Why Suburban Retrofits Matter

Not just because it's a "fashionable/elitist/patchouli-munching lifestyle choice" as some would deride it. Check out this post over at Smart Growth America. Highlights:

In a new study, the American Lung Association in California has thrown its support behind that state’s plans for more smart growth communities because of the striking positive health implications.

The study conservatively estimates that if the state of California realizes Vision California goals to decrease driving and create more walkable, mixed-use communities by 2035, the state will avoid:

• $1.66 billion (yes, with a “b”) in pollution-related heath costs
• 140 premature deaths
• 260 heart attacks
• 215 acute bronchitis incidents
• 95 cases of chronic bronchitis
• 2,370 asthma attacks
• 101,960 other respiratory symptoms
• 205 respiratory ER trips and hospitalizations
• 16,550 lost work days
• 132,190 tons of criteria pollutants

And those are just the physical health benefits. Streetsblog leads with an article about driving related stressors, and the mental leaps and assumptions through which we turn cars and their automated mobility into expectations. And get all bent out of shape when reality gets in the way of our self-involved worldview. I wrote here about how cars facilitate me-first kind of thinking.

On Wishing Joyful Prosperity to East Bay Public Transit

Today Annie and all others who have sung about the promise of tomorrow found their promises bear fruit. Ah, the bounty of the difference a day's time makes!

Got to an 8:45 meeting at 8:44--CCCTA got me to BART right on time, and BART to Montgomery.

After work, took BART back, and then the bus to the Danville library. Sweet. After tutoring my young charge, I walked to the bus station, expecting to wait 20-30 minutes. No sooner had I about-faced to keep wary lookout for my 40-foot steed, than did I be-spy its approach. Sweet nectar beauty pure.

Debut of East Bay HOT Lanes

From the SF Chronicle: New express lanes create confusion, congestion

Image stolen from Transbay blog

Interstate 680 has unveiled its new market-priced toll lane: instead of a free carpool lane, anyone who wants to pay the toll can drive in the lane. First catch: you need to have a Fastrak transponder. Second catch: from the looks of the article, there's gonna be a learning curve. In this case, an extra 3 miles of traffic. Officials seemed confident that by the end of the week, improvements would manifest themselves.

The toll ranges from 30 cents in off peak hours to a maximum of $4-6 dollars. In other words, whatever it takes to keep the flow moving. I'd love to hear more about how they shift the price: do they have some chap watching the live video feed? Are electronic sensors good enough to compute changes in the speed of traffic and increase the toll electronically, instantly, and deduct corresponding amounts from computer chips whizzing underneath them at 60mph? And what are the ratios--does a 5mph drop in speed = a 50 cent rise in price? An interesting economics case study on what people will pay ... and in social equity and in reinforcing divides between haves and have nots. High-Occupancy Tolls may boost efficiency, but the inequality counterargument is an interesting one. Do all citizens have the right to automobile convenience? No, but all citizens have the right to mobility. 

Sans effective public transit (and land use that supports transit) we have Impasse.

A little more detail over at Transbay.

The Parking Lot Movie

I went to a free screening of this in SF, in a parking lot (natch), and it totally blew me away. I was expecting a screed, and instead I got Clerks. The documentary tells the story of The Corner Parking Lot in Charlottesville, VA, and the hyper-educated oddballs who work there. 100% comedic gold.

I just cannot communicate how hilarious, and how charming this documentary is.

On Wishing Death to East Bay Public Transit

Today, I wish death, blight and pestilence on East Bay Public Transit.

BART fared me well when I boarded at 16th and Mission. I had a 2:45pm bus to catch in Walnut Creek, and had finally caught a train that would assuredly deliver me on time. The driver/intercom voice was peppy, and enthused that we would be going full speed through the Berkeley Hills tunnel.

At Orinda station, the time was 2:25 and I was blissfully reading when Mr. Intercom Voice announced that due to track repairs, we would hold at Lafayette station for 15 minutes. Snap--that's gonna make it tight, but we should still arrive at 2:40. Pulled out of the station at 2:40, and halfway to WC we came to a stop. Construction debris on the tracks. Mr. Intercom Voice gave us the color commentary as the train powered down to let workers onto the track to clear the shiz out of the way.

"The workers are right in front of me ... we should be up and running soon ... Sorry the AC is off, folks, but we had to power down so they can clear the debris ... It's about halfway cleared ..."

Question 1) Can't they do this track maintenance at night? You know, when no trains are running?
Question 2) You're doing track maintenance, which is a good and worthy thing (PG&E, take a bow), but you need a place to put, I don't know, brush that you've cleared, or extra concrete trench plates: why in the blue blistering blazes would you put that junk on the set of working train tracks?

