Category Archives: World of Transport

Fun with maps: Does L.A.'s size skew perceptions of transit usage?

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Yesterday morning, Twitter user @LACityNerd posted a link to a map that, I think, tells a pretty interesting story about perceptions of Los Angeles, particularly regarding public transit. Here’s the map:

Image via edfunders.org

The notion that Los Angeles has a love affair with the car and that Angelenos don’t ride transit is a well-worn cliché. Certainly, there’s a cultural component to this perception that is rooted in L.A.’s ascendance in the 1950s and 60s, which was broadcast to the world by Hollywood.

But I’ve always suspected there was an underlying — and under-appreciated — geographical component to the perception that few Angelenos ride public transit. After all, the city of Los Angeles is big. Apparently you could fit seven-plus good-sized cities in just one L.A.

On top of that, Los Angeles’ borders include urban and high density communities, as well as very suburban and rural ones where transit service is harder to provide and less often used. That’s in contrast to other, typically older cities, where suburban communities are often in entirely different cities.

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Clever idea in Korea: virtual subway grocery store

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In an attempt to become top grocer in the difficult Korean market, global grocery giant Tesco came up with an ingenious solution that propelled sales because it worked so well with the Korean transit oriented lifestyle.

The idea: virtual grocery stores in subway stations.

To create the virtual grocery stores Tesco created graphical displays that mirrored grocery store shelves and installed them in subway stations. Thanks to QR code technology these displays are far more than just advertisements – commuters can point their smart phones at the items they wish to purchase and do their grocery shopping while waiting for the next train. Groceries are then delivered the same day, so when commuters get home their shopping is already done.

One reason for the success of this idea: Seoul’s subway system is one of the busiest in the world. According to Wikipedia there are over 8 million daily trips on the system.

Considering this, do you think there’s any application for similar ideas in L.A.?

Video: "Metro Song" a humorous hip-hop ode to the D.C. subway

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Here’s a fun transit diversion for your Thursday afternoon. The “Metro Song” is a humorous hip-hop take on the Washington D.C. subway system.

The video pokes fun at the little problems transit commuters face – a nice reminder that all transit systems have their issues, and all transit riders have their complaints.

My favorite verse, about the seemingly endless struggle to keep subway escalators running:

We sent a man to the moon
brought him back two weeks later
apparently not as long as it takes
to fix an escalator

And while this video might not be a ringing endorsement of public transit (although I think there’s love behind every jab), it might inspire transit filmmakers to take the humorous route in our Transit Flicks Video Contest.

Video: in Thailand the train doesn't just go to the market, it goes through it

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File this one under the wild world of transport.

Picture this: a bustling market brimming with exotic fruits and vegetables, overhanging canopies and vendors hawking their wares. It’s like a scene from your favorite adventure movie come to life. In the distance a train can be heard. Like clockwork the vendors begin folding up their canopies and pushing their fruit stands out of the way revealing what looks to be railroad tracks on the ground below.

Welcome to the Maeklong Market in Thailand. And yes, those are railroad tracks and trains still use them. Four times a day in fact.

According to the Hotel Club Travel Blog the market was there first, and when the train line was built in 1905 the market vendors remained – no such thing as eminent domain for these folks.  Since then it seems that the train and the vendors have lived in relative harmony, although in this video from celebrity chef Anthony Bordain the train does manage to snag a canopy and make a small mess of the marketplace.

A search of YouTube reveals many more videos of this unique from of transit oriented development.

By comparison, the seemingly narrow street running portion of the Gold Line in Highland Park ends up looking incredibly spacious. Check out a Metro safety video about that section of track after the jump. Continue reading →


Video: multimodal chaos in NYC

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Roads that are safe for all modes of transport – automobiles, bikes and pedestrians – can prove to be a real challenge. While it’s common to blame whatever mode you’re not using for transgressions in safety, the above video proves that all mode users are guilty of breaking the rules in attempt to save a little time.

Aside from its clever use of graphics, this video serves as a reminder of how we each need to take responsibility for our safety on the streets, and that the rules are there to be followed. Is it really worth endangering your life and the lives of others just to shave a few seconds from your commute?

Tunneling a subway in the Big Apple

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Check out this great video from McGraw-Hill Construction on tunneling for the 2nd Avenue Subway project on the eastside of Manhattan. The tunnel boring machines are kind of big, eh?

Soil conditions are very different in New York than in Los Angeles, but the video gives a good basic idea about tunneling as Metro ramps up for construction of the Westside Subway Extension.

And here’s a good story on the 2nd Avenue Subway project on ENR.com.

The Transit Tourist: London, UK

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The Transit Tourist takes a look at other transit systems across the globe from the first person perspective of a visitor. What can Metro learn from how these other systems treat the uninitiated – and often bumbling – tourist?

Last month I took some time off for a jaunt across the pond to Europe – specifically the cities of London, Amsterdam and Paris. While strictly a pleasure trip, it’s impossible to visit Europe without finding yourself immersed in mass transit, and typically at a scale that’s all but unseen here in the States. For a transit blogger it turns a vacation into inspiration for a new series, one I’m calling The Transit Tourist.

Here’s the plan: whenever one of The Source bloggers takes a getaway – be it to the largest cities in Europe or to a small town in America’s heartland – and hops on board the local transit system, we’ll come back with a report of the experience and a some thoughts on what Metro can learn from how things are down elsewhere.

