Um, wow:
KETTERING, Ohio (AP) — Police in Ohio say a woman has been charged with child endangering after another motorist reported she was both breast-feeding a youngster and talking on a phone while driving.
(Source: Chicago Tribune)
Just so you know: Nursing while cell-phone talking–though possibly a bus foul— is perfectly legal on Metro.
Looks like the transportation stimulus money that’s coming to Washington State prioritizes roads over transit, to the tune of $325 million dollars.
The stimulus bill would include close to $500 million to improve Washington’s highways, roads and bridges, along with an additional $175 million for new transit funding. The state could also compete for a share of a $60 million nationwide grant program for ferries and ferry terminals, and $1.5 billion for transportation projects of national or regional importance.
I can’t say that this was unexpected (I’ve been following the discussion and writing my reps), but it’s still beyond disappointing to see this unprecedented opportunity to invest in a sustainable transportation infrastructure pass us by.
I’ll keep you posted on how the transit money will be allocated.
The last time I went to the Puyallup Fair was the summer before I left for college. I took my youngest brother, who was nine at the time, and I don’t remember much about it–except that it was my last chance to spend QT with my “baby” before I moved away from home and that the ride down there (in my dad‘s trusty Toyota pickup) was really long.
Today Chicklet, Nerd, and I did the Puyallup as a family (yes, I realize it doesn’t get much more lentement), and thanks to Pierce Transit, we did it our favorite way: on the bus.
Our itinerary:
1. 27 from home to Third & Seneca
2. 594 from Second & University to Tacoma Dome Station (This was our first time taking the 594. Talk about a comfortable ride!)
3. Pierce Transit’s Puyallup Fair Shuttle from Tacoma Dome Station to the fairgrounds (The shuttle also serves several other Pierce County locations.)
Total travel time, from front door to fair entrance: 1.5 hours (not much longer than driving, given the traffic, and we didn’t have to hassle with event traffic/parking)
Total cost, which included fare upgrades for my pass and Bus Nerd’s ticket on the shuttle: $3.00 (a heck of a lot cheaper than driving)
And speaking of cars…
Thanks to ST for the fast, comfortable ride to Tacoma and to PT for providing alt transpo to the event. We didn’t have any trouble or setbacks getting to and fro, so I don’t have any major complaints, but it certainly could have been easier to plan the trip. I had to use three different websites (ST’s, PT’s, and the PF’s) to find all the information I needed. (PT’s rider information line was the number listed for questions, but the office is closed Sundays.)
The fair wasn’t exactly my flavor (and not just because there was a car dealership in the middle of the grounds), but Chicklet certainly seemed to enjoy herself. She got to practice some of her favorite words–piggies!, cow!, kids!–and experience all kinds of new sights and sounds. For those of you who are interested in doing the same, the fair–and the shuttle–run until the 21st.
A tidbit from an interesting (read: transit-friendly) article in Slate:
You think the government is wasting a few billion a year on mass-transit subsidies. But what about the huge subsidies for cars and trucks?
[…]
What hasn’t been acknowledged is that the automobile is supported by a government subsidy that dwarfs anything provided to mass transit. How big is the subsidy? By my (admittedly extremely crude) calculations, it could total nearly $100 billion per year.
Can I get an amen?
There’s more to it, of course–but that’s what the link is for.
Thanks mostly to high gas prices, public transportation ridership has been growing steadily of late–in Seattle and across the country…even in L.A.. But, according to this Ryan Avent piece in Grist, that hasn’t changed our approach to transportation.
Americans, it seems, are not constitutionally opposed to mass transit. An American public enthralled by automobiles has seen the enemy and begun to look for solutions — to congestion and fuel prices, and to climate change. But those looking have discovered that a half-century of neglect has made travel by transit a challenge.
Seeking options, the nation has found them wanting. The ceaseless climb of oil prices, the growing financial toll of congestion, and the looming cataclysm of global climate change have not yet shaken the men and women entrusted with the care of our infrastructure to act — or moved politicians, the press, and the public to demand action. Why can we not bring ourselves to speak of the need for better transit?
