Think Pinball for Roadway Design

As people crash around on the roads like bumper cars, perhaps it's time to up the funhouse ante. Let's design the roads like pinball machines with side bumpers on the sides of the roads & mushroom bumpers in the middle of wider roads.
Drop targets & spinning targets could provide driver information directly in the roadway freeing up sidewalk space & eliminating aerial clutter.
AND, as drivers spaz around like leaves on the wind, bereft of any tangible goal, the spinning rubber mat in the game, Fireball could be used in intersections, taking the pain of making decisions out of the driving experience.

Dear Mrs Clinton

In your recent speech in Cincinnati's Union Terminal, you cited Mayor John Cranley for making Cincinnati's power supply 100% green. That was really the work of the last mayor & particularly vice mayor Roxane Qualls.
Actually, John Cranley looked into dismantling that work.
He also sought to stop an electric passenger rail project in Cincinnati which would have cost us millions. Furthermore, he has worked to build pointless roads.
As far as that repurposed train station? It's still a train station and a lot of people would like to see more train service there.

The Future is Here

Jack Hite wrote an article for Smithsonian Magazine called The Future of Cars Is Already Here and discussed it on C-Span here.
Hite has his own self modified VW running on solar charged electric power. He points out most of the tech for flying electric autonomous cars is already here, it's just a matter of pulling it all together & sorting out the social aspect.

Safety & The Right to Drive Like an Idiot

OK, so I was on my bicycle waiting at a light @ Spring Grove Ave. & Crawford Ave in Cincinnati, OH. There was a car next to me. I signaled a left turn - I heard another car pull up behind him so I signaled again, the light changed - I started to pull out - a car heading S on Spring Grove slammed on his brakes ~ his back end fishtailing & the car behind him slammed into his rear.
I stopped & looked around. The car that had pulled up was a Cincinnati police car. I went my merry way & figured the CPD was already on the scene.
Then it dawned on me - Both cars had every intention of running the red light when one or both of them saw the cop sitting there.
An argument behind banning red light cameras was that it increased the number of rear end collisions (although they reduced T - bone collisions) but here, an unsuspecting police officer caused the rear end collision. Granted, if the cars hadn't stopped, I would not be typing this out now, but I am a loser who rides a bike - not a proud car loan paying American Motorist, so, OK.
But the rear ending problem is still with us & our stalwart legislators like Bill Seitz need to solve this once and for all.
Perhaps requiring police to only use unmarked vehicles (and not pursue suspects). Perhaps disbanding whole police departments since their main purpose is government money grabs and, as our governor has pointed out - they are idiots.
The idea that signs painted lines on the road & blinky lights hanging out in the air should trump the skills and free will of the wetware & it's cyborg 4 wheeled appendages is ridiculous.

Auto Carnage Up in Ohio

If you are not armored in a steel & glass rolling cage full of balloons and cushions, your chance of getting killed on Ohio streets are increasing.
Drivers in Ohio managed a 124% increase in slaughtering shambling fleshbags between 2014 & 2015. There was a rise of 6% nationwide. The great State of Ohio led the nation.
The study that found these numbers cited an improving economy & cheaper gas as factors. It did not mention shivering shamblers in the sacred motorway due to uncleared sidewalks during snowy weather.
And it gets better:

The study projects a 10 percent rise nationwide in the number of pedestrians killed in motor vehicle wrecks. It’s part of a dangerous long-term trend that has pushed up the relative number of pedestrian deaths to a high that’s not been seen in 25 years.

More at The Dayton Daily Noose

But this is how we always did it before ...

The city of Cincinnati & the county of Hamilton have invested bazillions of dollars in the Cincinnati riverfront. A park, a parking lot, a couple highways, a transit center, a marina & a streetcar line all come together very neatly. About the only thing missing is an airport.
Gone are the days when we have to close down streets & the Bus hub, Government Square, to host events like Oktoberfest & Taste of Cincinnati.
But the city doesn't want to embrace the new world - it wants to snarl & strangle it with new legislation specifically aimed at the streetcar.

[the legislation] would establish that the Southwest Ohio Transit Authority — tasked with overseeing streetcar management and operations firm Transdev, Inc. — must halt streetcar service during city “heritage special events,” if requested at least 90 days in advance.

Meanwhile, the new park, parking lot & transit center would sit empty.
Gathering dust...
The establishment, like Cronus, is sacrificing the future to retain it's old power structure.

