Gov 2.0, crossroads Houston, HSR, TOD, and more
A busy holiday season week with a business trip to Austin thrown in, so just a few small misc items to pass along:
- Fast Company on "How an Army of Techies Is Taking on City Hall: Still waiting for a full reboot in Washington, D.C., an army of citizen techies is redefining civic engagement on a hyperlocal level." Houston could definitely benefit from some of these Gov 2.0 initiatives which can reduce costs and increase innovation, citizen engagement, and economic development (by cultivating Gov 2.0 software startups). If anybody at city hall would like to discuss this in more depth, please don't hesitate to contact me (tgattis (at) pdq.net).
- An interesting article in The Texas Tribune cataloging Houston's green initiatives.
- A Washington Post editorial warning Obama to rethink his high speed rail plans.
- The Austin Chronicle profiles the reasons for the failure of transit-oriented development there. Frankly, Houston has seen the same problem along the Main St line. Hat tip to Barry.
- Bicycling advocate Peter Wang's critique of the Bicycle Commuter Act of 2008, which he believes is a wasteful boondoggle.
- Why Transit Will Never Be Energy Efficient (except for vanpools). Unfortunate, but the math doesn't lie.
- David Brooks at the NYT on our "Crossroads Nation", which is optimistic about America's future, and its description makes me optimistic about Houston's future as we're a global crossroads for energy, medical, and port trade.
"In fact, the U.S. is well situated to be the crossroads nation. It is well situated to be the center of global networks and to nurture the right kinds of networks. Building that America means doing everything possible to thicken connections: finance research to attract scientists; improve infrastructure to ease travel; fix immigration to funnel talent; reform taxes to attract superstars; make study abroad a rite of passage for college students; take advantage of the millions of veterans who have served overseas.
The nation with the thickest and most expansive networks will define the age. There’s no reason to be pessimistic about that."
Labels: economic strategy, environment, government transparency, high-speed rail, transit, transit-oriented development, world city
posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:40 PM
4 Comments:
We need to do much more to figure out how to grow the mode share of vanpooling and carpooling. People who have tried it really like it and continue doing it where possible, the problem is habit and inertia. This inertia reduces the population of willing ridesharers below critical mass. I'd love to carpool to work, but can't find anyone to do it with, and I've been searching in NuRide and METRO.
If you want to increase vanpooling and carpooling the solution is simple: Stop widening roads with tax dollars and start tolling them.
Transit can be very energy-efficient in places that don't have the FRA.
Speaking of which, has Cox ever retracted the false statement he made to the press that New York City Transit has higher carbon emissions than the Toyota Prius?
I think Antiplanner's metric is not the best one if he inclues return trips. Transit trips in the non-peak direction don't matter as much for congestion. Energy efficiency? Yeah, you gotta count that.
But I think think there's a huge difference between a 15% occupancy on most of of Metro's routes vs. 80-100% full on the commuter buses from The Woodlands.
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