Thoughts

02
Feb

2012

Can Transit Learn From Wade Boggs?

Professional sports and public transit are two very different things, I admit that.

But contemplate, for a second, the amount of statistical scrutiny we give to the athletic diversions in our lives and how much we attention we pay to the statistics of public transportation.

Now contemplate the robustness of the statistics gathered (and are available) for professional sports – how do they measure up against public transportation statistics?

How is it we have more information about this man than we do about most of our public transit systems?

Some people may find this observation entirely glib, but it’s not. I’m being serious here.

How is it that we can simply and easily access numbers for arcane matters like how many times Wade Boggs was intentionally walked in the 1986 Major League Baseball post season (the answer is once, by the way), but newspapers have to file government appeals in order to ascertain how many suicides occur every year on the Toronto Transit Commission?

Consider that observation in light of this:

The current annual operating budget of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is roughly $13 billion US. The combined annual payroll of all 30 Major League Baseball teams, meanwhile, is a little bit less than $3 billion.

Is this not absurd?

Does it really make sense that the general public has a greater number of and greater access to rigorous statistical tools of measurement for baseball than public transit despite a) the public transit industry being infinitely larger than the professional baseball industry and; b) public transit having an infinitely greater impact on our lives than baseball could ever hope to?

I’m sure there are dozens of good reasons this disparity exists. The first that pops to mind is the fact that baseball statistics have been gathered for decades by a dedicated and interested fan base who see this activity as pleasurable and interesting – it’s a hobby aligned with their interest in a game. Public transit likely doesn’t have the necessary fandom to instigate such a casual interest in statistical arcana.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel that if a swarm of baseball fans can gather all this information and disseminate it – including during times before the internet – without the help of Major League Baseball, then the same thing can (and should) be done with transit statistics.

Isn’t this something that needs to be remedied?

Statistics and Specifications / Thoughts / Uncategorized
6
Comments
26
Jan

2012

Moneyball

I happen to be a closet baseball fan.

I readily admit the game is hopelessly boring, but I find it fascinating nevertheless. It should come as no surprise then, that I’m quite fond of the film Moneyball and the book that inspired it by Michael Lewis. I’ve recently been re-reading that book and have come to the conclusion that the themes of the book and the ideas it conjures in the mind go far beyond simple application to The Great American Pastime. In many ways, it’s a metaphor for a lot we try and accomplish in life.

Consider the following quote:

“What begins as a failure of the imagination ends as a market inefficiency: when you rule out an entire class of people from doing a job simply by their appearance, you are less likely to find the best person for the job.”

Now apply that to what we’re doing here at The Gondola Project. Replace the word “people” with “technology” and you begin to see where I’m going with this.

(Note: It’s been a hectic week – so sorry for not having more posts. Thanks so much to Julia and Nick for pitching in!)

Just For Fun / Thoughts
0
Comments
30
Nov

2011

Glass Dome Escalator – Uenohara, Japan

Incline Escalator: As can be seen, the glass domed tube - when designed properly - can be aesthetically pleasing and a delightful piece of architecture. Image by Panoramio user tsushima.

Last month, Steven discovered an interesting/unconventional use for funicular technology in Horw, Swtizerland. Essentially a small development was built on a hillside, with a funicular acting as an elevator. Instead of connecting floors in a building, it moved between houses on a hillside.

Because of this funicular, it largely increased the hillside’s market value and made the site developable.

At that time, it was thought that this type of development concept was rare but (perhaps) it’s more common than we initially thought — especially in land-constrained and topographically-challenged locales.

In Uenohara, Japan – a city of 30,000 people that’s an hour drive west of Toyko – there exists a variation of this concept. Instead of using a funicular to provide access on a hill, they decided to build a 230m long glass tubed escalator that connects the Shiotsu Train station (at the bottom) to the Komoa Shiotsu hilltop community (at the top). The development, which was started in the early 90′s, is now a vibrant community complete with amenities which include schools, supermarkets and clinics.

Exterior View: Glass Tube Escalator - Uenohara, Japan. Image from Wikipedia.

Interior View: Escalator ride is ~6 minutes. Image from blog.livedoor.jp.

This glass domed escalator  is a fine example of an ingenious and simple solution that not only maximizes the development potential/property value of the previously inaccessible hilltop lands, it drastically increases accessibility for residents who are now directly connected to one of Japan’s main trunk railway lines. This escalator connection is also important for the rail operator as it increases its station’s catchment area which brings in more riders. All in all, a win-win situation for all parties.

Legend: ORANGE - Hilltop Community; RED - Glass Domed Escalator; PURPLE - Train Station.

While the escalator doesn’t completely eliminate the need for vehicles (i.e. there is a winding road that connects to the community), it does encourage and enable residents to be more multi-modal.

