Transportation

10 Reasons Why Cities Should Consider Going Car-Free

September 7, 2015 Ice Bike, www.icebike.org Create! Biking, Community, Environment, Transportation

By Ice Bike - Our climate is changing, and time is running out to take thoughtful action. If you’re like me, you may feel powerless in defending yourself and those that you love from the negative impacts of climate change. A handful of smaller communities embrace the concept of driving less by banning personal carswithin their city limits – granted, most of these communities are small island towns that thrive on tourism. While most of the world’s major cities aren’t quite ready to embrace emission-cutting tactics like banning personal cars, this article presents 10 reasons why they should. Getting to know our neighbors, and getting more engaged with our communities limits feelings of isolation, and develops more connected and stronger communities.

Protesters Re-Open Road Access To Iraq’s Umm Qasr Port

August 24, 2015 Stephen Kalin, www.uk.reuters.com Resist! Iraq, Transportation

By Stephen Kalin in Reuters - Road access to Iraq's southern Umm Qasr commodities port was restored on Sunday following a two-day closure by protesters after the authorities promised to create new jobs, a port company spokesman and port workers said. Thousands of Iraqis have protested in recent weeks in Baghdad and southern Iraqi cities, calling for jobs, government services and reforms of the judiciary, parliament and local governing bodies. At Umm Qasr, negotiations with security officials and the director of the state-run General Company for Ports of Iraq resulted in a pledge to create up to 75 new jobs, said company spokesman Anmar al-Safi. Dozens of demonstrators, who had set up tents in front of the port's two main gates, agreed to let trucks pass and employees enter the facility, Safi and workers said.

Why Public Transportation Is So Limited In The US

August 18, 2015 Daniel Faris, www.truth-out.org Educate! Public, Transportation

By Daniel Faris in Truth Out - On a recent trip to Baltimore, I encountered something startling: a US city with a public transportation system that actually works. From buses to water taxis, Baltimore's Charm City Circulator (or CCC) was established in 2010 by former mayor Sheila Dixon. The program boasts a fleet of around 30 vehicles that shuttle more than 3,000 daily riders along four color-coded routes meeting over 100 city stops. The service has a smartphone app, it consists entirely of hybrid vehicles, and the fare is nonexistent. That's right: the buses are 100 percent free. I thought, Surely there has to be a catch. Then I stepped back and asked myself: Why? All across the world, there are close to100 cities that offer free public transportation, and about one fifth of them are in the US. So what do these cities know that the rest of the country doesn't? Is the public transportation system in the US really as bad as everyone says? And if so, why?

Poor Neighborhoods To Get Green Car-Share Program

August 9, 2015 Eleanor Goldberg, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Climate Change, pollution, Poverty, Transportation

By Eleanor Goldberg in the Huffington Post. Los Angeles, CA - In many areas, poor residents typically have longer commutes and less access to public transportation than middle- and upper-class communities, yet they’re being excluded from the growing car-share trend. But that gap may at least begin to close in Los Angeles. Across the U.S. people earning between $5,000 and $30,000 a year spend about a quarter of their household income on transportation. Though car-sharing programs can help low-income individuals greatly cut down on travel costs and gas emissions, these companies typically don’t cater to poorer neighborhoods since the profit potential isn’t there, Streets Blog USA points out.

Nailed To The Cross, Bus Drivers Demand Worker Rights

August 1, 2015 Wendy Carrillo, www.firstlook.org Resist! Paraguay, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Wendy Carrillo in The Intercept - In Paraguay, 14 people have crucified themselves and are partaking in a partial hunger-strike after 51 bus drivers were fired for forming a labor union. For the past 21 days, twelve men — all fired bus drivers — and two women — the wives of fired bus drivers — have nailed their hands to wooden crosses outside the offices of their employer. Three additional workers joined them 12 days ago and have clamped their mouths shut with long, rustic, curved nails to demonstrate how their bosses wants to keep them silent. Under a large tent, surrounded by religious artifacts and family members, all 17 of them have spent their days and nights mostly lying down, unable to move or eat solid foods.

