Archinect - News

Good bus terminal design improves public transit participation, new study finds

2024-08-11T08:00:00-04:00

New research from the Italian University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli into the “hedonic quality” of bus terminals and their effects on users’ consumer behavior has shown an offsetting cost-benefit that correlates to better ridership where there is a higher quality of architectural design.

Satisfied by the aesthetics of virtual shelters or terminals, the paper found “the Italian tourist is willing to spend up to €4.35/trip more for a high-quality bus waiting space or travel up to 28.2 min/trip more, instead of using a traditional bus terminal for the same trip.” These findings add to a body of existing scholarship on urban psychology and behavioral economics. The authors noted the corresponding benefit of reducing emissions from motor vehicles, especially in the center of major population areas.

“In my opinion this is a disruptive result for transport operators and planners,” the paper's coauthor, Armando Cartenì from the university's Department of Architecture and Industrial Desig...

Just in time for the Summer Olympics, Kengo Kuma's Saint-Denis–Pleyel metro station opens in Paris

2024-07-26T18:55:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma’s completed design of the Saint-Denis–Pleyel metro station in Paris is one of the largest and most significant new projects highlighting the city’s push for sustainable urban renewal as a consequence of its turn as the host of the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Images shared following its inauguration on June 24th with President Emmanuel Macron in attendance showcase a horizontal composition distinct from the verticality of its surroundings. (It will later boast a sculptural installation from the French artist Prune Nourry.)

Image: © Kengo Kuma & Associates - Photography by Michel Denancé

The station measures 377,000 square feet, making it the largest in the Grand Paris Express rail network. It’s designed to service 250,000 passengers a day from the new Metro lines 14 through 17, with connections to both RER D and GPE 4 commuter trains.

Image: © Kengo Kuma & Associates - Photography by Michel Denancé

Image: © Kengo Kuma...

SOM unveils new bus shelter designs for a more equitable future LA

2024-07-07T08:00:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has shared photos of its new bus shelter designs for the City of Los Angeles.

The LA STAP (short for Sidewalk and Transit Amenities Program) shelters are the first prototype designs for the initiative that will eventually install 3,000 shelters and 450 shade structures in need-based locations across Los Angeles over the next decade. Officials from the city's Bureau of Street Services (aka StreetsLA) met in Tarzana last month to preview the designs.

Image: James Michael Juarez © SOM

There, they bore witness to what will eventually be unique new additions to the city's visual landscape. Another 250 total are expected to be installed by June 2025.

Image: James Michael Juarez © SOM

The configurable designs are said to be inspired by the California Modernism movement and will display a digital art program and feature smart lighting technology.

Image: James Michael Juarez © SOM

Leading the contract for STAP is Tranzito-Vector, a joint venture between smart mobi...

Revised design published for Foster + Partners’ Midtown Bus Terminal in New York City

2024-02-15T11:27:00-05:00

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has published revised plans for the new Midtown Bus Terminal. The scheme, designed by Foster + Partners, will replace the existing terminal that opened in 1950.

The $10 billion facility will include a 2.1 million square foot terminal with a separate storage and staging building and new ramps leading directly in and out of the Lincoln Tunnel. The revised plans will also include the permanent closure of a portion of 41st Street between Eight and Ninth avenues, as well as a central main entrance, more street-level retail, and a multi-story indoor atrium and new public open space.

Interior view of the proposed facility to replace the main terminal. Image credit: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The project is to be delivered through a phased construction approach over four years, with a projected completion in 2032. The new staging and bus storage facility will be delivered first, so as to serve as a temporary terminal while the exis...

MAD Architects completes ‘train station in the forest’ in China

2024-02-07T13:38:00-05:00

MAD Architects has completed their overhaul of the Jiaxing Train Station in China, described by the firm as a “train station in the forest.” Located in the city of Jiaxing, 60 miles southwest of Shanghai, the project included the replacement of an outdated train station that occupied the site from 1995 to 2019.

