Metro Research launched a new web page on metro.net today. Click here to check it out!
On the new page you can take a quick poll about Metro’s services, sign up for Metro research opportunities and find links to transportation data resources. The page will also be a hub for sharing research data and reports inside and outside the agency.
In addition, results from 10 years of the annual customer satisfaction survey as well as several other surveys and focus groups are available for your perusal.
One of the arguments frequently made for building more mass transit — in particular rail projects — is that it will help reduce pollution and, as a byproduct, greenhouse gases that are contributing to climate change. The above chart comes from a Federal Transit Administration report updated in 2010 that considers the impacts of cars versus transit. Although in some circles this remains a disputed issue (mostly by critics of rail transit), the FTA finds transit is the clear winner.
Comparing the emissions of cars versus transit is not always a clear-cut issue because of the number of variables involved. Which brings us to a new study by several UCLA researchers that drills down deeper on the subject by comparing the Orange Line, Gold Line and average automobile in Southern California. The study was published in Environmental Research Letters and is posted below.
The study found that in both the near term and long-term, the Orange Line and the Gold Line produced less smog and greenhouse gases than the average auto driven in L.A. County. In addition, the Orange Line and Gold Line used less overall energy than cars and will create less particulate matter than cars in the long-term, although the Gold Line currently produces about the same as cars, due mostly to its electricity coming from coal-fired power plants used by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Four key points from the new study:
•Both cars and transit are expected to get cleaner over time as fuel mileage increases for cars and transit relies on cleaner energy sources, i.e. solar, wind, thermal and natural gas.
•Construction remains a big challenge for transit projects because things such as pouring concrete and the use of heavy equipment tends to result in high emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollution — and it can take years, if not decades, for transit to make up for the big cost in terms of greenhouse gases made up front.
•Transit vehicles spend far less of their time parked than cars, which spend 95 percent of the time sitting around. That means that the energy and emissions needed to manufacture, transport, and park transit vehicles are spread over a lot more passenger miles and hours of operation.
•Transit needs to shift 20 percent to 30 percent of its riders from cars to transit order to have less impacts than cars and, as the study says, “the larger the shift, the quicker the payback” when it comes to meeting environmental goals.
Getting people out of their cars onto trains is crucial to improve efficiency of transit. Photo of Expo Line by Steve Hymon/Metro.
I think that last point is crucial for policymakers. To put it another way: if transit agencies and politicians want transit projects that truly improve air quality and such, they have to build projects that will appeal to motorists and pry them out of their cars.
It’s always difficult to compete with the door-to-door convenience of the automobile, but I think it’s do-able but it means building projects that stop where people want to go, making it easy to get to and from stations by car, foot or bike and either designing projects that are fast and/or operate frequently enough to reduce the time-munch that is standing around and waiting at a station.
One other point: earlier this month, it was reported that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere probably haven’t been this high in the past three million years. Carbon dioxide is a primary greenhouse gas and it’s a byproduct of burning fossil fuels for things such as transportation, heating, construction etcetera. Seems to me that transit agencies across the world — many of which shun being political — could market transit as a way to help people perhaps make a difference when it comes to climate change.
Sermon over. The study is below. Kudos to Mikhail Chester, Stephanie Pincetl, Zoe Elizabeth, William Eisenstein and Juan Matute for putting this together. Finally, Metro issues an annual sustainability report that details its efforts to reduce greenhouse gases used by the agency’s transit vehicles and facilities. In fact, Metro cut its greenhouse gas emissions five percent between 2007 and 2011, the last year numbers are publicly available.
<p style=” margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;”> <a title=”View Infrastructure and automobile shifts on Scribd” href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/142093378/Infrastructure-and-automobile-shifts” style=”text-decoration: underline;” >Infrastructure and automobile shifts</a></p>
Metro took home the top prize at Southern California Association of Governments’ Seventh Annual Compass Blueprint Recognition Awards and received the President’s Award of Excellence for its Countywide Sustainability Planning Policy, which promotes regional collaboration to increase mobility, foster walkable and livable communities, and minimize greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact.
“It has been a pleasure to serve both Metro and SCAG boards in developing greener, sustainable and livable community policies that our 88 cities can consider implementing on a voluntary basis,” said Pam O’Connor, Mayor of Santa Monica, Past President of SCAG and Metro Board Chair of the Sustainable Ad Hoc Committee. “I am proud of Metro’s leadership that can be an example statewide and nationwide.”
In addition, Metro CEO Art Leahy received the Public Sector Leader of the Year award for Metro’s accomplishments during the past year with projects that will alleviate congestion and improve air quality.
Read the full press release from SCAG after the jump.
Metro is receiving the Sustainability Commitment Platinum Recognition from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) for its national leadership in environmental and sustainability initiatives. Metro is the first and only recipient of this recognition in the country.
Metro has achieved significant positive effects towards reducing the effects of extreme weather and changing climate conditions in the Los Angeles region through the reduction of energy and water use, reducing harmful air pollutant emissions and the use of less carbon intensive fuels in its rolling stock, according to APTA.
Photos by Josh Southwick/Metro
Did you know that by riding public transit for one day, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 20 pounds? Metro’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) bus fleet is the largest in the nation, and more than 92% of air toxic pollutants have been reduced with the use of CNG compared to the use of diesel buses in the last decade. Total pollutant emissions from bus and rail together decreased 20% between 2010 and 2011.
In addition to running a clean bus fleet, Metro has installed solar panels at bus facilities in Chatsworth, Sun Valley, Carson, El Monte and downtown L.A. These solar panels produce clean, renewable energy that reduced Metro’s carbon footprint by about 16,500 metric tons in 2010, the equivalent of removing 3,200 cars from L.A. roadways.
