Last week, the Antiplanner noted in passing a study that found that making people live in “walkable neighborhood” won’t make them any healthier. Since then the Antiplanner has encountered another research paper that found that “the effects of density and block size on total walking and physical activity are modest to non-existent, if not contrapositive.” It seems that anyone who looks at the relationship between urban design and health, other than committed smart-growth advocates, finds that there is no relationship.
So it is disappointing, but not surprising, that President Obama’s recently released National Prevention Strategy–which resulted from the so-called Obamacare legislation–focuses on redesigning the built environment. The Active Living portion of the strategy calls for “community design and development that supports physical activity. Sidewalks, adequate lighting, and traffic slowing devices (e.g., modern roundabouts) improve the walkability of communities and promote physical activity. Increasing access to public transportation helps people maintain active lifestyles. People are also more likely to use active modes of transportation (e.g., walking, biking) for their daily activities when homes, workplaces, stores, schools, health care facilities, and other community services are located within close proximity and neighborhoods are perceived as safe.”
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Although the Strategy includes footnotes for each of these claims, they only reference other publications recommending changes in the built environment–some of which were written by advocacy groups such as the Surface Transportation Policy Project–and not actual research showing that this is a worthwhile or cost-effective strategy. The Antiplanner is not an expert on health care, but if the rest of Obama’s health care package is as “scientific” as this, it appears we have turned our entire medical system to Lysenkoists. Next time you see a doctor, don’t be surprised if he or she gives you a prescription based on the latest fad (or campaign contribution) rather than the latest research.
Here’s another favorite:
widdle site:ti.org/antiplanner
metrosucks:
SEPTA rail lines cover more of their operating costs than SEPTA bus lines – the same pattern you see at most agencies. If you forced all the riders on to a bus, the costs would go up. I am not opposed to seeing the fares go up more – the cost recovery ratio has been allowed to drop during the recession.
SEPTA gets over 1 million boardings per day from a region of around 3.9 million people. With its service to places like the airport, train station, ball parks, universities, and of course center city, and considering that many people’s commute habits and destinations vary over time, most people in the region have ridden at one time or another on a more or less regular basis.
If people here didn’t desire to have SEPTA, they certainly wouldn’t have kept on voting for politicians who continue to fund it since 1958.
There is no reason for general PA taxpayers to subsidize your mode of transportation.
On the contrary, the SE PA region produces most of the tax receipts for the entire state given its higher desnity, incomes and economic activity, as well as its toll roads and commercial hubs including the main rail, air, and port facilities for the state and its major industrial facilities such as oil refineries, chemical plants, steel mills, pharmaceutical plants, and warehousing/logistics operations. SE PA subsidizes the rest of the state, not vice-versa.
money is taken at gunpoint
Taxes are the price of civilization. If you want a libertarian paradise world without taxes and government, try Somalia.
cutting light rail/trolley type service
SEPTA’s light rail/trolley routes are among its top performing non commuter rail/non-subway routes, and include the advantage of a tunnel for several miles through the university district and center city. The other top performing routes are mostly lines that WERE trolley routes until a number of pro-bus arsonists at SEPTA dismantled a large number of trolley lines in the period from 1978-1992.
http://www.septa.org/reports/pdf/asp-fy2012-proposal.pdf
pg. 94 of 105
Out of 80 city routes, the #7, 12, 13, 14, 18, and 34 performing routes are trolley routes (routes 10, 11, 13, 15, 34, 36). The #2, 3, 6, 19, 24, 29, and 40 performing routes (routes 6, 23, 47, 47M, 53, 56, 60) were also trolley routes until the period mentioned above. The only thing making them bus routes did was relieve SEPTA of the need to buy trolleys with a larger one-off expenditure vs. it having already bought 3 generations of buses for these lines during the same period with smaller outlays during each purchase. Worth noting, SEPTA bought new trolley cars for the remaining trolley routes in 1981, and these vehicles will remain in operation for at least 10-15 more years, meaning the trolleys will outlast the typical bus by about 5 lifecycles.
