Are Cities "Toast" after Covid?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/opinion/cities-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage 

Is "Smart Growth" fiscally smart too?

Task Force member Jack Grycznski wanted to know and now wants to share:

 http://smartgrowth.org/the-fiscal-benefits-of-smart-growth/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

Can we re-imagine the city without cars....

....or at least relinquishing so much of our urban land, air, and resources to them?
Dallas, like Manhattan, has given over a lot of its space to the storage and movement of private cars.
This piece makes a great case or deeply re-thinking all that. It reports on urbanist Vishaan Chakrabati’s project to show what Manhattan might look like with streets re-commissioned to other land uses and more equitable means of getting people and things around. Worth a read and comment from our task force members!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/opinion/ban-cars-manhattan-cities.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

DART Bus—Join in a total re-think of the service

These are difficult times for cities, and for transit. DART hosted a virtual meeting the other day, entertaining a deep re-think of the bus service, and most of us missed it. It’s not too late however to weigh in on a “complete re-conception” of how bus service should perform. 

Below are links to the presentation of the two different concepts, one maximizing COVERAGE the other, maximizing RIDERSHIP. Equity is on many minds right now. At this point, however no distinction has been made as to transit-dependent or transit-optional user groups. DART officials say they wish to resolve a fundamental service direction first.

Attached is the slide deck from yesterday’s meeting, and the DART link for the survey as well as the DARTzoom maps and summary. 

DARTzoom Survey Link:

https://www.dartzoom.org/en/survey 

DARTzoom Resource Link; Concept Maps, Ex Summary

https://www.dartzoom.org/en/resources

DART says your participation will be appreciated!

Is this the (temporary) death of mass transit?

New CDC guidelines propose a radical redesign, not just of the workplace, but how we get there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/us/coronavirus-news-usa.html?referringSource=articleShare

Demand for blikes is surging...

...according to the NYT: Has coronavirus had some good effects after all? Cyclists might think so:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/nyregion/bike-shortage-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

Are we missing a CV-19 opportunity?

Cities around the world are taking the opportunity to re-fashion their

streets for pedestrians and bikes. Will our North Texas cities do the same?

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/cities-support-people-walking-and-cycling-work/

Planning for our regional transportation future (virtual task force meeting)

Here is the chat stream from our meeting today in which NCTCOG's Tom Bramonte and Ford's Madeline Shepherd held forth on transportation planning for a new era. They got us thinking about some deeply held assumptions that go into planning. Should it be more about vehicles or people? Are we extending sprawl but putting more dollars into new lanes, less into maintaining what we already have? Are we "done" with micromobility?

To measure congestion, do you measure vehicle throughput or person throughput?

How is "congestion" defined?

So congestion is about vehicles, not people?

Since we know that we can't build ourselves out of congestion, is NCTCOG consistently challenging how we can accommodate congestion while creating a financially sustainable transportation network?

Do recent climate change models predict growing repair costs in out years (i.e. heat impact on concrete, etc.)

(Dallas and Atlanta appear to have very different values on building more roads versus maintaining them) How is Atlanta thinking differently?

Asked of Tom: How has your thinking shifted in terms of road-buiding and the assumption of automobility as the prime mover of people and goods?

Are the unfortunate land use decisions driven mainly by developers and cities? Are politics driving the focus on congestion (lack of public interest in improving land use, public desire to make convenient long trips)?

What do you think the impact of COVID 19 will be on future transportation demand? Will the affects be short-term or long-term?

Should Safety and climate be elevated as factors?

(What) we really need to do is elevate it with the elected officials which means, their constituents need to be reaching out to them about more than congestion.

Under goals, what about system reliability?

Can't crashes be one of the performance measures?

Safety is one of the performance measures.

How does connected and automated vehicles factor into congestion?  What is the expectation as its contribution to easing or creating congestion?

Tom, on about impacts of AVs: The current wisdom is that AVs are likely to increase VMT/congestion unless (a) there is a shift to shared rides (e.g., UberPool) or (b) there is a shift to smaller vehicle form factors (e.g., pods) that allow greater vehicle throughput on our streets.