Oil Trains Don’t Have To Derail To Be Hazardous, Doctors Warn

June 11, 2015 Dahr Jamail, www.truth-out.org Educate! Oil & Gas, Oil Trains, Public Health, Transportation

By Dahr Jamail in Truthout - In May, hundreds of doctors, nurses and health-care professionals from Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) called on Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to take a stronger position against proposed oil-by-rail shipping terminals in their respective states, in order to insure the health and physical security of families and communities there. Washington PSR describes itself as a group that promotes "peace and health for the human community and the global ecosystem by empowering members, citizens and policy makers to develop and model for the rest of the nation socially just and life-enhancing policies regarding nuclear issues, climate change, environmental toxins, vulnerable populations and other risks to human health." The group has sounded the alarm over what it sees as a direct health threat to the country stemming from the oil-by-rail system.

Latest Infrastructure Disaster, Amtrak Derailed

May 21, 2015 Ellen Brown, www.opednews.com Educate! Government, Infrastructure, Transportation

The May 12th train derailment near Philadelphia, which killed eight people and hospitalized 200, was the deadliest Amtrak accident in recent history. The train barreled around a dangerous bend at 106 mph, more than double the 50 mph speed limit for the curve. Whether this was due to operator error or mechanical issues is not yet known. But experts say the derailment might have been averted by a safety system called positive train control, which can automatically reduce the speed of a train that is going too fast. The system must be installed on both the train and the route. The Amtrak train had it, but on that stretch of track in that direction it was not yet operational. Why not? The stretch was known to be dangerous. Nearly 80 passengers died near the spot in an earlier derailment in 1943. Absence of positive train control was also cited as a factor in the fatal 2013 crash of a Metro-North train in the Bronx.

Commonsense, Adequate Funding Would Have Prevented Train Wreck

May 20, 2015 Railroad Workers United, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Railroads, Trains, Transportation

It has been a week now since Amtrak Train #188 derailed at speed east of Philadelphia, PA. The last week has witnessed endless speculation as the official investigation into the cause of the derailment continues apace. Those of us in the rail industry anxiously await the findings. If we are serious about preventing future catastrophes of this nature, we must equip railroad workers with the necessary tools – including but not limited to those outlined above -- to enable them to perform the job safely. Pointing fingers at this or that employee (at any level in the company, union or management) might make some folks feel better, but it does little or nothing to prevent future accidents. Railroad Workers United believes it is time we learn from these terrible tragedies and get serious about implementing the necessary measures to ensure safe railroad operations.

Gyrocopter Pilot Flew For Reform, Might Land In Prison

May 19, 2015 Medea Benjamin, www.codepink.org Resist! Democracy, Power, Transportation

Doug: It's as unlikely as my flight. No, it won't work as planned. Just like my flight--a lot of things after take-off did not go as planned and I had to improvise along the way. Some of my plans will fail miserably and other avenues I haven't thought of will open up. Adaptability is key. My flight was never intended to resolve the issue - for me it was the opening kick-off. The game has only begun for me, though others have been trying to move the ball for years. My stunt, and it was only a stunt, opened the subject for millions who have been vaguely aware and unhappy and haven't considered how they can change the score. As for me, I'm gonna be the ugliest cheerleader you ever saw!

How Indigenous Kayactivists Protest Against Shell

May 19, 2015 Sydney Brownstone, www.thestranger.com Resist! indigenous, Oil & Gas, Resistance, Seattle, Transportation

It was hard to miss. Draped over the boardwalk at Jack Block Park on Saturday, a 300-square-foot cutout of a solemn face looked out over the water-based protest against the Polar Pioneer, the Arctic drilling rig floating in Elliott Bay. "Chief Seattle is watching," it read. Looking at the sign probably made some people uncomfortable. Seattle is named after the Duwamish-Suquamish Chief Seattle, and his profile is plastered all over official letterheads and various pieces of Northwest kitsch. Still, sloganizing the face of a man who helped "Seattle" exist—in that he signed a treaty in 1855 giving over 54,000 acres of land to the federal government in exchange for an unfulfilled promise of treaty rights and a reservation for his descendants—can feel like a grotesque kind of tokenism when, often, there are no native people present to explain what it means.

