Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation

Advocating for integrated public transportation, bicycle, and pedestrian facilities since 1992.

Education

CART Presents Dr. Adrian Parr at My Library U, August 23, 2016

CART’s next regularly scheduled meeting will be held August 10, 6:30 PM, at the Crescent Hill Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, basement meeting room. All meetings are open to the public.

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CART has been advocating for Louisville’s transit development since 1992 and this program continues our long history bringing relevant and timely information to forefront of the pubic consciousness.   Our advocacy led to the TARC T-2 Study for Louisville’s first Light Rail Line in the 1990’s.  That study was shelved to fund the Bridges Project.

Even though the Bridges Project will consume most of Louisville’s transportation dollars for the next 40 years, there is much that can be done to improve transit, mobility, and air quality for our community.   But to do that will require persistent and coordinated work with other citizen groups and government agencies.

As a result of CART’s research, transportation emissions and energy demand affecting climate change have become our focus. Whether Louisville ever adopts and builds efficient mass transit systems, the community is now entering a period of dangerous climate change. Both developed and developing nations have loaded the atmosphere with greenhouse gases and continue to release high levels of fossil fuel emissions.
CART’s work to advocate for low emissions, energy efficient mass transit is now more relevant and more necessary than ever. However, if transportation policy does not change in our community, there is still a critical need to advance the education on the looming planetary emergency of climate change.
JOIN CART and work with others who clearly understand the need to reduce fossil fuel emissionsand adopt sustainable energy use cultural and infrastructure changes.

(click image above to download flyer)

CART 2016 Annual Meeting Announcement

CART’s  2016 Annual Meeting will be held May 25th, 6:30 PM, at the Clifton Center.

CART has been advocating for Louisville’s transit development since 1992.  Our advocacy led to the TARC T-2 Study for Louisville’s first Light Rail Line in the 1990’s.  That study was shelved to fund the Bridges Project.

Even though the Bridges Project will consume most of Louisville’s transportation dollars for the next 40 years, there is much that can be done to improve transit, mobility, and air quality for our community.   To do that will require persistent and coordinated work with other citizen groups and government agencies.  While there are grant opportunities available, CART is in dire need of an infusion of new members and new energy.  The existing Board of Directors has dwindled to four.   Membership has also decreased.

We invite all those with an interest in a healthy, equitable community to consider bringing your energy and your ideas to this organization.  At our Annual meeting we will be reviewing the Move Louisville report and discussing opportunities to bring about the changes we need for a sustainable community.

CART’s mission is more important than ever, but without an influx of new board members and an increase in general membership, CART will close it’s doors. We will be electing new board members at this meeting.  Please consider becoming more involved.

Membership in CART is $15 per year, and can be purchase at the door at our May meeting or via Pay Pal through our Website – CARTKY.org.

We look forward to seeing you and working with you.

Sincerely,

David Coyte, President

2014 Louisville Solar Tour

Solar Site, KuteCART is a proud promotional partner for the Louisville Solar Tour once again in 2014!  This year’s tour features 34 sites with solar installers at two locations to deep dive into the technology options. To download the 2014 Solar Tour Guidebook please click here.

While solar energy is not directly related to transportation solutions, any future electric rail or trolley system will be agnostic to the source of the electricity and the more renewable energy on line will improve the air quality and greenhouse gas emissions performance of the system.

When: Saturday October 11, 2014 from 10 AM to 3 PM

Where: Throughout Louisville. Mostly inside the Watterson on the east side but there are many excellent sites to visit in other locations including Bernheim. Three opportunities for your Tour Experience:

  • Guided Bus Tour
  • Guided Bicycle Tour
  • Self Guided Tour

Bike and Bus tours begin at 12:00 noon at the APCD parking lot at the corner of Breckenridge St. and Barret Ave.

To register for the Bus Tour click here.

The bike tour is free to all participants and will also be leaving from the APCD parking lot (at the corner of Barret and Breckinridge) at 12 PM.

For more information go to http://www.kentuckyipl.org/2014-louisville-solar-tour/

 

Using Distance Profiles to Identify Peer Cities

Once you leave the Eastern Seaboard public transportation in the United States is a local affair. The type of service you find in a city depends on the interplay among several factors including total population, population density, geography of roads and terrain, demographic patterns, development patterns, local and state politics and values, and local agency funding structure.  In this post, I use a tool published by the US Census Bureau called Distance Profiles to analyze potential peer cities.  The Distance profile provides a cross section of Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) populations that allows us to visually identify cities with very similar population distributions, geographic size, and density distributions. Using this tool we can make an informed comparison of Louisville’s transit system and those of true peer cities.

