Interesting transportation things

[Busy Bee]

Who's the wiz that came up with that piss poor idea?

[Busy Bee]

Proterra electric bus just snagged a world record by driving 1,100 miles on a single charge


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The Tesla Model S can cruise for about 550 miles without recharging when pushed to the limit. Proterra just strapped two rooftop batteries on its 18-ton bus and drove the vehicle 1,101.2 miles on a single charge.

The Sept. 4 feat at Indiana’s Navistar Proving Grounds reportedly clinched the long distance record for any electric vehicle (EV). The previous title was set in 2011 by an experimental one-seat German car that traveled 1,013.8 miles (1,631.5 km) in 36 hours. The previous bus record is 633 miles in 2015. Proterra said it did not register with Guinness due to scheduling issues, but had Navistar act as an official independent observer.

Rest of story:
https://qz.com/1078326/an-electric-b...single-charge/

[mrnyc]

diblasio wants electric car charging stations in all boroughs of the city:



more:

http://www.amny.com/transit/electric...ays-1.14223945

[M II A II R II K]

Mountain View studying automated transit system

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/1...ransit-system/

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- With ongoing development in the North Bayshore area of Mountain View, city officials are worried about adding to already congested traffic between North Bayshore and the city’s transit hub at Castro Street and Central Expressway. That has led to ideation to deal with the problem, including something called “automated guideway transportation” (AGT). AGT might be part of a “solution to improve the last-mile connectivity and other mobility challenges,” according to the city.

- City documents describe AGT as “a category of advanced transportation technology that is primarily characterized by being both fully automated and driverless. This technology is often found at airports to get people between terminals.” AGT might be a way around adding road capacity, which “is neither practical nor preferred to address the increasing traffic congestion that undermines the continued economic growth and vitality of the city,” according to city documents.

- A study is underway to determine if such a system would be worthwhile. “It’s good to look at it,” said the city’s public works director, Mike Fuller, on Wednesday. “Some are people having trouble imagining how it might be feasible, but the city council really wanted to look at it, to look at things that have been done before.” Fuller said two basic corridors have been discussed — along Shoreline Boulevard, or along Moffett Boulevard, either of which would connect the North Bayshore area with the city’s transit hub.

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[M II A II R II K]

Teen Reportedly Ruptures Testicles While Subway Surfing In Brooklyn

http://gothamist.com/2017/09/20/teen...ay_surfing.php

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- A 13-year-old boy was injured while subway surfing on an F train on Tuesday afternoon, police say. The boy, who reportedly got on the train at the Avenue U station, was riding outside of the southbound train when was injured at the Neptune Avenue station. DNAinfo reports the unnamed teen "managed to ride the length of the platform before striking the 'Do Not Enter' sign at 5 p.m.," according to an NYPD spokesperson. The boy fell into the tracks and was taken to Maimonides Medical Center in serious condition. A police source told the Daily News the teen sustained cuts to his face, multiple bruises to his stomach, and ruptured testicles.

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[Busy Bee]

^That's a sad story. I'll bet he'll never do that again. Unlike adults who "trainsurf" who are just insane, I'll give this kid a pass. He was probably just looking for a thrill and/or trying to impress friends and will probably live with the affects the rest of his life. I used to climb on moving freight trains so I know just how stupid kids can be.

[Pedestrian]

'Unfit' Uber stripped of London license
REUTERS - 11:45 AM ET 9/22/2017
By Costas Pitas

LONDON (Reuters) - London deemed Uber unfit to run a taxi service on Friday and stripped it of its license to operate from the end of next week in a major blow to the U.S. firm and 3.5 million users in one of the world's wealthiest cities.

The capital's transport regulator said the Silicon Valley technology giant's approach and conduct was not fit and proper to hold a private vehicle hire license and it would not be renewed when it expires on Sept. 30.

Uber [UBER.UL], which has 40,000 drivers working in the capital, said it would contest the decision. Regulator Transport for London (TfL) said it would let Uber operate until the appeals process is exhausted, which could take months . . . .