Massive Protest In China In City That Lacks Train Service

May 18, 2015 Jennifer Baker, www.revolution-news.com Resist! China, Protest, Social Change, Transportation, Wars and Militarism

Tens of Thousands of residents of the southwestern county of Linshui gathered in the morning and marched about 3km. Photos posted by the protesters on social media also showed violent attacks by a police tactical team(SWAT)and the resistance that followed lasted all day and well into the night. The residents want (need) to have a proposed railway linking Dazhou to Chongqing pass through their county in the centre of Sichuan. The county currently has no railway, waterway, or airport. Rage built up last week after residents found out that the authorities favor another plan – that the railway stretching more than 200km will instead by-pass Linshui and be routed through the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s hometown Guangan , to the west of Linshui.

Research Says Bike Share Has A Rosy (Digital) Future

May 18, 2015 A. K. Streeter, www.treehugger.com Create! Environment, Transportation

Eliot Fishman, a researcher formerly at Utrecht University and now at Australia's Institute for Sensible Transport, reviewed the English-language bike share literature and found out what makes bike share systems around the globe popular. Published earlier this year in Transport Reviews, “Bikeshare: A Review of Recent Literature,” provides an overview of the state of research on bikeshare programs (BSPs). Fishman found that bike share usage peaks along with what we consider 'rush hour' - between 7 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 6 p.m. on weekdays. This is important for bike share's future as cities become even more crowded. The top reason that users turn to bike share, according to Fishman's look at a survey of Washington DC bike sharers, is convenience: 69% of surveyed users said getting around easily and conveniently was their top motivation for using bike share.

Can’t Talk Amtrak Derailment Without Talking Infrastructure

May 15, 2015 Aviva Shen, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Austerity, Infrastructure, Philadelphia, Transportation

At least six people have died and more than 140 people are injured in the wake of the deadliest Amtrak derailment in recent history. Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 rolled off the tracks while rounding a bend near Philadelphia, according to NBC Philadelphia, while carrying 238 passengers and five crew members. As officials sort through the wreckage and try to determine the cause of the tragedy, the Northeast Corridor — Amtrak’s busiest and most profitable route between Boston and Washington — will be shut down for an indeterminate amount of time. Already the densest rail route in the U.S., aging Northeast Corridor trains are grappling with more riders than ever. The route has steadily broken ridership records every year for more than a decade — last year, 11.6 million people rode a Northeast Corridor train.

Shell Oil Rig Docks In Seattle

May 15, 2015 Alison Morrow, Amy Moreno, and Alex Rozier, www.king5.com Resist! Environment, Oil & Gas, Seattle, Transportation

A 400-foot-long offshore oil drilling rig pulled by tugs arrived in Seattle Thursday afternoon, despite environmentalists' protests and the city's opposition to letting it dock here. The Polar Pioneer arrived in Elliott Bay at about 1:50 p.m. after a 12-hour journey from Port Angeles. It made its way through the Duwamish River toward Harbor Island and docked at Terminal 5 around 5 p.m. The Polar Pioneer is one of two drill rigs petroleum giant Royal Dutch Shell plans to park at leased space from Maritime Foss at the Port of Seattle, where it will load its Arctic drilling rigs and other vessels with supplies and personnel. It is preparing to explore for oil this summer in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast.

Free The Buses: Riders Say Transit Is A Human Right

April 26, 2015 Amy Roe, Resist! Economic inequality, Inequality, Transportation

Rangel is a member of Tucson Bus Riders Union, one ripple in a wave of grassroots activism based on the belief that affordable public transit should be available to all. By organizing a previously invisible constituency, transit riders unions have emerged as an unlikely source of political power. The transit movement took off in Los Angeles in the 1990s, when bus riders, most of them Black and Latino, came together to protest what they said was a separate and unequal transit system that penalized riders from low-income neighborhoods. This wave of activism is beginning to turn the tide. On March 1, King County, Washington made international headlines when it introduced a reduced fare for low-income people, a win for Seattle’s Transit Riders Union. On the same day, San Francisco’s Transit Riders celebrated as the city’s Municipal Transportation Association (MUNI) made transit free for disabled people and low-income seniors.

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