From WINA:CTS buses are idle for the rest of the Labor Day weekendThose who normally rely on Charlottesville Transit Service to get around the city and Albemarle’s urban ring will need to make other arrangements between now and Tuesday morning. CTS Spokeswoman Tamika Harris says the buses and trolleys will be idle Sunday and Monday in honor of Labor Day. CTS will be running its regular routes shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday.And from today’s Daily Progress:Halfway through her journey, Mary rested her head against the bus window, stared at the cars whizzing by on U.S. 29 and sighed.It had been nearly three hours since she left her house off Preston Avenue, and an equal amount of time would pass before she returned home.All this for two measly errands – a doctor’s appointment and a trip to Rio Hill shopping center…. An entire day spent navigating Charlottesville’s public transportation system.
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Who says transit doesn’t increase house values?
Courtesy of the NYTimes:There are signs that Google’s shuttles could be affecting — albeit in small ways — the region’s housing market.When Adam Klein, a 24-year-old software engineer, moved to San Francisco in 2005 to take a job at Google, he looked for a rental apartment within a 15-minute walk of a shuttle stop. His walk to the Civic Center stop turned out to be a bit longer…. “Those stops have attracted people,” he said.The area surrounding one of the shuttle’s Pacific Heights stops had a dozen or so Googlers living nearby in 2005…. Generally, the more people demanding homes in a limited area will cause prices to increase.
A market in Transition
Some Realtors should find a new profession – so says the Minnesota Association of Realtors (thanks, Inman). So far this year, in the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, (most of the top 10 agents are…
Mass transit = inefficency
Via Digg:There are plenty of good reasons to encourage mass transit, but arguments about the hidden costs of the automobile fall on deaf ears because people, unconsciously or not, factor time and convenience into their decision making. The average driver knows perfectly well why she drives.The cost of a transportation system is first of all, any flat fare…. Then there’s a cost per mile (call it C) and the mileage (M). The value of your time we can call S (salary per hour), and the time it takes to travel is T…. Time will be mileage divided by your speed (V), so we have Cost = F + CM + SM/V = F + M(C + S/V). We can see that cost increases with mileage (obviously), high time value (every minute traveling costs more) and low speeds.This is a pretty interesting article, and provides some chewy food for thought…. Until mass transit can provide real efficiency, it’s doomed (in addition to many of the other reasons). I am glad that there are people out there who write papers like this.
Regional transit authority inches forward
Charlottesville Tomorrow has the report and podcast of the MPO’s creation of a Regional Transit Authority…. By “regional,” they mean “Charlottesville” and “Albemarle” and not “UVA.”… They are the only ones who can build a damn road. Why aren’t they at the table?Julia Monteith, Senior Land Use Planner, representing the University of Virginia … indicates the University is taking a wait and see approach since past attempts to have a regional authority have not moved forwardYou can’t blame them. To be a true regional system, it would have to include the other members of the MSA. Look at where the workers come from – 6,000 from Fluvanna…. 2,100 from Waynesboro area.But hey, it’s a start.
Regional transit in our future?
BoS David Slutzky in Sunday’s Daily Progress:”It’s definitely time for the county and the city to put their heads together and develop a cohesive transportation system,” he said. “If you wait 20 years and start thinking about it, it will cost you a lot more than if you start thinking about it now.”I have heard many of the reasons that regional transit does not work: it is not fiscally viable, using eminent domain to take all the necessary rights-of-ways is neither reasonable nor practical, no mass-transit is successful or profitable (they are all subsidized) …… With fuel prices rising again and that Virginians are more susceptible to oil shocks, now is the time to consider our future. We seem to have a burgeoning grassroots effort with the likes of ACCT, MPO and now with a fairly forward-thinking Supervisor on Board, this thing may have legs. RCG had an excellent post last May that goes into great detail about whether mass transit increases property values. As with everything, (from the referenced report)Of course, as with any infrastructure project – be it a transit system, a public park, a highway or a school – there may be negative impacts that reduce the location value for some people. Some people move away from highways to escape the noise and smog, and some people move away from playgrounds to escape the shrill voices of kids at play. But for the market overall, positive impacts tend to outweigh the negative impacts, increasing overall property values.We should at least consider it.
Google and transit
Charlottesville is consistently trying to tie itself to the debatable successes of Portland’s transit programs. Google now is implementing a Google Transit Trip Planner for Portland. Why don’t we see if Google will invest some time and money to implement an efficient transit program in our region from the ground up? They seem to be a fairly successful organization with a decent track record.