AltTransport - Latest Comments

Re: E. Coli to Become Source for Biofuel

Matthew Koss — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:07:48 -0000

Not all strains of E. coli are pathogenic. Most are completely harmless, and every human on the planet already has millions of such microbes as part of their normal intestinal flora, where they are completely benign, and in fact perform some beneficial functions.

Furthermore, it's not surprising that scientists would use E.coli, since it has been one of the most studied and used species in molecular and cell biology for many decades now. Most of our recombinant DNA technology would not be possible without E. coli. Nearly every biological research lab on the planet already uses E. coli on a daily basis. I can tell you that mine does, and I can also assure you that they are harmless.

The scare-mongering lead to this article is misleading and betrays a serious lack of knowledge of the field of biological research.

Re: Highway Shutdown to Paralyze America’s Second-Largest City

Mike Fulton — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:21:45 -0000

@Alexander The Great - Nothing whatsoever that I've read in the media suggests anything remotely close to the idea that this freeway closure will be the end of the world. Your comment here is far more hyperbolic than anything else I've seen.

If you were going somewhere and getting on the 405 and going through the closure area was required, I think it's safe to say that walking is not a practical option.

Taking a train MIGHT be an option, but what train might that be? LA's Metro subway system doesn't run along the 405 corridor (a major shortcoming), so if this closure affected your plans, the train probably won't help.Taking the bus might be an option... but that's gonna be affected by the closure as much as your own car, if not more.Riding a bike? Let's hope you're not going from, say, Culver City to Van Nuys. That's about 17 miles or so, including a 1300ft climb through the Sepulveda Pass. That would be a challenging ride even for hardcore cyclists.

Actually, that's 17 miles if you take the 405, since that's not an option, it will likely be farther.

Re: The 1950s Called, and They Want Their Transportation Bill Back

John Alexander Thacker — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:35:22 -0000

"The proposed bill, which has a working title of “A New Direction,” is decidedly pro-highway and anti- just about everything else"

It cuts everything. The bill would entirely eliminate subsidies of highways as well, not spending anything out of user fees. It would let states choose how to use their money, but it would forbid using general funds to subsidize things-- but would still allow some subsidy of transit and rail from automobile user fees, if states wished.

Transit and rail fans like to claim that they're against road subsidies, but show a plan that eliminates them and relies only on user fees, and you quickly see that they're actually happy for roads to be subsidized, so long as transit and rail get their own subsidies. I see a lot more complaining about this than I do about the supplemental General Funds for roads in 2008 or the stimulus funds for roads.

In the 1950s and 1960s, but also after that, we paid for transportation out of user fees, mostly the gas tax. What's so wrong with that? Want more transportation? Increase those fees, don't subsidize from General Funds.

Re: New Republican Highway Bill Nixes National Infrastructure Bank

VBCUDA — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 03:37:18 -0000

Distribute the money evenly see who gets the best roads in the country. I mean does anyone really drive over potholes?

Re: Highway Shutdown to Paralyze America’s Second-Largest City

Alexander The Great — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:47:11 -0000

I'm truly amazed by the narrow-mind mentality of Angelinos, including the media. They say "Everybody else - stay home". Huh?! Give me a break! Why should we stay home? Oh, that's right, because we won't be able to drive (I forgot, there is this widespread Car Propaganda).
Have a you ever heard of "walking"? Have you heard of "taking a train" (or a bus)? Have you heard of "riding a bike"? All of those are much better options than just staying home and doing nothing. Our population is obese enough, it's time to do some exercising and use our bodies that the nature has created them for: do actually move!! (and not in the car, but on our own two feet).
But the other issue is: I wish the media, along with Metro, would stop spreading the panic,portraying that closure of the 405 will cause the end of the world!Frankly, it's sickening to hear this "earth-shattering" news every single day on the news-channels. There are more serious things in life to worry about, than the closure of a highway for just a couple of days.Yes, the 405 closure will cause inconvenience. Perhaps major inconvenience. But no more than that. The world will not end!So, let's stop spreading panic and creating chaos & paranoia over nothing!!

Re: The 1950s Called, and They Want Their Transportation Bill Back

Brian PJ Cronin — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:21:21 -0000

Also, the image they picked for the front cover looks like Tomorrowland moved to Dallas, threw up, and died.

