Mass Transit

[StarmanMBA]

Irvine has the ridiculous iShuttle, which runs empty, from the airport  to the rail terminal in Tustin.  It collects roughly 1/2 cent for every dollar of operating cost. 
Taxpayers suck up the difference. 

"Light" (sic) rail is worse by orders of magnitude.  "Light" (sick) rail costs $100 to $300 million per mile to build.  Factor that in your "cheap" comments.


Buses can do the same thing and change their routes in a day.  But here's the crazy part:  OCTA is cutting routes and service for lack of passengers.

Why don't all you progressive preachers take the bus and stop driving.

The other thread you complain about the traffic. Now your (sic) complaining about mass transit to help out the traffic.
Is there something I am missing?

Yes, a very great deal. 
1.  In "the other thread," I pointed out the laughable hypocrisy of NIMBYs.  Obviously you missed the point, most likely because YOU are a NIMBY.
2.  Mass traffic doesn't "help out the traffic," as you pretend.  Here's why:
A.  As I said, but you ignored or failed to comprehend, the iShuttle runs EMPTY, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  It costs taxpayers millions, not that you care. 
B.  Buses run EMPTY, all over Orange County.  OCTA is cutting back on routes because they are bleeding badly, not that you care.  You wear your progressive mantle as if it makes you superior to everyone else, and smarter than everyone else, and more "caring" than everyone else.
C. Hypocrites who complain about new developments and demand "public transportation" continue to drive their kids to school and countless activities.  They drive to Great (sic) Park activities by the score.  They drive to all manner of activities in and around Irvine, while complaining about... the traffic.    You don't get it, do you?

It's called HYPOCRISY. Look it up.  Then ride your bike or walk places instead of driving.

 

[acpme]

Amazingly I'm with Star on this one. Mass transit is not the solution. It's a last gen solution and not a next gen one. Also, mass transit works best in major cities centered around a downtown core. It's a hub and spoke that brings people from the burbs into the center where commerce is concentrated. This is why the subway hasn't worked that well in LA because everything runs through DTLA, which isn't really the true center of the metro area, if there is one at all.

What does any system in Irvine look like? Is the main thoroughfare Culver? Jamboree? What about the center of gravity shifting even more east? If any sort of light rail ends up looking like a grid, then it becomes too expensive to build and slower to ride due to the sheer number of transfers required to get from point to point.

Not to mention that rideshare already has disrupted public transit and driverless tech could disrupt further sooner rather than later.

 

[eyephone]

I?m talking big scale (big time if you know what I mean), not a small shuttle service. It?s okay for Austin, OKC, Durham to in the early stages or have a light rail? (they reside in conservative states)

I?m not sure if you follow my posts. But I think we should help the Veterans. (never leave a man behind) People donate to help wild animals and we help other people in other countries. How about the people in our country?

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Amazingly I'm with Star on this one. Mass transit is not the solution. It's a last gen solution and not a next gen one. Also, mass transit works best in major cities centered around a downtown core. It's a hub and spoke that brings people from the burbs into the center where commerce is concentrated. This is why the subway hasn't worked that well in LA because everything runs through DTLA, which isn't really the true center of the metro area, if there is one at all.

What does any system in Irvine look like? Is the main thoroughfare Culver? Jamboree? What about the center of gravity shifting even more east? If any sort of light rail ends up looking like a grid, then it becomes too expensive to build and slower to ride due to the sheer number of transfers required to get from point to point.

Not to mention that rideshare already has disrupted public transit and driverless tech could disrupt further sooner rather than later.

That's not true at all.  While having a central business center is important...it is not a critical part of subway system.  NYC has Wall Street but also a number of other locations that are well connected...people just take it to get around.  It's the same in Asia, Chicago, and a ton of other places. 

LA subway is not get working to full effect because doesn't go anywhere (yet) and the city was not build around a metro system.  That is going to change soon. 

 

[acpme]

I?m talking big scale (big time if you know what I mean), not a small shuttle service. It?s okay for Austin, OKC, Durham to in the early stages or have a light rail? (they reside in conservative states)

I don't know Durham but Austin and OKC have downtowns. Austin in particular has a growing, walkable, amenitized downtown which is a convergence of commerce, government, and a major university just a stones throw away. There's a huge parking problem in Austin as sites that used to be parking have given way to office, condo, or apartment high rises. Public transit makes sense in this scenario and its impossible to drive in and park downtown, especially when there's big events going on in the city. Even then I wonder what transportation technology is like by the time the system is actually in place.

