Yeah, it’s finally here… There are Idol hopefuls currently standing outside of the BJCC awaiting their chance to sing their way onto the popular Fox…
Musings of a Bronxite Living in the South
Category: transit
Darrell Howard, the principal transportation planner for the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, was the keynote speaker at this morning’s ONB Monthly Breakfast. His presentation on the In-Town Transit Partnership Project was timely. A tractor trailer overturned this morning shutting down I-459, the main connector to the south between all of our major traffic arteries (I-20, I-59, U.S. 280 and U.S. 31). Despite the fact that a recent report says that we here in Birmingham have the 3rd highest amount of time spent commuting per capita in the nation and the fact that we average a 6-hour a day rush hour period, many of us got up and went to work this morning, some of us unable to avoid the gridlock. Many of us also never even had the thought of hopping on a bike or riding a bus enter our mind. It took our guest speaker more than an hour to do a trip that should take less than 20 minutes. So what are we to do? Or what are we willing to do to make it better?
The city of Birmingham is served by the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority, known by many citizens by its much shorter name, MAX (Metro Area Express). MAX operates the largest bus system in the state of Alabama and recently updated its website to better serve its customers The new site appears to be quite user friendly. There are hundreds of metro area residents that would take the time here to talk about how bad the transit system is and of the ways that we need to improve it. I believe a better issue to point out to the community is a service offered by MAX that is not mentioned at all on its new site and should be.
For those not familiar with the area, Birmingham’s had ozone problems in the past. Click here to view the latest ozone alert level courtesy of our county department of health. Whenever the county’s ozone level reaches a point that is deemed unhealthy, several things are done throughout the region. Notices are placed on electronic signs located on our major interstates. Our local newspaper places a small box at the upper right hand corner of the front page of the paper informing residents of the air quality levels for that day. Local news broadcasts’ weather segments include the current air quality level. A look at the front of some of our buses would provide another source of notification; a red flag with a white hole in the middle. A closer look would show that because of the ozone alert, the fare on the bus for the day is 25 cents! That’s right, one quarter! The question is, at that point is it too late to catch all of the people that would consider riding the bus, as they’re walking to their cars getting ready to drive to work? Wouldn’t it make more sense to place this information on the website to encourage riding the bus?
D-Day for athletics at BSC Sometime this afternoon, the city will know the decision of the Birmingham Southern College Board of Trustees with regards to…
The Ramble: Can you really build your way out of a traffic problem?
Published by Andre on August 18, 2006An article in yesterday’s Birmingham News spoke of an engineering plan that will call for a four-lane elevated toll road over U.S. 280. The plan was approved by the Progress 280 group with the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce yesterday, with public hearings to take place at the end of the month. Here’s the links to yesterday’s and today’s stories:
A conversation with a long time resident this morning has me wondering why people would be more willing to pay to drive on a road than pay to have the ability to get additional work done during their commute. I was reminded of the benefits of a transit commute by a recent editorial written by John Saxon to the Birmingham News about his experiences in Budapest. Here’s a cached link to his letter courtesy of Google. Here’s a cached link to a response that the newspaper published. It goes back to the idea of civic pride, but there’s something to be said about always selling yourselves short. Nothing will ever result. This is also where I remind people that we have not always depended on cars in this city; it once boasted the nation’s second largest streetcar system. Read on…