SMART DMU planners still trying to develop a convincing budget plan: On Wednesday the Metropolitan Transportation Commission decided to delay a vote on the money after Farhad Mansourian, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency’s acting chief, concluded last week the rail project would cost another $45 million. You know what would help save $45 million? [...]
Archive for July, 2011
Can Anyone Spare $45 Million?
Posted in transit, tagged SMART on July 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
MTC Moves
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged MTC on July 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
It is hard not to see a lot of symbolism in the MTC”s decision to move out of Oakland. Until 2006, the MTC was next door to the BART headquarters. Their new location will be next door to the SF Transbay Terminal. Goodbye BART, hello high-speed rail.
Why Judges Shouldn’t Design Computer Software
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cloud computing, web 2.0 on July 28, 2011 | 3 Comments »
While it is true that California’s court system handles a huge caseload, it boggles the mind that a Statewide Computerized Case Management System should cost $2 billion! Projected in 2004, the AOC’s earliest available cost estimate for the system was $260 million, an amount that grew substantially to $1.9 billion based on the AOC’s January [...]
Triple-A Assholes
Posted in highways, tagged AAA on July 27, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The California AAA explains to Will Campbell why it could not support a 3-foot passing law for bicycles: When our amendments were not included, we took an oppose-unless-amended position on the bill and still attempted to work with the author and bill supporters to improve the bill. Amendments we sought included identifying the road geometric [...]
Buy-Canada
Posted in transit, tagged protectionism on July 26, 2011 | 3 Comments »
At least the USA isn’t the only country with idiotic procurement rules: In the mass-transit business, purchasers want to buy the best equipment at the best price. But they face intense political pressure from the governments that finance these megaprojects to steer contracts to local companies, and workers. Bombardier – like its German, French, Spanish [...]
Amtrak Kills Streetcar Connector
Posted in planning, tagged Amtrak on July 24, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Clueless Amtrak bureaucrats kill a DC Streetcar connector, in order to preserve ROW for an insane $100+ billion HSR vaporware project: Back in April, the District Department of Transportation’s point man on streetcars, Scott Kubly, assured the denizens of H Street NE that they were still working with Amtrak to run the western end of [...]
Grade Inflation
Posted in highways, planning, tagged EIR, LOS on July 23, 2011 | 2 Comments »
LOS (Level of Service) is one of the most misunderstood metrics of traffic analysis. The term is familiar to anyone who has read an EIR. LOS assigns a “grade” for intersection performance. The grades run from “A” to “F”, with “A” being most free-flowing, and “F” having the most delay. The first misunderstanding is that [...]
Happy Malaise Day
Posted in Uncategorized on July 15, 2011 | 1 Comment »
July 15, 1979 – On this day in history, President Jimmy Carter gave his “malaise” speech: In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, [...]
