The Things We Know That Just Ain’t So

Perhaps, along with loyal opponent MSetty, you have wondered why the Antiplanner hasn’t pontificated about a certain former vice-president getting a Nobel Prize. Beyond the fact that the blogosphere is already overburdened with commentary on this subject, the Antiplanner has always had a policy of saying little about subjects about which he knows little.

“It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things we know that just ain’t so,” said early American humorist Artemus Ward. Or maybe it was Josh Billings who said, “You’d better not know so much, than know so many things that ain’t so.” I haven’t been able to verify the true source, but isn’t that really the point? If you don’t know, it is better not to say you do.

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City of Portland, Light Rail Implicated in Bank Robbery

Someone robbed a bank tried to get away in a car allegedly stolen from the city of Portland and continued his attempted getaway on a Portland light-rail train. It is too bad that the city is contributing to robberies such as this.

As it happens, the bank that was robbed is just four blocks from where the Antiplanner grew up, and the Antiplanner currently banks with a different branch of that bank. So I choose to feel personally threatened by the city of Portland’s involvement in this crime.

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Transit’s Role in Reducing Greenhouse Gases: No Big Deal

Today we have a guest post from the Antiplanner’s faithful ally, Wendell Cox. You can read more of Wendell’s work on his twin web sites, Public Purpose and Demographia.

To Capitol Hill fanfare, the American Public Transportation Association released its new study, Public Transit’s Contribution to U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions on September 26. The report is full of the usual big numbers for transit’s role in reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs). As is typical for reports covering the insignificant, the big numbers are never related to the much larger base of GHGs from personal transportation. If one believes the APTA numbers (which one does not, see below), transit use saves approximately 0.5 percent of GHGs attributable to personal transportation (cars, personal trucks or SUVs and transit).

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Only in Portland

Portland was the first major American city to elect a woman mayor. Now Portland may become the first American city to elect a mayor who is gay and who has been accused of having an affair with a minor.

Moreover, the person who made the accusation, who is also running for mayor, is also gay and has also been rumored to have had an affair with a minor (though in this instance it clearly seems a case of mistaken identity). Is this a great country or what?

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“Walkability” Critical to Health — or Maybe Not

“The built environment really does matter to health,” says Lawrence Frank, the author of several reports that find that people who live in walkable neighborhoods are less obese than people who live in neighborhoods that lack sidewalks and other walkable amenities. Frank was “the first one to make a connection between land use and obesity,” says an admirer.

Walkable or not, the photographer who lives in this neighborhood is “in love with living in Atlanta.”
Flickr photo by rhagans.

So reports of his latest study are particularly revealing. Looking at Atlanta neighborhoods, he found that people who prefer to exercise have similar obesity rates whether they live in walkable neighborhoods or not. Meanwhile, people who prefer to drive have somewhat higher obesity rates, but they too are similar whether they live in walkable neighborhoods or not.

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Update: Police Beefing up Patrols

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a shooting that took place near Portland’s light-rail line and implied that it might not be safe to ride that line, especially after dark. Someone commented that “there’s no evidence that the guy shot in the head had anything to do with MAX or transit.”

Now we have a news item that the police are going “to beef up patrols near 162nd and E. Burnside” just three blocks from where the shooting occurred.

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Money for Rails, But Not for Roads

New Mexico has committed clost to half a billion dollars to a commuter-rail line that will carry an insignificant number of people between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. For that, New Mexico’s governor, Bill Richardson, has been rewarded with fat campaign contributions for both his previous re-election effort and his current presidential campaign.

Worth a campaign contribution.
Flickr photo by Michael Brown.

By an amazing coincidence, the state is short about half a billion dollars for necessary highway projects. State officials fear that cash shortages could “trigger cutbacks in highway maintenance and new road construction.”

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Solution to Congestion: Two Fewer Traffic Lanes

When the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, the city closed the adjacent 10th Avenue bridge so rescue workers could use it to recover injured people and bodies. Now that all the missing people have been found, the city plans to reopen it tomorrow — with two fewer traffic lanes.

10th Avenue Bridge with pre-collapse I-35W in background.
Wikipedia photo.

Originally, the bridge had four 11-foot traffic lanes, 11.5 feet for bikes, and 8 feet for pedestrians. The reopened bridge will have 12 feet for bikes, 8 feet for pedestrians, a new 11-foot pedestrian lane for viewing the collapsed bridge, and two 15-foot lanes for auto traffic.
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The Pleasures of Public Transit

Here are some heartwarming examples of how public transit helps build a sense of community as compared with those soul-destroying automobiles.

A family of tourists got on a Portland light-rail train looking forward to a day of seeing all the sights that can be seen within walking distance of one of Portland’s rail lines. But then they heard someone shouting “the foulest of epithets” in the back of the car.

The shouter moved closer to them, pulled a collapsible rifle out of a duffle bag and quickly assembled it while muttering something about “not appreciating” the fact that another passenger had told him he shouldn’t bring a gun on board. Everyone held their breath, but nothing more happened until the next stop, when a uniformed officer escorted the man off the train.

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Affordable Housing Means More to Spend on Travel

Forbes reports on a new study that claims that residents of Houston face the most expensive commutes in the country. This is based on a study by the Brookings Institution, but commissioned by the notoriously anti-auto Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP). Unfortunately, the study itself is not yet available on the web.

But it is interesting that having more money to spend on travel is portrayed as a bad thing. “What really takes a beating is your wallet,” says Forbes. Of course Houstonians spend more: they have more to spend.

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