Informed but opinionated commentary and analysis on urban transportation topics from the Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. Names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

Our Mission: Monkeywrench the Anti-Transit Forces

 
NOT EVERYTHING OF INTEREST TO TRANSITGEEKS CAN BE FOUND ON-LINE

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

"Truth passes through three phases: 1) It is ridiculed. 2) It is violently opposed. 3) It is accepted as self-evident." Albert Schopenhouer. In the United States, rail is currently passing through Phase Two.


From the Cabalmaster:

We'd like to take this opportunity to remind intrepid websurfers expecially those who also happen to be transit geeks -- that not everything of interest can be found online.

Two interesting articles appeared in the March 2003 issue of the British magazine, Tramways & Urban Transit (we are, after all, a WORLDWIDE cabal . . .) .

"Overhead line: We still haven't found the perfect product" by David Rummey explains "overhead contact system" (OCS) design basics, and explains why I-beams (which draw criticism for their appearance) are preferable for support columns. For a given strength, against tension or "pull" from the overhead wires, an I-beam will be stronger than a round pole. That means that I-beam columns can be smaller and lighter -- and lower in cost -- than round poles.

"Strasbourg: Interurban tram stragety strenghens city system," by C. J. Wansbeek. We'd wind up reproducing half the article if we excerpted everything of interest. The following should suffice:

"The tram has brought a 75% increase in [Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois] ridership in its first six years."

Tramways & Urban Transit is published jointly by the Light Rail Transit Association (www.lrta.org) and Ian Allan Publishing Ltd (www.ianallan.com/publishing).

A subscription to Tramways & Urban Transit would be very educational for those who think they do, but actually know very little, about light rail transit such as Wendell Cox, Vic Vreeland, and Randal O'Toole.

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/27/2003 04:57:00 PM

 
VIC VREELAND’S A SOREHEAD, HA! HA!

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

"Truth passes through three phases: 1) It is ridiculed. 2) It is violently opposed. 3) It is accepted as self-evident." Albert Schopenhouer. In the United States, rail is currently passing through Phase Two.


From the Cabalmaster:

We here at the Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal have it on good authority that the inimitable Vic Vreeland, webmaster of the flashy but forgettable “Railroading America” website, see www.railroadingamerica.com is a sorehead. An FOC tells us that whenever anyone puts unfavorable commentary on the “Railroading America” guestbook, it soon disappears . . . as if by magic.

Hmmm.

Was it something we said, Vic? (We’d heard he’s a hothead; sounds like he’s a sorehead, too.)

If we could stop snickering long enough . . . we’d admit that we LIKE “Railroading America” – just as it is!

(. . . we can just hear the mumbling out there in cyberland . . .”those characters have really gone off the deep end this time!”)

If we could stop snickering long enough . . . we’d explain why we LIKE “Railroading America” – just as it is!

Because . . . if The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal set out to create a wicked parody of an anti-rail website . . . that no thinking person would take seriously after catching on . . . we’d have a tough time matching what Vic Vreeland has already accomplished with “Railroading America!”

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/27/2003 04:55:00 PM

 
MONORAIL SAFETY IN JAPAN: MONO-MANIACS GET IT WRONG!

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

"Truth passes through three phases: 1) It is ridiculed. 2) It is violently opposed. 3) It is accepted as self-evident." Albert Schopenhouer. In the United States, rail is currently passing through Phase Two.


From the Cabalmaster:

We Opinionated Ones would like to add our two cents worth to a debate that flares up every now and then regarding transit safety. Certain monorail enthusiasts have claimed that no monorail passenger fatalities have ever occurred in Japan. This (in common with a lot of other claims by monorail-philes) has inspired a great deal of skepticism.

Your Favorite Transit Pundits have concluded that, absent any documentation to the contrary, the monorail enthusiasts have it right – this time, at least.

Although transport accidents do occur in Japan, together with fatalities, the safety record achieved by the various operators is exceptional. In other words, they log an extremely high number of passenger-miles between accidents.

