Startup Leadership

Coda—The Song Remains the Same

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 ~ Building a car company isn't easy. Building one from scratch is harder still. And building one using new, bleeding edge drive train technology is perhaps hardest of all.

It can be done, as Tesla shows.

Yet it is more likely to fail, perhaps spectacularly—DeLorean, Fisker, and the latest, Coda Automotive. Never heard of Coda? Launched in 2009, it aimed to produce a plug-in electric sedan for under $40,000. Last month it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Why did Coda fail when Tesla, with a pricier offering, has succeeded wildly?

Tesla

Entrepreneur Funding Follies

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 ~ Should the government try to play venture capitalist?

Some think not, and they sure made hay over Solyndra. But—surprise!—we're not hearing from these same second-guessers now that Tesla has paid off its loan early.

The criticism of government playing VC is inapt anyway, and besides, do they really behave like VCs?



(h/t Mark Suster, Both Sides of the Table)

Metro Transit's Funding Gap

Slow Starvation

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 ~ Once again, Metro Transit has a revenue shortfall.

And once again, the proposed solution is to cut service, and further diminish pubic transit.

It's a vicious circle, or perhaps more accurately, a death spiral. As routes are cut or curtailed, the overall utility of the system suffers as well. As the system becomes less useful and timely, people use it less, and revenues from the fare box decrease.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Conversely, increasing service and making transit more available, more accessible, and especially, more affordable, increases ridership. Public transit use has been increasing locally; we should be building on that, not thwarting it.

Metro Transit needs additional funding. Cost cutting is but a slogan, not a real, considered solution that would make a (positive) difference. Fully funding public transit increases use of the system, promoting urban vitality, reducing congestion and air pollution, and improving our quality of life. In fact, public transit should be free; the costs and benefits are very favorable compared to alternative public expenditures, particularly car infrastructure.

There is a public hearing tomorrow afternoon.

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Also posted to Fare-Free Northwest blog.

Road Subsidies

Who Pays to Maintain Our Roads?

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 ~ Washington, like many other states, imposes a fee on owners of automobiles when they relicense their cars. The amount of the fee varies. It can be a flat fee, or it can depend on such things as the weight of the vehicle, its value, or its age. As a usage fee, however, none of these well correspond to the actual cost of suffering that vehicle's wear and tear on roads, the purpose to which those fees are generally put. The fee for operating the car does not correspond to the actual expense to repair and maintain that infrastructure.

Seeing the Light

Heavy Traffic Signals

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 ~ I wonder how Google's self-driving car would handle this?

Coal Trains

We Don't Want All That Jazz

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 ~ I plucked this map from an unrelated story, but my eye was caught by the fattest red swath.

It shows the largest rail traffic in tons moved per year. So what are all those trains doing in eastern Wyoming? What are all those tons?

Stop and Go

Traffic Light Art

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 ~ I think I'll just take the bus, thanks.

Liberté, Égalité, Gratuité

Free Public Transit Works

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 ~ Atlantic Cities reports on a mid-size French town that has had free public transit for more than a decade. Châteauroux has seen its ridership double. Meanwhile in only 3 years a metro area west of Paris has seen use go up 170% even as private vehicle traffic volumes fell 10%.

Like many transit systems, the fare box makes up only a small percentage of system revenue. Eliminating the infrastructure and logistics of fare collection, with minor adjustments to other funding sources, can allow transit systems to be profitable as well as more usable.

The motivations for making a transit system free are obvious. Increased ridership can relieve traffic, improve the environment, boost the system’s efficiency, give residents more spending money, help the poor, and rejuvenate central business districts.

Shared transportation is a public good and a desirable and necessary part of civic infrastructure. Like sidewalks, parks, trails and other similar public space amenities, it should be free, easy to use and widely available. Most cities in the US still have quite a ways to go.

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Also posted to the Fare-Free Northwest blog.

Amazing Endeavour

The Last Mission

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 ~ The retired space shuttle traveled across Los Angeles on its way to the California Science Center. The 12-mile journey took 3 days, and enchanted a community.

A stop-motion video (2:41) of its journey, well-worth watching, is here.

On Your Way in 15 Minutes

Public Transit Frequency

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 ~ Here is the latest version of the excellent Seattle Transit Blog's 15-minute map.

It shows graphically all the public transit routes that run with a frequency of 15 minutes or less. These routes are critical because riders don't really need to consult a schedule or arrange their travel.

They can just show up, knowing they needn't wait long. This makes public transit both readily accessible and easily usable. It promotes greater use of pubic transit, leading to all the benefits of higher ridership—reduced traffic congestion, lessened need for road maintenance, cleaner air, etc.

The map has changed a bit from the last one. There's the new Rapid Ride lines of course. There's also better service in some areas (West Seattle, Ballard, Crown Hill) but regrettably some of the same old glaring gaps (Magnolia, Sand Point, Madison Park.)

And we're still waiting for adequate service on the Eastside, especially

• Cross-lake connection frequency
• Service later into the night (i.e. past 11:30). Or even all night.
• Early morning service to the airport to catch those 6 a.m. flights.
• More routes that connect Eastside cities to each other, rather hub and spoke to Seattle or, to a lesser extent, Bellevue.

Making Public Transit Harder to Take

The End of the Ride Free Area

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 ~ "Back door!"

So shouted the tired office worker in the direction of the Metro Transit bus driver down the Westlake Station platform of the Seattle Transit Tunnel.

The driver didn't respond. The commuter, wearily, headed toward the front door of the bus, annoyance clearly visible on her face. Boarding through all doors was already a dim memory.

