Looking everywhere, going nowhere

Today’s news chum post continues the trend of using a song lyric in the title. Does anyone recognize the song? If you figure it out (or cheat), I’ll note that even thought the line fits the post, the overall song doesn’t really. In any case, today’s post — focused on going nowhere — is about transportation in the news. Transportation, in fact, that may get us nowhere fast. Here are a few transportation articles I’ve corrected, while I eat my lunch…

• Subway Maps. I’m sure you’ve seen them by now — the various abstract subway maps that cities develop to try to explain their subway systems. Some work, some don’t. Here’s a good explanation of why designers can’t really stop redesigning them.
• I Know Where You Are. One thing modern computerization and GPS has given us is the ability to know where a subway car is on the track, permitting a countdown clock to show you when it will arrive. Well, except in New York City. The New York City Subway system does not have countdown clocks… because it has no idea where its trains actually are.
• Traffic on the 5s. Growing up in Los Angeles, you become dependent on the traffic reports. KNX 1070 had them on the 5s. KWFB, when it was doing news, had them on the 9s. They were essential for navigation. But today? The presence of traffic apps such as Waze and Google Maps had made over-the-air traffic reports less of a market factor, and they are starting to disappear. Of course, this doesn’t answer the question about using the phone when driving…
• Sure, We Have a Plan… Traffic in LA is horrendous, and recent research has shown that widening highways is not the answer. How do we improve things? Well, the Libertarian Research Foundation has a plan. They say bikes and buses are not the solution to traffic congestion—making more room for cars is. They have proposed a $700-billion plan to build an extensive network of new tunnels and expressways that they say would help free up some of the city’s most congested areas of traffic. The plan includes things like a 710-extension tunnel, a tunnel under downtown LA (just imagine the unexpected utility relocation costs there!), a tunnel under the Santa Monica Mountains, a tunnel under the Santa Susanna Mountains between LA and Palmdale… you get the idea.
• Looking back. Last week, I mentioned the AA Legacy Liveries. Here are photos of more airlines in liveries of older carriers.

 

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

(Click Here to Comment)