Uber Makes Traffic Worse

You can call Uber and Lyft from your phone and get a ride. Smooth, right? But with all those rideshare vehicles picking up and dropping off fares, city streets are more congested than ever. Video from Streetfilms.org.

More:

“How to Fix New York City’s ‘Unsustainable’ Traffic Woes,” Laura Bliss, CityLab

Update:

“A new study says services like UberPool are making traffic worse,” Faiz Siddiqui, Washington Post

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Rush Hour

“Rush Hour,” a short film by Fernando Livschitz.

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Women: Stuck in Traffic

The highway is a gendered place, and women pay the biggest price for road congestion.

“Traffic increased a great deal when women moved into the labor force. But this is not exactly what accounts for the gender gap. In the 1950s, car trips that were work-related accounted for about 40 percent of all car use. Today that number is less than 16 percent. The vast majority of car trips are made for various errands: taking children to school, picking up groceries, eating out, going to or from daycare, shopping, and more shopping. And it’s women who are making most of these trips. It’s a less acknowledged portion of the ‘second shift,’ which typically highlights women’s disproportionate contribution to the division of labor inside the household even when they are working outside of the household as well.”

— “Contrary to Stereotypes, Women Lose More Time in Traffic Than Men,” Tristan Bridges, Pacific Standard

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Paper Sun

“Paper Sun,” written by Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi and recorded by them with their group Traffic in 1967. Lead vocal by Steve Winwood; Dave Mason played the sitar riff. Have a psychedelic summer, man.

“So you think you’re having good times
With the boy that you just met,
Kicking sand from beach to beach
Your clothes all soaking wet”

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For a Better Commute, Throw Drivers Under the Bus

China has almost 300 million private cars, and some of the worst traffic and air pollution in the world. Auto sales are brisk, crashes and road rage are epidemic, and it’s so dire a futuristic transit concept first proposed 45 years ago might finally get the green light.

In 1969 architects Craig Hodgetts and Lester Walker proposed the Bos-Wash Landliner, a towering vehicle running between DC and Boston with enough space underneath that passenger cars could dive under it. China’s Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment Company (HS Future) introduced a similar electric-powered “Straddle-Bus” design at a 2010 trade fair and updated it a few years later but got no, um, traction, and the concept went back into hibernation.

Until now. HS Future says it will start building the first 116 miles (186 km) of track in western Beijing’s Mentougou District for the “Widebody Elevated Dimensional Fast Bus” aka 3D Express Coach” at the end of the year. It will only travel through the city at about 38 mph (60 Km/hr) but holds 1400 passengers, isn’t troubled by traffic jams, doesn’t need its own dedicated lane or parking lot, and only costs about 15% of what a subway would.

Shanghai Noodle Factory

“Shanghai Noodle Factory,” written by Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood, Chris Wood, Jimmy Miller, and Larry Fallon, recorded by them as Traffic in 1969. Mr. Winwood sings and plays most instruments; Chris Wood plays the flute.

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Just Another DC Weekend

 

The IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting paralyzes the streets of Washington again this weekend as police defend our economic overlords from scruffy college kids and hippies playing drums.

The Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk begins at Nationals Park, travels into Maryland and back to Union Station, 60 miles in all.

Saturday pits the Festival of the Building Arts against the Taste of Georgetown.

Just Another DC Weekend

 

It’s just another DC Weekend. Security forces are locking down the town and disrupting transit and traffic in advance of next week’s Nuclear Security Summit.

Expect dozens of weekend motorcades, a parade with huge balloons and marching bands, the Blessing of the Fleets Ceremony, a Japanese Street Festival, one White House demonstration in support of Togo’s president, another against the leader of Vietnam, and an event against anti-Semitism on the National Mall.

There are performances, fun runs, river clean-ups, blossom-peeping tourists, weekend subway repairs, high school bus tours, and marches of Mothers Against Bad Stuff.

Expect delays.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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