There has been a fad in the transit and railway world to abandon the conventional signalling technologies that have worked so well for the past hundred years, in favor of "Communication Based Train Control". This is a centralized system wherein, basically, every train constantly tells the central control computer where it is, and the computer tells the train how fast it should be going. Generally, these systems are highly proprietary, and often parts become obsolete soon after they're bought (San Francisco, for example, has a system based on OS/2). And the systems are generally very bad at handling vehicles that either don't communicate, or don't meet the criteria of the often-finicky systems.
As if that wasn't trouble enough, some bright fellows decided that rather than use the proven but expensive inductive loop technology, they'd use radios to communicate with the trains. Inside tunnels. Which tends not to work so well, and almost all of the systems where they've tried that have failed, including the Jubilee Line in London, the BART, and now Philadelphia, where the "more advanced" system has in fact reduced capacity and caused delays. Will they ever learn?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Everyone Loves the Electric (part n)
Amtrak has just posted their ridership and revenue statistics for fiscal 2008, and they're quite detailed and interesting. One thing stands out though: 55% of Amtrak's revenue comes from the Northeast Corridor, which carries 38% of the total ridership. If you do the math, you find that the average Acela customer pays $138, while the average Surfliner customer pays $18. For all that talk of how Amtrak needs to get rid of the NEC, it's still by far their most successful route, and the only one that has attracted large numbers of high-paying customers.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Why one should read EULAs
From the skype EULA:
What this means is that at any point in time, skype reserves the right to hit the self-destruct switch on the software on your computer, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, because you allowed them to by using it. Furthermore, they reserve the right to change the rules at any time by posting said changes 30 days in advance on their website, so it's your problem to check their website regularly. And best of all, this whole transaction is subject to Luxembourg law, and if you want to sue Skype, presumably you have to do it in Luxembourg.
Skype, in its sole discretion, may modify or discontinue or suspend your ability to use any version of the Skype Software, and/or disable any Skype Software you may already have accessed or installed without any notice to you
What this means is that at any point in time, skype reserves the right to hit the self-destruct switch on the software on your computer, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, because you allowed them to by using it. Furthermore, they reserve the right to change the rules at any time by posting said changes 30 days in advance on their website, so it's your problem to check their website regularly. And best of all, this whole transaction is subject to Luxembourg law, and if you want to sue Skype, presumably you have to do it in Luxembourg.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The insanity that is VTA
The closer I look at the VTA (the local transit authority), the less I like it. The VTA seems singularly focused on wasting money in the most gratuitous way possible, getting the least bang for the most buck.
The epitome of this wastefulness is the BART extension project, which just never seems to go away. It's one of those things that seems like a good idea... until you think about it and realize that it's $6 billion and a 20 year delay for a subway from Fremont to San Jose,
through the middle of mostly nowhere. It's the same cost as LA's Subway to the Sea, and for two orders of magnitude less money, the VTA could have been running a commuter rail to Fremont or even Oakland, and in fact the VTA almost did before the BART project came along. But BART is still in the future, and only a relatively small amount of planning money has been spent on it.
The VTA has already wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on misguided projects, such as the light rail system. They sold their 15 year old fleet of 50 high-platform cars and bought a brand new fleet of 100 low-floor cars, despite needing at most 61 of them for peak service. And to allow level boarding with these new cars, they have had to raise the platforms at every single station in the system, at great expense, not to mention inconvenience to passengers when the
stations are closed.
And the design of the light rail system as a whole just seems wasteful: it doesn't really go where people want to go, and it takes a long time getting there. Just look at the absurd shape of the line from Downtown to Alum Rock via Milpitas. Or the long, scenic, and slow windings of the Mountain View line through office-park-land. Or the sidewalk running through Downtown at 10 mph, which makes trips through San Jose infeasibly slow. Or how the single busiest transit corridor in the county, along Santa Clara St and Alum Rock Ave, still doesn't
have light rail service.