I missed the bus. I grabbed my transfer, and walked into Walnut Creek to get some grub. I returned to the nearest bus stop at 3:40, sat down, and took out my book. After each paragraph I glanced up to look for the bus, and maybe the 15th or 16th time I did this, I looked up to see the bus drive past.

As Gob Bluth would say, "C'MON!"

I ran about a block, but without my bike I was neutered, powerless. The bus hit a green light and was gone.

Steaming, I walked to the next bus stop and sat down and read for another hour. This time I stood and was waiting for the bus so there would be no mistake. I boarded, and gave the driver my pass and my transfer card.

"Sorry, this is no good."

"What?!"

"Transfers are only good at the BART station."

"But I walked here from BART! Look at the time, 2 hours ago!"

"Well, you'll have to give them a call to tell them that."

What a ridiculous policy.

Days like these are why any sufficiently-salaried person in their right mind drives. Transit riders shouldn't have to put up with this garbage.

What We're Reading: Retrofitting Suburbia

Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs is the full title, and totally encapsulates the tome's intent.

What's been most interesting so far are the market forces it describes. To authors Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson, the financial incentives for retrofitting are present and only gathering more steam.

To wit:

• Reduced percentages of suburban households with children
• Growing market for multiunit housing in suburban locations
• Continued growth in percentage of jobs in suburban locations.
• First-ring suburbs that are aging and depopulating, and becoming comparatively central thanks to newer, farther-flung developments

And here's a quote that stood out for multiple, perhaps paradigm shift-related reasons:

"The future promises to alter our relationship to place as we continue to shift from an industrial to a postindustrial economy and society. This economy is digitally enabled to be less dependent on geography, making the qualities of individual places matter more in locational decisions ... a primary goal is to build and support an identifiable, durable place to which people will be attracted."

At first I thought, you ninny, we are obviously post-industrial. Then I remembered that I am 24, and the author could be double my age. I've never even really lived in an industrial economy, so acknowledging post-industrialism feels calling my music habits post-vinyl.

My second impression is that her assessment of our evolving geography is on point. A knowledge economy is, at least comparatively, a movable feast. In determining where to look for jobs, or where I'd like to live, I determine my shortlist exclusively by quality of place. After that cut, other factors dominate (well, just one, really--employment), but I hadn't really considered the implications of such radical mobility. With the power of the internet fueling national and international job searches and instant information gathering, the barriers to getting a job in x place because it seems like the bomb.com get lower and lower. And let's get tighter: even moving to x neighborhood, or x street. It seems more people than ever have* the kind of choosing power and information re location and place that is traditionally reserved for appliances and car stereos. A more powerful customer can certainly shift the old demand curve ...

*Or do they? Having a family with a stable financial background and a college education seem completely essential here. And those are two big caveats. As suburban places improve and diversify their land-use in desirable ways, I wouldn't be surprised if traditionally marginalized groups get priced/elbowed out into the newly least desirable spaces ... actually I kind of expect it. Keeping the less-mobile in mind will be critical to ensuring that the boon from these market forces (better places) are equitably available.

Jacobs Distillation

Having finished Death and Life of Great American Cities, I have now, just now, located a convenient summation. Some chap has typed up a bunch of JJ notable quotables. Thanks, hivemind!

Here's the real clincher:

The generators of diversity

"To generate exuberant diversity in a city's streets and districts, four conditions are indispensable:

1. The district, and indeed as many of its internal parts as possible, must serve more than one primary function; preferably more than two. These must insure the presence of people who go outdoors on different schedules and are in the place for different purposes, but who are able to use many facilities in common. 

2. Most blocks must be short; that is, streets and opportunities to turn corners must be frequent.

3. The district must mingle buildings that vary in age and condition; including a good proportion of old ones so that they vary in the economic yield they must produce. This mingling must be fairly close-grained.

4. There must be sufficiently dense concentration of people, for whatever purposes they may be there. This includes dense concentrations ... of people who are there because of residence.

The necessity for these four conditions is the most important point this book has to make. In combination, these conditions create effective economic pools of use" (151).

Downtown Danville has points 1, 2, and 3, and notably, is a major asset to the town region--a justifiable magnet for folks in the suburbs radiating around it who get bored by all the dullness. Apart from Walnut Creek, it is probably the only town center on the 680 corridor built for pedestrians. Maybe parts of Pleasanton and Livermore would take offense at that. Though I cannot speak for its brethren, I know Dt Danville was laid out before the car. Hence, the short blocks and sidewalk building frontages.

Pretty much everything else around it is chain retail behind acres of parking. Progress!