 

[nosuchreality]

What do you consider working?  Running profitably?  Being ridden?  Replacing cars?

Every time I've climbed on the Long Beach blue line, it's standing room and I'm not riding at rush hour.  The Green line when I rode at rush hour wasn't just 'standing room, it was squeeze into the car room.

 

[acpme]

Amazingly I'm with Star on this one. Mass transit is not the solution. It's a last gen solution and not a next gen one. Also, mass transit works best in major cities centered around a downtown core. It's a hub and spoke that brings people from the burbs into the center where commerce is concentrated. This is why the subway hasn't worked that well in LA because everything runs through DTLA, which isn't really the true center of the metro area, if there is one at all.

What does any system in Irvine look like? Is the main thoroughfare Culver? Jamboree? What about the center of gravity shifting even more east? If any sort of light rail ends up looking like a grid, then it becomes too expensive to build and slower to ride due to the sheer number of transfers required to get from point to point.

Not to mention that rideshare already has disrupted public transit and driverless tech could disrupt further sooner rather than later.

That's not true at all.  While having a central business center is important...it is not a critical part of subway system.  NYC has Wall Street but also a number of other locations that are well connected...people just take it to get around.  It's the same in Asia, Chicago, and a ton of other places. 

LA subway is not get working to full effect because doesn't go anywhere (yet) and the city was not build around a metro system.  That is going to change soon.

The CBD of NYC is pretty much all Manhattan. It's worth noting most financial services, aka Wall St, is all over the city but most heavily clustered around Midtown, not Wall St. Having said that, financial tenants are starting to move all over the city and care less about a Park Ave address because the talent is more spread around the city as opposed to all commuting into the city from Upstate and Connecticut. For example, the number of firms moving to Hudson Yards on the far west side of Manhattan, 2-3 avenues away from any subway stop, tells you that employers don't think transit oriented locations matter that much anymore.

MTA is seeing falling ridership and struggling with revenue (other reasons here, but ridership is a big issue) because of Uber. No city in this day and age should be modeling their future transit system on NYC's (actually technically the MTA is run by the state - another can of worms!)

 

[Happiness]

Too many belligerent, mentally ill, unhygienic, creepy, and just plain unpleasant riders on MTA. MTA used to be called LA County RTD, which according to Ice Cube meant "Rough, Tough, and Dangerous."

I'll drive my car, thanks.

 

[misme]

https://nypost.com/2018/04/24/pit-bull-attacks-woman-on-subway/

Only in New York!

 

[Liar Loan]

Pitbulls are the most violent breed of dog when it comes to attacks on humans.  A lot of homeowners insurance policies have specific exclusions for pitbulls due to how violent they are.  With all of the irresponsible dog owners out there, I believe they should be outlawed.

 

[nosuchreality]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzlEQvRkhHc

 

[StarmanMBA]

Amazingly I'm with Star on this one. Mass transit is not the solution. It's a last gen solution and not a next gen one. Also, mass transit works best in major cities centered around a downtown core.

Yes indeed, using common sense and good judgment is "amazing," isn't it.

Afternote:  In the YouTube video above, the last collision illustrates an unusual confluence of three egregious mistakes, any one of which if avoided would have spared the pedestrian his grievous injuries.

First you see the pedestrian on the left, walking against a red light.  No big deal but he paid no attention to the car rapidly approaching from his right, through a green light.
Incredibly careless and stupid.

Second, you see the car at bottom right, running a red light. 

Third, the car running the red light hits the back end of the third participant who pays no attention to a pedestrian in the crosswalk.  Had that third person hit the brakes, he or she might not have been hit by the car running the red light. 

The pedestrian was rolled over and put in the ambulance, presumed to be DOA.  When he groaned, they applied life-saving measures and he had a very long rehabilitation period.  His life was spared only because the huge dent in the car allowed space for his body as it rolled over him.

 

[eyephone]

Amazingly I'm with Star on this one. Mass transit is not the solution. It's a last gen solution and not a next gen one. Also, mass transit works best in major cities centered around a downtown core.

Yes indeed, using common sense and good judgment is "amazing," isn't it.

So do the following cities: Austin, OKC, Durham have bad judgement since they are going to have a light rail or already have one? (GOP stronghold)
I?m sure there?s more ....

 

[acpme]

Amazingly I'm with Star on this one. Mass transit is not the solution. It's a last gen solution and not a next gen one. Also, mass transit works best in major cities centered around a downtown core.

