Kyle Keahey is a seasoned transit consultant charged with moving the urban rail process along. Austinites for Urban Rail Action - a group I support - is hosting a chat with Mr. Keahey this Thursday. I am sure attendees will ask questions during his remarks and informally afterwards on several topics related …
[MORE]Austin’s policy deliberations often feature counterproductive uses of data. This practice - which I refer to as “data theatre” - aims to establish a veneer of credibility and objectivity for its purveyors by wrapping policy recommendations around charts, calculations, and allusions to best practices. But in reality, it’s just an …
[MORE]Opponents of a reinvigorated data-driven process for urban rail route selection often highlight the planned MetroRapid bus service. As the map below shows, the initial service routes cover Guadalupe, Lamar, and Congress.
“The feds are already helping us meet the needs there” are the key lyrics to this particular siren …
[MORE]Is the Red Line Circulator (a.k.a the “Mueller” route) the only politically feasible initial urban rail sequence? Some proponents of the preliminary urban rail route generated by the Project Connect process imply this is the case.
To evaluate this we have to revisit the failed 2000 rail referendum …
[MORE]The Austin City Council is poised to make a decision on urban rail’s route based on incomplete data. At the heart of this predicament is a 2010 document entitled the “Central Austin Transit Study” (CATS). This document makes a set of fundamental assumptions about transit politics born out of …
[MORE]