Month: August 2008

So now we have a vice presidential candidate who uses Amtrak every day. Joe Biden commutes from Washington to his home in Delaware. If he’s elected, some people think that bodes well for rail travel. Would be nice to have some Amtrak champion with clout in DC.

It’s worth noting that John McCain has been an Amtrak opponent for years. But who knows? Maybe his veep choice will be another train fan.

Planetizen.com offers this item about Biden and Amtrak.

While I was in Boston last year, we took the train to New York and I noticed that between Boston and New York Amtrak was something like nine Acela trains a day (that’s the speedier, slightly nicer train), as well as almost hourly regular trains. They ran on time, and were quite handy.

Made me envious. While we were in NYC’s Penn Station awaiting a train back to Boston, I heard an announcement that the train from New Orleans — which is one of the few trains that comes through Charlotte — was arriving … three hours late. Figures.

I caught up today with Charlotte Chamber president Bob Morgan (below, left), and asked what questions he thought voters should be asking of North Carolina’s gubernatorial candidates.
He didn’t hesitate for even an eye-blink: Transportation, he said.

1. First, he said, ask Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue (the Democrat) and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory (the Republican) whether transportation funding is a priority for them. (As an experienced questioner, I’d say ask them their top three — or maybe five, whatever — priorities. THEN you’d see if “transportation” or “transportation funding” is among them.

2. Second, he said, ask how the state should pay for its transportation needs in the future. Some state officials estimate that by 2030 there will be a $64 billion (not million, billion) gap between state transportation needs and funds.

So far, according to Morgan, candidates are saying, “Fix the N.C. Department of Transportation,” meaning (what follows are my words, not his) get rid of the cronyism and inefficiency that we’ve all come to know and love. Candidates also say they’d stop transferring money from the Highway Fund into the general fund.

Fixing DOT and stopping the transfer of funds may well be excellent ideas, but they don’t solve the problem of there being not enough money to pay for the state’s transportation needs: maintenance, new roads, maintenance, new transit systems, maintenance, better rail service, and did I mention maintenance?

Where does that money come from?

Of course, the answer has to be, “From the taxpayers.” Maybe it’s a sales tax, maybe it’s a gas tax, maybe the state shuts down its education department or UNC Chapel Hill and transfers the money to the transportation department. (Note, I am NOT recommending that.) Regardless of how it’s done, the money is taxpayer money.

Don’t hold your breath waiting on either candidate to say so, though. Both Perdue (left) and McCrory (right) are smart enough to know the transportation mess isn’t going to be solved without more money. And both are smart enough to know it’s really stupid to talk about new taxes during a campaign.

To answer Karina, who wrote:

“I sure wish this blog would attract some less nasty folk. (Why is it not listed under blogs on the website by the way?).”

You can find the blog if, upon opening CharlotteObserver.com, you click on the tab at the top labeled “Opinion” and then on blogs/columnists. Or click on the regular “Opinion” page and you’ll see a listing for my Saturday op-ed column, and a teeny link to the Naked City blog.

I’m trying to convince the Web page designers to give this (and other blogs) more visibility. But for now, try bookmarking it, or or set up an RSS feed.

As to the tenor of the comments, let me remind everyone I police the comments and remove insulting or crude ones. If you disagree with me or with anyone else, that’s fine. It helps provoke discussion. If you insult me or others or use profanity (even with ** for letters) or discuss the uses of corncobs or call people hillbillies or rednecks or other insults, your comments will be deleted. Stay civil and we’ll all have a better time.

Finally, another reminder that one day soon, this blog will migrate from blogger.com onto a CharlotteObserver.com platform and you’ll have to register and provide a name for your comments. So no more comments from “anonymous.”

The high cost of free parking, chapter 29:

Raleigh high school students are upset about a plan to raise their yearly parking fee by $50, the News and Observer reports. It would go from $120 to $170 a year. In 2005, the Wake school board doubled the fee to $240 a year, but rescinded it after students complained. Charlotte-Mecklenburg students pay $25 a year. Durham students pay $75; Chapel Hill-Carrboro students pay $100.

No parking is free, it only looks that way. The cost of the land, the grading and the asphalt to pave school parking lots is absorbed by taxpayers. In 2006, a CMS architect told me each parking space the system builds costs $4,000 — not including the land cost. Those same taxpayers also shell out for a complete mass transit system for students only — school buses. (Note, school bus costs come from two different pots of public money: county and state.)

Call me heartless. My driver’s license-toting high school daughter would shriek if she knew I was writing this. But I think schools should offer less parking and charge more for it. Yes, it would probably cost more for high school bus routes, but maybe not that much more. They’ve got to hire drivers anyway, and drive the routes for the kids who do take the bus. Many of the buses end up with empty seats anyhow, because so many kids drive. (OK, OK, offer a “hardship” option to low-income students if they can prove to the principal they need to drive to school and can’t afford a higher parking fee.)

If parking cost more, more kids would walk, bicycle, take the school bus or a city bus, or carpool. The pocketbook talks.

A few links for you today, as today I have to work on the part of my job that takes up the bulk of my work time: writing editorials, an op-ed column and helping produce the daily Opinion pages of the Observer. So happy reading, y’all.

— MIT scientists say the country could slash the amount of fuel guzzled by a gas-guzzling nation by 30% to 50% by 2035, with such changes as lighter cars, hybrids and fuel cell cars. In other words, newer technologies. Here’s a link to a piece about it. Note, the words “MIT” and “scientists.” That means it’s not light reading.

