Talking Transportation

You can’t beat the convenience of on-demand ride services like Uber and Lyft.  But wouldn’t it be great if a similar ridesharing service was available locally… and for free?

Trains make noise, especially when they blow their horns entering stations and at grade crossings.  But for folks who live near the railroad branch lines, which have dozens of such crossings, the noise is too much. Those neighbors crammed a Stamford meeting recently seeking solutions.  What they got was an education… and maybe some hope.

Remember Rodney Dangerfield, the comedian always complaining that he “gets no respect?” That’s how Waterbury line commuters (and local officials) feel. Their little branch line gets no respect.

The new year will bring some big changes at Greater Bridgeport Transit (GBT):  the introduction of two new, all-electric buses to the fleet. GBT current runs 57 buses, 35 of them diesel-powered and 22 of them hybrids.  The diesels get 3.2 mpg and the hybrids just 4.5 mpg, which means the busy transit agency must buy over a half-million gallons of diesel fuel a year.

Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti is about to finish his first year on the job and his plate is more than full.  It’s overflowing with controversy. Last week, in part one of an exclusive, no-holds barred interview, he spoke of his challenges in speeding up Metro-North, coping with the over-budget, behind-schedule Walk Bridge replacement and ordering new rail cars.

Joseph Giulietti is finishing his first year as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, CDOT. He’s been busy and less visible in recent months, so imagine my surprise when he offered me a one-on-one, no holds barred interview.

Speed kills… and I don’t just mean methamphetamines.  Speeding on our roads is linked to over 36,000 deaths each year in the U.S.  That’s almost 700 deaths a week… 100 a day.

Did you know that Bridgeport was once the home of “the car of the future?”  It was the Tesla of its era, but only three were ever built. This mystery vehicle? The Dymaxion Car.  The designer?  Buckminster Fuller.

Hardly a week goes by that an over-height truck and a low-slung bridge on the Merritt Parkway have a close encounter of the worst kind:  a collision.

As we review the details of Gov. Ned Lamont’s CT2030 transportation plan, I have a strange sense of déjà vu. Haven’t we been through all this before?

Just when I thought Gov. Ned Lamont was getting it together to launch a thoughtful, considered “take two” on his transportation vision… bam! Along comes another nonsensical idea.

I’m a big fan of high speed trains, which means I often ride Amtrak’s Acela to Boston or Washington.  It’s the best train in North America, though it pales in comparison to true HSR (high speed rail) in Europe or Asia. While Acela can hit a top speed of 150 mph, it does so on only 34 of the 457 miles between DC and Boston.  Over the entire run, what with congestion and station stops, it only averages about 70 mph.

It shouldn’t come as much surprise to learn that commuting, especially by car, is hazardous to your health. Research now shows that the longer your drive, the greater the risk of obesity, heart attacks and even low birth-weight babies for moms-to-be.  At fault are a number of factors:

Imagine having an unlimited-rides pass on all public transit in Connecticut, including Metro-North.  Then imagine this pass only cost you $20 a year. Such is the reality of U-Pass, the transit pass given to almost 15,000 community college and state university students in our state.  Not only does U-Pass give them affordable access to mass transit, in some cases the pass is a life changer.

Commuting is nothing new to Nutmeggers. But to appreciate our current challenges in “getting there,” consider what it was like centuries ago. As early as 1699 roads had been laid out on routes still used today. But where today those roads are now lined with trees, in the mid-1700’s those trees were gone as most of southern Fairfield county had been cleared to allow for farming.