Moving Together, Faster
We apologize for being slow to comment on the recent Herald series about the People’s Transportation Plan disaster. Everyone at Transit Miami has been extremely busy as of late, but we’ll definitely have several pieces in the coming days and weeks discussing many of the elements referenced by Larry Lebowitz’s multi-part series.
Stay tuned!
Image: Miami-Dade.gov
This video provides us with a glimpse of Miami’s first Transit Oriented Development, conceived in the 80s at the Kendall Station of the southern terminus of the metrorail system. This video kicks off a series of articles which will be aimed at discussing TOD…
Today’s post is inspired by an article I read on The Overhead Wire, republished below. The successes and failures of our transit systems can be determined by the attempts we make to integrate them with the urban spaces which surround them. I typically make the distinction that our failures with metrorail has nothing to do with the transit system itself but rather with what we have done in the immediate vicinity of its 22 stations. VTA’s LRT in San Jose, is a perfect example of the type of transit we should be pressing for within the county, instead of Heavy Rail like metrorail. The at-grade train is versatile enough to move passengers quickly and efficiently but small enough to integrate into urban spaces such as the city’s downtown pedestrian mall:
Imagine an LRT similar to this one connecting every major city on our eastern coast through the FEC railroad…
Here is the article from The Overhead wire, illustrating how we should orient our urban structures to transit:
What happens when we orient buildings to transit? It saves space. It creates more value from the land. It creates more opportunities for walking. Here is an exercise I did with that employment sprawl photo from the post below.
1. The Sprawl Way - What San Jose Looks Like
2. Sprawl Rearranged - What the same amount of development would look Like if the development were organized around the station. I outlined the buildings and rearranged them in a more compact way.
3. Sprawl Rearranged x2 - Doubling the amount of buildings, using the same footprint for each original building.
The following article below is a reprint from NPR.org on April 1, 2008:
Atlanta Family Slashes Carbon Footprint
Atlanta resident Malaika Taylor used to live the typical suburban life — the kind that helps make America the world’s top contributor to climate change. But four years ago, fed up with commuting, Taylor and her 11-year old daughter, Maya, moved from the suburbs to the city.
And their “carbon footprint” shrank.
“There are some weekends when I don’t even use my car,” says Taylor.
The Taylors live in Atlantic Station, a new community in mid-town Atlanta designed to put jobs, homes and shopping all in one place, close to public transportation. Developments like Atlantic Station are springing up around the country, and proponents say they help cut car pollution, including the carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change.
Atlantic Station: A Climate Change Model
On a typical morning, Taylor walks her daughter to the bus stop and then keeps going 10 minutes to her job as a property manager at an apartment complex.
“I have to admit, if it’s raining or really cold, I drive,” she says.
Her mile-long commute is unusual in Atlanta, where the federal government estimates the average resident drives 32 miles each day. Early surveys show the people who live and work in Atlantic Station drive about a third that much, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We don’t often think of a development as a way to solve environmental problems. But this is really a unique example of kind of growing your way into better environmental quality,” says Geoff Anderson, who helped steer the Atlantic Station project through the regulatory process for the EPA. Anderson now heads Smart Growth America, an environmentally friendly development advocate.
At first, the EPA supported Atlantic Station as a way to help Atlanta fight its unhealthy smog problem. Anderson says now the agency sees the community as a model of how America can fight climate change.
“The two biggest things we do from a carbon perspective are, we heat our houses or cool them, or we drive. And when you combine that, that’s going to add up to a big chunk of your personal carbon footprint,” Anderson says.
A Smaller Impact
Reducing her carbon footprint was not Taylor’s intent when she moved. She just wanted her life back.
But living in the city has cut the small family’s impact on global warming to about half the national average for a family of two.
When they lived in the suburbs, Taylor filled up her gas tank three or four times every two weeks. Now she fills up once in two weeks.
Her other energy bills shrank, too.
In the winter, her gas bill to heat her suburban house was almost $200. Now she uses electricity to heat and cool their compact, two-bedroom loft. That bill tops out around $80, about 20 percent less than the average bill for an Atlanta household.
Apartments often have lower energy costs because of shared walls and smaller spaces. Americans send more than 1 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air, or about a fifth of the nation’s total emissions. If lots of Americans lived like the Taylors, then the nation’s greenhouse-gas pollution could drop by hundreds of millions of tons.