— Outside magazine’s list of what it deems the Best Towns 2008. No Carolinas towns made this particular list, though Wilmington made the “Rest of the Best” category.

Excerpt: “WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA (POP. 95,900) … With nearby beaches along the Cape Fear coast, an ever-expanding Riverwalk, a National Register historic district comprising more than 230 blocks, and a renewed economy that has been fueled partly by an active filmmaking sector, “Wilmywood” has become much more than a shadow of its former self.”

— NY Times: Downtowns across the U.S. see streetcars in their future. Mentions Charlotte.

— San Jose tries to fight sprawl from the San Francisco Chronicle.

The city, as part of its study of I-277 (the famous “freeway cap”) study, conducted a survey of motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists who use uptown. A synopsis of the results is part of this PowerPoint presentation, which was given last Monday. If you can follow that link, the PowerPoint contains a drawing (above) of one possibility for what South Tryon might look like in years to come. The artist was Ed DeLara of the consulting firm HNTB, which conducted the design workshop pro-bono.

Here are some highlights from the survey results.

From motorists:
Commuters and visitors think signs that list more exits and the distances to them, and better lighting on signs, would improve I-277. They think more signs directing drivers to I-277 access streets are needed.
Other concerns commonly voiced by commuters and visitors:

• Difficulty merging onto and across I-277 to reach their exit.
• Fast and aggressive driving on I-277
• Inadequate signage to alert drivers to when and where their exit is.
• It’s not wide enough for a “breakdown lane” to get fender-benders and breakdowns out of traffic.
• Too dark, poor visibility on several stretches of I-277 at night.
• Poor driving conditions in the rain; standing water.
• Trash and litter.

From pedestrians:

• The chief complaints are the prevalence of jaywalking and the aggressiveness of uptown drivers who speed through intersections and make turns into pedestrian crosswalks.
• Also, the sidewalks across I-277 at Tryon and College are not perceived as pedestrian-friendly. Sidewalks, particularly on College, are narrower and traffic moves faster than in the center of the city. There was also a comment that these sidewalks are dirtier and more littered.
• Darkness and poor visibility under the I-277 overpasses.

From bicyclists:

• Bikers’ chief concern is being visible to drivers who are driving fast and aggressively, often distracted by cell phone conversation.
• Concern over the speed with which drivers exit onto streets such as South Boulevard and College from the right, where the cyclists are riding.
• Darkness and poor visibility under the I-277 overpasses. (Gee, anyone notice a pattern?)

Some very quick reactions to a couple of comments from previous posts:

“Cato,” a regular reader, was talking about how some downtown streets are great, but others aren’t very exciting. Yes, they have sidewalks, but . . . He says, “The Wachovia Securities stock ticker board at the corner of College & MLK could have been a minor landmark, but it’s in such a dead zone practically no one sees it.”

Commenting on an earlier posting, “Anonymous” asked: How are you defining “pedestrian friendly? My neighborhood of Spring Valley is very pedestrian friendly where you could walk continuously for several miles without the bother of busy intersections, plenty of sidewalk and wide streets for bikes, jogging strollers, etc.”

I define pedestrian-friendly as having good sidewalks that are wide enough for several people at a time, including those with strollers, and having intersections designed so they don’t terrify you if you have to cross. They have relatively short blocks so you can get somewhere without going too far out of your way. They have destinations, so you’re not walking aimlessly only for exercise (though I like to walk for exercise).

In my definition, really pedestrian friendly streets need something interesting to look at. Different people think different things are interesting, of course. I like to look at people’s gardens, landscaping and big old trees. This bores my husband something terrible. He likes store windows, sidewalk cafes and lots of people on the sidewalk.

But most everyone can agree, I think, that surface parking lots, parking garage entrances, loading docks and long blank walls are not pedestrian friendly. Those are, as Cato suggests, “dead zones.”

How do you avoid them? Simple (if not easy). Encase parking garages in ground-floor retail, like Seventh Street Station. Put surface parking lots behind buildings.

I like to walk uptown, and some streets are quite comfortable for pedestrians: E.g., Tryon Street. Others are awful: College Street between Trade and Fourth, or Fourth Street between Church and Poplar.

Got nominations for great pedestrian streets? Or horrific ones?

Don’t you love this? Walkable Charlotte, eh?

This particular barrier to pedestrians is on Brevard Street, between Fourth and Third streets, a half a block from the Transportation Center — a spot to which thousands of people walk daily.

Last time I asked about it, several years ago, someone at either CDOT or the city planning office told me they were waiting for that property to develop and when it did, they’d make sure the sidewalk got built. That’s been several years. Guess they’re still waiting. I’ll see what interim CDOT chief Danny Pleasant has to say.

And to be fair, I’ll say that CDOT has improved dramatically in its attention to pedestrian comforts, and that uptown Charlotte is, square foot for square foot, the largest pedestrian friendly site in the city. Does anyone know of any others that would compete for that distinction?

City Council member James “Smuggie” Mitchell will be attending the Republican National Convention next month in St. Paul, Minn. Say what? Mitchell is a lifelong Democrat.

He’s also going to the Democratic convention in Denver later this month. Mitchell will attend both conventions as president of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, a nonpartisan group that’s part of the National League of Cities.

“Sometimes duty calls,” he told me. And he pointed out that the top issues for cities at the moment — foreclosures and crime — aren’t partisan issues anyway.