Image credit: Lu Bing

Image credit: AC

MAD’s approach saw the full-scale recreation of an original 1907 station that stood on the site alongside a “floating” metal roof above an expanded site. In order to reconstruct the old station, the firm collaborated with architectural experts and scholars to analyze a large amount of historical data, with the 210,000 red and green bricks used to construct the station made of mud sourced from the nearby South Lake.

Image credit: CreatAR Images

Image credit: AC

Surrounding the reconstructed station, MAD sought to create a complex “more humane and efficient than its predecessor.” The interior of the new hub maintains a dialogue with the recrea...

New York City MTA releases 20-Year Needs Assessment plan... sans price tag

2023-10-13T12:06:00-04:00

Some 400 miles of subway tracks, half of Metro-North’s Hudson Line and several Long Island Rail Road stations are in dire need of upgrades to stave off flooding and other extreme weather exacerbated by climate change, the MTA wrote in a report published on Wednesday. The report, called the 20-year needs assessment, is a breakdown of the agency’s $1.5 trillion worth of transit infrastructure, and details which equipment planners believe most urgently needs fixing over the next two decades.

The system, which is now (finally) on a more stable financial track, needs a litany of upgrades over the next two decades, according to the breakdown. A total of 350 of the 493 elevators operated by the MTA will need to be replaced in that timeframe. Another 6,300 rail cars and 100% of all 6,000 city buses will also need to be replaced. (The full assessment can be found here.)

The findings were published in advance of a five-year construction phase that begins in 2025, though an exact price tag for the slate of fixes has yet to be established by the agency.

Another audit from the state comptroller’s office released last week indicated that the MTA has not sufficiently used money from capital improvement projects to mitigate against the effects of climate change, as was made apparent by the September 29 catastrophic rain event.

New York officially cancels LaGuardia AirTrain project

2023-03-13T15:55:00-04:00

State officials in New York have finally slammed the door on the proposed $2.4 billion AirTrain project at LaGuardia Airport over cost concerns.

The New York Times is reporting that the project was formally called off by Governor Kathy Hochul on Monday in favor of a less expensive plan that would offer additional Q70 bus service between the airport and subway stations in northern Queens.

The AirTrain was halted in October 2021 over costs and the potential impact on vulnerable Queens neighborhoods standing in the path of what some considered to be former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s personal obsession. Calls for its cancellation began almost immediately following his resignation in the face of a sexual harassment scandal just two months prior.

Previously on Archinect: Port Authority releases 14 alternatives to the LaGuardia AirTrain project

As the Times reported, the two recently-completed Terminal C and Terminal B projects included infrastructure to accommodate the AirTrain. The plan had...

Foster + Partners selected to lead Port Authority’s new Midtown Bus Terminal design

2022-08-11T17:27:00-04:00

The design of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s new Midtown Bus Terminal will be led by Foster + Partners, the firm and the transit organization announced recently. The Port Authority is in the process of replacing its aging 72-year-old facility and has contracted the team to oversee the expansion of bus and passenger capacity, which includes improving the pickup/dropoff areas in the streets that surround it.

Foster + Partners says: “The new terminal will be designed to provide a best-in-class customer experience that serves the region’s 21st century public transportation needs, while enhancing the surrounding community and allowing for the removal of intercity buses from local streets.”

Image courtesy Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The multidisciplinary firm A. Epstein & Sons International will join the partnership to leverage its own considerable experience in the design of major public transit facilities. Foster + Partners thus will be asked to “review, e...

Updated designs of the HS2 London Euston high-speed railway station released

2022-03-28T15:28:00-04:00

HS2 Ltd., the British non-departmental public body behind the development of High Speed 2 (HS2) national high-speed railway, has released an updated design for its new terminus station at London Euston.

Two new images, updated from 2015, show the concept design for the interior and exterior of the station. They were drafted by a design consortium made up of Arup, WSP, Grimshaw Architects, Haptic, and LDA Design, alongside HS2’s Station Construction Partner, Mace Dragados JV (MDJV).

Previously on Archinect: Grimshaw and Arup release designs for new high-speed rail hub in central London

One of the station’s defining features is a bold, geometric roof that will allow natural light to infiltrate the interior while also emphasizing its north-south alignment. According to HS2, elements of the roof can be prefabricated off-site and installed using modular construction techniques. The station, itself, will span three levels, with ten 450-meter-long subsurface platforms. At peak operation, ...

