Transportation Library News

Take a Look at a Book

The Transportation Library has acquired Paying the Toll: Local Power, Regional Politics, and the Golden Gate Bridge by Louise Nelson Dyble. Here is an description of the book from the publisher's Web site:

Since its opening in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge has become an icon for the beauty and prosperity of the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as a symbol of engineering achievement. Constructing the bridge posed political and financial challenges that were at least as difficult as those faced by the project's builders. To meet these challenges, northern California boosters created a new kind of agency: an autonomous, self-financing special district. The Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District developed into a powerful organization that shaped the politics and government of the Bay Area as much as the bridge shaped its physical development.

From the moment of the bridge district's incorporation in 1928, its managers pursued their own agenda. They used all the resources at their disposal to preserve their control over the bridge, cultivating political allies, influencing regional policy, and developing an ambitious public relations program. Undaunted by charges of mismanagement and persistent efforts to turn the bridge (as well as its lucrative tolls) over to the state, the bridge district expanded into mass transportation, taking on ferry and bus operations to ensure its survival to this day.

Drawing on previously unavailable archives, Paying the Toll gives us an inside view of the world of high-stakes development, cronyism, and bureaucratic power politics that have surrounded the Golden Gate Bridge since its inception.
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Hybrid is the way to go, Kirk tells Pace - But bus agency has eyes on 58 diesel buses with stimulus money

Chicago Tribune (IL) - Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Author: Kathryn Dill, Special to the Tribune

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk urged Pace on Monday to abandon its plan to spend stimulus funds on diesel-fueled buses and instead buy a fleet of hybrid vehicles.

Pace is planning to use the approximately $33 million to buy 58 diesel buses.

A hybrid bus would use about 30,000 fewer gallons of fuel than a diesel bus over the course of the vehicle's lifetime, and taxpayer savings generated by a fleet of hybrid buses could exceed $2.6 million, according to a statement from Kirk's office.

"It's time for Pace to go green," Kirk (R-Ill.) said at a news conference in Highland Park.

Pace marketing department manager Doug Sullivan said the transit provider has appealed to Kirk repeatedly in the last several years for funding to buy hybrid vehicles, and each time the request was denied.

"We find it ironic we've asked Kirk to help us buy hybrid buses several years in a row, and he hasn't stepped up," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the 30-foot diesel buses Pace is planning to buy for $290,000 each will get 5.25 miles to the gallon, about half a mile per gallon more than the 40-foot hybrid buses Kirk is urging them to buy for $600,000 each.

"The fact that the word 'hybrid' is in there sends everyone off thinking this is magic technology," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said Pace wants to explore using hybrid vehicles in the future, but the agency believes that for now the diesel buses are more cost- and fuel-efficient.

Kirk said the buses Pace wants to buy, "while not being Soviet-era diesel buses," will still use more than 1 million gallons of fuel and release more emissions than the hybrid fleet.

When asked about Pace's previous requests for federal money, Kirk said, "Pace has received a record amount of funds. I think they should choose the higher-technology, lower-emissions option."

The Chicago Parking Story

Earlier this month, the Chicago Inspector General's Office published an analysis of the city's 75-year lease of its parking meters. Here is a link to the Transportation Library's catalog record for the report. Here are some passages from the executive summary:

"Because the deal was presented to the City Council with very limited information and because the Council scheduled its vote a very short time later, there was no meaningful public review of the decision to lease the parking-meter system....

"In addition, the driving force behind the decision to lease the parking meters was the City's short-term budgetary need. While we do not question the seriousness of the City's budget problem that was presented in Fall 2008 because of the recession, the hasty, "crisis" nature of the decision-making process meant that the short-term budget problems and the large upfront payment the City was receiving overshadowed all other legitimate, long-term, public-interest issues...

"These failures meant that, among other things, the City did not allow for proper consideration of alternatives to the exact 75-year lease deal it entered into. The IGO report finds that, in fact, there were valid alternatives to this lease deal that could have solved the City's short-term budget problem without (i) raising the meter rates to the same level, and
(ii) giving up control of the parking meters for such a long period of time....

"The report also finds that the City was paid, conservatively, $974 million less for this 75-year lease than the City would have received from 75 years of parking-meter revenue had it retained the parking-meter system under the same terms that the City agreed to in the lease."

Leonard Gilroy of the Reason Foundation discusses the report at the Out of Control Policy Blog.

Traffic Barrel Art, a novel way to get motorists to slow down

A student at North Carolina State University was arrested recently for destruction of property, having appropriated several orange and white traffic barrels. His creation, which appears to admonish drivers to be careful as they pass it, has become known as "Traffic Monster". Read about it at http://travelinglight.professionaltravelguide.com/2009/06/traffic-barrel-monster-man-arrested-in.html. Even more coverage may be found through a Google search.

Low-fare airlines lure customers with new perks

Everyone, everywhere has the economy on their mind these days, and it has certainly put a dent in the air travel business. Though airfare prices have taken a nosedive in the past several months, there is just less disposable income all around which leads to fewer people traveling. As a result of all of these factors, many small, low-fare airlines have stepped up to attract passengers in this difficult market. Tony Osborne explores the hurdles that many of these airlines face, as well as their methods of overcoming them in his article "Earning loyalty" in this month's issue of Low fare & regional airlines (http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=4701249).

As with many other big-ticket items, customers fearing impending layoffs may be hesitant to purchase non-refundable airline tickets. For this reason, England's Flybe became the first airline to offer a full refund for customers who have been laid off after purchasing tickets. This new policy, known as the "book with confidence" plan, may indeed attract travelers who fear that they are on shaky footing in their jobs and who may otherwise have avoided purchasing airline tickets for this reason. Other airlines, such as JetBlue, have followed suit by making changes in their return policies.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well the 100th anniversary of the Giro d' Italia is history and the Tour de France is still a month away. But there is always room for another bicycle story. File this one under the "you have to be kidding me" category.

