National links: Amtrak may have to choose frequency over national service

Amtrak’s ridership versus coverage problem. Lyft wants out of bikeshare. Predictable city branding.

Amtrak’s ridership versus coverage problem: As Amtrak prepares to receive more federal funding than it has in decades, Jarrett Walker writes that Amtrak’s policy rhetoric is the perfect example of coverage versus ridership decisions that need to be made. To cover the contiguous 48 states, Amtrak would have to spread itself thin to serve each state, whereas focusing on ridership would require concentrating service. The two can’t exist at the same time even when Congress wants service for everyone and Amtrak to be profitable. (Jarrett Walker | Human Transit)

Lyft wants out of bikeshare: Lyft’s CEO has stated that he wants more subsidies from cities where they operate bikeshare systems or wants to be rid of the networks the company bought when they acquired Motivate, a previous operator of bikeshare services across the country. Ultimately, the desire for profitability over providing access is leading the move and Lyft’s promises of being friends with active transportation are long gone as he pondered whether they did a good enough job transferring bike share riders into their ride-hail system. (Aaron Gordon | Motherboard)

Predictable city branding: Cities and companies are increasingly branding themselves in predictable, “Instagrammable” products. David A. Banks’ term for this convergence is the third level of city marketing and economic development he termed “city authentic,” succeeding the City Beautiful and City Efficient movements that left lasting marks on cityscapes. As places that create and test new culture disappear because of algorithmic advertising, cities will converge in sameness until everything is commodified. (David A Banks | Dezeen)

Is housing changing the marriage market in the UK? In high-cost cities in the United Kingdom, dating and the housing market are becoming intertwined. Many younger people say they would move in faster with someone if it meant saving money on rent, and housing often enters the minds of people as they are choosing potential partners, even early on in the dating process. The last time the ratio of housing prices to salaries was this high was in the mid-19th century. (Barbara Speed | The Guardian)

Sewers can’t handle storms: A series of new reports by the Federal Emergency Management Agency share that many sewer systems around the country aren’t able to handle extreme rainfall events that are made more likely because of climate change. The result might be more instances like Hurricane Ida, which flooded basements in New York and New Jersey. Increasing the capacity of these drainage systems may take decades and billions of dollars before they are able to suitably drain water. (Thomas Frank | Scientific American)

Quote of the Week

“There’s a larger play than just residential for existing building stock, and that is going to balance out the ecosystem that we need to have neighborhoods that can thrive.”

Sheryl Schulze, a principal at architecture and planning firm Gensler in Dwell explains the feasibility of turning offices into housing.

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Mike Warren, senior vice president at WSP, who chats with us about road user charging including how the discussion has changed over the last decade and the idea of treating roads as a utility by paying for driving by the mile.