We estimate that the six "full-scale" Japanese monorails have carried roughly 9 billion passenger-miles over the past four decades – with 75 percent of this carried by one line, the Tokyo Monorail. Daily passenger-mile figures for these six operators, for fiscal year 2000, are as follows:

Chiba, 115,000.
Kitakyushu, 99,000.
Osaka, 325,000.
Shonan, 60,000.
Tokyo, 1,017,000.
Tama, 278,000.

Total, 1,894,000.

Nine billion passenger-miles since 1964 is such a teeny, tiny number -- in the Japanese context -- that it almost defies description.

Tokyo's 12 subway lines carry about 26 million pass-mi per day. The figure for all rail lines within the Kanto metro area (i.e. within a 31-mile radius of Tokyo station) is about 100 million pass-mi per day. Add 60 million per day for the Keihanshin metro area (31-mile radius of Osaka station) and 30 million per day for the Chukyo metro area (25-mile radius of Nagoya station) to get about 200 million rail pass-mi per day in Japan's three largest metro areas. Shinkansen services carry about 120 million pass-mi per day.

We think that monorail enthusiasts would be well advised to avoid overselling the (apparent) Japanese monorail safety record, because they leave themselves wide open for retaliatory “sound bites” like the following:

“Yeah, but conventional rail in major Japanese metro areas carries more traffic every six weeks than monorails ever have!”

Or, since the aggregate passenger-mile total for all rail services nationwide works out to about 660 million per day:

“Yeah, but conventional rail in Japan carries more traffic every two weeks than monorails ever have!”

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/16/2003 07:59:00 PM

 
RANDAL O'TOOLE IS DENSE, TOO

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

"Truth passes through three phases: 1) It is ridiculed. 2) It is violently opposed. 3) It is accepted as self-evident." Albert Schopenhouer. In the United States, rail is currently passing through Phase Two.


From the Cabalmaster:

We here at the Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal have advised you previously that Wendell Cox is not mediocre, but sometimes, he’s dense.

Randal O’Toole is sometimes a little dense, too.

Actually, more than just “a little.”

The Sierra Club began its “Challenge to Sprawl” campaign a couple years back www.sierraclub.org/sprawl, but the kickoff was marred by a careless oversight. The page contained an “environmental impacts calculator” that allegedly defined “efficient urban density” as 500 households per acre.

Now “500 households per acre” does not literally mean 500 households on a patch of land measuring 209 x 209 feet.

It also refers to 250 households on a 148 x 148 foot lot.

[C’mon, Randal . . . C’MON . . . we’re just waiting for you to challenge us on the fact that a square, half-acre lot measures 148 x 148 feet, rounded to the nearest foot.]

Or 125 households on a 104 x 104 foot lot.

Or 50 households on a 66 x 66 foot lot. We’d probably change the lot configuration for more efficient building design, but this could be accommodated in a 13-story tower, four units per floor, 1,100 square feet per unit. 1,200 square feet per unit would require a slightly larger lot (69 x 69 feet).

Granted, such developments are scarce in the U.S. but not in Europe, where multi-story housing developments may be seen alongside large tracts of farmland and other open space – even in small towns.

Granted in addition that not all Americans would want to live in such developments. However, it’s a safe bet that most Americans have no idea of what such developments look like . . . compact urban “enclaves” in the midst of farms, fields and woods . . . nor the ambiance that such development provides. We have it on good authority that some European parents speak highly of such towns that provide a “close to the farm / close to nature” environment in which to raise their children.

But, rather than clarify the meaning of a yardstick such as “500 households per acre,“ Randal and his minions raised a loud – and totally absurd – counter-argument. The following, dated September 11, 2001, was written by Brian Camell and posted on the “Overpopulation.com” website; see here www.overpopulation.com/articles/2001/000088.html

“Initially, when the page went live, the Sierra Club defined efficient urban density as 500 households per acre. Given the average number of people per household in the United Stats [sic], that works out to more than 750,000 people per square mile. Folks ridiculed people for suggesting that the entire world population could fit in Texas, but at the density level the Sierra Club was advocating, all 6 billion people in the world today would be able to fit in an area just 2 percent as large as Texas. The state could hold upwards of 300 billion people at that level of density.”