Also worth noting, the #5, 10, 20, 26, and 27 performing routes are electric trolley-bus routes.
So you think it would be a smart course of action to rip all that remaining trolley infrastructure out and run buses on the congested surface streets? Most Philadelphians think it was a mistake to get rid of the trolley infrastructure we had. Fortunately, we only paved over a lot of it, and when needed, we have just milled off the pavement to reopen certain segments and re-strung the wires.
Lol Frank. Looks like Dan was a very bad boy in the past. Now of course some of use are sort of troll-like or sniping in our comments at times, but the difference is that we don’t have boastful websites talking about how our skill lies in getting all the stakeholders “together” and getting stuff done, you know/
Andrew, I am not normally in favor of ripping out rail since the greatest cost, building it, has already been sunk into the system, and operational costs are typically (as you pointed out) lower for rail at that point. I don’t know a lot about the PA system since it sort of rides under the radar as compared to say, the systems here on the west coast. Depending on the absolute size of the subsidies, I would not be opposed to the operation of the system overall.
However, I think the construction of any new rail lines requires careful, critical analysis and not simply a joyful jump into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. I will be the first to admit, though, that the density of areas like the large PA cities calls for different methodology than Portland or Seattle. Rail is of course more appropriate in the density you will find in Philly.
metrosucks:
Depending on the absolute size of the subsidies, I would not be opposed to the operation of the system overall.
The SEPTA system including all operations and capital spending costs about $4.75 rider per year. The 321M annual riders pay an average of $1.50 per trip (this includes seniors and some school students riding free or on reduced fare). The annual payments from the state amount to about $54 per person in the state (the state spend $4150 per person per year for comparison including federal pass through funds), while local governments kick in $24 per 5-county resident. The Federal Government generously chips in with roughly $0.80 per American.
I think the construction of any new rail lines requires careful, critical analysis and not simply a joyful jump into a multi-billion dollar enterprise.
Then you should applaud the process that requires years of careful planning and public input and then a competitive grant application for scarce financial resources which are (supposedly) only awarded to the most meritorious projects in terms of reducing travel time and costs for the intended future users of the system.
different methodology than Portland or Seattle
If voters in those areas want rail public transit, God bless them for enduring the process you have to go through to actually get it. You don’t just wave your hand and say “let there be rail” unless you are Bill Richardson. Most projects and large systems are the result of 20+ years of studies and planning to figure out how best to allocate the resources, and another 10-20+ years to build out the plan.
We are lucky here to have inherited massive fixed infrastructure put in place pre-1930 mostly by private interests or the City.
Frank, will you include the context of some of the Frank Fake Umbrage Phrases? Pwetty Pwease?
Show everyone why I responded the way I did. Have the courage of your fake convictions. Lets see the context of the ones you specifically called out. Include them for others to see, in order to determine if you are mischaracterizing or misstating or making things up or quote-mining or cherry-picking. Let us see them in context. Show everyone the evidence for your implicit assertions.
Nonetheless, hand-waving aside, all these distractions are grrrreat! at distracting away from the fact that efficient land use is more efficient for a reason, and has public health benefits too (as long as there are destinations to walk to). Let us not forget that. Let us also not forget some harrumph fake outrage at the lie that folks are trying to “force” “everyone” into rat mazes.
DS
People are capable of reading your statements and reaching their own conclusions. I don’t have to provide context. It’s there. In print. For anyone to see.
Fake Umbrage Phrases? Pwetty Pwease? … Show everyone the evidence … hand-waving … distractions … grrrreat … harrumph … fake outrage.
DS
Same old crap every day for over five years from Dan the Troll.
Yep. He actually wants Frank to link to his own posts as if this will somehow vindicate Dan, when everyone else see the context in which Dan spewed his abuse. Right.
