16
Nov

2009

Different Is Not Enough

To be successful, an Insurgent Technology, Idea or Technique must be markedly different from those accepted Incumbent Technologies, Ideas or Techniques of the given day.

But different is not enough.

Not only must the Insurgent be different, she must also be demonstrably superior to the Incumbent and have strength and support on loan from a dedicated community.

With those in hand the successful Insurgent then passes through four phases:

First, the Insurgent is ignored by the Incumbent. The Incumbent does not recognize the Insurgent’s existence and if he does, he certainly doesn’t see the Incumbent as a threat.  This affords the Insurgent time to gather support, knowledge, research and to learn from the Incumbent’s mistakes.

Second, the Incumbent is forced to acknowledge the Insurgent’s existence.  He doesn’t want to but must, due to the public’s increased attention and support offered her.  At this stage the Insurgent musters the opportunity to gain recognition by exhibiting her superior abilities.

Third, the Incumbent attacks the Insurgent. It is this attack that gives legitimacy to the Insurgent and demonstrates the Incumbent’s worry.  It is a tactic that assures the Insurgent’s victory. As the Incumbent will always attack first, the Insurgent plans for her defense rather than offense.

This defensive posture is a sound strategy, but only when predicated on provoking, ignoring and deflecting an attack. Once an ill-prepared Incumbent attacks, the Insurgent typically wins. The victory may be long in the future, but it is a victory nonetheless.

Fourth, the Incumbent is forced to mimic the Insurgent’s technology, idea or technique. This is pure folly on the part of the Incumbent but he cannot resist. The Incumbent’s tactic guarantees his own defeat because he is blind to the events that actually occurred:

The Insurgent didn’t succeed through mimicking the Incumbent. The Insurgent assured her victory by being intentionally different from the Incumbent.

Right now Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT) is an Insurgent Technology that lives somewhere between the first and second phase.

The third and fourth will be interesting to watch.



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Thoughts
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17
Nov

2009

Basic Lesson 4: Support

In Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT) support describes the guideway along which a vehicle travels. Support can either be provided from above the vehicle (in the case of Gondolas and Aerial Trams) or below the vehicle (in the case of Funiculars and Cable Cars).

Support can either by provided by rails or cables.  In all but the rarest of examples, support from above is provided by cable and support from below is provided by rails.

Support From Above

Support From Above By Cable

Support From Below

Support From Below By Rail

There is one rare class of Cable Car that is also supported by rails. This rare class uses rails that are actually embedded within the asphalt of roads. Though historically widespread, street-supported Cable Cars are limited only to San Francisco’s historic Cable Cars. Modern Cable Cars tend to be supported on elevated guideways.

Historical Street-Supported Cable Car

Historical Street-Supported Cable Car

Contemporary Cable Cars Typically Use Elevated Guideways

Contemporary Cable Cars Typically Use Elevated Guideways

Proceed to Basic Lesson 5 to learn about Propulsion

Return to Basic Lesson 3 to learn about Aerial Trams & Funiculars

Creative Commons images by bristol’s family, digika, Saopaulo1, and Perugia-City.com



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Basic Lessons
0
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18
Nov

2009

Shooting a Chickadee with a Cannonball

The Swiss have an expression to describe solving a problem with far more than is necessary.

To do so, they say, is to “shoot a chickadee with a cannonball,” and is a perfect description of what light rail is to the transit planning problem.

As an example: Toronto’s current fleet of streetcars were designed to reach a top speed of around 100 km/hr, and yet they never reach that speed. Not even close. In fact, if one looks at the Toronto Transit Commission‘s own service summaries, one sees that the average speeds of most streetcar lines in Toronto rarely eclipse 15 km/hr. Most hover around 12 or 13.

(You can find several TTC service summaries on the fine Transit Toronto website.)

Anyone whose ever ridden a Toronto streetcar can tell you the reason. Streetcars in Toronto stop constantly to linger at red lights, pick-up and drop-off passengers and avoid any of the pitfalls of modern urban traffic.

Yes, terminal time and driver’s bathroom breaks also factor into the equation, but the point is still the same:

Streetcars in Toronto will never reach speeds of 100 km/hr because the nature of urban environments preclude it. In fact, even subway trains, which stop far less frequently and operate in exclusive rights-of way, rarely surpass average speeds of 35 km/hr.

It’s like that guy who buys a Ferrari and drives it into the city every day only to get stuck in traffic jam-after-traffic jam. It’s all fine and well that you have a Ferrari that can go zero to 200 in 3.2 nano-seconds (or whatever), but if you use it in the city, you will never get to do so.

So what’s the point? There isn’t one . . . unless you like shooting chickadees with cannonballs.

That Guy

That Guy

Creative Commons image by vm2827



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Light Rail & Streetcars / Thoughts / Toronto
0
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19
Nov

2009

PPHPD

(For those of you not statistically or mathematically inclined, you’ll probably want to skip this post)

PPHPD is an acronym for persons per hour per direction and is a great tool for calculating offered capacity of a transit line. Unfortunately, it’s not a term that has any sort of mainstream usage or understanding and that means it’s easy for us to be confused when we read reports or news articles about our cities’ transit systems.