That’s what I’d like to know. In all the hype over the presidential election (yes, I’ve been caught up, too)–with all the talk about global warming and gas taxes and green jobs and “clean” coal, I have yet to hear a candidate mention public transportation as part of the solution. Here in Washington, we’re still charging car-sharing members a tourist tax (in case you didn’t know, HB 2880 failed), and a major gubernatorial candidate still believes that the answer to climate change is to expand our freeways. Avent has some thoughts about why.
So why are greens and political leaders reluctant to embrace transit as an energy and climate fix? Perception may be a problem. Transit systems are widely seen as dirty, slow, unreliable, and inconvenient relative to automobiles. Romm suggested to me that transit is seen as “not sexy.” When folks imagine a greener future, visions of electric cars and solar panels abound. No one thinks of a humble subway car rumbling through dark, century-old tracks beneath Manhattan.
Maybe I’m the only one, but I see cars as dirty, slow (Been near 520 lately?), and unreliable. And though I’d love to see cleaner energy solutions in the very near future, I’d like to see an equal focus on figuring out the best ways to move more than one person at a time. Because here’s the thing: Even the cleanest, most efficient car can’t relieve congestion–or control sprawl–or encourage walking–or promote community. A good transit system can.
I’m not sure what ridership numbers we’ll have to reach before transit moves to the forefront of our collective consciousness. But, with the help of $4+ per gallon gas, here’s hoping we get there soon.
Streetfilms has the video.
Thousands of people flocked to the NY International Auto Show at the Javits Center on Saturday. In the midst of it all, Lady Liberty ended her 100 year “spectacularly combustible love affair” with the automobile. Lady Liberty said, “Frankly, this relationship has just gotten to be much more work than it’s worth. My health, liberty and freedom have suffered greatly, and now I hope that my new relationships will finally give me security and happiness.”
Score another one for the bus nerds.
I encountered this particular parking foul on MLK, somewhere between Judkins and Jackson:
Note to drivers: The only wheels that belong on sidewalks are those attached to wheelchairs, strollers, shopping carts, and the occasional skateboard or bicycle.
to convince me that men who conserve–both the earth’s resources and their own money–are sexy. But maybe some of the rest of you could use a nudge.
From the World Carfree Network‘s e-newsletter:
“I was asked at a lecture by a young woman about what she could do and I told her stop admiring young men in Ferraris. What I was saying is you have got to admire people who are conserving energy and not those willfully using it.”
-Sir David King, UK’s chief scientific advisor, on how the world would
be a greener place if only women didn’t find men in exotic cars so
sexy.
Score one for the bus nerds.
From this evening’s All Things Considered:
For the first time in years, people are buying a little less gasoline in America. Analysts say it may be a sign that high prices and a slowing economy are beginning to change people’s driving habits.
Since the beginning of this year, gasoline consumption has fallen about half a percent, according to the Department of Energy.
[…]
Doug MacIntyre, who has studied gas consumption at the Department of Energy since the 1980s, says he thinks people may be responding by cutting down on trips or using public transit more.
Half a percent doesn’t seem like much to me, but hey. Some significant news: sales of Ford’s monstrous SUVs (Excursions and the like) fell 22 percent.
You can read (or listen to) the rest of the story here.
Remember that empty lot I told you about a few months ago? The one I walk through to get from the 545 stop to my office? (Yes, I still walk through it; my fear of geese was quickly overcome by my need for convenience.) Geese aren’t the only animals that live there. The part of the lot that’s not paved is a sort of swampy wetland, with tall grass and a good half acre of deciduous trees, and it’s home to rabbits, frogs, and lots of (less intimidating) species of birds. During the wet times of year, the ditch at the edge of the trees becomes a small pond, and in the evenings, you can hear the frogs singing their hearts out–so loudly they can be heard above the traffic noise that surrounds them.
Recently, my employer bought this empty lot. (It was only a matter of time, really.) For a few weeks, it was fenced off and filled with construction workers and equipment (complicating many bus riders’ walks to work). The ditch/pond was dug up and covered with a layer of greenish sod.
I learned last week that the lot will be used for “overflow” parking. My coworkers have tired of waiting for the company-paid valets to find spaces for their cars in the crowded garages.
So much for the geese. And the frogs.