More @ WC3PO

City Snow Job

A discussion in the Cincinnati Neighborhood Committee about clearing snow & ice from the streets NEVER mentions prioritizing bus routes.
TIP for cyclists: watch out for piles of salt in the road.

Horses

There's currently a plot to get rid of horse drawn carriages in Cincinnati. A group calling itself Unbridled Freedom wants to ship these horses off to the slaughterhouse & their owners to the unemployment line. On their Change.org profile page they offer no information about their organization. Why so clandestine? Are they animal rights activists or just pet food manufacturers? A serious red flag.
Over on Charnel 12's Facebook page commenters say the horses look great, the horses look terrible, the horses are happy, the horses are sad, the horses are crazy, the horses slow down traffic, the horses breathe polluted air, the horses should run free in the wild, the horses should sit around on farms...
Charnel 12 article states that the horses & their living conditions are routinely inspected & have had no citations.
Here's the deal, these horses would likely die if they were turned loose on the plains. They would get dirty, have no health care and they would starve.
They would also get bored.
Horses are social animals. They like to interact with other mammals and they like having something to do. Furthermore the notion that the automobile should be a one size fits all transportation solution has led to more problems than it has solved.
We have used horses for millennia. We have bred them for greater size & strength. For the thousands of years we used horses & oxen on the roads, pretty much nobody died on the roads. With the introduction of the automobile, between 1900 & 1920 road fatalities in the US went from 50 to 11,000. Nowadaays we hover around 33,000 per year. There's also the lives lost drilling & fighting for oil.
You can also figure in thee costs of the roads, signage, policing, and healthcare costs due to breathing auto emissions. yup, humans breathe that stuff, too.
So, rather than ban the horses, I say let's expand their use. Both pulling carriages & single horseback riding. We could expand routes up Spring Grove Avenue to Northside & out on Eastern Avenue to Mt Lookout. Cars can use Central Parkway, I-75 & Columbia Parkway. Wee could have loops connecting the business districts of Hyde Park & Oakley.
FWIW, there are bridle paths in Mt Airy Forest.
The city should be a place to live - not a place to dodge wannabe race car drivers. We should add horses, camels, Segways, skateboards, rickshaws, bikes, buses & street rail to the mix. Cleaner air, a quieter town, healthier, safer people, lotsa fertilizer...
Don't support this recondite initiative - make horses part of the solution.

Taco Hell Delivered

What could go wrong ?
Taco Hell has announced it is thinking about delivering their Juadaperras, Tuscomeenos, Grande Supremos and other delicacies to your door but thy are not sure how.
Since crispy corn tortillas tend to dissolve in grease over time, some dishes would only make it out to the sidewalk. Other dishes in flour tortillas lose their heat rapidly and wouldn't be hot pretty much after they made it to the sidewalk. The thing is, they don't serve hot food in the stores.
So, what to do?
Make the food in the delivery vehicle? Like - like a taco truck ?
Yes, roaming taco trucks using the stores as commissaries would work and, given the popularity of the Hell, they could offer subscriptions! A piping hot spudilla at your door every Tuesday at 7PM !
yay
and you are welcome Taco Hell.

Read more at HuffPo

Clowncil

After discussing trails & sister cities the Transportation Committee of Cincinnati City Council went back to bickering & nit picking over the Cincinnati Streetcar.
Pretty amazing. SORTA sent a guy to address the committee who was unprepared and had nothing to present. Dude couldn't even divulge the number of RFPs received. It was reminiscent of when the old head of SORTA claimed Mayor Luken had likened himself to Jesus. I guess the arrogance & incompetence of the organization ain't changed much.
Seelbach accused Murray of 'picking on' the streetcar but Murray assured him she wants to scrutinize everything. But she failed to make any motions to scrutinize the MLK interchange that supporters claim will create 6,000 jobs nor the driveway to Cincinnati State that will shave a mile off students' commute.
Towards the end, motions that might be pertinent if they had any idea what SORTA was doing got bogged down into arguments over procedure. Ultimately enough hot air to heat the public school system for 6 years. And that's without the Windbag.
Meanwhile I was left wondering why we have no sister cities in Central or South America. Jacmel? Santiago? Buenos Aires?
The Mill Creek folks are working hard on recreational trails they think are transportation.
EDIT:
Lest I get too negative, one of the bright spots of the meeting were 2 speakers - individual young men who had transplanted to Cincinnati in the past 4 - 6 years. In a city struggling with it's population, these are exactly what we should want, young socially active citizens joining this community.

