Posts tagged Cars
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Pay-as-you-drive insurance
One obstacle to transit ridership is that cars are mostly a sunk cost. Once you’ve already paid for the car or car loan, registration, insurance, maintenance, etc., the incremental cost of driving the car more is small (though growing, as gas prices rise). The variable costs are also largely hidden: you pay for gas ahead of time, not when you make the drive vs. train decision,… Keep reading…
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DC may decentralize auto inspections
I’ve never lived in a state where the government conducted emission inspections; it was always private service stations. But according to this article in the Examiner, 13 states still centralize their operations. DC, though, may end the practice of forcing all drivers to go to the one facility at Half and M, Southwest. Keep reading…
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Drive-through apartments
In Robert Heinlein’s (fairly bad) book I Will Fear No Evil, cities have become so dangerous that residents drive their cars directly into their buildings, up car-sized elevators, and right to the doors of their apartments. Early in the book a significant figure is murdered because she tries to use the pedestrian entrance. Now, via Streetsblog, such a building is under construction… Keep reading…
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“Improvement”
Before: Keep reading…
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Bravo Gale
For many reasons, some known, some not known, the New York City Department of Transportation is still mostly stuck in the SimCity Classic phase of urban planning thinking, closer to Robert Moses than Jane Jacobs. While they did recently suggest, to the surprise of many observers, converting a segment of Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn to be pedestrian-only, DOT Commissioner… Keep reading…
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News flash: people drive more if there is parking
A study from San Francisco State shows something that should be obvious, but isn’t to the New York City Council: if there are fewer parking spaces, people choose to drive less. Therefore, San Francisco should limit the amount of parking in new developments, rather than requiring a certain amount as it does today. More about free parking, and its costs, in this SF Chronicle editorial. Keep reading…
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El Camino Bonito
I walked across El Camino Real - once. This road, once the main thoroughfare through Silicon Valley, is now a 50 mile long strip mall of motels, gas stations, mattress stores, car rental places, fast food, and one major university. Every business or shopping center along its length has a parking lot. In the utopia of sprawl, El Camino Real would be Main Street. Keep reading…