Re: E. Coli to Become Source for Biofuel

MarkSanders — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:29:27 -0000

Gas instead of E. coli

Alternative energy is not bad at all, but making biofuel from E. coli is pure insanity. Many people died from it and some still suffer and what if the biological wastes from the spent E. coli biofuel will hit some water sources or they will spread around the world? The pandemic infection will be even worse than Fukushima nuclear tragedy. Some experts consider infection in Germany as a result of these experiments because the first incipient case was recorded near the factory in Hamburg which carries out experiments with energy on basis of enzymes. And it seems that devil broke free... Outcome of the experiment is known. Why not to use cheap, effective and almost clean gas instead of these upstart and hazardous energy sources?

Re: New York City Now Has Bike Lanes, But What About Bike Trains?

Jody Brooks — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:48:08 -0000

Here's an NYT article on this topic from last week :http://t.co/LMDz2th
Here are some pics of the Bike/BART experience from a planbike.com post on this same topic a month ago: http://t.co/5pD4U6l

Re: Google Makes Major Solar Energy Investment as GE Opens Nation’s First Solar Carport

Millard gates — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:14:01 -0000

Investment is the best way to save money and it also secure our future and give best returns to us. Everyone is investing money in thing like insurance policies, gold,silver or in diamonds.

Re: New York Cycle Activist Skewers the State of New York’s Bike Lanes

commercial outdoorstringlights — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:39:10 -0000

Excellent! Great article, I already saved it to my
favourite,

Re: IndyCar Advances its Green Initiatives for the 2011 Season

Pool Installation — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:32:19 -0000

Excellent! Great article, I already saved it to my
favourite,

Re: Dulles Rail Line in Jeopardy?

Bob_Bruhns — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:18:20 -0000

First of all, a little local rail line with no express tracks is not vital to the national capitol region. It is simply a potentially useful transit line that goes to Tysons Corner, where a lot of big stores are. Let's face facts.

Secondly, it is MASSIVELY overpriced. To illustrate the excessive price, consider the proposed station at Dulles Airport. There is supposedly a $330 million dollar difference between the cost of an above-ground station, and the cost of a below-ground station. With such a difference in cost, the base cost of the station plans must be enormous indeed. But what could cost so much?

Look at the costs of comparable structures built recently. In Phase I of this Dulles Rail project, a tunnel was cut under Tysons Corner, a difficult tunnel dig with with all sorts of buildings and underground utilities and communications lines... it was just under 1/2 mile long, and it cost $85 million. Would we need more than a half-mile of underground track at the Dulles Airport? And right now in Reston, there is a seven-level underground parking garage being built for $93.3 million. Would a rail station at Dulles Airport be much bigger or more involved than that?

The total cost of the 1/2 mile tunnel and the underground structure is a little more than half of the DIFFERENCE in cost that MWAA gave us for the Dulles Rail station at the airport. Can anybody justify the kind of price that this station supposedly commands? But not one of our so-called leaders has asked any questions about this. Nobody seems to think about it at all. They all just believe the numbers that MWAA feeds them. And the highly touted "audit" that you hear about, will only check procedures, and maybe make sure nobody is embezzling funds - but it will not investigate the base costs. It simply accepts the insane numbers that MWAA gives it. And I was told that no changes would be made anyway, because that would only increase the cost of the project - so, the results of the audit appear to be pre-determined... or, we would proceed, even if we found the plans to be ridiculous.

We are contemplating a tiny transit expansion that we simply can't begin to afford, at these prices. We need to stop and rethink this. This isn't a small mess that is going to go away, it is a HUGE mess that will choke this region for decades. The price quotes we are getting from MWAA are totally bogus.

Re: Oregon Puts I-5 in Range for EVs with Fast Charging Stations

Hcirlub — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:58:59 -0000

This looks like all the chargers are set for southern Oregon. Anybody know about level 3 chargers in the mid valley between Portland and Eugene?

Re: World Going Through Period of Intense Urbanization; What Does This Mean For Transit?

John Bailo — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:22:16 -0000

If China is "urbanizing" then why does it have so many brand new, yet empty cities?

And Now Presenting: Amazing Satellite Images Of The Ghost Cities Of China
http://www.businessinsider.com...

Re: Illinois Senator Proposes Anti-Orgy Transportation Funding Bill

dinosaur — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:19:14 -0000

Chicago's parking meter sale was a fiasco. If Kirk actually is modeling this bill on that policy, he should be recalled by his constituients. The lease was seriously undervalued, and parking rates have gone up, so the citizens of Chicago were screwed on both ends. Shame on him for trying to enrich companies at the expense of the public.

