Go Home Productions is the home of an extraordinary producer of remixes and mash-ups. A large collection of great tracks to download.

Posted by Chris at 01:43 PM in Music | Comments (0)

A post over at The Third Rail wondered what it would take to get people out of their cars (specifically, into transit). On a mostly parallel idea, I found a paper (long) that talks about land use changes in some Austin neighborhoods that might or might not get people to walk more.

First, certain urban form characteristics which planners can encourage through land use policies and design guidelines make walking and shopping locally more attractive choices. The most important policy is to encourage commercial activity within walking distance of residential areas - a necessary but not sufficient condition for walking. ... These policies will not mean a significant reduction in automobile travel, but they will mean that the choice to walk or shop locally becomes more competitive with driving to more distant locations.

Second, most of what influences residents' choices about walking and local shopping is not anything that planners can do anything about. The fact that residents have so many choices -- not just the local supermarket but also the next one down the road or the health food store across town -- means that few of them will always choose the closest option, instead sometimes or always traveling farther to find the store that better meets their needs. ...Many of the characteristics that produce a comfortable and interesting walking environment depend not on neighborhood design but on how residents adapt and adapt to the neighborhood... The connection residents feel to their local businesses depends on the efforts those businesses make to foster those connections.

So can land use policies be an effective strategy for reducing automobile dependence? Yes and no. Land use policies are clearly important in determining whether residents have the choice to do something other than drive. In that sense they help to reduce the need to drive. But simply having an alternative to driving doesn't mean that residents will take advantage of it. This study shows that some people are more disposed to walk than others and that those who are more disposed to walk are more disposed to chose a neighborhood where walking is an option. ... Planners should focus on land use policies that will help to provide alternatives to driving, but they shouldn't expect such policies alone to control growing levels of travel.

Posted by Chris at 03:22 PM in Planning, Transportation | Comments (0)

I have been reading about the peak oil situation - that this is the year of maximum oil production, it's all downhill from here. Certainly seems to makes sense these days with fuel prices so high and no sign of them coming down (not owning a car, this particular problem does not bother me too much). Since transportation uses so much of the oil that we have/import, this article about what vehicles or services might be first on the list in an oil shortage compared to the current #1 user, the single occupancy vehicle:

If we had to rank essential uses for oil, transporting a single person to work would have to fall somewhere near the bottom. At the top would be fueling the tractors that plant and harvest our food. Food transport trucks, and a long list of other kinds of trucks and buses, would be listed before we get to the family car. (Courtesy of Peak Oil News)

Posted by Chris at 07:31 PM in Sustainability, Transportation | Comments (0)

New Jersey Transit is trying to make it even harder to take pictures of their trains. Apparently you already have to get a permit to take pictures of the trains, but now they want to institute a 24 hour call ahead rule even after you get a permit. What's next - a note from your mother? Didn't anyone tell them that the MTA gave up on this idea?

I understand the increased need for security these days, but these ridiculous no photograph rules are quite unnecessary restrictions. Anyone that really wanting the photographs for an illegal purpose is probably not going to register or obey any restrictions anyway, so all they end up doing is penalizing lawful citizens. One more baby step towards a police state.

Posted by Chris at 03:45 PM in Security, Transportation | Comments (0)

Mayor Bloomberg comments on the future plans for the streets, walkways, and bikeways of New York City in the Queens Express. It is some what unfortunate that even though the accomplishments highlighted talk largely about the reduced number of deaths - still too many - the first thing talked about for improvements is congestion relief and not safety.

Posted by Chris at 03:32 PM in Politics, Transportation

Yes! More pig products are definitely a good thing. (PDF)

Posted by Chris at 12:16 PM in Food, Health | Comments (0)

News.com with a good article on some of the privacy implications of using Google or any of the other search engines.

It's all good and great until somebody steals one million full personal profiles...

Posted by Chris at 02:53 PM in Security | Comments (0)

Robert Novak lost it yesterday on a CNN talk show. The loser finally gets some punishment. And because of all that, last night's Daily Show was one of the best I have ever seen. The interview with the space shuttle reporter was okay, but Jon Stewart and his writers were in top form for the first half of the show.

Posted by Chris at 12:47 PM in Politics | Comments (0)

By the numbers: airline industry wide statistics (and here with charts) for late arrivals, late departures, cancellations, etc. Looks like the industry average is about 20% late arrivals per year over the past decade. Unfortunately this table does not give times, like average time delay.

More: some airline consumer protection reports that have a wealth of information: Flight Delays, Mishandled Baggage, Oversales, Consumer Complaints, Customer Service Reports to the Dept. of Homeland Security, Airline Animal Incident Reports - Broken down by airline (the flight delays are even broken down by airport, flight route) over the past several years.

Posted by Chris at 01:09 PM in Transportation | Comments (0)

In the San Joaquin Valley of California, cows might be producing more pollution than cars. Go figure.

Posted by Chris at 11:05 AM in Environment, Science | Comments (0)

Apple is moving to Intel chips for its new machines, will it also start using the Trusted Computing architecture? (From boingboing)

Posted by Chris at 12:55 PM in Computing, Security | Comments (0)