The epitome of this wastefulness is the BART extension project, which just never seems to go away. It's one of those things that seems like a good idea... until you think about it and realize that it's $6 billion and a 20 year delay for a subway from Fremont to San Jose,
through the middle of mostly nowhere. It's the same cost as LA's Subway to the Sea, and for two orders of magnitude less money, the VTA could have been running a commuter rail to Fremont or even Oakland, and in fact the VTA almost did before the BART project came along. But BART is still in the future, and only a relatively small amount of planning money has been spent on it.
The VTA has already wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on misguided projects, such as the light rail system. They sold their 15 year old fleet of 50 high-platform cars and bought a brand new fleet of 100 low-floor cars, despite needing at most 61 of them for peak service. And to allow level boarding with these new cars, they have had to raise the platforms at every single station in the system, at great expense, not to mention inconvenience to passengers when the
stations are closed.
And the design of the light rail system as a whole just seems wasteful: it doesn't really go where people want to go, and it takes a long time getting there. Just look at the absurd shape of the line from Downtown to Alum Rock via Milpitas. Or the long, scenic, and slow windings of the Mountain View line through office-park-land. Or the sidewalk running through Downtown at 10 mph, which makes trips through San Jose infeasibly slow. Or how the single busiest transit corridor in the county, along Santa Clara St and Alum Rock Ave, still doesn't
have light rail service.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Trains and scalability
What with the high gas prices, it's not surprising that even in LA, public transit ridership has been setting records this year. What's particularly interesting about this latest set of numbers, though, is that the Gold Line's ridership has finally exceeded that of the Orange Line busway, and the Orange Line's growth is starting to stagnate. There's a very simple explanation: the Orange Line has basically reached capacity, since it's going to be hard to maintain reliable service with headways closer than four minutes. On the Gold Line, they've gone from 12 minute peak headways down to 7.5. Plus, thanks to the ability to couple trains, as well as the higher speed that comes with proper grade crossing protection, the Gold Line requires 11 drivers to operate peak service, while the Orange Line requires about 24, for a roughly comparable number of passenger miles.
And the Gold Line has quite a bright future ahead of it, as higher ridership leads to a more frequent and thus more attractive service. The Eastside extension can only help matters, by linking more destinations with the rail network. With some upgrades to the power system, they will be able to start running three car trains and boost capacity by another 50% with no extra drivers, and I suspect that headways as close as 5 minutes are possible as well, more than doubling the line's capacity.
Meanwhile, the Orange Line is already running a bus every four minutes at peak, and it's not likely that service can increase much beyond that without creating jams at the many grade crossing on the line. So the buses will get increasingly crowded until an equilibrium is reached between people needing to get somewhere, and people not wanting to put up with the crowding. Or until the line is rebuilt as light rail.
And the Gold Line has quite a bright future ahead of it, as higher ridership leads to a more frequent and thus more attractive service. The Eastside extension can only help matters, by linking more destinations with the rail network. With some upgrades to the power system, they will be able to start running three car trains and boost capacity by another 50% with no extra drivers, and I suspect that headways as close as 5 minutes are possible as well, more than doubling the line's capacity.
Meanwhile, the Orange Line is already running a bus every four minutes at peak, and it's not likely that service can increase much beyond that without creating jams at the many grade crossing on the line. So the buses will get increasingly crowded until an equilibrium is reached between people needing to get somewhere, and people not wanting to put up with the crowding. Or until the line is rebuilt as light rail.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Yet another Bush Administration WTF
The Federal Transit Administration recently made a ruling that expands the definition of charter bus service to keep publicly funded transit agencies from competing with charter bus companies when they provide premium fare service, like to football games. However, this isn't really a charter service organized and paid for by one person, rather, it's a special transit service, with the bus company doing the organizing and each rider paying an individual fare into the farebox. And according to California regulations, this makes it legally a transit service, not a charter service, and a license to operate charter service isn't enough to provide it, and it can only be operated by a transit provider. The end result might well be that nobody is allowed to operate this service at all. WTF.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Mixed-use development
These days with high gas prices and awful traffic, we are starting to hear more about mixed-use development, generally with terms like "urban villages" and such. The point seems to be that people can live next to where they work and have short commutes. But that is, for the most part, just wishful thinking, and entirely misses the point of being in a city, that being the access you have to a wide variety of jobs and leisure activities. A city is more than just a bunch of villages concatenated together.