Opponents of Dodger Stadium's gondola project see it as a tool of gentrification, allege inside pitch

2022-03-25T08:30:00-04:00

“It’s just another way that we can’t own our neighborhood and feel safe and quiet here because literally you have something flying over your house all day long, forever, I guess.” said Tany Ling, a singer who offers private lessons at the home she and her sister bought in 2012. McCourt entities are buying up properties in the neighborhood, but the Lings don’t want to move. They started StoptheGondola.org to fight the project.

Frank McCourt, who owned the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2004 to 2011, began proposing the $125 million project back in 2018. The initiative has come up against stiff resistance, especially from those associated with the Los Angeles National Historic Park, which abuts Chinatown.

Previously on Archinect: Plans announced for a gondola to connect LA's Dodger Stadium with Union Station

Their side got help recently from a nonprofit called The California Endowment after it filed a writ of mandate in county superior court this week alleging that the Metropolitan Transit Authority chief Phil Washington had cut a sweetheart deal with McCourt’s LA ART company while acting as a lone intermediary. McCourt has maintained from the get-go that its plan is meant to reduce the legendary traffic caused by Dodger home games, but opponents say the overall effect will only wind up crippling the neighborhood while “[reaping] profit through the occupation on public land.”

Previously on Archinect: LA's propos...

Paris' first public transit gondola moves forward

2022-02-09T16:59:00-05:00

By 2025, commuters near the Paris suburb of Creteil should have a new way to get to work: the French capital’s first-ever public transit gondola. The new aerial tramway, which cleared its pre-construction feasibility studies this week, will be called Cable A, and will link several outlying but populous neighborhoods in Paris’ southeastern suburbs to the terminus of Metro line 8.

Cable A will travel a distance of 2.8 miles with five stations along its route. It was first proposed in 2008 as a cheaper and more practical alternative to conventional transit lines, which would require extensive engineering at the site. The gondola only needs space for the pillars that support the cables, which would keep the project’s cost at $149 million. In addition, because it’s powered by electricity, it won’t immediately contribute to local air pollution or emissions.

Despite some pushback from locals concerned about compromised privacy due to the presence of aerial transport, Bloomberg CityLab notes that this could be a final-mile solution that makes traditional transit more accessible. And, Cable A isn’t alone. It is reported that another five aerial tram plans are currently being considered for the Greater Paris Region.

L.A. ends what was the largest free transit experiment in U.S. history

2022-01-21T13:54:00-05:00

In March 2020, Los Angeles’ public-transit agency, Metro, stopped collecting fares on its buses as a COVID-19 safety precaution. For the next 22 months, Metro waived fares for anyone who wanted to keep riding its buses, anywhere they wanted to go (as long as they wore a mask, of course). And people did keep riding.

A spokesperson from the agency estimates that from April 2020 to December 2021 there were approximately 281 million fare-free rides, reaching about 80 percent of pre-pandemic ridership, making it the largest free-transit experiment in U.S. history. Fare collection, however, restarted last week and now, Metro is using the information gained from the experiment to plan improvements and initiative other free- and reduced-fare programs.

As detailed by Curbed, unlike many other U.S. transit agencies, L.A.’s Metro doesn’t rely as heavily on fares, in which they account for only 6 percent of total revenue. This made the free-transit initiative a lot easier to implement. Proponents of the fareless metro system believe it should be permanent as the majority of riders, who are low income, already qualify for discounted fares through the city’s low-income fare program.

A '15-minute' planned community is set to rise in Utah

2022-01-20T09:00:00-05:00

A new planned community in Utah will strive to make it possible for residents to meet all their daily needs within 15 minutes without getting in a car — and to serve as a model for other U.S. developers who want to build basic mobility into the foundations of their designs.

Called The Point, the envisoned community will be located in Draper, Utah, and take up about one square mile of state-owned land. The development, master-planned by SOM, will specifically aim to reduce the need for cars by featuring extensive biking, walking, and transit systems.

