This article outlines the critical failures of the still-in-development California High Speed Rail system, namely the catastrophic political compromises that doomed the project from the start and the failures of the California High Speed Rail Authority in this project. This rail project was initially estimated to cost the taxpayers of California $33 billion—an august sum, no doubt, yet one Californians believed was more than justifiable, and as such they approved the project via a 2008 referendum. However, numerous critical failures doomed the project, such as the California High Speed Rail Authority's treatment of their development partner, SNCF (the French national railroad), a fatal game of "political horse-trading" with influential Central Valley politicians, and a failure to get the state government's support when the going got tough. Now, Californians face an eye-watering $113 billion estimated price tag to finish this gargantuan endeavor, and quite literally nobody knows where this money could possibly come from. However, after already sinking billions upon billions of dollars into this flawed project, the state of California has fallen victim to the sunk-cost fallacy, continuing to build the project-that-cannot-be-finished by dumping an additional $1.8 million per day into the railway.

This article talks about how use of micro mobility solutions, such as bikeshare, make transportation in the area more environmentally friendly, and can help the country reach its environmental goal. Some examples of cities that have created successful bike share programs are Aspen, CO, Montevallo, AL, Athens, OH, and Pocahontas, IA. With bike share options, there are different designs, in separate locations and these programs can increase the equality of access as well, especially to lower income areas. The funding is hard to fully gain for these programs, yet increased spread of these programs can reduce the need for unnecessary car trips, and reduce emissions from cars.  

What seems to be a simple choice, car or train, has confounded researchers in the DC metro area. Studies of Washington’s Metrorail and Metrobus programs from COVID times predictably found that ridership in the two flagship transit programs has fallen, but what has stumped these datasets more is the fact that ridership before and after the pandemic has also fallen. More and more DC commuters are choosing to purchase and use cars, even with one of the nations more efficient public transit systems available to them. The effect on low income neighborhoods in the District, has been drastic in reducing even more ridership, generating a negative feedback loop. The city has attempted more marketing in having more people minding the gap versus minding the traffic, but it seems that it will take time before any significant change will be made. 

Vassar College is located about 45 minutes north of New York City, making it a suburb at the doorstep of one of the most bicycle dense cities in the United States. The effect therefore is some New York State transportation funding. There are shuttles all throughout Vassar’s campus, a rail extension up to Poughkeepsie, and a myriad of bike sharing options in the small city. Student Sophia Burns says that the opportunity to live carless in college opened her eyes. For her, driving was monotonous, boring, and purely utilitarian. However, using public transit has opened her eyes to her community and the richness it offers, a factor that should be achieved by any good alternative transportation measures. Communities are more connected when their commuters are connected to public transit, plain and simple. 

In this article, González-Hermoso advocated for a different kind of policy than the tax reduction or direct payments used to alleviate the expensive gas crisis. He proposes that rather than abolish or temporarily remove a gas tax, that states should invest in alternative transit options (especially non-motorized ones) for their citizens to use as a separate option. For the future, we need people to be on bikes or using public transportation, and subsidizing gas vehicles is the wrong direction. He praises the state of Connecticut's move to suspend bus fares during this period, and encourages other states to adopt support for alternative transport.

In this article, the authors highlight the ways that Ukraine's rail system aids refugees in the current conflict. Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) is Ukraine's second largest employer and connects many of the urban centers in the center and connects to cities outside the country in all directions. The rail systems were used to expediate supply lines to frontline troops, and lines into Belarus were sabotaged to slow down the movement of Russian equipment. Western lines that would serve evacuees were made free, and had passenger limits removed. Night trains turned off lights out of fear for air strikes. Nearly 190,000 people a day used the rail lines to evacuate, in a show of Ukrainian infrastructure and resilience through the tragic period. 

In this student news article at George Mason University, a GMU staff writer discusses how Mason’s Green and Gold Line can be improved for environmental sustainability. In research regarding bike and pedestrian infrastructure, it's difficult to balance the interests of non-motorists with one of the nation’s biggest student commuter populations. The most relevant solution to achieving environmental success is switching the GMU shuttles to electric buses once funding becomes available, and extended shuttle lines to the Blue and Silver lines of Washington DC’s commuter rail system Metrorail. As someone matriculating to this university, and planning to use their public transit provided, I will continue with my bike/pedestrian activism in achieving the goals outlined by Yu. 

