DailyViz » transportation

Subways! (NES style)

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:14:23 +0000

GOOD highlights the top scores of some world subway systems.

High-Speed Rail Plan Update

admin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:57:30 +0000

The Infrastructurist has a map of dozens of high-speed rail projects under consideration by state governments today, some of which are eligible for stimulus funds. The colors indicate the seriousness of planning for the corridors. Red lines represent projects that are partially funded or providing high-speed operation today; pink lines are under intensive state planning and likely to be among the first to receive stimulus funds; green lines are far off but not inconceivable; and blue lines are very unlikely to be built in the next few decades.

Also, for comparison, the President’s plan that was released last week:

And, specific information from the Federal Railroad Administration on each of the President’s proposed corridors:

High-Speed Rail Plan

admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:48:07 +0000

President Obama unveiled a plan yesterday to build high-speed passenger rail lines in 10 regions. The plan includes an initial investment of $8 billion in stimulus funding, plus $1 billion from the federal budget each near for the next five years.

A map of the proposed lines is below. Why regional, you might wonder. Here’s what Joseph Sussman, an external adviser to the Department of Transportation and professor at MIT, told GOOD last week:

I’m not talking about a national network of high-speed rail, because our country is just too darn big for that to be useful. When I say national I mean that we can develop these clusters of high-speed rail. It’s not only the Northeast corridor. There are opportunities in Florida, in the Texas triangle, Chicago, and in the Pacific Northwest. And it could have significant long-term impacts economically as well as environmentally.

Sussman, it should be noted, thinks that he stimulus spending on a national rail system is still too small.

Cuts to Public Transit

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:55:37 +0000

GOOD has a new feature on cuts to public transit as part of its Transportation issue. Unfortunately, the size of the line indicates the ridership of the system, not the size of the cuts (as one might have expected). So basically, this is just a visual chart of which systems are undergoing job losses, service cuts, and fare increases. Transportation for America’s spreadsheet on changes has a bit more information.