Barry Barker is to come before Metro Council's Transportation Subcommittee and speak on June 16th at 5pm. Details can be found at this city web page. The topic of discussion will be TARC fare increases and service cuts.

Fly-by-night: A First for Solar

Near Zurich, Switzerland, an international team of scientists, engineers and specialists are approaching a significant milestone in one of the most outlandish projects in the history of aviation.

The Brookings Institute unloads on Louisville, and the C-J is tabulating the fallout:

Residents of Louisville and Lexington are among the worst contributors to climate change, according to a study of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas.

Researchers with Washington's Brookings Institution blame factors such as sprawling development that encourages driving rather than walking, biking or mass transit, and the cities' reliance on cheap, coal-fueled electricity.

Its list — which measured carbon emissions per resident based on per capita emissions from residential and highway energy use in 2005 — puts Lexington at the top of a list of offenders, and Louisville fifth.

While the ranking could be a public relations issue for leaders trying to attract industry and new residents, Louisville has made strides in recent years to improve air quality, add cycling lanes and begin a detailed study of the city's carbon output, said Bruce Traughber, the city's economic development director.

Washington Post: Stung at the Pumps, More Hop on a Bus, D.C.'s Outlying Transit Systems Rush to Add Capacity; Metro Worried.

Wouldn't it be refreshing if our local transit was similarly reactive to growing demand? Instead we have route cuts and fare hikes. There must be an alternative.

And Why Other Louisvillians Don't Bike to Work

Results of Louisville's Bike to Work Week survey are in, and it's my pleasure to analyze the results here.

The first question on the poll was the most important: "How often do you use [a Bicycle] to get to work?". We had 66 respondents:

This population is obviously not representative. It would be absurd - though funny - to suggest that 23% of Louisville's commuters did so by bike more than 100 times a year. Instead, this shows that Frequent Bike Commuters are much more likely to answer a poll about bicycle commuting than Non Bike Commuters.

We'll use this anomaly to our advantage, controlling for frequency of bike commuting and then asking all sorts of interesting questions and seeing where the populations differ...

Cirta via nuvo via oil drum:

The IRTC voted unanimously to proceed with public meetings to present the MPO's recommendation of the Nickel Plate Line as the Northeast Corridor route, the first of seven in a proposed region-wide rapid transit system. The MPO also recommends Diesel Light Rail technology to provide rapid transit service along this route.

FHWA's Traffic Volume Trends for March is out. It paints a staggering picture of how American drivers are reacting to gas prices:

Key quote: "Travel on all roads and streets changed by -4.3 percent for March 2008 as compared with March 2007."

What is Peak Oil?

Peak Oil is the principle that all oil fields have a plateau in production, after which they start to decline in output. It forecast the decline of Texan oil in the 1970s. When the principle is applied to world oil production as a whole, you see that the whole world will also have a plateau in production, and will then start to decline. Nobody disputes these facts.

The only thing in dispute is when the plateau will come. The most wildly optimistic say the peak will be in the 2040s, and will be a gradual decline after that. The most pessimistic say the peak was actually last year, in 2007. Read the rest of this article and decide for yourself.

via The Onion:

WASHINGTON—Officials from the Institute for Somehow Managing to Hold It All Together warned that, despite their best efforts, everything appears to be falling completely apart and "getting way out of hand," according to a strongly worded report characterized by panic, frustration, and numerous typographical errors that was released to the American public Monday.

Slate explains why and how trains get derailed.