Central Parkway Protected Bike Path

At about the 1:00;00 mark, the Johnsons, who have run Robin Imaging for over 30 years on Central Parkway & live nearby, point out all the crap I kept pointing out before the thing was implemented.
Putting the fastes stuff in the middle of the road with slower stuff to the curbside is the way we used roads for thousands of years. Parking cars along the curbs goes back to the invention of the auto & even the wagon.
Rearranging the traffic pattern to protect people from a collision that just isn't that common is BULLSHIT
While ridership is up, there's still not a lot. There seems to be some confusion over the number of car accidents. Bicycle / automobile accidents are reported up.
One thing promoters of this silly scheme promised was that the bike lane would be cleared of snow in the winter. There was no clearing and if the snow plow guys had a small plow, they seem to have not received the memo.
Mr Johnson also brings up that debris is not cleared either, resulting blocking cyclists trapped between the curb & parked cars.
About half the bollards have been creamed by zombie motorists (@ $50 apiece) and the Johnsons have lost 1 car. Robin Imaging does photography, art reproductions & framing. That is, people load & unload some valuable stuff on Central Parkway. That being said, they do have a parking lot.
On the bright side, when not careening into parked cars, motorists have not been slowed dowm. Even when slaughtering bollards.

You can see a better version of the WKRC segment here

The Need for Speed

While politicians work to raise speed limits Tesla CEO predicts driving cars will ultimately become illegal because it's too dangerous to leave it up to people.

Speed Governance

Back in 1923 the city of Cincinnati proposed a referendum to put governing devices on motor vehicles to limit their top speed to 25 MPH. It made sense in a way as roadway deaths had escalated from less than 500 a year in 1900 to over 15,000 nationwide in 1923.
But it also made little sense for inter city travel although that could be done at higher speeds & more safely by train. Still, trains didn't get you to Hooterville. Wait - they did...
Anyway, the referendum failed due to intense lobbying by the automobile lobby. Now we have around 35,000 roadway fatalities per year.
But, while it was impractical 92 years ago, with modern technology, would it be practical today?
With wifi & cars being rolling computers, could we have a sort of dynamic broadcast governor today that would change from street to street depending on the speed limit? That could adjust for school hours & road construction zones? That could 'assist' in stopping at stop signs?
It seems feasible. It would cost some money & the automobile lobby would scream bloody murder but it would be much more practical than the draconian "one size fits all" plan suggested in Cincinnati in 1923.

Shiva and the Autonomous Auto

With the advent of the self driving car, people's driving habits as well as car ownership habits are going to change.
This article at NBR discusses how some auto manufacturers will likely not survive the transition. They suggest people will likely cut back on or eliminate car ownership and use 'shared' vehicles - essentially using cabs without drivers. So cabbies are going to take a hit, too.
But with larger fleets of cab like vehicles there will probably be more jobs cleaning the things. People won't be driving so they will likely engage in other activities, like eating, drinking, taking drugs & having sex. There's going to be a lot more cleaning than nowadays with crumbs, popcorn, stains & such.
But will this really mean more low level jobs or will robots take over this sector as well? If the vehicles are designed to be easily cleaned, OK. But it might just be one of those jobs that will require humans. Low level transhumans maybe, transubhumans?

Drivers' Tests

Steven J. Franzen explains Kentucky's byzantine path to driving privileges with their 'graduated licensing' policy.
It doesn't explain the effects of full moons, dark riders or the appearances of crows.
What we need to test drivers for vision wise however, need not be acuity so much as visual comprehension. A one man shooter game forces the player to quickly discern whether a person is friend or foe but what I suggest is a test after a session to see what the testee noticed in his session. Did he notice the "r" was out on the Arby's sign? Did he notice the newsboy on the corner was selling out of date newspapers? Did he notice the patterns on the water runoff grates?
When motorists mow down pedestrians & cyclists, they frequently state their victim "came out of nowhere". They didn't. They were part of the environment the driver blissfully rolled through in a steel & glass bubble.
It's not just about reading street signs and ignoring speed limit signs & directional arrows - it's about paying attention as you navigate a great & deadly box through a community of people.

What do you want for your last ride?