A range of transportation strategies will be employed in order to achieve this plan. Vehicle traffic will be restricted from a .125-square-mile section of the downtown core called the “pedestrian priority zone.” In addition, mixed-use zoning will make homes easily accessible to jobs, schools, and essential services. There will also be a city circulator that will shuttle residents around the community and connect to other transit routes.

The Point of the Mountain State Land Authority, the government agency overseeing the project, is currently in the process of selecting a developer for the project. Construction of the community will likely start in late 2024.

Europe's first fully autonomous bus is set to carry passengers in Toulouse

2021-12-02T19:47:00-05:00

French start-up EasyMile is to be the first transport provider to run a fully autonomous vehicle on a public road in Europe. The company has been authorised to run a driverless bus at the Oncopole medical campus in Toulouse, in partnership with French engineer Alstom.

The bus will operate at “Level 4,” meaning no human attendant will be on board. The authorization was granted by France’s Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Ecological Transition, on advice of the Minister of the Interior and local authorities. The bus arrives ahead of the implementation of the final regulatory framework allowing the circulation of autonomous vehicles on public roads in France, scheduled for September 2022.

The company will utilize its EZ10 people mover, an electric vehicle with PV-enhanced charging. It can carry up to 15 passengers. The service at Oncopole has been active since March and is situated on a 600-meter mixed-traffic route that also hosts cyclists, pedestrians, and cars. It will transition to being fully driverless in the coming months.

The project is part of the SAM (Safety and Acceptability of Autonomous Driving and Mobility) project, a French national-scale initiative to develop autonomous vehicles and deploy them on open roads.

...

'We all did': The Los Angeles Times' Patt Morrison on who authored the fate of LA's long-lost streetcars

2021-11-03T12:01:00-04:00

Red Cars didn’t just get people from Point A to Point B. They helped to create Point A and Point B. Towns like Burbank and Alhambra grew spectacularly once the Red Car reached them. Other sellers of land wised up and made sure their advertising told prospective buyers how to get there by Red Car; so did merchants and amusements. The system made even the farthest towns and neighborhoods feel connected.

The trolley system was not entirely undone in part by the nefarious hand of some elite corporate entities with decided interests in seeing an alternative to the then-burgeoning interstate highway system destroyed. Movies like Clint Eastwood's Changeling (2008) and (my favorite) Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) do a more-than-adequate job presenting the system as a great democratic uniter of Los Angeles’ proletariat, which is how many people view the defunct system correctly or incorrectly six decades after its operation was shut down.

The city is currently working on an expansion of its modern-day equivalent — the Metro — that will vastly increase access to the city’s Westside via a series of new Purple D line stations that will terminate near the campus of UCLA. The present east-to-west commute is considered to be one of the worst in Los Angeles county. The city is expecting 78,000 daily commuters on the line once construction is completed in 2027.

A new map offers a unique historical exploration of Berlin's eclectic subway architecture

2021-10-05T14:47:00-04:00

Blue Crow Media’s latest update to a series of influential design maps uses 50 select sites along the U-Bahn, Berlin’s invisible lifeline, as a means of looking into the social and economic impacts of architecture in 20th-century Berlin.

Courtesy Blue Crow Media

Featuring photography from Nigel Green, architectural historian Verena Pfeiffer-Kloss’s two-sided, bilingual guide offers a lurid investigation into significant design elements of the network using examples from 1902 to 2009.

Courtesy Blue Crow Media

More than half of the current system was designed by Swedish architect Alfred Grenander before his death in 1931. His Art Noveau inspiration gave way to modernism in the years that followed.

Stations by Rainer Gerhard Rümmler served as an integral part of post-war Berlin’s unique and often eclectic mix of architecture.

The map celebrates their and other contributions while encouraging readers to observe the deta...

Cities are finding newer and more creative ways to incorporate electric vehicles into their transit schemes

2021-10-04T14:20:00-04:00

But where cities are succeeding, they’re finding that electrifying public transit can solve more than just climate problems. It can clean the air, reduce traffic jams and, ideally, make getting around town easier for ordinary people, which is why some politicians have staked their reputations on revamping transit. In many cases, city governments have been able to take climate action faster than their national governments.

