March 2012 - Stop and Move

Fancy pedestrian crossing to be installed in Clovis

On March 31, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

Notice went up that Locan Ave north of Shaw will be closed next week for construction of a crosswalk. Why does a crosswalk require a week long road closure? It’s because the crosswalk (from what was shown a year ago) will be similar to the one half a mile south, which has lights embedded in the road. Those lights begin flashing when a pedestrian starts to cross. I would have liked to see a raised crosswalk as well, but as far as I know, that doesn’t exist in Clovis at all, and isn’t part of their toolbox.

The crossing will connect a brand new trail connection to an elementary school. The trail was built on land donated by a church, and paid for by a nearby housing developer who was allowed to fund this trail because they didn’t want to fund a trail through their own property (thus decreasing lot sizes). Because the connection is certainly important, the city agreed to that. I also agree it was a decent compromise. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : new jersey personal philly trip3 Comments

Personal – Short East Coast trip

On March 29, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

I shall be on the East Coast this weekend, hitting New Jersey on Sunday and Philadelphia on Monday. I’ve never been to Philly, and I understand they have a transit system that is very similar to the one in Boston, and that’s something I’m quite interested in experiencing. It’s a very short trip, so I do hope to see as much as possible in the free time I have.

Any suggestions on something I must see? I arrive in Newark at 6pm Saturday and depart from Philly at 6am Tuesday.

Also, you may have noticed I haven’t been posting as frequently as usual this past couple of weeks. I know, it’s been hard. I have 8 or so posts partially written but I keep not having time to finish them off. Not good, not good. Don’t even ask me the last time I vacuumed, if you think my blogging has been slow, imagine how I’ve prioritized less pleasant activities… Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : fresno high speed rail HSRLeave a comment

Pro-HSR radio ad in Fresno

On March 28, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

The Fresno Bee reports that a new ad will be airing on local radio featuring former Mayor of Fresno Alan Autry (Republican). The ad also features comedian Will Durst.

You can listen to the ad here.

The ad touches on a few key points:

-Pro-central valley, local ad, local pride.

-Touches on ways that the media and the population of LA and the Bay area frequently crap on the valley, and the way politicians have been fighting to take the money away.

-Talks about the very real brain drain, as young people who want real careers have no choice but to look for opportunity elsewhere.

-Uses a well known (locally), and Republican, spokesperson . Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : expo line light rail los angeles2 Comments

Endless Expo delays coming to an end…?

On March 24, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

I’ve written about construction progress on the Expo line in LA twice before. Both times it was to complain about the amazing continuous delays faced by the line. The expo line is a new light rail line that will connect downtown LA, USC, Century City and (eventually) Santa Monica. The line was supposed to open in 2010 but hasn’t yet.

Now a date has finally been announced, but Metro is keeping with the theme of treating their shiny new rail line as some kind of Disney attraction, and not a critical piece of transportation. They’ve chosen a launch date that actually minimizes the lines use. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : bike commute bike lanes pedestrian button traffic light3 Comments

Bike Commuting: Route Challenges

On March 20, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

This is an ongoing series about commuting to work by bike, sometimes. It will detail the problems I’ve faced, and the solutions I’ve found. Hopefully, it’s helpful to someone out there.

Today’s focus: Picking a route, sweat, shortcuts and traffic lights

——-

As I wrote recently, I am now commuting to work on bike, sometimes. In fact, I didn’t even commute once on my bike last week due to a number of reasons, but I do have plenty to say about the two weeks prior. I’m going to hit the saddle again starting today.

The Route

The most important part about switching to a commute on bike is to find a suitable route. What’s especially key is realizing that the roads you take on a car are unlikely to be the same ones you’d want to take on a bike. That is, a little bit of research is in order, because following the same path to work when switching modes may lead to bad results. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : bus bus tracker FAX real time info Visalia2 Comments

Bus tracker technology leads to increase in riders

On March 19, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

A few months ago, the city of Visalia, California, implemented a system which allows the public to know the actual location of buses, so they can better plan their rides. While this technology has existed around the world for over a decade, and has been slowly arriving in cities like Boston and San Francisco in the US, Visalia is the first city in the San Joaquin valley to implement the technology.

If you expected the roll-out of the technology to make some riders happy, but not have any other effects, you’d be wrong. Data from the APTA shows that ridership took a strong bump once customers were able to find out how long they’d have to wait for a bus. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : bike racks clovis library corporate fail fresno county library lowe's subway taco bell3 Comments

Results of corporate experiment in bike racks

On March 14, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

A month ago I decided that instead of rolling my eyes at the lack of bike racks at some businesses in the Fresno area, I would be a little bit more pro-active and send out customer-complaint feedback.

I decided to only do this with corporations, because of two reasons.

1) They have more flexibility in making “changes” to their property than some mom-and-pop store leasing space in a strip mall
and
2) They supposedly have established departments and standards on how to respond to customer issues.

So why send out online feedback instead of talking to the local manager? Same reasons as above. A manager has almost no authority to approve the extravagant $250 expenditure that would be the installation of a bike rack. And also it was to gauge how the corporation as a whole handles requests by customers, and not just the local reaction. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : apta city council FAX Fresno area express FAX fail ridership ridership highsLeave a comment

US transit ridership rises, but continues falling in Fresno

On March 13, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

The New York Times reported yesterday that transit ridership in the US has increased drastically in the past year.

Americans took 200 million more rides last year on subways, commuter trains, light-rail systems and public buses than they did the year before, according to a new report by a leading transit association.

Americans took 10.4 billion rides on public transportation in 2011 — a billion more than they took in 2000, and the second most since 1957, according to a report being released Monday by the American Public Transportation Association.

New York Times

The NYT attributes that increase both due to falling unemployment numbers, and also rising gas prices. I agree with that those factors do play some part, but it’s not the whole story. Unemployment is still quite high, by historical standards, and yet ridership is the highest it’s been since the 1950’s. That indicates that some people are shifting their mode of travel, even with the availability of disposable income. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : bike commute bike lanes bike plan Clovis fresno3 Comments

I am now a bike commuter, sometimes

On March 12, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

I’ve written a fair amount on this blog about cycling and making the use of bikes easier in the Fresno and Clovis area. However, I’ve never really been able to bike to work, due to distance. That is, I frequently have used my bike to run errands, attend events and so forth, but not for commuting.

Mind you, commuting isn’t that big a deal. There seems to be some inordinate focus on how people commute, but some studies have show that commuting makes up only 25% of trips. Makes sense if you do your own math. Commuting is a simple back and forth, but those shopping trips, runs to the grocer, visits to the cinema, dinners with family and friends, trips to the park and so on and so forth….well, most of the time we spend on the road it’s because we’re going somewhere other than work. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : planning game simcityLeave a comment

Sim City 5 details

On March 8, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

As promised, March 6th came with the official reveal of Sim City 5. The best news from the announcement is actually that Maxis from Emeryville, the team behind the rest of the series, is in charge again.

The developer doesn’t handle too many projects, so you know they’ve had their full focus on Sim City 5 for awhile now. Here are their projects from the past decade.

2002 – The Sims Online
2003 – SimCity 4
2004 – The Sims 2
2008 – Spore Creature Creator
2008 – Spore
2011 – Darkspore
2013 – SimCity

They’ve also released a concept trailer. While the trailer does not represent what the final game engine will look like, it does give a very interesting idea of the ambition going into this project. Click to read more!