No, the real point of mixed use development is just plain old efficiency. Things like raods, transit, and sewers are expensive to build, and they have to be built to meet the peak demand. The neat thing about mixed-use is that the peak demands of the uses generally come at different times, so the overall peak is only as big as that of the biggest use. If you've built roads and parking lots to support an office park, you can probably build a shopping mall next to it with only a little extra road capacity and parking, since the office park is empty on evenings and weekends, which is exactly when the shopping mall is full.
No, the real point of mixed use development is just plain old efficiency. Things like raods, transit, and sewers are expensive to build, and they have to be built to meet the peak demand. The neat thing about mixed-use is that the peak demands of the uses generally come at different times, so the overall peak is only as big as that of the biggest use. If you've built roads and parking lots to support an office park, you can probably build a shopping mall next to it with only a little extra road capacity and parking, since the office park is empty on evenings and weekends, which is exactly when the shopping mall is full.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Carpets in subway car
I was reading some documents published by WMATA (which runs the Washington Metro) about their subway train fleet, and I learned an interesting fact: 15% of maintenance downtime is due to carpet replacements. I suspect this is slightly less bad for BART, but it's still pretty significant. No wonder both systems are looking for ways to get rid of carpets and save themselves money and maintenance headaches.
Another interesting fact is that 20% of in-service delays related to equipment failure are due to the ATC system. So maybe there's some advantage after all to having a nice simple mechanical train-stop system like NYC does: it's very, very reliable, and most light rail systems can get by just fine with no train-stop at all, just plain old block signals, again with much higher reliability since there's no carborne equipment to fail.
Another interesting fact is that 20% of in-service delays related to equipment failure are due to the ATC system. So maybe there's some advantage after all to having a nice simple mechanical train-stop system like NYC does: it's very, very reliable, and most light rail systems can get by just fine with no train-stop at all, just plain old block signals, again with much higher reliability since there's no carborne equipment to fail.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Automobile
I read a post on a forum on the topic of cars, and I think it is a wonderful demonstration of the sheer cognitive dissonance that is America's "love affair with the automobile".
Apparently this person has never lived in a city, never had to walk a quarter mile across a parking lot, never had to sit in traffic for half an hour, never even stopped at a traffic light. He's never gotten drunk and been unable to drive, never been a teenager too young to drive or had a grandparent too old to drive safely.
Nothing will ever beat the private car for convenience. Its right there, whenever you want it. Its fast, it can be used by almost anyone, regardless of physical health. No wait times to use it, no sharing it with the smelly unbathed guy, the psycho homeless person, or the screaming infant. No stops along the way. And it can be used for trips of any length, to any location, without being forced to walk a mile from a bus stop to the destination. And depending on where you're driving, it can be quite pleasant- driving in the mountains with the top down is *fun*. I've never had a fun bus ride.
Apparently this person has never lived in a city, never had to walk a quarter mile across a parking lot, never had to sit in traffic for half an hour, never even stopped at a traffic light. He's never gotten drunk and been unable to drive, never been a teenager too young to drive or had a grandparent too old to drive safely.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Bofa?
When I came over to do my internship, I decided that it might be convenient to have an account at a local bank, so I opened myself a Bank of America account, since it was free. But then I got the pamphlet explaining the fees, and it's just... horrible. They charge for using another bank's ATM (and of course the other bank charges you too). Even to check your balance. And to make up for the fact that ATMs don't charge for using foreign cards, BofA charges even more for using a foreign ATM. And just today they sent me a letter explaining that they've confiscated my paycheck for a week, basically giving themselves an interest-free loan. It's like they think that I should be paying them to take my money and make a profit with it or something. I find that sort of attitude in a bank to be most... unhelpful.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Abonnement général
Switzerland has one of the best train systems in the world: It may not be the fastest, but it is one of the most comprehensive and reliable. You can get from anywhere to anywhere else in the country, trains almost always run at least hourly, and generally scheduled for easy connections. And while it's not cheap, if you live there, you can get all sorts of discounts, and they even have a yearly unlimited pass. That's right, if you pay 3100 Francs (worth about $2500 before the dollar became worthless), you can ride on any train, bus, tram, etc. anywhere in the country as much as you like.
