Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts

12 September 2009

Paris mayoral feud blocks street

Verbatim from the BBC:

There has been traffic chaos in two Paris suburbs after their feuding mayors declared the same busy road one-way, but in opposite directions.

Patrick Balkany, the conservative mayor of Levallois-Perret, initially made the D909 one-way to reduce the amount of commuter traffic through his district.

But Gilles Catoire, the Socialist mayor of neighbouring Clichy-la-Garenne, said this increased congestion in his area.

He made his section of the road one-way in the opposite direction.

With the contradictory road-signs in place, the unsurprising result was gridlock, prompting the deployment of municipal and national police to direct traffic away from the area.

"What Clichy has done is not a long-term solution, but it is a response to a unilateral decision by the town of Levallois," Clichy's deputy mayor, Alain Fournier, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

But Mr Balkany insisted: "The mayor of Clichy has taken a position that is unreasonable and is hurting his own constituents."

Thousands of motorists pass between the two suburbs each day on their way into and out of the French capital.

Read more...

05 February 2009

They Move In Real Time!

In a perhaps questionable choice of recession spending priorities, the campus shuttle has truly entered the space age.

Read more...

13 September 2008

Everything in Order Here

BBC vocabulary, rappers' good behaviour and Italian efficiency all seem to be alive and well:
West arrested after airport row
Alitalia 'running out of fuel'

Read more...

01 March 2008

Aeronautics

Clearly, an excellent use of resources.

Read more...

28 February 2008

proper protocol

Like many online forms, the registration for Amtrak's Guest Rewards program, which gets you points for free travel, has a drop-down menu for "title" along with name, address, etc. One is then presented with the following options:

Admiral
Airman
Brother
Captain, USA
Captain, USN
Chief Master Sgt.
Chief Petty Officer
Chief Warrant Officer 4
Col.
Commander
Dr.
Father
Gen.
Hon.
Jurist Doctorate
Lady
Lieutenant Commander
Lt.
Lt. Col.
Lt. Gen.
Maj. Gen.
Major
Master Chief
Master Sgt.
Miss
Mother
Mr.
Mrs.
Ms.
Pastor
Prince
Princess
Prof.
Rabbi
Rev. Father
Reverend
SIR
Senator
Senior Chief
Sgt.
Sgt. Maj.
Sister

Read more...

20 November 2007

Tomorrow's itinerary

A long journey tomorrow: below the fold. As you can see, public infrastructure in North America is abject. But I will be able to get considerable work done.

1. New Jersey Transit: Princeton Shuttle ("Dinky")
5:26 Princeton
5:31 Princeton Junction
2. New Jersey Transit: Northeast Corridor
5:37 Princeton Junction
5:51 New Brunswick
5:55 Edison
5:59 Metuchen
6:04 Metropark
6:20 Newark Penn Station
6:27 Secaucus Junction
6:42 New York
3. Amtrak: Maple Leaf
7:15 New York
7:39 Yonkers
7:58 Croton-Harmon
8:37 Poughkeepsie
8:52 Rhinecliff-Kingston
9:15 Hudson
9:45 (ar)-10:00 (dp) Albany-Rensselaer
10:23 Schenectady
10:40 Amsterdam
11:39 Utica
11:53 Rome
12:40 Syracuse
1:58 Rochester
2:56 Buffalo-Depew
3:09 Buffalo-Exchange St. Sta.
4:10 Niagara Falls, NY
4:30 (ar)-5:45 (dp) Niagara Falls, ON
6:07 St. Catharines
6:25 Grimsby
7:00 Aldershot
7:15 Oakville
7:44 Toronto

Read more...

14 November 2007

Best in the World!

Normally, I'm not particularly sympathetic to Canadian regional resentment of any kind, but when I see articles like this, I get it. The actual content: the City of Toronto will announce a plan to refurbish Union Station, which will be good for commuters but which is not as elaborate as a previous proposal by architect Jack Diamond. But no, we can't just say that. Diamond advises us that "we could have probably the best interconnected, intermodal transit terminal in the world, in the centre of Toronto". City councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby is a bit more modest, proposing only that "Union Station should be recognized as the premier multi-modal transportation hub in North America".

This fits Harry Frankfurt's definition of bullshit in the strictest sense. Unlike the liar, who knows and consciously disregards the truth, the bullshitter has no regard for truth or falsity at all. None of these people actually thinks that it's important or likely that Union Station be a "better interconnected, intermodal transit terminal" than the newly refurbished St. Pancras, or the Gare de Lyon or Shinjuku Station. Nobody is going to actually assess whether Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station are only North America's "secondary multi-modal transportation hubs". The point is not to assert anything meaningful at all, but merely to express the feeling that Toronto is better than you. You only have to read the Toronto Star or listen to our city council for five minutes before you'll hear an utterance of this kind. No wonder the rest of the country is sick of us.

Read more...