EarthLab's List of Top Green U.S. Cities for 2007

[Gordo]

My bad - I missed that graphic. I just focused on the "on train" time. I can't seem to find what they're using as that extra hour - do you know? For me, my abode is a five minute cab ride from the TTC and the office I most often go to in LA is another five minute cab ride away from Union Station, so I guess I'm jaded.

[mthd]

Originally Posted by Gordo

My bad - I missed that graphic. I just focused on the "on train" time. I can't seem to find what they're using as that extra hour - do you know? For me, my abode is a five minute cab ride from the TTC and the office I most often go to in LA is another five minute cab ride away from Union Station, so I guess I'm jaded.

they're probably figuring 15 minutes to get the station on either end, 15 minutes to get through security, and 15 minutes for boarding, waiting for your train, etc. if i applied my same trip to best-case CHSR, i'd leave 10 minutes to walk to the station and probably get there 20-30 minutes before the train. on the other end, getting from union station to the west side would take easily twice as long - perhaps 45 minutes. best case, that makes the train 15 minutes slower.

as i said - i would use it all the time and not complain a bit about it taking a little longer... but it ain't gonna be faster, and even the very-optimistic-projections of the CHSRA don't say it will!

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by mthd

they're probably figuring 15 minutes to get the station on either end, 15 minutes to get through security, and 15 minutes for boarding, waiting for your train, etc. if i applied my same trip to best-case CHSR, i'd leave 10 minutes to walk to the station and probably get there 20-30 minutes before the train. on the other end, getting from union station to the west side would take easily twice as long - perhaps 45 minutes. best case, that makes the train 15 minutes slower.

as i said - i would use it all the time and not complain a bit about it taking a little longer... but it ain't gonna be faster, and even the very-optimistic-projections of the CHSRA don't say it will!

As I said, I'm definitely jaded because my house and usual destination are both close to the end points - and I've sat on the tarmac for over an hour four times this year at SFO waiting to take off - weather delays.

It will be interesting to see security and boarding times - you can lop ten minutes off of each of your estimates for Japanese and European HSR, so I wonder if the same will happen here. I would assume at least security will be slower. In the year that I lived in Japan, I treated the trains (all types) the same way I would BART here - arrive five minutes before departure time, and hell, if you miss it another one is coming in half an hour or so.

[mthd]

Originally Posted by Gordo

...It will be interesting to see security and boarding times - you can lop ten minutes off of each of your estimates for Japanese and European HSR, so I wonder if the same will happen here. I would assume at least security will be slower. In the year that I lived in Japan, I treated the trains (all types) the same way I would BART here - arrive five minutes before departure time, and hell, if you miss it another one is coming in half an hour or so.

unfortunately, the current program for the major high speed rail stations includes physical 'security.' what the final extent of security is remains to be determined, of course, but the extremely peaky (even more so than airports) nature of high speed rail at a terminal point worries me. imagine two full 10 car trains leaving the transbay terminal at 5pm and 515pm and every one of those 1,500 passengers per train showing up 5 minutes before departure only to be greeted by TSA subcontractors at a bunch of metal detectors.

[Chicago Shawn]

My score: 167
Carbon output: 1.2

I live in a 4 bedroom apartment with 3 other roomates, which was converted a while back from a ground floor storefront. I have no lawn as my front door opens to two steps and the public sidewalk. The building is in an old school urban hood built out in the mid to late 19th century, my building being constructed in 1889. The El tracks and station behind my building were first built in 1895 and rebuilt a couple years ago. I do not own a car, and in fact have only driven a car twice in the past 15 months. There is however only one CFL bulb in our apartment, which is in fact my bedside lamp.

I love the fact that I am able to practice what I preech.