Re: Google Makes Major Solar Energy Investment as GE Opens Nation’s First Solar Carport

jsolaire — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:55:57 -0000

Solaire Generation is proud to have designed, fabricated and installed our Premium Solar Carport for GE at its Plainville Conn site. This is not the nation's first solar carport. We have completed over 1MW for Johnson & Johnson and a 3.6MW carport at Dow Jones, the largest completed corporate solar carport project in the United States.

Re: New York Cycle Activist Skewers the State of New York’s Bike Lanes

subwaysubculture — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:53:47 -0000

check out interview with casey neistat here:
www.subwaysubculture.blogspot....

Re: New York Cycle Activist Skewers the State of New York’s Bike Lanes

Jfxkelly — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:17:49 -0000

Interesting that he didn't film the obstruction that caused him to get the ticket.
Looks like another biker that thinks they are above the law.

STAY IN THE BIKE LANE, OBEY RED LIGHTS AND YEILD TO PEDISTRIANS.

Re: New York Cycle Activist Skewers the State of New York’s Bike Lanes

STEVE LINICUS — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:15:27 -0000

I HOPE THE NEW LONDON CT POLICE ,DON'T HERE ABOUT THIS WE WILL START
GETTING TICKETS HERE TO

Re: New York Cycle Activist Skewers the State of New York’s Bike Lanes

MM — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:35:58 -0000

It would have been smarter to go to court and fight it rather than make a video. He paid the 50 so he is guilty. Obviously the time he has on his hands would have been better spent in court. But I did get a laugh out of it.

Re: New York Cycle Activist Skewers the State of New York’s Bike Lanes

Brownstone2 — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 00:12:51 -0000

The bike lane law was written in 1978 to keep cars out, not to keep bikes in.
The city knew that the 1978 that the center of the 4 foot bike lanes would be too narrow to be out of the door zone and would be blocked by "whatever" all too often, plus the issue of right turns from left lanes allows bikes to cross the main roadway.

Bottom line: The 21st word of RCNY § 4-12(p) is "EXCEPT..." with a long string of exceptions to staying in the bike lane or bike path

The cops are being handed a cheat sheet by their police superior officers that stops at word 20.
"...shall use such path or
lane only...." all the exceptions are omitted.
Our cops are just following orders.
No exceptions - no thinking - no justice.

The answer is education and enforcement - starting with the cops - actually starting with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. He is the one issuing the illegal orders to his cops.

The only thing not included in the original RCNY § 4-12(p) was the words "Door Zone." Adding Door Zone would have made it a little easier to describe the problems of riding too close to parked cars - whether there is a bike lane or not. Too many cops and drivers don't have a clue about door zones - so they ticket cyclists who are riding in the middle of the outside lane for "riding in the middle of the road". That problem is not the fault of the bike lane laws - it's the failure of the cops to understand what riding as far to the right (or left) AS IS SAFE means when there are parked car doors along side.

Don't blame bike lanes for the failure of the Department of Motor Vehicle to train drivers properly, of the cops failure to learn traffic law or the traffic judges utter contempt for the rights of bicyclists under the laws we already have.

We don't pay enough for the cops we need, but we pay too much for the cops we got.

So it goes....

Re: New York Cycle Activist Skewers the State of New York’s Bike Lanes

Aa — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:13:38 -0000

How can we even think about enforcement when the police themselves seem to consider the bike lanes to be parking spots for police cars? In some cases, as in the police precinct in St. Nicholas Ave., *permanent* parking spots, with police cars parked there at all times?

Re: Times: Manhattan Residents Worried that Bikeshare Stations will Hog Sidewalk Space

Vladimir Zlokazov — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:56:20 -0000

Actually if you look at Paris where sidewalks are also precious, they put Velib' stations on the street at the expense of car parking spaces or in some cases even roadway. Sidewalk-based stations can be found only where the space allows them to be unobstructive.

Re: Republicans Seek to Privatize Railroads, Because That Worked So Well Last Time

Frank Hartl — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:48:25 -0000

IT'S WORTH A TRYWITH GASOLINE AT OVER $4 PER GALLON AND GOING UP!

Re: Dulles Rail Line in Jeopardy?

Steve — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:44:59 -0000

Tolls of $10 to $20 each way will make the Dulles corridor the least desirable business community in the entire Washington area. Employers would have to compensate employees $10,000 or more per year over what they would have to pay in the I-66, I-395 or I-95 corridors to make up for the additional commuting expenses. Sure, 30% might use Metro to get to work, but for the rest of us who can't, we are not payng $40 per day in tolls.