When we read a news clipping where someone lauds a transit line carrying “40,000 people” (as is common in my hometown of Toronto), we tend to nod our heads and say “hmm . . . yes . . . that’s a lot of people. We should be proud of ourselves.”

But what does 40,000 people really mean . . ? We’ll get back to that in a minute.

PPHPD boils things down to their lowest common denominator. PPHPD defines this:  How many total passenger spaces per hour pass a given point on a transit line in a the single peak direction?

In other words, if over the course of one rush hour, a westbound streetcar is scheduled to arrive at a given stop every fifteen minutes; and those streetcars can each carry 100 passengers each, then we know that the PPHPD of that line at that time is 400 (60 minutes / 15 minutes x 100 passengers = 400 PPHPD).

So let’s apply that knowledge, going back to our 40,000 people example:

The 501 Queen Streetcar in Toronto has the distinction of being the world’s longest Streetcar line, it’s also one of North America’s busiest. That should tell you something. At around 30 km long and running 24 hours per day, it carries 40,000 people (on average) per weekday.

Impressive? I guess, unless you look at it from the perspective of PPHPD. If you look at the 501 from the perspective of PPHPD, you find that on any given day, the501 Queen Streetcar only offers around 2,000 PPHPD at peak rush hour.  See the difference there? It’s classic bait-and-switch.

40,000 people sounds impressive so that’s the statistic planners and journalists trot out. 2,000 on the other hand, doesn’t just sound common, it sounds inadequate.  What politician wouldn’t want to say 40,000 instead of 2,000?

My point in bringing this up is this:  Light Rail/Streetcar technology is very expensive to build. It ranges, generally, between $30 – 75 million USD per kilometer.  Some instances such as Seattle, have had costs explode over $100 million USD per kilometer. Meanwhile, there is no single Light Rail line in all of North America that provides an offered capacity greater than ~ 5,000 PPHPD.

(For the wonks out there: Yes, I know Boston’s Green Line provides offered capacity of over 9,000 but that’s only in the trunk section of three converging lines.)

Cable, on the other hand, can be built for between $15 – 45 million USD per kilometer and can provide capacity up to 6,000 PPHPD.

How much sense does that make?



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Analysis / Light Rail & Streetcars / Research Issues / Thoughts / Toronto / Urban Planning & Design
8
Comments
20
Nov

2009

Basic Lesson 5: Propulsion

Unlike traditional vehicles, CPT vehicles do not have an onboard engine or motor. Propulsion is provided by an off-board engine that moves a cable.  Vehicles are equipped with a grip used to attach and detach the vehicle to the cable.

The vehicle is therefore propelled by the cable which itself is propelled by engines and bullwheels in a wheelhouse. Remember those old clotheslines with wheels? It sort of works like that.

Like That

Like That

San Francisco Wheelhouse

San Francisco Wheelhouse

Proceed to Novice Lessons 1: Corners

Return to Basic Lessons 4: Propulsion

Creative Commons image by threefingeredlord. San Francisco Wheelhouse image used with permission by sjgardiner.



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Basic Lessons
4
Comments
21
Nov

2009

What’s In A Name?

For the longest time, there’s been no consensus on what to call cable transit technology. With the increased usage of Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT), however, that seems to be changing.

It’s important to note the difficulty of researching any topic that has so many names given to it. That’s why a single, universal term is what’s necessary, hence Cable-Propelled Transit, CPT or simply cable.

I thought it would be fun, however, to take a quick look back at the avalanche of names that have been used (and continue to be used) to describe CPT over last few decades. The list is in no way comprehensive (it couldn’t be) and the terms range from the common to the ludicrous:

Aerial Tram, Aerial Tramway, Aerial Cableway, Aerotram, Airtram, Automated People Mover, Cable Car, Cableway, Gondola, Horizontal Elevator, Passenger Ropeway, People Mover, Reversible, Ropeway, Urban People Mover

My personal favourite is “Horizontal Elevator” which benefits from the distinction of being totally logical and ridiculously hilarious at the same time.

I don’t know about you, but I only know of one situation where horizontal elevation occurs, and it has nothing to do with transit . . . except maybe in this situation:



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Analysis / Research Issues / Thoughts
0
Comments
22
Nov

2009

On Energy, Briefly

Lacking an onboard motor or engine means vehicles are incredibly light compared to traditional transit technologies which results in increased energy savings.

This energy savings is compounded further, in the case of inclined cable systems, because the weight of vehicles descending counter-balance the ascending vehicles. Systems such as this only require enough energy to move the difference between the weight of the ascending and descending passengers because gravity itself provides most of the propulsion.

Several historical systems, in fact, required so little energy, they were powered by water or steam.  The Duquense Incline in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for example, ran from 1877 till the early 30’s on steam power.

Steam-Powered For Over 50 Years

Steam-Powered For Over 50 Years

Creative Commons image by daveynin



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Analysis
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