Maurice Carter’s Post

A little bench can mean a lot! A 2019 report by the National Center on Disability and Journalism, found that a lack of accessible seating at bus stops is a major barrier to public transit use for people with disabilities. Benches, my friends, are not just a convenience; they're a bridge to a more equitable transportation system. If you are a municipality or transit authority, why not explore a collaboration to join forces with COA? Our turnkey partnership can free up your time and public funds for other investments. It allows you to focus your attention and resources on other, more urgent areas. Building out bus stops may best be left with companies whose primary business it is. COA has been in business for almost 40 years. We are currently partnering with over 400 municipalities across North America. We provide a hassle-free public space seating partnership that is both cost-free and maintenance-free. Our focus is not just on functionality but also the aesthetic appeal of our public seating. We aim to provide comfortable, visually pleasing, and ADA-accessible seating options that enhance the overall ambiance of your public spaces. (The photo in this picture is not our bench, but I am happy to send you one.) If you are interested in providing cost-free and maintenance-free benches for your transit riders, reach out for a brochure. Let's make bus stops places of peace, not just places to pace!

Exciting news! Our groundbreaking paper: "How Nashville Can Create A Multimodal Freeway System Within Five Years" (augmenting the Governor’s grand vision for a P3 project building new Choice Lanes on the I-24 Southeast) with the prioritized introduction of Flexi-Choice lanes, cash rewards, and active traffic management strategies to transform our regional commute in record time has attracted the attention of The Tennessean. A more conversational summary of the innovation was published today in the OpEd section. Building on collaboration and insights from the Nashville's Drive to Work coalition’s efforts, which include two major announcements and one fantastic action plan: - Greater Nashville Regional Council's Executive Director, Michael Skipper's regarding P3 incentive programs,  - Matt Maservey shares Tennessee Department of Transportation Long Range Planning’s initiative to restore and extend the evaluation of a Statewide Transportation Demand Management Initiative. - Michael Replogle’s former Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the New York City Department of Transportation, sharing an Action Agenda for Middle Tennessee William Ankner, former Department of Transportation Commissioner of both Rhode Island and Louisiana, Michael Replogle, and I wrote this Nashville-focused action plan (for “policy wonks") to help pave the way to congestion relief, on a timeline that is readily achievable. Please read and share the OpEd article found here - https://lnkd.in/ga5vVEpG - and let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Read and download our full groundbreaking paper: "How Nashville Can Create A Multimodal Freeway System Within Five Years" here - https://lnkd.in/gCi8qtWi Hytch, LLC, Nashville's Drive to Work, Cumberland Region Tomorrow, Nashville Entrepreneur Center, TRANSIT ALLIANCE OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC, Greater Nashville Regional Council, Greater Nashville Technology Council, Tennessee Department of Transportation, Nashville Entrepreneur Center Michael McSurdy, Bill Klehm, Michael Skipper, Demetria Kalodimos, Patrick DeCorla-Souza, David Plazas #NashvilleTraffic #SmartMobility #UrbanPlanning #SustainableTransportation

New York City completed a crucial final step on Wednesday in a decades-long effort to become the first American city to roll out a comprehensive congestion pricing program, one that aims to push motorists out of their cars and onto mass transit by charging new tolls to drive into Midtown and Lower Manhattan. The program could start as early as mid-June after the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that will install and manage the program, voted 11-to-1 to approve the final tolling rates, which will charge most passenger cars $15 a day to enter at 60th Street and below in Manhattan. The program is expected to reduce traffic and raise $1 billion annually for public transit improvements. It was a historic moment for New York’s leaders and transportation advocates after decades of failed attempts to advance congestion pricing even as other gridlocked cities around the world, including London, Stockholm and Singapore, proved that similar programs could reduce traffic and pollution. While other American cities have introduced related concepts by establishing toll roads or closing streets to traffic, the plan in New York is unmatched in ambition and scale.

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. /April 19, 2024 /TransLink – #TransLink has identified 20 corridors needing increased #bus priority investments to mitigate the impacts growing traffic #congestion has on bus riders. This plan is part of TransLink’s newly released Bus Priority Vision, which identifies solutions to improve bus efficiency while highlighting the need to make buses more reliable in Metro Vancouver. By working with municipalities to implement more bus speed and reliability measures, TransLink plans to make buses more reliable for customers and save money on operating expenses. “As traffic gets worse throughout Metro Vancouver, our customers spend more time stuck on buses and less time moving,” says TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn. “Bus delays cost us more than $80 million each year, and we are committed to developing new bus priority measures that will mitigate those costs and get our customers where they need to go faster.” Every weekday, bus riders throughout Metro Vancouver spend over 28,000 hours stuck in traffic combined. Nearly half (45 per cent) of those delays occur on the top 20 corridors, despite making up only 15 per cent of the transit network. While more studies are needed to determine specific improvements, TransLink’s goal is to work with regional municipalities to explore new bus speed and reliability measures on the 20 identified corridors over the next decade. These corridors were determined by factoring in average bus delays, ridership volumes, existing infrastructure, and accounting for different locations throughout Metro Vancouver. Some examples of bus speed and reliability improvements that TransLink will engage with stakeholders and municipalities on include: Dedicated bus lanes Approach lanes Queue jumps Balancing distances between bus stops Turn restrictions Signal improvements and upgrades Since 2019, TransLink has invested $40 million into bus speed and reliability measures, reducing delays up to 35 per cent on those corridors.

