Boulder County is developing a transportation plan

Boulder County is holding public meetings to help the Transporation Department develop a transportation master plan, partly to help the county interact effectively with other transportation agencies, with other counties, and with local cities. Boulder County only pays for some of its residents transportation needs, so this is important.

There are going to be three meetings, each in different parts of the county. Each starts at 5:00 with a presentation at 5:30 followed by public comments which are scheduled to end at 7pm. Here are the locations with local transit information:

City of Boulder
Thursday, January 13
Boulder County Transportation Department
2525 13th Street, Second Floor, Large Conference Room
This meeting will focus on transportation in western Boulder County.
The Boulder County Government building is in north Boulder near the Community Plaza Shopping Center. The nearest bus stop is at Broadway and North Street, although Alpine is the street listed on the schedule. The SKIP runs at least every fifteen minutes throughout the meeting time. The  last two 208's going east are at 6:56 and 7:26. The last 208 headed to the Boulder bus station comes by at 7:10.

City of Lafayette
Wednesday, January 19
Centaurus High School
10300 South Boulder Road
Centaurus High School is served by the DASH which runs every fifteen minutes for people arriving to the meeting, and every half an hour for people leaving. Buses for Louisville and Boulder leave at 6:53, 7:23, and 7:53. Buses to the Lafayette ParknRide leave at 6:49, 7:15 and 7:45.

City of Longmont
Thursday, January 20
Longmont Public Library, Meeting Rooms A & B
409 4th Avenue (4th and Emery)
Longmont has lost a lot of bus service in the last two years, so getting here is easy, but not getting home. The 323 passes 4th and Collyer going both directions close to 5:00, but it stops running before the end of the meeting. If you are headed out to the Skyline High School area, you need to catch the bus at 6:30. If you are going near Twin Peaks Mall, you should take the BOLT. The BOLT stops at Main and 3rd where buses arrive at 4:40 and 5:10 going both directions. After the meeting, buses head to the north end of Main Street at 6:50, 7:15 and 7:45. Buses head south to Niwot and Boulder at 6:48, 7:13 and 8:13. The BOLT is a regional bus, so fares may be more expensive than for the local buses. Other regional buses that stop at Main and 3rd are the J (to east Boulder) and the L (to Lafayette and Denver). The 324 stops here also, although it stops running before the meeting ends. You can also take the bus Berthoud, Loveland, and Fort Collins. The FREX arrives at 8th and Coffman at 4:55 and 5:22. Unfortunately, the last bus back north leaves at 6:40.

All bus times are approximate.

I hope that lots of people can come to one of these meetings. If you are not able to come to a meeting, the current plan can be downloaded from a link at http://www.bouldercounty.org/sustain/trans/pages/transportationmasterplan.aspx .
you can send comments to Julie McKay at jmckay@bouldercounty.org.

Subways as another world

We are going to go away from the US for this month's movie, Kontroll (Hungary, 2003) a movie that creates its own world out of the fictional lives of ticket inspectors in the Budapest subway. The main character lives in the subway, and within the movie it is the world above ground that seems to be fictional. This is an accomplishment because the Budapest metro is not that big.

Someone should make a movie about the Paris metro as its own world. You could actually live there.

The movie is not available for streaming anywhere (legally), but the DVD is available for rent from Netflix.

Happy New Year!

Chicago-St. Louis high-speed line is actually under construction

In September, the state of Illinois started upgrading a ninty-mile stretch of track between Alton and Lincoln. Earlier this week that state, the US Department of Transportation, Amtrak, and the Union Pacific Railroad announced that they had come to an agreement that would allow the trains to run on time AND allow significant freight traffic in the corridor. The next phase of construction will start in the spring when the track between Lincoln and Alton will be upgraded. All upgrades should be done in the spring.

I-70 Collaborative Effort (???)

The next meeting of the I-70 Collaborative Effort is going to be on Friday, December 3 from 8:30 to noon in Silverthorne.