Congestion is multi-faceted issue that is enabled by individual prioritizations, and land ownership and use decisions that contribute to urban sprawl, desire for better schools systems, affordable housing,..obtaining the American dream. People weigh the pros and cons and act accordingly.  When it becomes unbearable (value of time), they adjust – they move closer to their jobs, go to and from work earlier or later, telecommute, change jobs, use transit, if available.

Excellent points about demand and congestion--which aint all bad if it "drives" new consumer choices

Thomas Bamonte to Everyon…from Inrix's congestion expert: "In the medium- and long-term, congestion can positively impact a city by incentivizing land use changes and driving investment in high-efficiency modes of transport (public transport, biking, walking). These investments reinforce agglomeration economics, amplifying their impact."

INRIX, 2019 Global Traffic Scorecard

Transit agencies have not been able to or receptive to changing their mode of operations to meet the customer needs. It's even more challenging for them because their is no longer a clearly defined CBD.  People traveal suburb to suburb..  It's built on a model to accomodate work and not the needs of women generally to travel for other reasons -- grocers, doctor appointments, school. Thei

Will micromobility come in the form of a service provided by private sector (e.g., Bird) or public sector (e.g., DART) or will consumers buy vehicles such as scooters just as they do cars today and cities will provide street and docking infrastructure?

I would encourage you to read the book, Invisible Women, by Caroline Criado Perez.

Are people using scooter to travel to and from work or for other essential needs or for fun?

Madeline:  I think we'll see evolutions in the business model, including the possibilities you mention

Tom: Scooter use depends on the market, but in mature markets there are plenty of work and other "real" trips. But "fun"

Madeline: (Thanks) for the recommendation! I think you've made some very good points. I can only speak to what we've seen with Spin, but trips to essential destinations has gone up, indicating trips aren't just for fun. In dense urban areas where people live and work where they live, we see them used for work commute.

TXDOT: take a look down the road....

Michael Morris, NCTCOG's transpo director, invites us to look into a radically altered near future, post-coronavirus, and do some new thinking about our infrastructure needs:

"....During this health crisis, we must focus on need and not want, and build like we did in 2009. We should advance high-speed rail between Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth. Build autonomous transit vehicles in the Dallas hospital district, at the General Motors assembly plant and the midtown development next to the Galleria Dallas. Advance electric vehicle recharging with induction loops in our freeway pavement. Make $5 billion in improvements on Interstate 820 in Tarrant County, State Highway 183 in Dallas County, U.S. 380 in Collin County, and LBJ to Denton on Interstate 35E. Extend TEXRail to the Fort Worth Medical District, build the new Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport terminal."


More here:
http://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=23036c35-f2fb-439f-849b-bc71d2864e7a&appid=3565

What’s your take on “open streets”?

On my street— residential Pomona Road in Bluff view—we are seeing more walkers, runners, cyclers and scooter riders than ever in this time of the great pandemic. If you’re a cyclist, you’ve probably noticed that even the “big streets” around Dallas are a lot easier to manage with reduced traffic.

What is your take on this? Could we, as several of our Mobility task force have mentioned, start dedicating some of our streets to a usage other than cars, at least part of the time?

Let us hear from you!

Autonomous Trucks: Arriving Soon Near You?

When this CV thing is all over we may be surprised at the changes going on in the transpo world. Catch up with it here:










 https://www.c2es.org/event/accelerating-the-ev-market-medium-and-heavy-duty-trucks/

Welcome to our Mobility Task Force Site!

Welcome new MTF blog readers! We invite all our GDPC TF members and colleagues to share this link and visit frequently. We'd love to have you post items for the blog too! (Just so you know, we are public, but discreet. You can't find us with a browser search. )

Comments are more than welcome. We are starved for attention! Seriously, they do give us good feedback on what is of interest to you and help sniff out new sources. You do not have to have a Google user to drop a comment.  Just click on the posting date of any blog post you wish to respond to. The posting date can be found immediately below the post. A text box will appear for you to enter your comment. Blogger (the app we use to make this blog) gives you the option of identifying you via you Google account ID, or as a non-account holder. You may also comment anonymously if you prefer.

If you have a problem, here is a link to a how-to video for blogger.com blogs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsu-TCoX7e4

What’s up with our “Discovery Lunch & Learn” at the high speed rail station site?