The effort to reduce car traffic mirrors those taking shape in U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco. The cost of doing so has in a way become its own problem, as the infrastructure required to support expansive EV fleets in large metropolitan areas has proven to be a challenge for many of the places that have mandates for electrification coming due in the next two decades. The widespread adaptation of electric vehicles and trams could reduce emissions by 37 million metric tons a year in American cities alone.

New York's subway system could be broke by 2025 as remote work continues

2021-09-29T20:40:00-04:00

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest U.S. mass-transit provider, is running on borrowed time, facing budget and revenue challenges as federal aid is set to tap out in 2025, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said in a report Tuesday.

The announcement comes on the heels of a rough summer for the MTA, which is only now seeing its ridership climb past 50% of pre-pandemic levels as it weighs a controversial congestion pricing plan that would add $1 billion in revenue a year beginning in 2023.

Interim boss Sarah Feinberg stepped down in late July, creating a leadership vacuum for the agency, which is now projecting $3.5 billion budget deficits that will run into 2024 and 2025. The MTA currently owes about $48 billion in debt.

The MTA will now have to grapple with the ramifications of the remote work revolution. According to the state’s report, annual fare revenues could decrease by $500 million if the typical rider adopts a three-to-four-day telecommute.

'Starry-eyed' Berlin's new Museum Island U-Bahn station is turning heads

2021-07-13T13:58:00-04:00

A theatrical new subway station is gracing the Berlin stage after a dramatic opening Friday.

The new Museumsinsel U-Bahn station is part of an expansion of the U5 that will connect the line into an area of the city called Museum Island.

Swiss architect Max Dudler is behind the transformation, which was inspired by theater sets built by the great 19th-century German designer Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

The final stage of the €500 million ($590 million) project was unveiled last week following lengthy delays that have set back Dudler since winning the competition for its design in 1998.

Photo: André Carré, via @BVG_Kampagne/Twitter

Starry-eyed Berliners can now embark on their journeys underneath a deep blue ceiling vault dotted with over 6,000 points of light that runs almost the entire length of the 180-meter station. A dark-grey main concourse takes riders through a colonnaded hall composed of granite from the Fichtel Mountains to evoke a classical feel. The new station, along with ...

LAX Automated People Mover development consortium hits major milestone

2021-07-02T16:33:00-04:00

An international consortium of engineering, construction, and infrastructure development firms has begun work on Los Angeles International Airport’s (LAX) Automated People Mover (APM) project.

The team, named LAX Integrated Express Solutions (LINXS), is led by experienced public-private partnership developers and equity investors, including Fluor Enterprises, Balfour Beatty Investments, Hochtief PPP Solutions GmbH, ACS Infrastructure Development, and Bombardier Transportation. LINXS has also enlisted the services of construction engineering company Flatiron West, along with fellow ACS Group subsidiary company Dragados and American design firm HDR.

The APM project is the centerpiece of the Los Angeles World Airport’s (LAWA), the airport authority that owns and operates LAX, Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP), a $5.5 billion project that aims to relieve congestion and enhance traveler experience at LAX. LAMP is part of a $14 billion facilities upgrade at LAX to help facili...

SOM and TranSystems reimagine one of Chicago's oldest and busiest train stations

2021-06-10T16:41:00-04:00

The City of Chicago, Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) revealed preliminary designs for a renovation of the city’s State/Lake elevated station.

Located in the heart of downtown, this is the second busiest station in the CTA network, located at a vital junction within the Chicago Loop. Built in 1895, it is one of the oldest stations in Chicago’s elevated rail network. The station serves six of Chicago’s eight train lines and connects to pedestrian and bus routes. The design is led by SOM and TranSystems, a design firm focused on transportation infrastructure, and a local consultant team with expertise in transit and historic preservation. The project is also guided by input from neighboring property owners, along with civic and preservation organizations.

The proposed $180 million design includes wider, safer platforms, a sweeping glass canopy to protect passengers from the elements, a new accessible fly-over connection bridge, new elev...