Imagine if such a thing existed in Northern California: you would be able to go from Salinas to Reno, from Yosemite to San Francisco, all for just one easy payment of, say, $3000. That's hardly more than a year's worth of Caltrain and Muni passes, yet it offers one the freedom to go anywhere at all, without having to bother with tickets, or even think about how much it costs. You just hop on the train and go.
Imagine if such a thing existed in Northern California: you would be able to go from Salinas to Reno, from Yosemite to San Francisco, all for just one easy payment of, say, $3000. That's hardly more than a year's worth of Caltrain and Muni passes, yet it offers one the freedom to go anywhere at all, without having to bother with tickets, or even think about how much it costs. You just hop on the train and go.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Automotive abomination
As I was walking down the street here in Sunnyvale, I saw a giant one-and-a-half-decker RV, towing behind it a trailer with two jet skis. And then it pulled into the gas station where gas is $4.20
a gallon. I can imagine the many-hundred-dollar fuel bill this guy had, and I can't imagine that this sort of fuel-guzzling wastefulness can keep going for much longer, with gas prices as they are.
a gallon. I can imagine the many-hundred-dollar fuel bill this guy had, and I can't imagine that this sort of fuel-guzzling wastefulness can keep going for much longer, with gas prices as they are.
Riding the VTA
Now that I'm in Silicon Valley, and temporarily bikeless, my main form of transportation is the VTA. While the buses and light rail are nice, and there's at least some service in most of the area, the system as a whole is just too slow, infrequent, and doesn't go where you want it to. For example, there is no bus that goes from downtown Mountain View to Google. Likewise, there's no bus that goes from where I am to downtown Sunnyvale: I have to take the light rail two stops and then transfer, waiting another 10 minutes in the process, and making a 3.5 mile trip take over half an hour in the best case. Another example: my friend wanted to go to a rollerskating rink in southern San Jose from Mountain View. This rink is conveniently not far from a light rail station, and Mountain View has light rail too, so one might naively think that this is one of those rare trips that is well served by transit. But no, it takes 1h40 from station to station, versus about 40 minutes by car. Taking Caltrain from Mountain View to Tamien and transferring there is generally much better, taking 53 minutes station to station, but that means you have to catch one of the few Caltrains that actually stop at both Mountain View and Tamien, and on the way back, Caltrain is no longer an option, as the last one leaves Tamien at 9:23, and the last train from San Jose is at 10:30 pm. It's just not practical: you can do it, but you'll feel like you're fighting the system the whole way. But I think there's some hope for the VTA, and maybe one day I'll explain what I think needs to be done.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Where I am and what I'm up to
Right now, I'm in Providence, having finished one semester of the Comp Sci masters program at Brown, meaning that I started in January. For the observant of you, that means I had several months between finishing work last summer and starting at Brown in January. In that time, I rode Amtrak across the country from San Francisco to Schenectady via Portland, Seattle, and Chicago. I also took a trip to Europe, visiting the UK, Switzerland, and France, where I also rode on many trains, including the TGV, Eurostar, and Virgin Pendolino, as well as the legendary Swiss rail network.
In a week, I'm leaving for Sunnyvale, CA, for a summer internship, and then heading back to Providence to finish school, hopefully in December. After that, who knows. I might stay in Boston, I might move to Silicon Valley, because much as I hate it, that's where the jobs are. And high gas prices will hopefully make it increasingly tolerable to live in.
In a week, I'm leaving for Sunnyvale, CA, for a summer internship, and then heading back to Providence to finish school, hopefully in December. After that, who knows. I might stay in Boston, I might move to Silicon Valley, because much as I hate it, that's where the jobs are. And high gas prices will hopefully make it increasingly tolerable to live in.
Monday, May 12, 2008
New Blog
I've found myself in need of a public forum in which to vent my opinions, rather than posting them in the comments of other blogs. And it would be nice to have a place where I can announce where I am and what I'm up to, so I don't have to tell it to everyone over and over. As for where I actually am, and what I'm actually up to, well, you'll just have to wait until the next post.
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