark Dublin
We don’t have the expertise. There are no true HSR systems in the USA. California has one under construction but even there they’ve needed to bring in consultants from overseas, and the trainsets will be built by European companies (though likely assembled in California). It would be very smart for the USA to develop an HSR sector, but that would require government support, which in this decade is not happening.
I saw several things this weekend that point in the same direction.
1. I changed cell carriers and had to get a compatible phone, and got an LG. I asked, “LG is a Chinese company?” The agent said it’s a Korean company. I said, “Then I’ll worry less that it has a backdoor.” But then I started wondering, why aren’t there any American phones available? There’s Apple’s, but they’re made in China and I don’t like Apple’s vendor lock-in policies. In the 80s there was a saying, “The United States used to make televisions.” Now it doesn’t make televisions or phones or many other things.
2. This video. We don’t make HSR, or commuter rail or metro rail networks. And we certainly don’t build them in other countries. I guess there’s no international market for them.
3. US border agents have started demanding visitors’ social-network usernames and passwords to check their online presence and friends, and seizing their mobile computers/phones to search them for weeks. The policy is not set yet so it’s just a trickle now but the DHS secretary told Congress, “If they really want to come into the country, they’ll give us the passwords,” indicating that it will become widespread. Besides the violation of privacy and the risk of agents impersonating people, it sets a precedent for repressive countries to demand the same. And dual US-Canadian citizens and US citizens are being subject to the same or having their citizenship doubted, and citizens in visa-waiver countries like Ireland are getting worried about it. This is just adding to the decrease in tourism, business and cultural visits to the US, or in Americans being willing to go abroad.
All this points to a country losing ground in the world and becoming less competitive. Or to rephrase a recent slogan, making America ungreat.
Admin question: What is the time limit to comment? I was going to comment on the Page 2 “Queen Anne Restructure” post from April 1st, but comments appear to be closed.
It appears to be about a week, which seems way too short. If I’m engaged in a friendly debate, it seems like someone is going to have unanswered questions. Someone says something, I respond a couple days later, they respond a couple days after that. When I finally notice the response, it is too late to say anything. It’s not the end of the world, but it just seems a lot shorter than it used to be (and way too short in general).
What did you want to say? This is an open thread.
Lots of stuff, it just makes more sense to reply to the original post or comment instead of referencing it here. But yeah, I will probably say something about the 31 and 32.
@RossB, comments were closed at 7 days. Per your request, and another, all comments are now open for 14 days.
Does anyone have data on how the I-85 freeway collapse in Atlanta has affected transit ridership, or what the local/state governments have done to keep transit moving?
MARTA ridership experienced a boost in ridership as a result of the collapse.
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/04/what-happened-to-atlantas-carmageddon/521805/
http://atlanta.curbed.com/2017/4/3/15160430/atlanta-I85-bridge-collapse-news-updates
Is there a comprehensive list anywhere of surface entrances to Link stations? Google Maps gives an approximate location of the entire station, but not specific entrances. Metro, but not Sound Transit, has a map of each station in the DSTT (e.g.http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/tunnel/pdf/WestlakeMap.pdf), but it’s hard to overlay that map onto a street grid. And I can’t find anything for stations outside the DSTT (e.g. Capitol Hill)
It’s really helpful when navigating to or from an unfamiliar part of the city. For instance, which side of the street I should be walking on, should I be looking for the entrance an an intersection or in the middle of a block, is the entrance on a main street like Broadway or around the corner on a side street like Nagle?.
Interior maps of stations would be nice too, especially given that half of the escalators in them are broken at any given time. It would be nice to know which alternate routes would be fastest, for instance.
That would interesting if Google Maps gave a level of detail to direct to a specific entrance to a station, rather than the station in general. It doesn’t matter much in Seattle, but it can matter a great deal with systems like the London Undergound, where the entrances tend to be spread further apart.
Another related feature would be telling you which car to aim for when you board the train, so you’ll be closest to the exit pointing towards your final destination when you get off. In systems like the New York or Washington D.C., whose trains are much longer than ours, this effectively allows you do some of the walking at the destination end of the trip, while you wait for the train, using time that would otherwise be wasted. I’ve talked to multiple people who live in these cities that have the practice down to a science, at least for the specific trip of their everyday commute.
They are able to do this, kind of, at least in Japan. https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7085416,139.7776071,17.31z
The pink areas are the underground stations and the entrances are labeled with numbers. But if you get directions, it won’t tell you the entrance number to use (but will direct you to a specific entrance). Tokyo subways also have something posted on platform walls to tell you which car to use for different stations which is quite helpful.
Google Maps in Japan licenses data from Zenrin, which is Japan’s biggest mapping company that has all that info. Whereas there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent in the US, which is why Apple had to go collect that information themselves.
Apple Maps Transit is the best, they show actual station entrances. I believe City Mapper does as well.
The only one I know of is the DSTT, but here it is overlaid on a street grid:
http://metro.kingcounty.gov/maps/pdf/seattle-accessible-map.pdf
While I was waiting for the bus at Kent Sounder Station the other day to go to class. I noticed a large group of people that were around the info board. Wondering what was going on, one of the station helpers told me that all these people were refugees and were being taught how to use the buses. Which brought a smile to my face and ended up thanking the lady who was teaching the group.
As a daily transit user, it’s great to see people being taught how to use transit who really need it. Most of them likely don’t own a car and their only means of getting around is likely by bus.
Even more heart-warming, Zach, is that like vast majority of the world’s people, this group was learning how to use our system in particular. While wondering how Metro can make ends meet with so few people on the bus, and nobody on the roof.