Of course, the move didn’t come without tradeoffs.
“I can’t afford to buy a house in the city. It took me four garage sales to get rid of enough stuff to fit into my apartment. I thought I purged, and it still wasn’t enough, and I had to purge again,” says Taylor.
Gaining a Life
On one recent rainy afternoon, Taylor drives to pick up Maya at the bus stop. It takes them almost no time and hardly any gas or greenhouse gas emissions.
What’s more, when it’s time to take a trip to the grocery store, it takes only two minutes to get there, and she’s is back home within 15 minutes.
“That’s hands down one of the biggest perks about living here. The convenience, convenience, convenience,” Taylor says.
It’s only 4:20 p.m. Maya has already made a big dent in her homework. And Malaika has a few hours to kill.
“Maybe I’ll work out. Maybe we’ll play a game. It makes a huge difference just in the quality of our life,” Taylor says. “We get to spend a lot more time together. I think she’s happier. I’m happier. It makes life a lot better.”
Image: Flickr
In case you haven’t heard, Tri-Rail is in big trouble.
Larry Lebowitz wrote a piece a couple days ago (sorry for the tardiness in reporting) outlining the impending doom for the Tri-County commuter rail line:
Tri-Rail may be facing no weekend service and a 60 percent cut in weekday trains in the fall after the state Legislature failed Friday to pass a major commuter rail bill that jeopardizes funding for the South Florida train.
Tri-Rail has been battling for years to get the Legislature to approve a dedicated funding source so it doesn’t have to seek money annually from Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties.
Without dedicated funding, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), which operates Tri-Rail, is preparing for massive service cuts starting in October.
Tri-Rail executive director Joseph Giulietti said the agency would have to kill its entire Saturday, Sunday, and holiday service — about 15 trains a day — and reduce weekday commuter service from 50 trains down to 20.
SFRTA had been hoping two years ago that the Legislature would pass a measure that would allow Tri-Rail counties to hold a referendum on initiating a $2 a day fee on most rental cars that would provide a dedicated funding source to Tri-Rail. The result? Transit-hater Jeb Bush vetoed the bill. This year, two more bills pushing the $2 rental car fee passed the House, but died in the Senate without a vote a few days ago.
So this is how it will likely go down now: Palm Beach County will cut its share of funding down to the legal limit of $4.23 million. Of course, Miami-Dade and Broward will follow suit, resulting in an $18 million dollar loss for Tri-Rail.
This is almost unfathomable considering the following:
Can it get much worse for transit in South Florida? We finally have a successful transit system that serves a critical role in the regional transportation network, it’s seeing rapid growth every year, and that’s not even good enough? Shameful, embarrassing, moronic — these words that immediately come to mind don’t even do justice here.
Photo: Johnnyjet.com
If you’ve been sitting at (or more likely driving by…) one of the Miami-Dade County bus stops lately, then you’ve likely noticed the addition of some new blue trash receptacles. I recently spoke with John Labriola at MDT to get a better understanding of the trash bin program and the financing behind it:
“All were in Unincorporated Miami-Dade, as the County does not have jurisdiction over bus stops in incorporated areas. The bins were installed by MDT with funding from the Solid Waste Department, which will be responsible for emptying out and maintaining the litter bins.”
MDT identified the 1,000 stations for the Miami-Dade Solid Waste Management Department and were placed from August through December.
We are relieved to know that the trash bin funding came from outside sources rather than some of the recent raids on the PTP and are glad to see that MDT is not responsible for the maintenance. The fact that MDT or Solid Waste, both County agencies, do not have the authority or jurisdiction to place these receptacles within the municipalities is a cause for concern. This is a blatant example of the division we experience in Miami-Dade due the fragmentation of municipalities. These multiple cities create that extra layer of bureaucracy which in this case, prevent the county agencies from rolling out a consistent pattern for municipal structures. Note: Miami-Dade bus shelters are located only in unincorporated areas as well, leaving the individual municipalities to purchase their own distinct shelters while preventing MDT from establishing a countywide brand image. It may seem insignificant, but the trash bins provide a visual glimpse of the political barriers our county agencies face…
City of Miami Bus Shelter and Trash Bins:
Coral Gables Bus Stop and Trash Bin:
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