transportation

2035 Mobility Goals Update

The City's Strategic Plan sets a transportation mode shift goal of 55% by 2035; meaning that 55% of commuter trips would be made via a mode other than by a single occupant vehicle [aka: a car, or in the 21st Century, more accurately: "a massive SUV or pickup"].

The Broken Sloping Grid

Preamble: This is a post about the neighborhood of Highland Park by a resident.

In response to the previous post - Fantasy Map (Parks) - someone pointed out that part of the answer has to be connectivity. An alternative to making more of something closer to where someone is, is to make what exists closer. AKA: connectivity. Something may be nearby, yet if there is a barrier between you and it, then it is effectively further away. This is a good point. So, before we can talk about more issues like paths or trails or housing or commerce we need to take a step back and look at the neighborhoods connectivity.

Some Maps

Everyone loves maps, and the RAPID's "Mobility For All" survey is up. You check out the survey, think about it, and provide feedback. This survey supports the required Comprehensive Operational Analysis which will determine the next phase of the RAPID's operation.

Now, the maps....

MobileGR, 2018-03-08

EV Charging Stations

Electric charging stations where installed in 2011.

  • 5 downtown (1 on-street)
  • 1 in Oak Industrial Park
  • 1 at Waste Water site.

All stations have been upgraded; new stations have two cords and have retaining clips to help keep the cords off the ground which was an issue with the previous charging stations.

Paris & You

So, that happened. What to do now? This should always be the question asked in response to terrible public policy decisions. In this case the response is obvious. Consider the fact that the transportation systems alone of the United States produce more greenhouse gasses than any other economy in the world except for China. That is an astonishing data point.

Notes from 2017-05-11 MobileGR Commision Meeting

  • There will be three upcoming events with mobility integration & promotion: rock the block, GR's first Asian Festival, and Festival of the Arts.
    • Of the three - Rock The Block (10K estimated participants), Asian Festival (20K), and Festival (200K) - Rock The Block is the first event not downtown. The guidelines for event sponsorship are Downtown specific if read verbatim, these guidelines need to be revisited after the expanded commission is seated

A Look At Michigan Transportation Data

This is not about urban Grand Rapids, it is about the state of Michigan. But the data is too interesting to pass up. For anyone interested this data (and more than mentioned here) is available for every state at dot.gov's "State Transportation by the Numbers Profiles" page.

One statistic that really stands out is that of Michigan's 122,051 miles of public roads ... 89.1% are of acceptable quality. This in contrast to a national average of 81.3%. So Michigan roads beat the national average by 7.8%, and are only a percentage point away from having 90% of roads at acceptable quality. Where is the crisis of road quality? I hear about this crisis all the time.

With 122,051 miles of roads and 9,909,877 citizens [2014 estimate] there are roughly 80 citizens per road-mile; a number which includes children and elderly. Another correlation would be 122,051 miles of roads for a workforce of 4,747,800 workers (December 2014) - or 38 workers per road mile. Given the cost of a road-mile this is clearly an unsustainable system. Given only 38 workers to pay for every road mile the fact that our roads are 89.1% acceptable is a miraculous achievement. The simplest solution to funding improved quality of our core corridors would be reducing the overall number of road miles to a sustainable level. Or if not a net reduction in road miles a reduction in the service level of low-use and tertiary roads.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - transportation