Though in ever more places worldwide, increasing number of automobiles join existing buses in traffic jams that, sorry to say it, surpass our worst spilled fish truck. Guess US example is world’s most powerful persuader. Book for you:
https://www.amazon.com/Lunatic-Express-Discovering-Dangerous-Trains/dp/0767929810
Second most incisive part is visit to the morgue owned for its own busy use by the Mumbai commuter rail system. Well, King County DOES have a medical examiner….!
But mainly: People stampeded off moving trains, bald tired buses falling off mountains, airlines that crash more than land, ferries gone down with hundreds…Author found none of them as depressing as trip-ending Greyhound ride from San Francisco to New York.
Only thing worse than an economy moving its holdings from transportation to private prisons is a company turning its buses into them instead.
Mark
+1 to Zachary
Lots of state offices have classes where they train people to take transit. Some transit agencies even have their own transit instruction programs.
Citylab links.
The War on Cars is in Paris (Citylab/Atlantic)
The comments have a good thread started by Glen Bottoms about light rail lines in the Banlieu since 1992. These run crosswise to the radial Metro and RER lines. They’re now building higher-capacity subways along the LR lines (although there’s disagreement how much they duplicate them). Also, the highrise housing projects are less dense than the lowrise apartments that are replacing them.
What the Paris Trams Can teach US Cities (Transit Center) These are the same light rail lines as in the previous.
Why are European Cities So Dense? Video. (Citylab/Atlantic, Wendover)
Why Trains Suck in America Video. (Citylab/Atlantic, Wendover)
Los Angeles is a spaghetti of 88 cities. (The Atlantic) “[From Venice I bicycle] south on a 16 mile route that traverses the unincorporated streets of Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey (a beach-side community in the city of Los Angeles), and four incorporated municipalities: El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach. All lovely places. But if you’re intending to visit, I’d suggest driving or biking, because every time someone has tried to explain the various bus systems that connect them, and the rules for transferring among them, I’ve experienced that same feeling I had in the class that convinced me to stop taking math.”
Seattle parklet photos (SDOT, Flickr)
OK, so now I’ll offer my opinion on this post: https://seattletransitblog.wpcomstaging.com/2017/04/01/queen-anne-restructure/
In general the tail of the 31 and 32 aren’t great. Not nearly as good as the shared section. The 32 is a bit redundant and the 31 is flawed in a subtle way. While the 31 looks like it has great connections (https://seattletransitmap.com/app/) it really doesn’t. As someone pointed out to me before, to get from the 31 to the Ballard bridge (headed either direction) requires a substantial walk.
So the first thing I would do is change the 31. It would go on 15th (like the 32) then turn and cross into Magnolia on Dravus (then head south as it currently does). Such routing would have seemed silly a few years ago when I was one of a dozen or so people living in Interbay. But that number has grown considerably since then (https://goo.gl/maps/GqiVCVwZCQL2). Those numbers will continue to increase, as other, similar buildings are built in the area. The value of this routing isn’t so much that people have a shorter walk (although that is one benefit), but that they have double the frequency from Interbay to either Fremont or the UW (15 minutes to 30 minutes).
There is no free lunch, though, as folks north of Dravus on 22nd have no service for this route, and Fisherman’s Terminal has no service at all. But the better connectivity seems like a worthy trade-off. Suddenly getting from SPU to Ballard is fairly trivial. Just take a 31 or 32, get off at Dravus, walk across the street and you are done. This also greatly frees up the 32, as the transfer from the D to the 31 becomes much better (a same stop connection at Dravus to the 31 works just fine).
This opens up the possibility of simply not branching the buses. Send them both to Magnolia Village. This might be a bit hard to justify, but doesn’t seem crazy to me, and makes things much simpler. It also isn’t very far, meaning that it might actually save a little time overall.
But if we still want a split, one possibility would be to send the 32 up Gilman, then head to the top of the hill. This would provide a bit of coverage for riders, and provide a better connection from Queen Anne to Ballard. But it still wouldn’t be a great connection to Ballard, as it would mean a two seat ride. Making matters worse, it wouldn’t work great if you are actually staying on the bus, as this is kind of a weird way to get from the top of Queen Anne to Fremont (or the UW). Rather than head north, you head west, then curl around.the hill. People might still take it (to avoid a two seat ride) but it is less than ideal.
But that is basically the argument for sending the buses to Magnolia. If you go to Queen Anne, you are either doubling back on yourself, or being redundant. Personally I would sent both buses to Magnolia. If folks balk at losing serving in the Fisherman’s terminal area, I would keep service there, but change the way it works. Have both buses cross Dravus, but then go different directions. One would head south to Magnolia Village, while the other goes north to Fisherman’s terminal (layover space should be easy find there). A similar variation would be to send the northern Magnolia bus towards Discovery Park on Gilman. Don’t go all the way into the park, but stop somewhere close to it to pick up more of the apartments along the way. You would only lose one bus stop on Emerson, which is on 21st, and only a couple blocks from a bus stop on Gliman. That way, you have a one stop ride for a lot of folks from Gilman to Fremont or the UW and you also double up service with the 33. This means that if you are headed downtown and miss the 33, you would take the 31, and just transfer at Dravus to the frequent D.
Thinking of the planned owl service KC Metro restructures, is there any chance of ST 550 becoming a 24-hour route?
If there exists any route on the eastside that would warrant 24-hour service, the 550 would probably be it. There even used to be night-owl service between Seattle and Bellevue before, in form of the 280. But, to go from Bellevue to Seattle, you had to detour all the way to Renton. During the latest recession, the 280 was one of the first to be canned.
But, as far as I know, there exists no agency willing to pay for such service and, given the choice, I would rather see 15-minute service during the earlier part of the evenings, plus all day Sunday, first.