The tourist experience on transit is a unique but important one. Tourists generally have different needs than the daily commuter, but my feeling is that when a tourist’s needs are met a transit system is doing a good job at two things: providing an easy to use system that also serves many destinations. In other words, if a system works for an outsider, it’s probably going to work for local residents as well.

First stop for The Transit Tourist:

London, UK
Population: 7.5 million Transit Agency: Transport for London Miles of Rail: 250
Density: 12,450/sq. mile Rail Lines: 11 Bus Routes: over 700
Area: 607 sq. mile Rail Stations: 270 Budget: $14.2 billion
Source: Wikipedia and Transport for London.

Airport Connection

One of the most important transportation moments for a tourist is the airport transfer. You’ve just arrived to a new city after a long flight, how do you get to your final destination?

On this trip, I flew into Heathrow Airport, one of London’s five area airports (each served by some form of rail). The London Underground’s Piccadilly Line directly serves Heathrow with three stations at the airport serving the various terminals. It’s a feature that’s well publicized – and since the stations are inside the terminals, you’re not going to get lost looking for your connection.

London Tube map. Take note of the numbered Zones 1-9.

How long does it take to get from the airport to London proper? London’s transit system is divided into nine zones that radiate out from the central city. Heathrow is in Zone 6 and a trip to Zone 1 (Central London, aka the good stuff for tourists) takes at least 50 minutes. The distance from Heathrow to Central London is approximately the same distance as LAX to downtown L.A.

The zone system makes for an incredibly complicated fare system (take a look at this chart if you don’t believe me), but purchasing an Oyster card (London’s version of the TAP card, more on that later) greatly simplifies things. A trip to Zone 1 from Heathrow with an Oyster card will cost between £2.40 and £4.20 (around $4 to $7 respectively) depending on whether or not you’re traveling at peak hours.

In my case, I was actually going to be staying in a Zone 4 suburb called Hendon (if Central London is downtown L.A., then Hendon would be North Hollywood). This trip requires a transfer to the Northern Line in Zone 1 for a total trip time of about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Travel on the Underground from Heathrow isn’t neccessarily fast, but it is convenient and affordable.

Read on about London fares, the Oyster card, customer service and more after the jump.

Continue reading →

Atlanta's new bus rapid transit project

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The above video comes from MARTA, the agency that runs mass transit in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and is a brief look at the latest bus rapid transit project to hit the streets in the United States. The big to-do on the Q Line is the ability for buses to hold green lights and in a couple of spots, use a right-hand lane and traffic signals to jump ahead of traffic.

Here’s a description on MARTA’s website and here’s a story about the project in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And, here’s a good post at the City Fix blog critiquing the newspaper’s coverage. The gist of the criticism is that the paper failed to explain to readers that building a separate lane for buses doesn’t have to cost a king’s ransom — politicians can make the decision, however politically distasteful, to convert traffic lanes to transit lanes.

Attentive readers will recall that Federal Transit Administrator chief Peter Rogoff gave a much-publicized speech last spring in which he promoted bus rapid transit as a viable and sometimes financially preferable alternative to building rail. I expect we’ll be seeing more of these type of projects in the U.S. given the limited dollars for transit projects at most levels of government.

Of course, bus rapid transit can take many forms. Metro’s Orange Line, for example, is a bus lane that often has its own right-of-way, much like railroad tracks. Metro is also planning a rush-hour bus lane along 8.7 miles of the parking lane on Wilshire Boulevard, mostly in the city of Los Angeles.

The East San Fernando Valley North-South Transit Corridors project — which will be funded by Measure R — may include elements of BRT on four bus corridors — Reseda Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard, Van Nuys Boulevard and Lankershim/San Fernando boulevards.

An entertaining take on Moscow's traffic miseries

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If possible get your paws on the Aug. 2 edition of the New Yorker magazine for a terrific article on the nightmare that has become traffic in Moscow. Yes, that Moscow — the one where people once had to stand in long lines to buy toilet paper.

The above video, from the New Yorker website, neatly summarizes the story (along with an annoying commercial). As the article explains, capitalism has ignited a frenzy among the middle-class masses to buy cars. At the same time, a confluence of other circumstances — including a push to widen roads, bad driver behavior and a serious underinvestment in mass transit — has led Moscow to often become gridlocked. Especially when it snows because, you know, they’ve never had to deal with that in Russia!

Excerpt:

The wise move would have been to invest in public transportation, to build up the city’s justly famous but sparse metro network and bring back the trams…

“No city has ever constructed itself out of congestion,” the transportation expert Vukan Vuchic, of the University of Pennsylvania, told me. “It’s impossible.” Continue reading →


World of transit: habal-habal motorcycles in the Philippines

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A colleague shared this video of a motorcycle on a rural road in the Philippines that is bursting at the seams with passengers – six of them as far as I could tell. The careful balancing act is harrowing, awe-inspiring and comedic. It really showcases the lengths people will go for a bit of mobility.

A little bit of internet research revealed that this mode of transport is called a habal-habal or “skylab” and is relatively common in the Southern Philippines where poor road conditions in remote areas make motorcycles the best means of transit.

Motorcycles are modified with extended seats and planks of wood and, according to one source, the most extreme can hold up to thirteen passengers!

Although common – and working as a for-hire driver provides a livelihood for many – habal-habal are in fact illegal in the Philipppines. It might not surprise you to hear that habal-habal accidents are quite common.

One blogger even came up with a list of tips on how to survive a habal-habal ride. His first suggestion?

“Pray that you arrive at your destination.”

Check out some pictures of this unique form of transit, after the jump. Continue reading →