Fig. 1a Portland vs Louisville Population Profile (click for larger image)

Fig. 1a Portland vs Louisville Population Profile. PEER CITY? – NOT! (click for larger image)

Portland DEN

Fig. 1b Portland vs Louisville Population Weighted Density (click for larger image)

Once we identify our peer cities we have to be careful. All of our peer cities’ transit systems are somewhat different and it doesn’t necessarily mean one city’s public transit system is more or less effective.  Measurements of “effectiveness” must be based on the public transit values that each local community chooses for itself. Cities always make tradeoffs between coverage and ridership within a fixed budget. A city that values coverage will design a network that tries to deliver public transit opportunities to every corner of the service area.  A city that values ridership will concentrate their resources on the high volume corridors to try and deliver maximize ridership. The former provides lots of access to service but with very low frequency.  The latter leaves many areas unserved but provides much more frequent service along selected corridors.  All cities try to balance these goals based on additional values including social service concerns, the desire to  influence development patterns, mitigation of pollution, and  congestion reduction, and fall somewhere along a continuum from maximum coverage to maximum ridership.    We can also look at a peer city’s budget and facilities which will tell us more about the community’s public transit values and perhaps operational efficiency.

We will address these ideas in a later post, but before we can do that, we need to identify our peer cities based on their Distance Profiles.  Then we can evaluate their transit systems and infer the community values illustrated by their transit system choices and decide what if any elements of that system we can emulate.

Population Profiles

The Distance Profile includes two metrics: population by distance from city hall and population weighted density by distance from city hall. The results for each MSA are plotted on line graphs where each point represents a circular band of land one mile wide with each successive band radiating outward from the city center.  The geometry of this metric results in each successive band having a greater area. The resulting graph has a peak at the band with the greatest population or density then falls off as the bands contain more and more rural areas. Take a look at Louisville’s graphs. Continue reading

Section of Legacy Rails Removed at 38th and Market

In an unfortunate example of the right hand not talking to the left, in the dark of night on June 9th, two six foot sections of double rail streetcar

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Cut Streetcar Rail at 38th and Market

tracks were destroyed to make room for faux cobblestone crosswalks. You would think that city construction crews would have been briefed about what NOT to do when archaeological artifacts are encountered. It is not clear what the rules are about dealing with the tracks but indications are that city officials do care about these assets.

In an email exchange between John Owen, candidate for the 5th district Metro Council seat and public works official Dirk Gowan, Gowan said:

“I apologize for the confusion on the tracks, it was my responsibility to assure the tracks were destroyed, and assure you that the extension of the project will not destroy other sections of the track.”

A typo? I think he meant …”to assure the tracks were NOT destroyed.” Anyway, we hope so.

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A Legacy streetcar called “Petunia” on a restored section of tracks in Dallas.

It is not beyond imagining that someday Metro Louisville will want to add streetcars to the urban landscape for all the right reasons. Dallas and other cities have been able to save millions in capital expense by reusing legacy tracks.

Therefore preservation of these valuable assets should be the rule. And the rule should be codified through the Landmarks Commission. In any case a professional development workshop for public works construction crews on proper treatment of archaeological assets is certainly in order.

Suburban Walmart Design on West Broadway

Big Box Retailer Wants Suburban Big Box in Traditional Workplace Form District

After months of speculation, intrigue, rumors and political controversy, Walmart is now preparing to build a super store in West

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Washington DC Area Urban Walmart (Photo: Courtesy of Ed McMahon, Senior Fellow, Urban Land Institute. )

Louisville. The Walmart property located at the corner of 18th (Dixie Highway) and Broadway falls within a Traditional Workplace Form District, a designation defined by Louisville’s Land Development Code.  According to the LOJIC Online Map, this Traditional Workplace is adjacent to the Broadway Traditional Marketplace Corridor and in close proximity to the Town Center Form District centered at 28th and Broadway and Traditional Neighborhood Form Districts both north and south of the Traditional Workplace.  The Traditional Workplace Form District is described as follows: 

“The Traditional Workplace Form District applies to older established industrial and employment areas that contain primarily small-to-medium scale industrial and employment uses. These uses are often historically integrated with or adjacent to residential neighborhoods, especially traditional neighborhoods. District standards are designed to encourage adaptive reuse and investment in these areas while ensuring compatibility with adjacent uses and form districts, to ensure adequate access and transit service, and to retain distinctive land uses and patterns such as connected street grids.” (LDC 5.2.5)
Continue reading

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