Well, it's been cancelled, as one might guess, as a result of the current general shutdown. If you had signed up for this event through the GDPC official website, your payment will be refunded. We were delighted to see such a strong interest in this event and will re-schedule it as events permit. Join us for the WebEx virtual Mobility Task Force meeting next Tuesday. Look for the link from Chairman Bud Melton and RSVP.

In the meantime, please check in with this blog for the latest Mobility Task Force Info.

-John Clarkson

A Cedar Springs Re-Do?

MTF Member, and Transportation EIT Daniel DiJoseph frequently walks along the Cedar Springs corridor near where he lives. Daniel's been doing a little pro bono urban design, showing how that corridor could be re-engineered as a truly urban street. Let's let Daniel take it from here:

"The Cedar Springs corridor from Turtle Creek Blvd to Akard St is becoming the most densely developed corridor in Uptown Dallas. This corridor remains unfriendly to pedestrians and other non-car modes of transportation, largely due to high speeds, long intersection crossings, and no lanes for micromobility. Three five-legged intersections along this corridor are particularly unfriendly: at Routh St, Olive St, and Akard St.

The figure below shows how the Cedar Springs corridor could provide key linkages for non-car modes if facilities for these modes were provided. Facilities for non-car modes have shown to increase property values and commercial activity along routes where they are provided, meaning property owners, shops/restaurants, and the City of Dallas stand to benefit from the provision of these facilities.

The Cedar Springs corridor (shown as a red line) connects two access points to the Katy Trail (shown as yellow pins) to two proposed multimodal corridors in the Downtown Dallas 360 Plan (Harwood St and Field St, shown as dark blue lines). The Cedar Springs corridor could aid with first/last mile connections to the proposed D2 station along Museum Way and to the existing St Paul light rail station (via the proposed multimodal Harwood corridor).

The figure also shows existing and future large developments along the corridor.

Shown in light blue are existing developments along the corridor. Shown in green are developments under construction. Shown in pink are planned and proposed developments. Remaining lots along this corridor have high redevelopment potential. It is likely that a shift to non-car modes of transportation would take place if facilities for these modes were provided along the Cedar Springs corridor due to the density and mix of uses along this corridor and the connections it provides to existing and planned facilities for non-car modes.

Traffic volumes from 2014 indicate a maximum AADT of 16,601 at Pearl St. This is well within the range for which a road diet down to three lanes is feasible. The proposed changes shown below include a three lane road diet along Cedar Springs Rd, and a conversion to two-way operations between Olive St and Akard St. ‘MM’ stands for ‘Micromobility Lane’ on the typical sections below.

North of Olive St:

South of Olive St:

Proposed changes could increase the overall people throughput of the corridor, improve safety (by reducing speeds and reducing crossing distances at intersections), and improve quality of life for people who live and/or work in the area (by creating a more friendly environment for pedestrians and micromobility, giving people more freedom of choice)."

(More details are available from Daniel, who invites comments and suggestions from fellow TF members. Please feel free to email Daniel at daniel.dijoseph@hdrinc.com.)

Thanks Daniel!

Got a brilliant mobility idea to share? Show the world!  Be a guest blogger here. Write to the GDPC MTF blogscribe at john.clarkson@gmail. com

Thinking ahead..

Mapping Migration in the Face of Climate Change - CityLab

This post in the CityLab blog raises interesting projections of the long term effects of climate change on inter-city migration. The blue areas reflect counties likely inundated by rising sea levels, while the pink and purple counties (including ours) would be the growth areas.

Read more here:
https://www.citylab.com/environment/2020/02/climate-change-migration-map-sea-level-rise-coastal-cities/605440/

Task Force Meets Online...

Our first gathering in 2020 is a virtual one. Bud Melton's notes below:

Attendees: John Clarkson, Jack Gryczynski, Tony Sosebee, Madeline Shepherd, Andrew Ittigson, Tom Grant, Hamza Khan, Ross Kahn, Catrine Machi, Bud Melton

JAN. 28, 2020 MOBILITY TASK FORCE AGENDA 

• Introductions 
• Emerging issues to consider
• Recap of 2019 Focus Areas & Looking Forward to 2020 
• This year’s MTF WebEx & Meeting schedule, and venue
• Suggestions for L&L topics 

• Pending: Feb. or March rooftop tour of Texas Central Bullet Train station area (TBD)

Comments Regarding Focus Issues 
TS: Last year Plano and Addison tested scooters, particularly how to deal with “scooter trash.” MS: Shared mi-mo insights on scooter companies – ‘Spin hubs’ were tried in DC. These are docks for scooters – located around transit and key first-mile origins/destinations such as more dense developments.