Last week, the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization's research was featured in a Boston Globe article exploring New York City’s new congestion pricing program and transportation policy conversations happening in the Boston area. The article cited the MPO’s report “Learning From Roadway Pricing Experiences,” which examined roadway pricing strategies across the U.S. and interviewed staff involved with implementing those strategies. The MPO’s staff continues to study the potential of roadway pricing policies to ease traffic congestion and generate revenue for transportation system investments. Read the article: https://bit.ly/BG-CP-2024 Read the MPO’s study: https://lnkd.in/eaqhRsDX

New York City completed a crucial final step in a decades-long effort to become the first American city to roll out a comprehensive congestion pricing program, one that aims to push motorists out of their cars and onto mass transit by charging new tolls to drive into Midtown and Lower Manhattan. The program could start as early as mid-June after the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that will install and manage the program, voted 11-to-1 to approve the final tolling rates, which will charge most passenger cars $15 a day to enter at 60th Street and below in Manhattan. The program is expected to reduce traffic and raise $1 billion annually for public transit improvements. The plan still faces challenges from six lawsuits before it can begin in June. https://lnkd.in/eHR4fEFh

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board voted 11-1 today to approve the toll rates for the nation’s first congestion pricing plan, setting the stage for the MTA to begin collecting tolls under the state’s Central Business District Tolling Program. New York’s congestion pricing program will charge most vehicles entering Manhattan south of and including 60th Street. Excluded from tolling will be traffic on Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, the West Side Highway and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel connection to West Street. The plan exempts emergency vehicles, certain vehicles transporting people with disabilities, commuter, transit and some school buses, and public-works government vehicles. Paul Young CPA CGA is a former Senior IBM Customer Success Manager that has deployed over 300 data and AI solutions across industries. Paul is also focusing on driving better business decisions through the modernization of the data architecture. Paul_Young_CGA@outlook.com   Courses - https://lnkd.in/ga_S5dMR   Blog – LLM and the Budgeting, Forecasting Cycle - https://lnkd.in/gAbvhTCW     Blog – Data and AI – Traffic Flow - https://lnkd.in/gZx88bkg   Blog – Urban Planning and Urban Renewal - https://lnkd.in/g_DZSKSy    Blog – Five Best Practices related to ESG Reporting - https://lnkd.in/grj4d-jh Blog – ESG – Regulatory Complexity of ESG Reporting - https://lnkd.in/ga_VNQN3 Blog - CFOs’ Impact on Authentic Sustainability in 2024 - https://lnkd.in/geSg-2iv   Blog – Top 6 areas for Urban, Rual and Remote Planning – Smart Cities - https://lnkd.in/gmvMhR3e

Texas A&M Transportation Institute's latest report reveals that Houston, DFW, and Austin are home to the most congested roadways in Texas. Road congestion in these areas cost commuters over $1.2 billion in 2022. With traffic volume on Texas roadways up 2% from 2019, it's crucial for employers and members of our community to find creative ways to decrease congestion on our roads. Commute with Enterprise is a solution that can help decrease the amount of cars commuting to and from work. #iwork4enterprise #enterprisemobility #metrorideshare #mobility #publictransportation #commute Link to the report: https://lnkd.in/gZ6vQbDD

Well, it is progress, even if it took decades to achieve. Growing up in Van Nuys, I remember in 1963 or so, when there was a serious proposal to construct an elevated monorail system feeding into downtown LA from various suburbs. One proposal was from the German firm Alweg that gained a huge fan base since it built Disneyland's Monorail which opened in 1959. But bureaucratic obstacles and NIMBY protests from Beverly Hills and elsewhere killed it. That, and engineering problems that could have been overcome had the politicians allowed the plan to proceed. So present-day L.A.'s infamous traffic snarls could have been wildly reduced had the monorail come to pass. Yet some of the same hard-boiled intransigence is impeding California's so-called High Speed Rail project. Construction is underway for its first segment--Bakersfield to Merced--hardly major population centers, but something to show taxpayers. Amtrak tries but is no match for European and Japanese rail systems. But a private company, Brightline, might be our answer. It is currently constructing a line from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, east of Los Angeles, with trains running at speeds around 200mph. Brightline already operates trains connecting Central and South Florida.

After discovering a significant data error in my previous attempt at restructuring public transit service in Seattle, I went to work creating a new version of it. 24/7, frequent service still is possible, and improves overall access by 15%, but it comes at a greater cost than before. This may never be a feasible transit network for Seattle, but the ideas underlying it are still worth advocating for. https://lnkd.in/g9ydFxcS https://lnkd.in/gi_nXaxp