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WES Fails at More Than Just the Railcars
Read an article online "Company Behind TriMet WES Railcars Fails". So far it has the best summary statements/quotes I've seen in all the papers.
Passadore said the key problem with the rail project was that federal regulators mandated the type of car that could be used and required it be built in the United States. Only Colorado Railcar's self-propelled car fit the requirement.
But federal transit authorities told The Oregonian that the project wouldn't have been funded in the first place if normal regulations had been followed.
Paul Griffo, senior public affairs officer at the Federal Transit Administration, said the commuter project didn't have the efficiency to qualify for federal funding. Congressional legislation forced the agency to proceed anyway, he said.
As usual, once the truth comes out all the fingers point to incompetance and political meddling. This, is almost ALWAYS the case, of course the sad thing is all the attention is focused around Colorado Railcar. It failed, wanna fix issues between public companies like TriMet and private companies like Colorado Railcar in the future? Then don't go chasing through the courts after TriMet and Colorado Railcar, that's the idiots step, find out how to change the way Government allows itself control over these aspects of our lives.
As quoted, "key problem with the rail project was that federal regulators mandated the type of car that could be used" which is a HUGE issue. If buying something, buy whatever is the BEST. It doesn't make any freaking difference where they get it. They bought the streetcar (TriMet/Portland Streetcar) and those vehicles where NOT the best in market nor where they even built in the US. Meanwhile New Orleans built better streetcars for about 2/5 the price IN THE US!
Another quote, "federal transit authorities told The Oregonian that the project wouldn't have been funded in the first place if normal regulations had been followed." This is another case of some politicans (most likely Earl Bemaunaur and the lackies in Oregon) pushing for something that they want regardless of the feasibility, cost the public, what it will in the end be good for, and with a complete and utter disregard for current laws on the books. Earl & crew are notorious at this point now that I've watched what their actions are versus their political diatribe. People say business men are all crooks, but business men are sweet angels compared to policitians, especially ones that shove a project into play like this in complete disregard for laws or regulations that other crooked and dishonest politicians put into place. I guess in the end though, one can't blame em' for the following the same path that has been tread.
"the commuter project didn't have the efficiency to qualify for federal funding" that really sums up a LOT. So here we are, Portland, being touted a new clean method of transportation and blagh d blagh d blagh. But is it? It doesn't even meet the already horrendously LOW efficiency demands for a commuter project!
The big ending quote, "Congressional legislation forced the agency to proceed anyway" from Paul at the FTA. This is insane. I already do not support most of the regulations and other arbitrary laws and rules, most are reasons we DO NOT have more transit service or high speed rail or private agencies and companies running transit anymore (just dig into the history past the stupid GM conspiracy bull, you'll find the numbers and history of what happened). Instead it all comes out of our tax paying pocket (the most depreciated dollar one can spend, is public money, it's no surprise we get so little for that dollar). So we have all the suffocating regulations for transit, we have all these incompetent politicians that don't even know the core fundamentals of history (I've heard Earl speak about "history") yet they go breaking their own rules to build these systems that they have no idea about or how they're done. James J. Hill knew how railroads work, so did Kummant (recent CEO of Amtrak), and so does J. Gould (Early Union Railroad investor, builder, and destroyer), Matt Rose (BNSF), James R. Young (UP), and William Barstow Strong (ATSF). Why don't we let these people build these things and free the market up to the competent people who can do it instead of politicians manhandling their personal decisions through and rough shod over other politicians who really have no clue? We need a real change, and it isn't more Government running these shows.
Mind you, I'm just calling it like it is, I'm not a Republican (not even by a stretch of the imagination) and nor am a Democrat. I prefer NOT to have any correlation with crooks of either ilk. But regardless we need a change in which these two recent catastrophies of political parties have wrecked upon us even larger than in all history, from our wrecked (again) financial system based on the Federal Reserve Fiat Dollar to our completely imbalanced, poorly funded, and faltering infrastructure system. The WES system is just one piece of thousands throughout the country that is supposed to be a step forward, but when looking at the partial failure it already is, it shows blatantly why we can NOT afford to continue projects managed under companies that operate completely under Government Authority. There must be other ways, and they must be found if we're to recover, and then truly survive the next collapse (there will be one, the Federal Reserve garauntees us a big one every once in a while regardless).