Metro also uses LED lighting stoplights and looks to install LED light fixtures in its office buildings and even use them on buses. LED lights use half the wattage of traditional fluorescent lights, providing the same amount of light for much less energy.
Metro’s commitment towards sustainability has even gotten recognition by APTA. To learn more about Metro’s green policies and programs, click here.
Caltrans released a comprehensive report today detailing its efforts to fight climate change by curbing greenhouse gas emissions and embracing new technology such as low-energy cement and efficient LED lighting. The report also describes the department’s efforts to adapt to the negative effects of climate change, such as more frequent and intense flooding and heat waves.
For the rest of Caltrans’ press release and the link to the full report, keep reading after the jump.
Metrolink and Metro are encouraging the public to be environmentally friendly this Earth Day by recycling. The first 200 people to arrive at Union Station to recycle their electronic waste (any item with a cord or requiring a battery), clothes, office paper and glass, aluminum and plastic containers will receive a free Metrolink round-trip ticket good for travel anywhere on the Metrolink system starting on Tuesday, April 23. Metrolink round-trip tickets, like all other Metrolink tickets, are good for a free transfer to Metro’s subway, light rail and buses that operate within Los Angeles County.
Collection time will be from 7 a.m. to noon on Monday, April 22. The collection area is located on the Alameda Street side of Union Station near the rose garden.
Click this link for more information on Metrolink’s sustainability initiatives. To check out some of the ways Metro is going green, click here.
Berlin bus stop with electronic sign.
On a recent trip to Berlin, I abstained from car travel and instead relied on 7 Euro (about $9) day passes to take me around town on the U-Bahn, the S-Bahn and the bus. I was seldom confused, always on time and saved tons of money. The money part was a good reminder of how expensive it is to drive anywhere. Even though Californians have ample reason to complain, in Berlin gas prices are more than twice what they are in L.A.
The ease and frequency of Berlin transit has a lot to do with the maturity of the massive system that began construction in the early 1900s. Just think what the L.A. system could look like 100 years from now.
Among factors contributing to ease of travel:
– Constant updates. As studies have shown, confident travelers are happy travelers. Constant real-time arrival updates on electronic boards in S-Bahn (above ground) and U-Bahn (subway) stations and most bus stops made waiting for the next train or bus comfortable, even when the next one was 20 minutes away.
– Names. Station names in Berlin tend to be utilitarian, marking locations or major sites. Headed for the Zoo? Get off at Zoologischer Garten. Taking a trip to Potsdam? Go to Potsdam Stadt. Off to the Olympic Stadium? Head for Olympiastadion. Simplicity in names promotes clarity.
– Clean. There was at least one snack shop (selling beer, of course) in each of the dozens of stations that I used or saw. Lots of people were carrying food and drink. Yet seldom was there trash on the trains or in the train stations.
– Maps and signs. Train cars had electronic “next station” signs inside the cars. They also had maps that were too detailed to read in a hurry — so relatively useless — but train stations had much larger maps and (best of all) subways had pedestal signs listing stations in order of appearance on the line. So it was easy to glance at the pedestal and determine which train you should board (on which side) and to count the number of stations to your destination. Emergency signs were marked SOS … the universal sign of distress. And when there was more than one train running on the same track, clear hanging signs explained which train went where.
– The honor system. Berlin trains operate without turnstiles. And like L.A., traveling controllers check that passengers have purchased tickets and issue citations to those who have not. Tickets are easily purchased with cash or credit card from machines on all train platforms and in subway stations. The machines read out in a variety of languages — as Metro’s do — and are fairly easy to follow, although it took a couple of tries to figure out the system. Tickets are sold by zones but since there are no turnstiles, this too is dependent on the honesty of the traveling public.
– Shopping. Some stations — Central Station, for example — are actually destinations, containing restaurants and multi-leveled shopping malls.
UCLA recently released its annual State of the Commute report. The gist of it: even as enrollment has climbed in the past 20-plus years, the number of car trips to and from campus has fallen. The folks at UCLA credit this drop to several factors, most notably policies to encourage students and staff to take transit to campus or to carpool or vanpool.
I’ve plucked a few graphics from it that I think are interesting; the ones above and the nifty info-graphic posted after the jump that sums up the report’s major findings.
The campus population at UCLA is about 68,000 people — about 41,000 students and almost 27,000 faculty and staff. About 56,000 students and staff commute to the campus on a regular basis. The nearest rail stations at present aren’t so near: the Culver City Expo Line station (eight-plus miles by the most direct route) and the Purple Line’s station at Wilshire/Western (11 miles from campus).
Of course, rail transit is on the way to UCLA. The Westside Subway Extension will stop at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards, albeit that won’t happen until — gulp — 2036 under the current funding scenario. Unless, of course, Metro can find a way to accelerate the project.
In addition, the second phase of the Expo Line will have a station at Westwood Boulevard, just south of Pico Boulevard. It’s a 2.2-mile walk between the station and the intersection of Westwood and Le Conte (the south side of the UCLA campus) or, at present, a 15 to 16 minute bus ride on the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus’ 8 or 12 lines. In the future, let’s hope that there’s speedier bus service between Expo, the Westside Subway and UCLA’s campus, not to mention safe and fast bike routes.
Big, entertaining graphic after the jump — please check it out!
Forty guide dogs-in-training and their handlers hopped on the Metro this past Saturday to give the puppies a taste of public transportation. The group left Union Station on the Gold Line around 10:30 a.m. and headed towards Pasadena for lunch.
Guide Dogs of America provides guide dogs and instruction in their use, free of charge, to blind and visually impaired men and women from the United States and Canada. Service dogs are allowed on all Metro buses and trains. And in some cases, they may even come work for Metro!