“Many governments are talking green while acting grey.” Those words echo the sentiments of those frustrated with federal and state government officials as they work towards a more environmentally friendly future. The problem? Public transit and its great initiatives have taken a backburner to lobbyists filling pockets of politicians to fund private vehicle investment, greater road projects, and ultimately attempting to cement personal automobiles as the primary mode of transport. Public transit, and its advocacy body the International Transport Federation (ITF) are working with willing politicians to condense vehicle transportation to combat the environmental detriment of cars, with varying levels of success. As the pandemic continues to find itself fading behind worldwide thought, the losses of jobs or hybrid work orders will come to pass, and public transport must be allowed to grow then.  

Yonah Freemark asserts through this blog post that the area in which transit stops were located determined how much transit declined during the pandemic at these stops. His team studied five rail transit systems in some of the nations largest urban centers and found significant results. Areas of lower-income lost 55% of their riders while areas of highest income lost 70% of riders. Areas of larger Black population lost on average 57% of riders, while areas of the least Black population lost 63% of riders. Areas that are common employment centers, like office districts and downtowns, also lost more riders on average as white collar workers were more likely to be able to work from home. The pandemic affected certain groups disproportionately, and this continues to show in public transit, but several transit systems are working to change their structure to help core riders in areas that retained more people.

Whenever traffic becomes a problem the first response is always to add more lanes. But is that the right response? According to the iron law of congestion yes. That law states that with more capacity, comes more cars. In other words, if there are more lanes, more cars will come to fill the lanes. This idea is also known as the Jevons Paradox. But why do we keep coming back to this?

Like most things, it comes back to money and tradition. Expansion has been the solution for years and cars are easily taxable. State DOT organizations would have their budgets halved if alternative transports were embraced.

Bliss writes a piece detailing the the terrible wayfinding Philadelphia's transport system (SEPTA, the sixth largest transport system in the US by ridership) has, and the ways the city aims to solve it. SEPTA is so inefficient that it has become a joke for this by the city's residents, and over 40% of native Philadelphians responded that they were unfamiliar with one of the lines. SEPTA was formed by a conglomeration of several different modes of transport (underground train, elevated train, interurban train, and streetcar remnants) that all fall under many different names and signage types. The new prosed system aims to simplify each line in every system to letters and colors in order to make the system more readable and navigable. With larger and more clear signs in the stations and a more streamlined map of the system, SEPTA aims to make people feel safe and confident in their ability to get from place to place.

This was more of a news piece than an article but it highlighted Biden's new transportation plans. According to the American Society for Civil Engineers, the US road network is rated a D with 40% of roads in poor or mediocre conditions. To combat this the Biden administration has the "Fix it Right" campaign.

But what is the revolutionary new idea to make it happen? There is none. Instead, they will be using the, do what want, and get this funding method. 

The biggest obstacle is most people want more car lanes, not alternative transports. Convincing states to build bike lanes and repurpose old roads with no hope of car renovations is the answer, but it will take lots of time.

O’Toole claims that America’s rail system is just as good as, if not better than, those found in Europe due to the fact that ours is used for freight and not transportation. He references statistics from Eurostat that note how we have 43% of freight shipments made by rail and 30% on the road as opposed to the EU’s 11% on rail and 46% on the road. This was written to point out how train transportation isn’t the reason that Europe is greener since the roads are still being used, just in a different context. O’Toole ends by noting how, for passengers, trains need much more infrastructure to go slower in comparison to planes that need very little and go faster and how soon driverless cars can simply replicate the comfort of train travel on our already built road system. 

The author of this article claims that the United States can’t build a high-speed rail system because of a lack of federal will. He argues that we don’t have substantial geographic, demographic, or funding problems, yet we still don’t have a national level high-speed system similar to those found in Europe that encounter those problems. Our current federal government prioritizes studies as opposed to action leading to too many studies and not enough action. Any attempts that have been made up to this point have been too vague (unclearly marked routes), too confusing (seemingly randomly chosen routes), too inconsistent (a range of speeds from 90 to 250 m.p.h.), or a mixture of all three. In the end, the author says that it is time to actually commit the United States to funding and planning the illusive, intercity high-speed rail system since there is a decline in automobile travel and rising transit use. At the end of the day, we need to connect our cities one way or another.