Craigslist Transit Tales
I can't help but find a laugh for three on Craigslist. Two that got me rolling yesterday were "To My Lovely Bus Passengers". To quote a few lines…
I greatly appreciate your efforts to speed things along for all of us
by hopping out of your seat and striding up the aisle toward the door
while we're still a block or so from your stop. However, I must point
out that this actually costs us more time because when I see you in my
mirror I must slow down and do everything much more slowly. Why do you
think this might be? Well, the streets are full of bicycles,
skateboards, escaped pets, clueless fellow drivers veering in
unpredictable ways, and yes, even bus driver un-forced errors! This, in
turn, means that there may well be a need to tap, or god forbid, really
nail the brakes. What happens then? Well, according to the laws of
Newtonian physics, you fly horizontally throughout the bus interior
until you crush your skull against the farebox, or if the oncoming
traffic is lucky enough to get the slide show, the inside of the
windshield.Oh, you say, that won't happen to me, I have excellent balance, I'm
a surfer (skateboarder, jogger, yoga buff, tightrope walker etc.); or
better yet, Don't worry, I'm holding on to the handrail… heh heh
heh…
Well, I'll admit, this will help if I accidentally nudge the curb
while pulling into the stop at 2 or 3 MPH, but if a real sudden stop is
required, you will probably just rip your arm off on the way to your
safety glass facial. Now there'll be blood in the aisle AND on the
windshield to clean up.
The other one that grabbed my attention was, something that drives me nuts on transit or anywhere, is pure stupidity. That stupidity obviously doesn't bother just me, but also the chap who wrote "2 Girls on Bus".
When you got on the bus talking excessively loud I gave you the benefit
of the doubt… I noticed you (the one with platinum blonde hair) had
some anime keychains and laminated drawings on your backpack (I don't
quite care for Deidara [from Naruto] but I did not mind the Light and L
and Riuk [DeathNote]).When I actually started listening to what you and your friend was
talking about I was aghast and apalled! How could someone in their
right mind, in this day and age, use the word "like" more than 150
times from Westboro to Bayview (I started counting)… I was sickened.And when the girl, who got on at Tunnys Pasture, came on and proceeded
to sit in the seat you weren't going to sit in and had to move your
backpack out of the way to get to the seat, I thought that you and your
friend did not need to stop your horrifying conversation and glare her.And to make matters even more unbearable the topic of your conversation
was religion! I believe the term you didn't know was Agnostic, even
though you just tell people you're Atheist. And no English is not the
most spoken language in the world… Your friend, in some stroke of
non-retarded genius, was right about there being more people speaking
Mandarin/Cantonese. To which you replied, "Well, like, that's like,
because all those like, people, like started learning Mandarin, like,
like a couple like, years ago." (Give or take several "likes")I, dumbfounded, could only shake my head and shudder… and leave the bus very quickly, which the girl you glared at did also.
So, like, when you, like get on, like, a bus and like, your like,
having a conversation like that, like with your, like friend. Please
consider, like everyone else who, like, have to like, put up with your
like, incessant chatter.Like like, you like kinda sound like slightly
like brain damaged!
New York City’s Ever-Evolving Union Square
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
“Union Square Park wasn’t named to honor the labor movement — or the winning side in the Civil War, for that matter. The label has more prosaic origins: when city planners laid out the square in the 1830s, it sat at the union of three major roads, where stagecoaches picked up routes leading to Albany or Boston.
The traffic that circumnavigates its thumb-shaped green space these days has slightly less room to maneuver. Over the last two decades, New York has gradually increased the park’s size to its present 3.6 acres by adding castoff lots and absorbing parts of streets.
Sewers Sink Affordable Housing
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Developer Amir Ziv thought he’d received all the approvals he needed for a controversial affordable housing development in Columbia, MO - but failed to count on storm water regulations.
California’s Biggest Land Use Story Is Not The Housing Market
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
The deepening of the housing market crisis is certainly a big deal in California. But the land use story of the year was the Legislature’s passage of a measure mandating regional planning.
EPA Lies About Failing Chesapeake Bay Cleanup
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
The Washington Post has uncovered that the $6 billion, 25 yr. old program to clean up pollution in the Chesapeake Bay has produced little-to-no results — and the EPA greatly exaggerated their progress.
Wood Burning Ban Saves Lives
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Five years ago, the Central Valley became the first area of California to ban indoor wood burning when an ‘alert’ was called by the air district; other air districts followed in 2008. This study, released in Nov. shows that “no burn” days save lives.
Smile, You’ve Been Rear-Ended
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
A new study in Houston reveals that the number of crashes at intersections with new red-light cameras has doubled from the time before they were installed.
James Strutt, One of Canada’s Best Known Architects, Dies at 84
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
The Globe and Mail remembers James Strutt, one of Canada’s foremost modernist architects.