NANTES, France (Reuters) – Close to 200 prisoners will cycle around France next month, watched by scores of guards on bicycles, in the first penal version of the Tour de France, authorities said Monday.

The 196 prisoners will cycle in a pack and breakaway sprints will not be allowed. They will be accompanied by 124 guards and prison sports instructors. There will be no ranking, the idea being to foster values like teamwork and effort.

"It's a kind of escape for us, a chance to break away from the daily reality of prison," said Daniel, a 48-year-old prisoner in the western city of Nantes, at the official launch of the event. His last name was not given.

"If we behave well, we might be able to get released earlier, on probation," he told reporters.
The prisoners' Tour de France will take them 2,300 km (1,400 miles) around the country, starting in the northern city of Lille on June 4 and stopping in 17 towns, each of which has a prison. However, participants will sleep in hotels.

The finish line will be in Paris, following Tour de France tradition.
"This project aims to help these men reintegrate into society by fostering values like effort, teamwork and self-esteem," said Sylvie Marion of the prison authorities.
"We want to show them that with some training, you can achieve your goals and start a new life," she said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090525/od_nm/us_prisoners_cycling_odd
(Reporting by Guillaume Frouin; writing by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Andrew Roche)

Take a Look at a Book

The Transportation Library has acquired Tracks across Continents, Paths through History: The Economic Dynamics of Standardization in Railway Gauge by Douglas J. Puffert. Here is an description of the book from the publisher's Web site:

A standard track gauge-the distance between the two rails-enables connecting railway lines to exchange traffic. But despite the benefits of standardization, early North American railways used six different gauges extensively, and even today breaks of gauge at national borders and within such countries as India and Australia are expensive burdens on commerce. In Tracks across Continents, Paths through History, Douglas J. Puffert offers a global history of railway track gauge, examining early choices and the dynamic process of diversity and standardization that resulted.

Drawing on the economic theory of path dependence, and grounded in economic, technical, and institutional realities, this innovative volume traces how early historical events, and even idiosyncratic personalities, have affected choices of gauge ever since, despite changing technology and understandings of what gauge is optimal. Puffert also uses this history to develop new insights in the theory of path dependence. Tracks across Continents, Paths through History will be essential reading for anyone interested in how history and economics inform each other.

No Smiles on Licenses

A number of states use face recognition software to cut down on driver's license fraud. Several have taken it a step further--to make it easier for the software to run the matching routines, they've decided "neutral facial expressions" must be worn when having one's picture taken. The full story appears on USA Today's web site, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-25-licenses_N.htm

Vandals wreak meter mayhem - Damage includes spray paint, graffiti and gluelike 'goo'

Chicago Tribune (IL) - Friday, June 5, 2009
Author: Sally Ho, Tribune reporter

The growing ire over Chicago's parking meters took on yet another dimension Thursday when roughly 50 coin-fed meters were vandalized in the two North Side neighborhoods of Uptown and Ravenswood.

The damage included globs of goo smeared on the parking meters or left to dry in the coin slots. The vandals also wrote the words "SLAVE" and "KILL COPS" on a few of the meters ' display windows in black marker. Many display windows were completed covered by silver spray paint.

The goo obstructing the coin slots was likely an adhesive thought to be glue or putty, Chicago police said.

The putty is removable, and the meter usable if a motorist has "something to scrape it with," Chicago police spokesman Robert Perez said.

Since Chicago leased the parking meters to a private company, Chicago Parking Meters LLC, earlier this year, city officials, the company and the meters themselves have been the target of controversy, with complaints about price increases, computer glitches that made some pay-and-display parking machines inoperable, and non-working and mismarked meters.

Police on Thursday said the meters were in the 5100 block of North Clark Street., the 5000 block of North Sheridan Road, the 1000 block of West Argyle Street, the 4900 block of North Winthrop Avenue and the 4900 block of North Kenmore Avenue.

On the meter-lined 5000 block of North Sheridan, where Supermart Grocery sits, manager Syed Ali said about 30 customers complained to him Thursday about the meters. He said the meters, which are a cause of frustration for customers, have been hurting business.

"They cannot park, so they come in a hurry," Ali said. "They're all very angry, saying all kinds of bad words."

City officials "need to do a better job creating awareness when things change. There's no confidence for the Olympics because of this kind of thing," Ali said, referring to the city's bid to host the 2016 Olympic games.

Nearby, Jo Jaydos searched without luck for a working parking meter in the 5000 of North Sheridan. She had an appointment to visit her acupuncturist.

In the end, she decided to move her car to another block, fearing city workers would ticket her for not feeding a broken meter. "I don't want to get ticketed or towed," Jaydos said.

When meters are inoperative, customers are to report the malfunction to the phone number listed on the meter, Chicago Parking Meters spokeswoman Avis LaVelle said.

Once reported, the customer is given a confirmation number to validate their parking for the duration of the malfunction, to use in case they are cited for a parking violation, LaVelle said. Malfunctions are fixed within two days.

If a meter is "visually inoperable," Chicago Revenue Department ticket-writers are trained not to issue tickets, said Ed Walsh, a spokesman for the department. "Anyone who comes upon a broken meter should report it through the city's 311 non-emergency line, and if they receive a ticket, they should contest it," Walsh said.

Some people don't want to take any chances. Tyler Yager and Vannak Chin of Carbondale, Ill., were visiting the area and tried to park in the 4900 block of North Winthrop, inserting coins in the meter even though the display window was covered with spray paint. Yager took a photo on his cell phone as proof they fed the meter.

"We'll contest it if we get a ticket," Yager said.