I also think it’s cool that this was posted on the White House’s blog.

I’m glad that the administration is paying some attention to transportation, but I’m actually a little skeptical of the whole idea. I don’t know much about the proposed link through Oklahoma, but I know the California idea has been knocking around for awhile now and people aren’t buying, especially since it’s going to link to a bunch of crap towns in the Central Valley, preventing it from being a true high-speed network (notice the image only has stops in SF, Sacramento, LA, and San Diego, and connects them all in a big loop). Florida’s plan has been controversial too, and I’m not surprised given the shady history of real estate speculation linked to transportation improvements that seem to dominate that state’s history. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Within a minute of visiting the site, I was able to find several potential rides to San Jose and other points south (Luckily I work out of Blnktags converted live/work warehouse in San Francisco). You can easily search for a recurring rideshare partner or just a one-off trip.

Zimride’s business model is innovative too. According to Techcrunch, the servce is capped at fifty people from any one business or school. Once fifty people have signed up, Zimride approaches the business or school directly with their paid options which all more people to use the service. Several universities are already onboard, including Stanford and UCLA. The cost is $9500/year which is a lot less than each school or business developing and maintaining their own in-house ridesharing system. I was pleasantly surprised to find University of Wisconsin La Crosse (the college from my hometown) on the shortlist of featured networks.

Next time I need to get somewhere that BART & Caltrain don’t easily reach, I’m going to try Zimride.

Growing up in the South has always made me a little defensive about transportation planning in places not on the Left Coast, but turns out Virginia might have found a way to force those pesky local governments to stop building cul-de-sacs.

How, you might ask? From the Washington Post:

“So now, Virginia will maintain only new subdivision streets that meet its connectivity, road and sidewalk requirements. That’s a big stick, because unlike in Maryland and most other states, the Transportation Department maintains and plows almost all of Virginia’s roads, including streets with as few as three homes. ”

That last part is the real kicker, since I’m not sure how many other states have such all-powerful transportation agencies. But it’s a good start.

Thanks to Brendan’s old professor-turned-blog-mentor, David Levinson, aka The Transportationist, for the heads up.

For some reason I’m subscribed to their newsletter, and a few news items came over the transom.

First, they’ll be opening up a DC office to lobby federal, state, and local agencies to adopt their technology.  The guy who runs it is named Jason Conley, and, apparently, he used to work for the Dept. of Homeland Security. Scary.

Even scarier?  You can even pick up “ghosts” along route.  I quote from the email:

“Ghosts are simulated riders that request transport as you drive along your favorite routes. They are easy to recognize by their names, which always end in “RIP”. You can pick up, drop off and rate ghost riders as you would with real people. The only difference is that the ghosts don’t pay with real money.

Currently, the areas where most ghosts have been spotted include Washington D.C., New Jersey and Miami.”

About what I’d expect from a former DHS guy (just kidding).  In all seriousness, this might just take off.

Armed with a 1353 page environmental impact report that claims biking is good for environment, the city is now gearing up to proceed with much needed improvements. The public comment period ended on Jan 13, 2009 which might mean at some point this year we’ll see the beginnings of 34 miles of bike lanes, improved intersections, signage and much more.

Meanwhile, there has been talk of eliminating car traffic on Market Street, eliminating bike lanes on part of Market Street (what?), and charging all vehicle traffic in the central part of the city. Its going to be interesting to follow all of this.

The first one, a little bit of overkill if you ask me, was designed by an Irish company called Avego.  From the looks of it, people who are willing to share rides have to drive around with their phones on the dashboard, and an online interface allows people who need a lift to find vehicles close-by, even if they don’t have a phone themselves.  Neat idea, but at 30 cents a mile, the business model strikes me as, well, un-American.

The Avego rules clearly state “Radios, if on, play jazz, classical music or “mild” news. Avoid talk radio.” That seems a little strict to me, I don’t know of any taxis that have that rule.

The other services seems to have developed a little more traction in San Francisco.  Even if their website kind of sucks, Carticipate looks like it has the advantage over Avego because of it’s simplicity: instead of having to remember to have your phone on all the time, you post, Craigslist-style, what you’ve got and search for what you need.  Plus, it’s free.

Has anyone out their used either of these apps?  A penny (or 30 cents) for your thoughts.

Given the train-wreck (or bridge collapse, or metaphor of choice) of an infrastructure policy we’ve been blessed with, shouldn’t the President Elect have chosen someone a bit more forward thinking?   What gives?

On a selfish note, we here at Blinktag Inc. might garner a contract or two investigating the cause of the next catastrophic failure.  But as a nation, we deserve better.