Reuters via Fidelity.com

[M II A II R II K]

British Trains Are The Envy Of Europe… When It Comes To Data, Anyway

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2017/09/bri...o-data-anyway/

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- When it comes to trains, the conventional wisdom is that Britain doesn’t have much to be proud of. We may have invented the steam engine, but today we can look at France with its extensive high speed TGV network, or Switzerland with its punctuality… and suddenly our trains instinctively feel a bit… shit, right? This attitude though, as it turns out, is bad. We’ve got something nailed that our European friends are still struggling with: Data.That’s at least according to Mark Holt, the Chief Technical Officer at train ticketing site Trainline (they dropped the “The” a couple of years ago).

- As one of Britain’s train ticket retailers, it is currently responsible for 125,000 train journeys every single day - and reportedly sells more than 100 tickets every three minutes. A couple of week’s ago Mark was speaking at London’s Tech Leaders Summit - and was kind of enough to sit down with me after to talk about some of the clever ways that his company uses data, machine learning and so-called “artificial intelligence”. “A lot of politicians in other countries look at [Britain’s open rail data] with envy and would like to be able to do something similar.”, he explains.

Britain, it turns out, has rather a lot of open rail data: The movements of our trains, timetables and other data are more or less freely accessible to anyone who wants to take the data and do interesting things with it. Across the Channel, access is much more restricted - which is a pain for companies like Trainline. “There is a thing called the MERITS timetable, which is the European timetable for European rail. That’s heavily restricted in terms of access at the moment”, Mark explains, “It doesn’t make any sense... its public data, collected by public organisations and yet it’s not public.”

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[M II A II R II K]

This Petite French Town Turned a Stadium Boondoggle Into Free Public Transportation

Read More: https://www.citylab.com/transportati...tation/543798/

Dunkirk is a shrinking, suburban city on the northern coast of France. It’s a car town, where public buses are a mode of last resort: They represent only five percent of trips. But when Patrice Vergriete ran for mayor in 2014, he envisioned something different: a sustainable city that allures and serves young people, families, and the elderly alike. So he made a radical campaign promise, which he thinks helped him win: make the buses free.

- Before, transit in the Dunkirk area had been solely the province of the poor, the elderly, and young students. Now professionals and families—car owners, in other words—began to ride, too. They scarcely considered transit over driving when both modes cost them money, even if bus fare was as cheap €1.40, according to Vergriete. But a totally free option “made people stop and think,” he said. Now buses in the Dunkirk region will be fully gratis, seven days a week, starting in September 2018. Dunkirk will be the largest city in France to offer such a service (though it won’t be the first).

- Rider fares only ever made up about 10 percent of transit’s operating budget, which is about €50 million per year, he explains. The rest come from a special transport tax levied on businesses and the regional government’s operating general budget. Transit systems all over the world operate on similar budget breakdowns, where “farebox recovery” is quite low. When riders are already paying so little, “I think mayors should think about making it free,” he said. “It’s really a choice that we are making to charge.”

- The tax on regional business that helps fund transportation was raised by half a percent in 2011 by Vergriete’s predecessor. His goal had been to use the tax dollars for a major expansion to a local sports arena, which would have doubled the capacity at the cost of €250 million. For a depopulated metro, this would have been the fulfillment of long-laid economic development plans. But the project was always controversial, and Vergriete says most people in the Dunkirk area believed it unwise. And so did he. “The stadium was not useful for everyday life,” he said.

- For simple mobility purposes, for the environment, and for drawing residents to downtown jobs, “it’s better to have free public transportation.” So the region is using the new tax funds to pay for the bus. Free buses don’t equal effective transit service on their own. Buses in the Dunkirk area are fairly spread out and infrequent, which is why Vergriete is also working with transportation authorities to increase bus supply by about 20 percent, and pick up speeds, frequency, and access. The mayor also has plans to extend bike and walking networks throughout the city.

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[M II A II R II K]

Row over German high-speed train called Anne Frank

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41803131

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- The German rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) has defended its decision to name a high-speed train after the world-famous Holocaust victim Anne Frank. Anne Frank's name is among those of 25 famous Germans chosen by a jury after a public consultation.

