Interesting transportation things

[M II A II R II K]

Close roads so children can play in the street like their parents did, say public health experts

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2...id-say-public/

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- Roads should be closed regularly to allow children to play in the street as they did a generation ago, health experts have said, after a study showed pilot schemes increased youngsters’ activity five-fold. More than 500 communities in Britain have already signed up to the ‘Playing Out’ initiative, which works with local councils to temporarily pedestrianise roads for an hour or two each week to allow children to play safely near their homes. A new analysis of the simple scheme by the University of Bristol found that residents reported a greater sense of a community, overall happiness, and said their areas were more friendly and safer. One woman claimed the project had even helped her combat post-natal depression.

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[Busy Bee]

Lets see how that works out with the probably ten-fold increase in residential parcel delivery due to e-commerce.

[M II A II R II K]

Drone deliveries.

[Busy Bee]

^rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiigght

[M II A II R II K]

Fed up with his commute, Munich man now swims to work every day

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/...-day-1.4235907

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- Benjamin David was sick of the daily grind of commuting to work in Munich, so he started swimming to his job instead. "Here along the river on the local highway, traffic has become so congested, but also very aggressive," he told As It Happens guest host Piya Chattopadhyay. --- "I'm not a monk. When I was on my bike, I would yell at cars. When I was on foot, I would yell at cyclists, and so on and so forth. And just a few metres to the side of that is the river, and if you just swim down that, it's completely relaxed and refreshing."

- In the summer, he'll sport his trunks, and in the winter, he switches between short and long wetsuits to protect himself against the cold. The trip takes between 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the current — and whether he swims or just floats. "That's actually the most beautiful way to do it. I have a little floating device with me and I just put that under my arms and drift," he said. Over the last few years, the Isar River has been the target of a water management plan and restoration plan, so it's a lot cleaner than you might expect, David said.

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[M II A II R II K]

China's metro station in the middle of nowhere

http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/ch...ere/index.html

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- Opened in October 2015 to connect the rural suburb of Caijiagang with the city center, Caojiawan Station has become legendary throughout China because of its bizarre appearance in the middle of nowhere. The station's three exits -- only one of them is in use now -- are all hidden among overgrown weeds on barren land. --- Despite its seemingly outlandish location, Caojiawan Station's location is part of an insightful plan that anticipates growth in rapidly modernizing China -- so say Chongqing Rail Transit employees. --- "Caojiawan Station may not be in the most popular area for now," one worker told Chinese media company Manner Video, a Chinese digital video production company. "But with the development of the rail route, it's possible that it'll attract more people to the area and help hasten urban development along the line."

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[M II A II R II K]

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[initiald]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Fed up with his commute, Munich man now swims to work every day

Um, question: Is that bridge I see in the background? A... bridge?

[M II A II R II K]

Transit union: MTA stores dead bodies from tracks in break rooms

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/...eak-rooms.html

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- Members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) claim that the MTA is storing dead bodies in break rooms after they have been recovered from subway tracks."You have pieces, you have blood spatter," said Derek Echevarria, the vice president of TWU Local 100. "It could be any contamination or disease." Officials for the transit union say employees are subjected to seeing both body parts and whole bodies out in the open without warning.

- The group's vice president said leaving the bodies out is not only disrespectful to the deceased and their families, but the discoveries often leave workers traumatized. "These are bathrooms, facility rooms, break rooms — anybody can just walk in without notice," Echevarria said. "And that is another part of ending the service, because they're usually sent home by what they've seen, what they've touched."

- MTA sources told NY1 that the NYPD responds instantly when a train hits someone. However, they told us bodies are not stored in break rooms, but instead officers place them in non-public spaces while they wait for the medical examiner. The medical examiner said it takes them about an hour to recover bodies from non-hospital scenes.

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[scalziand]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

China's metro station in the middle of nowhere

When the NYC and Boston transit systems were being built they had plenty of stops in the middle of nowhere like this.

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

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STRADDLEBUS II: STRADDLE HARDER

Originally Posted by initiald

Um, question: Is that bridge I see in the background? A... bridge?

He's commuting up and down the river, not just across it.

[ChargerCarl]

What I hate about the straddle bus concepts is that they implicitly accept that we should forever surrender our city streets to private cars.

God forbid we do anything to inconvenience drivers like paint a dedicated bus lane or something!

[M II A II R II K]

Cat's eyes extinct as council adopts 'road studs' because tourists read its signs too literally

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...ts-read-signs/

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- They're a great British invention that have guided countless travellers home late at night. But now it seems cat's eyes - or at least the name - will be scrapped. The move follows reports of concerned tourists fearing that animal cruelty had become a standard practice on our country roads.

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[M II A II R II K]

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[M II A II R II K]

Picturesque banner removed for being too realistic

http://www.shine.cn/news/metro/1709013069/shine.shtml

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- A large banner of a fake road at the end of a blocked-off street outside Guangfulin Countryside Park was removed on Thursday after some worried it could be confusing for drivers. --- Songjiang District government said on Thursday evening on its official Weibo account that the picture was put up “to test the visual effect” of the future Guangfulin Countryside Park which is under construction, and that it would be removed by the end of the day after complaints on the internet.

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[M II A II R II K]

Transit Flows - Videos Of Transit Frequency in Cities Around the World:

https://vimeopro.com/willgeary/transit-flows/page/1

[M II A II R II K]

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[begratto]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Transit Flows - Videos Of Transit Frequency in Cities Around the World:

https://vimeopro.com/willgeary/transit-flows/page/1

These animations are always impressive. I like that different colours were used depending on the mode of transportation.

[ssiguy]

I think the Lithium proposal makes the most sense but on a far larger scale. The construction costs and timelines make these huge rail projects far too expensive even on the busiest of routes.

I think you will see that large non-local train stations will begin to look like airports using verticle vehicles for routes that would realistically support HSR ie Bos-Ny-Wash, Tor-Mon.

[M II A II R II K]

News leak: SEPTA's urine-repellent spray not a success

http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...-20170829.html

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- SEPTA has been testing a urine-repellent spray in its train stations for almost a year, but don’t be surprised that you haven’t noticed. Riders still claim that the secret test stations smell like the men’s room at the Linc after an Eagles overtime game. The situation remains fluid, and tests are continuing.

- The product is not only supposed to sanitize the pee, it is supposed to cause the urine to splash back on the pee-petrator. (So perhaps the problem isn’t that the repellent is failing to repel, but that people are remaining in the stations while covered in reflected pee?)

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[electricron]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

News leak: SEPTA's urine-repellent spray not a success

http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...-20170829.html

What's so wrong with providing the appropriate facilities at the stations and hire a janitor to keep them clean? Then they wouldn't need urine repellant spray in the first place.

I'm aware many transit agencies don't have restroom facilities at train stations; but if you are having problems keeping your stations clean due to a lack of facilities maybe you should bite the bulllet and install them.