Some cities are going back to docking systems for scooters. We should be watching Mi-Mo ordinances – for example, the number of operators is important to competition. Too many makes it tough to compete. Cities are beginning to press for more equitable partnerships, such as commitments to equity in access.

TG: Re. Dallas’ Strategic Mobility Plan – KHA did have slow down due to staff departures at the City. Anticipate an update soon. City had 5K responses to the online survey. Goal is to release more info by late spring or summer. HK: Mi-mo is a key issue going forward – question remains, of how to tackle.

Also, Hamza’s among others who’re also on the Urban Design Taskforce – working on how these fit in with urban spaces. RK: Emphasis should be on Safety w/Mi-Mo – and in balance w/other modes.

Last year – we saw statistics that confirmed that safety’s a huge issue. CM: Helping Cities w/infrastructure and spaces among private entities – even thinking about temporary spaces for staging these may help. Key is how to determine the spaces, and to limit vendors. Also to quantify responsibility – perhaps some kind of scoring may help. Think of curb space is an asset for negotiation with vendors. Land-use types may contribute – e.g. ideal locations for mobility hubs.

JG: We need to know more about what cities are doing well elsewhere. MS: Pittsburgh issued a RFP for a consortium of mobility devices. (Spin is a provider). Also, in San Antonio – the RFQ finalist was Lyft – but they pulled out early on. Question may be whether better to license vendors vs. issue an RFP? Some court cases may be emerging over data sharing. Important that we be able to get realtime data for monitoring and decision-making.

MOBILITY 2020 ISSUES TO CONSIDER: 

• Micromobility (mi-mo) 
• I-345 (rethink, repair, remove, replace?)
• COG RTC and thre 2050 Mobility Plan

Session Topics to Consider for 2020: 

• Bullet train and the area of downtown arrival
• DART Bus route redo is underway. Scheduled for completion by mid-2021.

Water resources for the rest of the century

 ...were the topic today at the Dallas City Council Committee on Environmental Quality and Sustainability.

Sound boring?

Dallas, and the surrounding NCTCOG cities have enough surface water (our main source of H2O) it would seem, under "historic" climate models. "Historic" does not mean much any more however, when we have had a "1000 year rain event" in recent memory (Harvey) and (unprecedented-in-our-geologic-era) Australian firestorms still raging as we write. The fact seems to be that we have entered a chaotic phase in which the past offers no clue of the future, other than OVER ALL the ocean and atmosphere are getting hotter.

Given our growing awareness of climate change and its potential impacts, today's Council briefing, if not riveting, should be of more than casual interest. "Drought-flood" is now our general weather forecast, and that means living with increased water restrictions and better ways to get rid of it when there is too much.

Yes, it has implications for transportation too. Climate change, with sustained high summer heats, will be cracking up the roadways as never before. One could speculate that infrastructure costs will have our highway projects fighting with water resource and watershed management for limited tax dollars.

Soon, staff tell us, we will be hearing about opportunities to take part in a Regional Climate Change workshop in March (watch this space).  Climate change is something all of us as planners, designers and citizens, despite particular interests, need to learn about and take a lead in adapting to.

Needed: Task Force Members to Attend an Important Meeting

The next business meeting of the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) will convene at 1:00 pm on Thursday, January 9, 2020, in the Transportation Council Room, First Floor at the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX, 76011. 

This meeting will include opportunities for the general public to comment on regional transportation initiatives.  The meeting agenda and all items can be accessed through the Internet at NCTCOG's Transportation Department RTC home page.  The address iswww.nctcog.org/rtc.  

Can demand-transit schemes really work?

This recent Wired piece throws some shade on algorithm- driven transit solutions that pair ride sharing with conventional busses.  Where do you come down on this issue?
https://www.wired.com/story/cities-on-demand-transit-buses/