- A German conservative MP, Iris Eberl, tweeted that it was a "tasteless" choice, as Anne Frank and other Jews had been sent by train to their deaths. But DB spokesperson Antje Neubauer said the girl was a symbol of tolerance. Anne Frank also represented "peaceful co-existence of different cultures, which is more important than ever in times such as this", she said.

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[M II A II R II K]

A new ‘trackless electric train’ (aka a bus) starts testing in China

https://electrek.co/2017/10/30/track...c-train-china/

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- It was first unveiled in June, but it has now started testing in Zhuzhou in the Hunan Province. — Hopefully, this new project has a better fate. Either way, China is rapidly electrifying its transport industry with electric buses and trains regardless of if they combine both to make a hybrid.

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[M II A II R II K]

Arcadis released its 2017 Sustainable Cities Mobility Index:

https://www.arcadis.com/en/united-st...ity-index-2017

[M II A II R II K]

NYC to make subway announcements gender neutral

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nyc-to-...ender-neutral/

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- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is doing away with the phrase "ladies and gentlemen" in its announcements on New York City subways and buses, CBS New York reports. In lieu of "ladies and gentlemen," the agency will be moving to gender-neutral phrasing like "passengers," "riders" and "everyone." — The gender-neutral announcements are an effort to include all people. "It's innovative, it's great," said rider Craig Clark of the Bronx. "In today's and age, you are who you are."

- "I feel it's a 'nay,' honestly speaking," said Natasha Norville of Staten Island. "I feel they can use the money for something else: Improving the tracks, improving the air." — Some straphangers are fed up with the concern over political correctness, Doris reported. "I think that it's silly and I don't think it really offends anyone to say 'ladies and gentlemen,'" another rider told Doris. "Really if they could just get an announcement that I could hear, that would be a first step in the right direction," a rider said.

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[Busy Bee]

"I think that it's silly and I don't think it really offends anyone to say 'ladies and gentlemen,'" another rider told Doris. "Really if they could just get an announcement that I could hear, that would be a first step in the right direction,"

Pretty much what my thoughts are. I really don't care much at all though, why does they're need to be an announcement precursor at all? A system unique chime or something similar would do the job and add a bit of whimsy while at it.

That said, if they could just put this much effort into eradicating the public masturbation, that would be great...

[llamaorama]

'Trackless tram' style buses were proposed in the US like 10-15 years ago.
I want to say Houston looked at using it for the Uptown Line(a never built LRT corridor).

Self driving vehicle tech wasn't as advanced back then and the vehicle wasn't nearly as sleek looking, but it did use sensors to follow lines on the road. The vehicle had some sort of weird appendage hanging from the roof facing down on the road in front- does anyone else remember this?

Also I think Eindhoven has electric self-guided buses that look like trams.

[M II A II R II K]

https://ggwash.org/view/65488/see-th...fferent-cities

[M II A II R II K]

Apology after Japanese train departs 20 seconds early

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-asia-42009839

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- Management on the Tsukuba Express line between Tokyo and the city of Tsukuba say they "sincerely apologise for the inconvenience" caused. In a statement, the company said the train had been scheduled to leave at 9:44:40 local time but left at 9:44:20. — The mistake happened because staff had not checked the timetable, the company statement said. "The crew did not sufficiently check the departure time and performed the departure operation," it said.

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[Busy Bee]

Let that sink in. For twenty seconds or so...

[ssiguy]

That Chinese bus is nothing new and just the Chinese trying to get attention again {a la elevated bus} and as noted have been in use in a few European cities for more than a decade.

They are a beautiful example of a seemingly great idea on paper that just doesn't work in reality. The system has proven itself to be unreliable in snow & ice, large rivets in the pavement can mean expensive repairs, the relays can shut down during very hot weather due to the heamting/melting of the asphalt road which the guide line is embedded. Also by the tires riding over the exact same spot repeatedly the buses {or rubber-tyred trams} "groove" the pavement and require very expensive reconstruction needed concrete panels where the tires travel so to avoid future warping.

A physically guided bus system is far superior suchas Adelaide's O-Bahn or Cambridge's Guided BRT.

[C.]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Let that sink in. For twenty seconds or so...

I'm wowed!