1 in 15 funerals use non-traditional hearses.
Could custom vehicles lure people away from cremation?
Unfortunately funeral prices continue to increase and cremation is becoming more popular every day, so maybe funerals & processions featuring special vehicles may become a popular oddity for the wealthy that might attract attention from the lower castes. Maybe Funerals of the Starz could be a hit & those guys who customize cars on the History Channel can get in on the act.

Guardian article here

Who Needs Red Bike ?

Cincinnati's bike share program has always seemed odd to me. Who makes it downtown and, smacketoblowety, needs a bike to go somewhere else downtown?
In a Fishwrap article, a downtown worker states:

"I never bike to work. Ever. But I bike at work, from meeting to meeting several times a week. That’s not captured in the census data," McVay said. Her office in City Hall always has a bike around for that very purpose.

So, like I have mentioned before, just buy a cheap bike for your short trips around downtown…
But then this letter writer pointed out:

While it is an honorable endeavor to attempt to increase bike usage in Downtown Cincinnati through the new Red Bike bike-sharing program, it has one screaming problem: The system is incredibly economically exclusive . Requiring the use of a credit or debit card to use the bikes leaves out a portion of the city who may, ironically enough, have more use for increased city accessibility options.

This actually makes some sense.
This UrbanCincy article describes the extremely rare instances where the program makes sense and has a map of real and proposed stations. None of the stations are located by the homeless shelters, City Link, nor the new women's center on Reading Road. It might be hard for an individual to obtain an annual Red Bike membership on a monthly welfare check but it seems like the social agencies could find a way to pay the $80 lump payments while the poor people could make installments to pay the agencies back.
Did the bike share people even consider this element of the population?

How Much More Can Cranley Spend ?

Dude is nuts. He's looking at every way possible to derail the Cincinnati Streetcar that already has substantial investment but he's also wanting to spend more money to re-engineer a dangerous highway exit ramp that had been slated for removal 10 years ago.
Cranley's new ramp, conceived in a fairly Monzellian manner will only cost $35M and will not have much impact since there's another ramp about a mile down the road. The city does not have $35M but that's OK.
What's really killing the city however is the crushing cost of operating a streetcar @$3M/yr. Never mind that Cranley is the only person in the world who thinks construction of said streetcar is running behind schedule & over budget (wait - didn't he 'pause' work & squander about a million dollars??), what are the chances that this new interchange will be on time and on budget?
This is the guy the spending hawks chickens endorsed?

Rails to Runways

Th Cincinnati Business Courier reports on a plan to run a train from CVG to downtown Cincinnati.
I don't really get it. Driving, taking taxis or using the TANK shuttle bus, I have never encountered traffic issues using the roadways to get to the airport.
Pretty much nobody uses the shuttle bus with premium seats & a TV to boot. Seems to pretty much just used by airport workers.
If I were driving from Finneytown or Felicity, I don't know why I would stop in downtown Cincinnati rather than just keep on the highway & go to the airport. I guess, in the wintertime, it might be nice to park in a garage rather than park outside on a high plain.
Another plan is to run the train to Union Terminal. That would mean another bus ride or a bikeshare run to the Government Square which would be obnoxious with much luggage.
Todd Portune likes the idea...

Leadership or Tribal Ideology

After the state cut funding for County, Township & Municipality service - funding put in place when enacting an income tax, safety became an issue. The local governments lost money that went to pay highly skilled, highly paid personnel.
One of the changes in law enforcement & public safety that's come about over the years is the use of relatively inexpensive electronic surveillance devices.
The state who in their great wisdom forced local safety agencies to tighten their belts has decided that using inexpensive tech to augment their services is a non starter. They want to outlaw traffic cameras completely.
Wouldn't it make more sense for Seitz, Mallory & the rest of the unholy cabal in Columbus to regulate rather than ban these modern systems?
When Cincinnati looked at red light cameras, they made an effort to not make the mistakes other cities had made before. The fear mongering lies spouted by COAST & the NAACP put the kibosh on one of the best planned systems in the country.
But the state of Ohio could demand:

• All citations must be issued by a local police officer
• Service providers cannot profit from issuing more tickets - flat fees only
• The presence of cameras must be announced via signage
• Only traffic & Police can pick the locations of cameras to avoid politicizing their use

I'm sure there's all sorts of other crap they could do and, with their disdain for the local governments of Ohio, they could easily wipe out any local bans on the use of this cost saving, life saving tech.