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I found an excellent article via a post at Kottke.org this afternoon entitled Why Don’t We Do It In The Road

Traffic, transportation, and rail travel has been a peripheral interest of mine ever since I wrote a paper about the decline of Amtrak in 10th grade. This article is fascinating for a few reasons, but mostly because it makes so much sense, and it challenges the basic beliefs of traffic engineering in America.

A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works.

Something I observed in Sweden and Germany, but have only seen in a few places in my travels through America is the Traffic Circle. The roundabout made an appearance in Golden, CO during my 3rd year of college, and it was met with much consternation from the locals. I was a bit upset with them as well, but for a different reason.

A roundabout forces you to slow down and merge into the traffic that is travelling around the circle. You then drive until your exit, and merge out. It is very simple in concept, however the planners in Golden completely missed the point.

Two of the three traffic circles were designed in such a way that you didn’t really have to slow down to head through them. So people were seeing the oncoming cars not slowing down and then they were stopping IN the circle (never do that). It was chaos for a couple months. But after the initial breaking in, I think people were probably pleased with the lack of 3 pointless stoplights that could have gone in there.

Of course, the author also points out that:

When it comes to reconfiguring streets as community spaces, ground zero is once again Holland and Denmark, where planners are removing traffic lights in some towns and cities, as well as white divider lines, sidewalks and speed limits. Research has shown that fatality rates at busy intersections, where two or three people were being killed every year, dropped to zero when controls and boundaries were taken away. (This is food for thought among alternative-transportation advocates in the United States, who extol northern Europe as a model precisely because so much space in these countries is dedicated to segregated pedestrian spaces and bike lanes.)

Those segregated pedestrian and bike lanes were something that I loved about bicycling around town in Sweden. You could get to anywhere on the bike paths. Compared the US, where you are risking life and limb heading out into the streets on your bike…. which is pretty much the whole point of the article.

Last night, as I was getting ready for bed, I turned to my wife and said,

“Honey, I think I need to take one my spare fuel containers and get some diesel for my trip down to Rochester tomorrow, just in case.”

With an amused look, she replied, “What on earth would you need that for? Can’t you just fill up in the morning?”

“Yes, but, see, I’m almost to 700 miles on my tank, but I’m not sure if I’ll make it all the way down there without running out, so I want to have some backup. But I have to try for 700, I’M SO CLOSE!”

She just shook her head, and told me to come to bed. I went to sleep deciding that during the drive down, I would decide whether to go for it or now when I was getting close to the Conoco near the Koch refinery. (Where I normally fill up, if possible)

This morning, as I was drawing near to the point of no return, the mental math was running rampant. “Okay, well, if the light isn’t on yet, I should have at least 60 Miles left on this tank, but it’s about 66 miles from here, so I may run out….”

But as I approached the turn, I could see the light was green, so I just kept on going….

About 15 Miles from Rochester, the light turns on…:

Almost there….

700!

The Final tally, 701.1 Miles

I filled up with the Koch Gold in Rochester, 14.46 Gallons, which makes my fuel Mileage 48.5mpg for that tank. Not too bad!

Okay, so yes, I am a super geek. Nothing I can do about that!

Pretty soon there will be a little train running back and forth in Minneapolis. The first few days will be a free-for-all. Much like when a new Chipotle opens. People line up out the door and around the block.

I’m assuming that the Grand Opening of the Light Rail will be something along these lines. Lots of people, looking for a better way to get around town.

You’ll find me at the Minnehaha Parkway stop, June 26th. It’ll be a historic day.

Pantagraph.com – Business/Finance – All Aboard Amtrak 11/04/03

Ridership on Amtrak totaled more than 24 million passengers in fiscal 2003, which ended Sept. 30. It was the highest annual ridership experienced by the nation’s intercity passenger rail service in its 32-year history.

America still needs a better inter-city rail system. There is obviously a market for it.

A Eurostar train breaks the UK rail speed record by travelling at 208mph. [BBC News]

Why can’t we have a decent rail system in America?

A little Bogey news for all my car enthusiasts out there. The latest tank netted me 425.7 miles on 10.3 gallons of diesel, working out to 41.1 mpg. Not bad for a little tyke.

I’m still looking forward to the all-highway tank to see what that gets me. I think I’ll be able to give him a good workout on a roundtrip to Minocqua and back.

I almost hit 500 miles on one tank of fuel today, the final tally was 497.6 miles on 12.75 gallons of diesel. That works out to be about 39 mpg. I still can’t consistently break 40 mpg (really not all that bad). I’m pretty sure that the umm, poor, mileage is because the majority of my miles are the 1.6 miles to work in the morning and 1.6 on the way back. Not good for the mileage. And I like to stick my foot in it all the time.

Sometime soon Sonja and I are going to take a road trip to Chicago or something. We’ll see how the mileage goes then.