BIKE: No more cheap oil -- local implications

[Patrick Goetz]

Roger Baker wrote:
> Seeing some people on the austin bikes list disparage the only passenger 
> rail start that the road lobby has permitted us to vote on -- is a 
> little like observing a debate over how best to arrange the deck chairs 
> on the Titanic as the ship goes down.
> 

Maybe, but why are we letting the road lobby tell us what we can do in 
the first place?  We should be setting the agenda, not lobbyists for 
heaven sake.  Maybe it's time to reclaim our democracy and take action. 
  The first step is to not be so afraid of these guys.  Voting for a bad 
plan out of fear of what "they" might do if it fails is scared rabbit 
behavior.

Unfortunately, despite my complete agreement with Mike Dahmus (and most 
other truly informed Austinites) about how absolutely ridiculous the Red 
line is, I still plan to vote for it.  First of all, regardless of what 
the imbeciles at Cap Metro have decided, I most certainly am viewing 
accordion bus (the first step to recovery is losing the misnomer "rapid 
bus") as a place holder for a Metro line along the #1 corridor (which 
will almost certainly be monorail.)  Second, there are efforts currently 
under way to redefine land use to allow for higher density "TOD" at 
stations and along major transit corridors.  These efforts might be 
stymied if the All Systems Go proposal fails.  Part of the equation is 
better land use, and there's no reason not to start beefing up the 
monorail corridor now while we're gettng ready to jam the idea down Cap 
Metro's wildly unimaginative throat.  Finally, Daryl Slusher has wisely 
required Cap Metro to come up with a plan which provides service to UT 
and the State Government complex if the ASG proposal passes.  As Mike 
Dahmus has observed, especially with the Red Line in place, monorail 
will be the only viable option for such a line.

 > The Las Vegas monorail, offered as a
 > means of salvation worthy of emulation here, is now shut down for an
 > extended period because it doesn't work

First of all, I've repeatedly sited the Kuala Lumpur monorail as a means 
of salvation worthy of emulation here, not the badly mismanaged and 
rather corrupt LVM project.  With that said, I had a rather interesting 
conversation with a couple of Carter-Burgess engineers today.  (C-B is 
the company which did the engineering work for the LVM.)  According to 
them, the problems with the LVM are strictly one of maintenance.  To 
quote one, "I don't care whether we're talking about airplanes, light 
rail cars, monorails, or buses; all these systems require that parts be 
checked and bolts be tightened every single day.  Daily maintenance. 
When you don't do this, you're asking for trouble."  I.e. the LVM is 
suffering from poorly planned and mismanaged maintenance; nothing more, 
at least according to these guys.  No matter, as I've mentioned roughly 
a dozen times, the new KL monorail has a perfect safety record after a 
year of operation.  By comparison, the Houston light rail has averaged 
one major accident every 4 days.  An unmitigated disaster; and every 
fatality can cost upwards of 2 million dollars.  This starts to add up 
after a while.