If you're not one of the ~40 people who showed up for the CART Annual Meeting tonight, you can catch Dr Jerry Rose's powerpoint presentation here [40mb].

"Unlikely Allies" [leoweekly.com]

& asks for Sidewalk Diversions to become a standard tool in the design of worksites

Accomodating walking needs to be standard operating procedure not just on Main Street, but in the entire city.

Thank You!

Thanks go out to Louisville Department of Public Works & Assets and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for moving quickly to address this important issue! Thanks also to Phil Miller at the Mayor's office, Terra Long at Councilman Owen's office, and Rob Haynes at Councilman Tandy's office. The thanks are for this!:

Read more below the fold...

Updated 7/1/2010 -DM

CART has filed a motion to intervene in the National Trust for Historic Preservation & River Field's suit against Ohio River Bridges Project. Here, in Q&A format, are some frequently asked questions about the suit.

Why did CART file suit?

1. NEPA requires all reasonable alternatives to be fully and fairly evaluated in an EIS. FHWA did a preliminary analysis of light rail and found that it would not reasonably meet ORBP's objectives so it was never evaluated as an alternative in the EIS.  FHWA "cooked the books" in the preliminary analysis by treating light rail unfairly.

2. When you invest in a massive captial project backed by federal funding, environmental laws force a review of the project if conditions change. ORBP was designed in the early 90s, when ...

   • oil was around $20 a barrel
   • driving was forecast to increase forever
   • bus public transit was forecast to expand service to keep pace with the new roads
   None of these assumptions turned out to be right, but the FHWA has not appropriately responded to these concerns.

What does it mean that you're "intervening" in a suit?

Today kicked off the public meetings on the TARC cuts. There were two meetings.

The first meeting at Union Station was packed. I expected 30 people. There were over 100!! People were polite but grumpy their routes were getting cut. People were casting blame everywhere - elected officials, TARC 'bloat', you name it. Nevertheless, I think the meeting was educational for most people there. The presentation was "folks: we're broke, that's why we're cutting your service". At least two council members and two mayoral candidates were there. The "Best Organized" Oscar certainly goes to the riders of the #66 Mt Washington / Sheperdsville express, who had signs, name tags, and maybe even a logo asking for their favourite route to be preserved!

more below the fold...

Join this open discussion email list to talk about life on TARC. Talk about problems, solutions, hopes, dreams, situations, routes -- whatever transit issue is on your mind. Once you're subscribed, you can email dozens of your fellow riders, from all across the system, with one easy email address: bus@cartky.org

Join the Conversation!

The Alliance for Biking & Walking's Benchmarking Project is an ongoing effort to collect and analyze data on bicycling and walking in all 50 states and at least the 50 largest cities. They have just released their 2010 report. How does our region stack up?

= top third of states/cities (good)
= middle third of states/cities
= worst third of states/cities (bad)

	Mode Share	Safety	Funding	Staffing	Bike/Ped policies	Advocacy Capacity
Louisville
Indianapolis
Nashville				no data
Kentucky						no data
Indiana
Ohio

My take on this below the fold...

Update: Mission Accomplished! No one killed or injured at this sidewalk closure on our watch.

[editor's note: CART does not endorse candidates. Nevertheless, we view discussion of the proposal put forward yesterday as well within the scope of our organization]

Thursday, Dr Daniel Mongiardo gave a presentation to the CART membership calling for a massive investment in public transportation both state-wide and locally. This article deals with the first phase of the local plan, specifically, the construction of rapid access monorail (RAM) serving Louisville.

RAM cars are about the size of a van, with a seated capacity of 12 people, or a standing capacity of about 30 people. From a user's perspective, riding RAM is about like an elevator - you step in, after some seconds the doors close, and you're on your way. Peak speed is in excess of 50mph. The RAM sits atop a lean rail on a concrete pylon. The pylon is fairly compact, maybe a large telephone pole.