It was just past 5:30 on the first weekday following the elimination of Seattle's downtown ride free area and clearly not everyone was with the new program. Metro did away with the downtown Ride Free Area in an attempt to save the $2.2M of evaded fares in their operating budget of $549M. Those relatively meager (and theoretical) savings are changing the ease, appeal and convenience of taking public transit.

Olympic Transport

Tubing in London

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 ~ Olympians can be role models for more than their athletic prowess. Check out the gold medal means of getting around:

The US men's gold medal-winning basketball team weren't the only Olympians skipping the limo and the various other chauffeured options, either. Also seen on the Tube were medalists from Venezuela, the UK (of course) and Rwanda, as well as other Americans.

Public transit, offering "cachet as well as convenience" is, as Chris Paul tweeted, a #fasterwaybacktothehotel.

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Cross-posted to Fare Free Northwest blog.

Visions of Transportation

Walking, Biking, Riding

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 ~ Sound Transit is extending light rail to Northgate. There's a vigorous debate about whether to build park-and-ride spaces or infrastructure for bikes and pedestrians, especially a foot/bike bridge over I-5.

Which to build?

Park-and-ride use is popular in King County, where most major lots are filled or overflowing. The 1,500 spots at Northgate are generally full, sending people to park on surrounding streets.

"We could fill more, I could assure you of that," says Ron Posthuma, a Metro Transit assistant director for planning.

Solar Around the World

Another Electric Vehicle

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 ~ If hybrid and all-electric cars and airplanes can be built, then why not a boat? Billed as the world's first solar circumnavigation by boat, the voyage of the MS Turanor PlanetSolar took almost 585 days:

The catamaran has a solar PV surface area that covers more than 530 square meters with a capacity of 93.5 kilowatts. That onboard power has been enough to lead the crew from Monaco through the Straight of Gibraltar, past Cuba, to Miami and Mexico, through the Panama Canal, across the span of the Pacific, to the eastern coast of Australia, up through Southeast Asia to Hong Kong, westward to the southern tip of India, into the Gulf of Iman, back down and into the Red Sea, where it crossed through the Suez Canal and back into the home waters of the Mediterranean.

It's a piece of nerdy coolness to power a boat from solar energy (and to give it a name from J.R.R. Tolkien) but rather impractical when another renewable energy source—wind—can be mechanically harnessed. Wind also can be converted to electricity with higher efficiency than solar. Still, it is another demonstration that our remaining enslaved to fossil fuels is no more than a choice, and a poor one at that. We could make other choices.

Boat details here.

(h/t Renewable Energy World)

Build It and They Will Ride

Demand for Free Transportation

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 ~ Why are there user fees for public transit but not for the use of other transportation infrastructure? What would happen if public transit were free?

The impact of not having user fees for other transportation options is instructive. Simply: an abundance in the supply of transportation capacity can stimulate demand for it. It works for bike lanes in cities:

Science has verified something that may appear obvious at first glance: The direct connection between the presence of bike lanes and the number of bike commuters. The more infrastructure exists to encourage biking, the more people bike—and the more society reaps the public health, energy, and lifestyle benefits that come with an increasing share of people-powered transportation.

This isn't true just for bikes; it's true too for roads. Build more capacity and the number of drivers, trips and miles driven increases:

Ride Free Seattle

No More Free Rides on Metro

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 ~ The Seattle area bus system, Metro Transit, plans to eliminate the downtown Ride Free Area (RFA) effective September 29, 2012.

The rationale, tucked away in a PDF says simply:

Phasing out the RFA will increase revenue and have a net positive impact on Metro’s bottom line. It would make it simpler for riders to pay fares throughout the system. A more consistent fare collection system is expected to reduce fare disputes and fare evasion. In a 2010 survey of Metro’s bus operators, eliminating the RFA was listed as the leading strategy to reduce fare evasion.

This is perhaps true, and the solution may well work, but Metro is solving the wrong problem, and the real problem is only going to be made worse.

Want To Get Away?

The World's Your Oyster

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 ~ Very cool web site that shows at a glance the cost of flying anywhere in the world:

The Caribbean is looking mighty nice about now...

Energy Lies—IX

"Obama's Anti-American Energy Policy"

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 ~ Sure, it's bombastic in the ugly style of modern political campaigns, but to accuse the American President of being "outrageously anti-American" is tantamount to an accusation of treason. Newt Gingrich should be mortified for his intemperance, but, as his past amply shows, he is beyond shame.

So what has President Obama on energy policy done to provoke the vituperative Georgian so? Two things: not rushing approval of Keystone XL, and being too keen on electrifying our transportation sector.

Gingrich is not just disrespectful and obnoxious, he's also both wrong on the facts and, surprisingly for a self-styled historian, wrong on the nature of what is American.

We Need More Public Transit

And Public Transit Needs Us

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 ~ Why public transit?

Riffing on Stuart Smalley: It's good enough, it's smart enough, and doggone it, people like it!

Americans, regardless of political affiliation, support public transit. Everyone who takes public transit contributes to decreased congestion, decreased carbon emissions, and decreased oil/gas use. It's funny to think otherwise. Public transit riders also save money.

Public transit revitalizes communities and leads to economic (re-)development. People choose public transit if given a level of service that represents something close to a comparable choice. Public funding of public transit makes sense, and smart political leadership just gets it done. Unfortunately, others still don't get it.

The demographics in America are changing. The outer ring suburbs are dying and not coming back; both empty-nest Boomers and younger Millennials want to live in livable, walkable cities well-served by public transit where they don't even need to own cars.

Why support pubic transit? It's really rather simple:



Public transit: good, smart, and people like it.

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Cross-posted to Fare-Free NW blog.

DeLorean EV

Return to Back to the Future

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 ~ Yes, but will it have a flux capacitor option?