Now I am a board member of an organization that is supposedly a part of this effort, and I don't really know what this is. It appears that the members might get to decide what happens to the I-70 corridor rather than CDOT doing what the public wants. It is at the Silverthorne Pavilions which actually would be a good place for a protest. I might see if I can get a couple of people to go up with me and we can ask the shoppers at the outlet malls what they would like to see happen with the area.

Here are the details:
I-70 Collaborative Effort Meeting
8:30 am - 12 pm
Silverthorne Pavilions
400 Blue River Parkway
Silverthorne, CO

The public can comment sometime between 11 am and noon.

Example of a Car-Free Life - "They Live"

Starting in a freight yard full of moving trains, John Carpenter's "They Live" is a told from the point of view of people who live without a car. From the beginning of the film when a policeman gets out of a car to silence a street preacher, cars are connected with oppression and with power. In fact, the one working class hero of the film who owns a car loses it in the process of learning the truth. Nada, the film's hero, walks throughout the film.

Jonathem Lethem recently put together a slide show analysis of "They Live" on Salon.com based on his book. In it he notes that the movie obviously takes place in Los Angeles, but that L.A.'s car culture is absent. Mr. Lethem may not realize that 25% of Angeleno households are car-free. In fact, the transportation profile of Los Angeles makes it an ideal setting for a movie based on class-conflict as most households that are car-free because the people who live in them are too poor to afford a car. This is different from many other large US cities where many people choose to use transit even though they can afford to buy a car.

And now I have made this movie sound like a serious exploration of Marxism or something when in fact it is a kick-ass action movie. With cheesy aliens. Watch the clip below for one of the best lines in movie history. (WARNING: SPOILERS)



"They Live" is available through Netflix and is showing on AMC on Friday, December 10 at 11 pm.

ColoRail Member Meeting

The Colorado Department of Transportation has a new Rail and Transit Division, and of course that division has a new director, Mark Imhoff, who was instrumental in getting Denver's first light rail line built.

Mr. Imhoff is coming to the next Colorado Rail Passenger Association Member Meeting. Yay! We might even have the chance to give him suggestions.

We are meeting on Saturday, November 20 at 10:30 at the Englewood Community Center and Library. Mr. Imhoff's section starts at 10:45. At 11:45 the Board will ask the members what they would like us to be working on.

The Englewood Community Center is on light rail line D. Bus routes 0, 12, and 27 come right next to the center.

Comments on the plans for I-70.

It looks like the plan for I-70 is to build a monorail/maglev on a raised track from Eagle County Airport In Gypsum near Glenwood Springs to the intersection of I-70 and C-470 in Morrison and to widen sections of the highway and some highway intersections. No mention of buses. No mention of possible ways to get people out of the I-70 corridor.

At the public meeting that I attended, fourteen peoplespoke. A majority spoke in favor of improved bus service. I believe only two people supported widening the road in any section.

I am concerned that the raised structure that will be carrying the monorail/maglev is being referred to as an "Advanced Guideway System" when in fact there is nothing inherently advanced it.

Here is the comment that I submitted to the I-70 team:

I am concerned that the rail portion of the I-70 project is being designed for looks rather than usability or even modernity. What makes a train modern is not necessarily the track (rail on steel vs. maglev). A modern train has modern signals. A modern train has a modern dispatch system. A modern train has operators, both on the train, and in the operations offices, who are both well-trained and well-paid. In the last ten years, we have seen new kinds of engines and new kinds of wheels. There are trains that look exactly like the trains of fifty years ago that are wonders of modern engineering. And there are trains that look very modern that in fact don’t work very well and are in fact quite primitive.

As rail systems across the USA are being modernized, Colorado is falling behind. People in Colorado are still being forced to drive as train ridership across the country increases every year. We need a rail system that connects into the nation’s system, and we need a system that serves Colorado’s citizens.

Today is the last day to submit comments.