You don’t just wave your hand and say “let there be rail†unless you are Bill Richardson. Most projects and large systems are the result of 20+ years of studies and planning to figure out how best to allocate the resources, and another 10-20+ years to build out the plan.
Not in Oregon. I don’t know about the East Coast, but here it’s all politics and part of the silent war on cars.
METRO:
Light rail “is not worth the cost if you’re just looking at transit” admits Metro planner John Fregonese. “It’s a way to develop your community to higher densities.”
also, Metro and Trimet have recently admitted that the new Clackamas light rail was “placed in the wrong place”.
So I think your faith in studies and government planning organizations is misplaced.
I don’t have to provide context
Yes, exactly. Thank you Frank. It is quite clear you are afraid to be honest and provide context. Context would clearly be disadvantageous to your implicit – and false – assertions. Context would show your implicit assertions are false. Made up. Hokum. Hooey. Bogus. Buncombe. Nonsense. Nincompoopery.
Nonetheless, when people blatantly make s— up about what I write or mischaracterize my statements or mendaciously misstate my positions, that is a bad thing. And it is OK to point out bad things. Like blatantly and scurrilously lying about bullying. That is bad. Childishly lying about shoving things down throats is bad. It is balderdash and childish to do such things, and it is OK to treat childish actors like children.
And, significantly, frequently misstating my positions and lying about what I write is a form of bullying as well. Too bad we can’t see if a specific person is in fact bullying me in the quote-mined passages, because someone is afwaid to provide context as to whether I’m being bullied. We can look upthread and see that my statements are mischaracterized, and knowing it is a pattern can tell us whether bullying is going on. Maybe that is another reason why no context is given.
Anyhoo, thanks again for being afraid to provide context – evidence – Frank, to back up your scurrilous and evidenceless claims upthread. Providing evidence, see, negates the scurrilous claims.
Thank you sooo much for making such things so clear for everyone! Yay clarity!
DS
Reposting the entire discussion thread for each time you’ve acted like a schoolyard bully would waste bytes as ANYONE CAN CLICK ON THE LINKS I PROVIDED TO RE-READ THOSE CONVERSATIONS.
It is a waste of bytes, as is this thread. Why don’t you move on? Comment on the high-speed rail disaster in China. But you won’t move on. You HAVE to get the last word in. It kills you not to, doesn’t it?
Just Dan’s narcissism, alone, borders on mental illness. That’s not even considering his psychopathic tendencies such as wanting to foist dumb growth on everyone.
Frank; Reposting the entire discussion thread for each time you’ve acted like a schoolyard bully would waste bytes as ANYONE CAN CLICK ON THE LINKS I PROVIDED TO RE-READ THOSE CONVERSATIONS.
It is a waste of bytes, as is this thread. Why don’t you move on? Comment on the high-speed rail disaster in China. But you won’t move on. You HAVE to get the last word in. It kills you not to, doesn’t it?
THWM: Don’t worry Frank, the Koch brothers are picking up the tab for this “blog” and they have plenty of money to burn!
BTW, what about the right wing extremist that murdered 90+ people in Norway?
Normal people can only conclude someone is hiding something. What could it be? Evidence of false assertions, quote-mining, mischaracterizing, cherry-picking and generally making sh– up about me and what I write? Dishonest behavior? False accusations and projection? Mirror-matching?
We report, you decide.
DS
metrosucks said:
Just Dan’s narcissism, alone, borders on mental illness.
Dan said:
Normal people can only conclude someone is hiding something. What could it be? Evidence of false assertions, quote-mining, mischaracterizing, cherry-picking and generally making sh– up about me and what I write? Dishonest behavior? False accusations and projection? Mirror-matching? It is all about me!!!!
Checkmate.
Game – set – match.
Q. E. D.
The fat lady sings.
Elvis has left the building.
Not only that, but it looks like Dan is speaking in tongues again, lol.