Yes indeed, using common sense and good judgment is "amazing," isn't it.

So do the following cities: Austin, OKC, Durham have bad judgement since they are going to have a light rail or already have one? (GOP stronghold)
I?m sure there?s more ....

OKC might be an exception, but even in the reddest states, the central counties of their large metros generally are blue. It's certainly true of Texas. Austin is definitely not a GOP stronghold. The motto of the town is "Keep Austin weird". The Texas state govt is relatively small so it's really become a tech and college town today. Same goes for the Raleigh-Durham metro.

Recall that Californians decided to vote in favor of high speed rail in Nov 2008 just as our economy was collapsing. So yes, municipalities and voters can have bad judgment.

 

[acpme]

According to Austin's metro website, these are the M-Th hours for the train. Trains every 30 min doesn't seem like enough for rush hour. The 6:30 pm final train renders this method of transportation unusable for many workers, especially younger ones that tend to work later or go out after work. In a town that is young and vibrant, known for its food and music scene, how can you have a train that stops running that early 4 days out of the week?

When it Runs
Monday-Thursday: Approximately every 35 during morning and evening rush hours. Hourly during midday. The last train leaves downtown at 6:25 p.m.

Friday: Approximately every 35 minutes during morning and evening rush hours. Hourly during midday and following the evening rush hour. The last train leaves downtown at 12:25 a.m.

Saturday: Approximately every 35 minutes from late afternoon until late night. The last train leaves downtown at 12:03 a.m.

 

[fortune11]

Given that nothing really new is getting built or will get built best way forward would be experimentation and incremental steps

Ultimately no one knows what future will bring. but those who are dynamic at least try different ideas and then scale up whatever works for your particular local situation.

nothing wrong with trying light rail on a portion of the commute routes , or shared vans in dedicated lanes (which could then be converted to autonomous lanes down the road) , but just throwing your hands up and blaming the other side (whoever that happens to be) and doing nothing at all --- is not a good solution .

 

[StarmanMBA]

nothing wrong with trying light rail on a portion of the commute routes , or shared vans in dedicated lanes (which could then be converted to autonomous lanes down the road) , but just throwing your hands up and blaming the other side (whoever that happens to be) and doing nothing at all --- is not a good solution .

And YOU have "a good solution"?  Throwing more money at whatever the problem you perceive may be? 

$300,000,000 per mile in Seattle for "light (sic) rail" is an obscene burden on youth, particularly when buses can carry many more than they already do just by increasing the schedule, or changing the route instantly.

For five or ten people, a new "short route" of "light (sic) rail" would be just dandy.
But freeways aren't full of commuters who are going to switch to your public transportation system. 

 

[eyephone]

Hyperloop testing in Hawthorne
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-tesla-inside-boring-co-test-tunnel/amp/

Given that nothing really new is getting built or will get built best way forward would be experimentation and incremental steps

Ultimately no one knows what future will bring. but those who are dynamic at least try different ideas and then scale up whatever works for your particular local situation.

nothing wrong with trying light rail on a portion of the commute routes , or shared vans in dedicated lanes (which could then be converted to autonomous lanes down the road) , but just throwing your hands up and blaming the other side (whoever that happens to be) and doing nothing at all --- is not a good solution .

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Amazon has narrowed its search for the location of its second headquarters to 20 finalists out of 238 applicants, and a common theme has emerged: Amazon wants its second home to have a strong public transportation network, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Among Amazon's requirements are a population of at least a million people, public transportation, a major airport with connections to its current Seattle headquarters, and a large pool of technical talent in the area. Amazon will bring up to 50,000 jobs to its second headquarters' home and is aware that many of those positions will need to be filled by people who live outside the city. Amazon wants its commuters to have the option of using public transit, rather than cars, to get to work. Many major cities, such as Detroit, Sacramento, and Cincinnati, have already been eliminated from consideration.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/20609/...urns-off-amazon-in-its-search-for-a-second-hq

 

[eyephone]

?Dodgers come up with unusual solution to fans getting stuck in traffic

A company has proposed building a gondola that would take fans from Union Station to Dodger Stadium in five minutes, according to the Los Angeles Times. Oh, and about that company ? it?s funded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

It?s an unusual idea, but all parties seem to be seriously considering it. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is on board and the Dodgers endorsed the project as ?an important and innovative project.?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ya...ion-fans-getting-stuck-traffic-172225260.html