Zaha Hadid Architects partners with Hyperloop Italia to develop next-generation transportation system

2021-06-09T16:30:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has signed an agreement with Hyperloop Italia to co-design the next phase of development for the transformative transportation system.

Hyperloop Italia is a start-up born from an initiative by Bibop Gresta, the founder of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), to disseminate and implement hyperloop technologies and infrastructures in Italy. HTT was founded in 2013 and has a global team of more than 800 engineers, creatives, and technology experts divided into 52 multidisciplinary teams and with 50 partners between companies and universities. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles and has offices in North and South America, the MIddle East, and Europe. According to Hyperloop Italia, it is the first company in the world to have an exclusive license for the commercial implementation of the Hyperloop project in Italy.

Previously on Archinect: HyperloopTT unveils first full-scale capsule with goal of being passenger ready by 2019

The hyperloop train will ...

Los Angeles to make public transport free for low income and student users

2021-06-09T11:48:00-04:00

Los Angeles has moved a step closer to implementing free public transport, with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority approving a program that will give free bus and train travel to students and low-income users. The 23-month pilot program will begin in August 2021 for students, and for low-income users starting January 2022. The move will benefit a significant number of L.A. public transport users, with estimates that 70% of the Metro’s passengers are low-income users earning less than $35,000 per year, the highest percentage of any public transport system in the United States.

It is expected that the first phase of the pilot, covering K-12 and community college students, will cost the city $49 million in lost fare revenue, while the second phase covering low-income users will likely need federal funding to proceed. An L.A. Metro spokesperson estimates that the total plan could cost $321 million. Meanwhile, to compensate for the heavy decline in passengers during the COVID...

LA's proposed Dodger Stadium-Union Station gondola route revealed

2021-05-24T15:20:00-04:00

The company proposing to build a gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium announced Thursday that it has settled on a route that would take the aerial tramway generally above Alameda Street through Chinatown and include a station at the foot of Los Angeles State Historic Park.

Three years after first appearing in the Archinect news, Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit has revealed a more detailed outline for its proposed gondola system that could shuttle thousands of baseball fans from Los Angeles Union Station to Dodger Stadium on game days.

Image: Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit.

New LAX Airport Metro Connector station expected to break ground this fall

2021-05-03T12:37:00-04:00

A vote taken last week by the Metro Board of Directors approved a nearly $900 million budget for the long-awaited rail link to LAX, setting the stage for work to begin for the new light rail station in coming months. The Airport Metro Connector, planned for a 9.5-acre site at the intersection of Aviation Boulevard and 96th Streets, will connect Metro's Crenshaw/LAX and Green (C) Lines with the airport's new automated people mover system.

Grimshaw Architects is in charge of the station's design. It will include: a 16-bay bus plaza with capacity for charging infrastructure, a multi-level active transportation and bike hub, a vehicle drop-off zone, a customer service center, public toilet facilities beyond the fare paid zone, commercial space, and a sculpture by Los Angeles artist Glenn Kaino.

Early site work for the Airport Metro Connector station is reportedly expected to begin in May. Following that, a full construction contract is scheduled to be granted in Summer 2021, which would allow for the station to officially break ground in the Fall.

Construction of the new station will likely overlap with the launch of the currently under-construction Crenshaw/LAX line. This would mark another setback for the line, which was originally expected to open in 2019.

The Airport Metro Connector station’s nearly $900 million budget is a more than $260 million increase from a previous estimate of $637 million. Construction of ...

A new network of pedestrian and cycling bridges could come to New York City

2020-07-01T13:29:00-04:00

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering, T.Y. Lin International, and Sam Schwartz Engineering have unveiled a proposal for a new bridge connecting Queens and Manhattan.

The so-called "Queens Ribbon" proposal is part of a larger set of pedestrian and bicycle bridges proposed by the design team that aim to bring expanded connectivity to the New York City and eastern New Jersey region. The Queens Ribbon bridge, according to the group, would be the first new bridge crossing into Manhattan's business district since 1909.

The design consortium that created the bridge proposals was formed, according to a press release, in the wake of COVID-19 to "develop transportation improvements that would not only be of value during 'normal' times, but would also provide a lifeline in future crises."