This form of escalator/funicular oriented development is worthy of more research and discussion as it could be a potential solution that maximizes the use and efficiency of all lands within an urban setting.

 

Japan / Research Issues / Thoughts
3
Comments
29
Nov

2011

Alpine Coaster (Sommerrodelbahn) – Mieders, Austria

For many people, travelling up and down a mountainside on a gondola provides enough enjoyment and excitement to last them an entire lifetime.

But for those times when a cable car ride isn’t enough, we have the Sommerrodelbahn Alpine Coaster - which is pretty darn fast.

A sommerrodelbahn can reach travel speeds of 40km/h! Image by Flickr User Nassfeld.

Hm…. roller coaster transit anyone? Enjoy the video!

 

On-Ride View


–

Off-Ride View 

Just For Fun / Thoughts
14
Comments
20
Oct

2011

Bumblebees Can’t Fly

Above: A bumblebee not flying. Image by flickr user cuellar.

There exists an almost century-old anecdote about a German aerodynamicist and a bumblebee.

Over dinner, the aerodynamicist remarked to a biologist that – according to his calculations and the accepted theory of the day – a bumblebee was incapable of flight.

This, of course, wasn’t true. Bumblebees could fly (still do, I believe) and it didn’t matter that the aerodynamicist and his calculations said otherwise. Delighted by the absurdity of the situation, the biologist spread the story far and wide.

Is the story true? Who cares. It’s a good story and that’s all that matters.

Whether the story is true or not is irrelevant because as a fable and piece of folklore it resonates with us as human beings (check out The Straight Dope for their take on the tale).

For better or for worse, it’s a story that feeds people’s willful distrust of experts, specialists and trained professionals.

Most of the time, I think, we should listen to the experts, specialists and trained professionals. The reason they’re experts is because they know more about something than the general population does.

But the same mechanism that makes an expert an expert can also blind him to anecdotal reality. Nine times out of ten the aerodynamicist will be right with his calculations. But because he knows nothing about bumblebees and their biology, his calculations were worthless in the above situation because no matter what his equations foretold, we’ve actually seen bumblebees fly.

It’s in those moments where it’s incumbent upon the non-expert to point out the error – and incumbent upon the expert to admit his shortcomings.

According to the accepted theory of the day you probably can’t use gondolas as public transit. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t doing it.

A good rule to live by for non-experts: Defer to the experts until they’ve demonstrated themselves no longer worthy of the name.

A good rule to live by for experts: You’re ability to remain an expert is dependent upon your willingness to admit what you don’t know and defer to those that do.

 

Research Issues / Thoughts
1
Comment
27
Sep

2011

Should It Be?

A strange thing happened during yesterday’s discussion of the spiralling costs of the London Thames Cable Car:

Like any time before when the topic of urban versus resort installations comes up, the de facto response is: Well, duh, of course it’s more expensive to build in cities and for government.

You’ve said it. I’ve said it. We’ve all said it. We’ll probably be saying it tomorrow.

But the question is this: Should it be?

We have no shortage of examples of tourist-oriented systems built in urban areas. Those systems are always more reasonably-priced than their transit-oriented brethren. And yet they both share the common variable of still being located in urban areas.

Why does the addition of a layer or two of bureaucracy justify an orders-of-magnitude extremely excessive cost increase for a product whose only real difference is said layer or two of bureaucracy?

Maybe that’s an incredibly naive question to ask. Maybe. But it’s also a question that needs to be asked.

Economics / Thoughts
11
Comments
09
Sep

2011

In The Name Of Fun

Image by flickr user Thomas Hawk.

I want to build on yesterday’s post about how our decisions as human-beings can be and are constantly impacted by our desire for fun:

  • When we sacrifice expediency’s sake for the scenic route, we do so because it’s fun.
  • When we waste hours of productive time playing Angry Birds, we do so because it’s fun.
  • When we spend much time and money going to a baseball game it’s not because it’s an exciting game (it’s not), we do so because laughing and hanging out with our friends while basking in the midday sun is fun.
  • When we waste two hours of our lives watching a summer blockbuster, we do so because it’s fun.
  • When we drive out into the country to hand-pick fresh strawberries from a farm instead of going to the far more efficient supermarket, we do so because it’s fun.
  • When we play hooky from work we risk financial gains and career advancement. But we do so because it’s fun.
  • When we waste hours at work eating birthday cake, we do so because it’s fun.
  • When we do the sudoku instead of learning about the economic crisis, we do so because it’s fun.
  • When we dance, we do so because it’s fun.

Think about how many illogical, wasteful and irrational things we do in life purely (or at least partly) because they’re fun.

No coaxing, cajoling or convincing involved.

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