Archive for the 'public transit' Category
Trolleys
Via Andrew Chalfen, here’s some footage of Philadelphia trolleys dating to the 1950s.
The first video features the West Philadelphia trolleys and the El. At this time I believe none of the est Philly tunnels had been built yet, so there are some great scenes of the trolleys circling 30th Street Station and cruising past the [...]
Compare and Contrast
YOO ESS AYY! YOO ESS AYY:
Next to Jim Cade’s auto body shop in West Philadelphia, an Amtrak retaining wall is crumbling into his parking lot.
Eight feet away, Amtrak and SEPTA trains rush past on the busy line that runs through the Main Line toward Paoli and Harrisburg.
“People ride by every day and have no idea [...]
Trolley, June 9, 2008
“Yo, you bumped me.”
The 13 trolley was packed like a can of sardines jerking slowly up Chester Avenue. At every stop sign, the driver slammed on his brakes. Sam, who is 4, wasn’t holding onto the pole and I was trying to keep him from falling down as an older woman was trying [...]
Long Emergency
In comments to Ghost Towns, Alex writes:
To most Americans, large cities are for cultural and sporting events.
Some of them may live in one for a few years after graduation, then
they’re planning to spawn in the burbs.
They’ll go bankrupt before they move into the cities.
He’s probably right: the comment reminded of something Kunstler wrote [...]
Ghost Towns
This piece on the housing crisis, via Daily Kos is really interesting:
Recent studies suggest that buyers underestimated the costs of their long commutes. Those expenses can add up to more than the buyers saved on the home. Developers also miscalculated, lured by cheap land and rising home prices. They overreached, “partly [...]
Dear SEPTA: Fuck You.
Via the indispensable SEPTAWATCH comes the little-noticed news that effective July 31, SEPTA is planning on doing away with 60-cent transfers (already unfair and obsolete when you consider how well the Metrocards work in NYC). That means that if you need to transfer between a trolley/the El/the Broad Street line and the bus, it [...]
Read More..>>In Which My Brother Takes the Bus
This is simply unacceptable.
[A]fter I got all showered and dressed, I stepped outside and walked to the corner where there’s a septa bus box I can stand in when the weather is bad. Unfortunately, today the rain was actually coming down inside the box. No biggie - I have my Gore-Tex flight jacket that keeps [...]
Michael Nutter: Transportation Plan
I just saw Mayoral candidate Michael Nutter’s new ad, which you can see at his website. Good stuff, in my opinion: it presented the candidate in a proactive light, and I especially liked the way he clarified that he’s not running against John Street, but against what John Street has done, and the status [...]
Read More..>>Fire Dog Lake Subsitute, 4:15 PM EST
Hey folks,
I’ll be posting at Firedoglake today at 4:15 EST (yeah, yeah, i know it’s 4:08 as I type this). I wrote a piece on public transportation, and I hope to see you in the comments section. Discussion is always lively!
Third Class
Throw Transport Down the Well
[News, "Fuel for Thought," Jenna Portnoy, Aug. 31, 2006] reveals yet another lost opportunity by a transit agency that seems to pride itself on how narrow-minded and intransigent it can be. Even better than trying to clean up its noisy, fume-belching diesel buses, SEPTA ought to replace at least some of [...]