The statement continues: "During the COVID-19 outbreak, New Yorkers have been turning to walking and biking in great numbers. After 9/11, Super Storm Sandy, the 2003 blackout, and transit strikes, walking ...

MTA suffers huge losses from COVID-19 pandemic as ridership declines sharply

2020-03-20T17:41:00-04:00

Ridership declines across all of the MTA’s trains and buses is becoming “more severe” by the day, the agency’s latest statistics revealed, causing $87 million in weekly revenue losses and raising the specter of more debt and drastic cuts to much-needed long-term repairs.

Already dealing with financial pressure, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is being hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic, as new ridership data in the latest Annual Disclosure Statement reveals.

"Recent substantial declines in ridership and traffic in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have already been observed and have become more severe daily," reads the statement. "There remains a high risk for further reductions in ridership and people may permanently alter their commutation behavior after this crisis based on their telecommuting experience during the COVID-19 crisis."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by MTA New York City Transit (@mtanyctransit) on Mar 18, 2020 at 7:03pm PDT

Earlier this week, MTA Chairman and CEO, Patrick J. Foye, requested an incremental $4 billion in federal assistance to "allow MTA to respond to the coronavirus pandemic" — more than 23% of the agency's current annual $17.1 billion operating budget.

Following Kansas City, Portland contemplates fareless public transit

2019-12-20T14:07:00-05:00

"I think the public needs to understand that as an agency, we are exploring what [a fareless system] could look like," [TriMet board member Kathy Wai] said. "These conversations are happening at a high level. … I think we are further along in 2019 on the conversation about the funding, what that could look like, and what those mechanisms could be."

Officials with the TriMet regional transit agency in Portland, Oregon have begun to discuss the possibility of embracing free public transit for area residents. The move comes after Kansas City, Missouri announced it would make its public transit free to ride.

Running alongside the push to make transit accessible and free, however, is a recently increase in fare-enforcement efforts in Portland itself and in other major cities nationwide, including Los Angeles and New York City. TriMet receives roughly 18% of its operating budget, roughly $90.9 million, from fare revenue. TriMet recently increased its Safety & Security budget by $4.7 million to $29.4 million in order to have "more people on the system checking fares and enforcing the TriMet Code."

California embraces VMT metrics to asses project environmental impacts

2019-11-27T18:04:00-05:00

A transformational shift in perspective is taking shape in California, where the state's transportation agency, Caltrans, is in the midst of alterings its project impact analysis metrics by abandoning LOS in lieu of VMT.

Why is this important? Level of Service (LOS), on the one hand, measures the impact of a project on traffic flow in a given area, prioritizing the movement of cars over other factors. Because LOS is optimized for automobile traffic, project impact mitigation measures often favor reducing automobile congestion so that traffic can keep flowing. Common LOS-led responses to a high-impact projects include highway widening and the addition of new driving lanes, for example, approaches that often actually work to make traffic worse through the phenomenon of "induced demand."

Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), on the other hand, measures the amount of travel generated for all vehicles by a given project. For projects that are measured against VMT, the goal shifts from reducing...

Red bus-only lanes are coming to Portland soon

2019-10-12T09:00:00-04:00

Late last month, the Portland Bureau of Transportation received approval from the Federal Highway Administration to use red coloring on bus-only lanes. Since the use of red to designate bus-only lanes hasn’t been fully adopted into the FHWA’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), cities that want to use the treatment have had to “request to experiment”. After going through an application process, Portland is now on the list of cities sanctioned to use the color.

Bus-only lanes are sweeping the nation.

With recent federal approvals in hand, Portland, Oregon is set to become the latest major American city to implement bus-only lanes in its downtown and suburban districts.

View of suburban area bus lane network. Image courtesy of PBOT/Regional ETC Pilot Program Candidate Enhanced Transit Locations.

Portland joins New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Seattle, among others, in instituting the lanes. The recent implementation of bus-only lanes in New York City has transformed one of the city's notoriously traffic-choked cross-town streets into a pedestrian paradise.