“Responding to criticism, the Sierra Club quickly took the page down and retooled it, defining efficient urban density as only 100 households per acre. But that's still a population density of 153,600 people per square mile, or a density high enough to put every single man, woman and child in Texas almost 7 times. Forget Texas, the entire world population could fit in Virginia!

“It is almost beyond belief to see a mainstream environmental organization actually advocating population densities that exceed those proposed by the Texas thought experiment. At least the critics of overpopulation claims never actually advocated such an absurdity.”

(Cited source: “Sierra Club exposes 'smart growth' madness,” Randal O'Toole, The Heartland Institute, September 1, 2001.)

(Similar “thinking” along these lines: “The Sierra Club's 'huddled masses' vision,” by Wendell Cox, see here www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=928)

We tend to support their goals, but we have no sympathy for the Sierra Club. It failed to articulate its point clearly, posted a poorly-designed gimmick – the “calculator” – then “wimped out” in response to the guffaws – or braying – from certain quarters.

We Opinionated Ones also think – to paraphrase statistician Daryl Huff (How to Lie with Statistics, WW Norton & Company, 1954,) – that Randal and Wendell tend to use numbers as an inebriate uses a lamppost – more for support than for illumination. An excellent example is provided by none other than . . . Wendell!

We smart-aleck TransitCabalists sometimes don’t know when to quit (but that’s why you like our blog . . . c’mon . . . ‘fess up!). . . but, at times, neither does Wendell. Take a look at the following “Demographia” page and you’ll see what we’re getting at www.demographia.com/db-sierradensctxt.htm. Wendell added (in yellow) several outputs from the Sierra Club calculator.

Note that the units are “population per square mile” and “population per square kilometer.”

Now recall that the Sierra Club calculator used “households per acre.”

Are these units equivalent?

The answer to that question is unequivocal: NO.

The reason: Because they are used to measure two different things, and the issue is more than just one of scale (i.e. that a square mile is larger than an acre).

“Population per square mile” (or square km) means literally that: how many people live on ALL land within a given perimeter. That’s ALL land, used for ALL purposes, not just housing. There are cases where adjusting for open space makes sense (the “textbook” example is the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles, which divide the San Fernando Valley from “the rest of the city”), but this is not the usual practice. And so, land used for streets, freeways, parking lots and so forth . . . together with businesses, industries, schools, parks, playgrounds, churches and so forth . . . generally gets included in “population per square mile” calculations.

“Households per acre” means something quite different: how many dwelling units are built on each acre (or subunit thereof) of RESIDENTIAL land. That’s RESIDENTIAL land, in other words, residential LOTS.

(We wonder if Randal or Wendell have any idea of the percentage of land within the boundaries of any U.S. city that made up of residential lots.)

And so, once again, the one and only . . . well, Mr. Fudge . . . is comparing apples and oranges. But this time, he may have gone a bit too far. We’ve received the following e-mail message here in the Cabalbunker:

“If [Wendell] Cox were a licensed architect or urban planner [he’s not] in my state, he’d get hauled before the board and disciplined for signing his name to that crap.”

Um, yeah.

As Mark Twain observed in Life on the Mississippi

“In the space of one hundred and seventy six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over a mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see . . . that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen” (full quote is here http://www.math.smith.edu/Local/cicchap1/node12.html ).

While we’re on the subject of “that” demographia page:

Kowloon Walled City was an enclave within Hong Kong that remained under Chinese sovereignty after the rest of Kowloon was ceded to Great Britain. We’ll skip the other details in order to better illustrate another example of Wendell’s sophistry. Wendell states that the population density was nearly 5 million – yes, 5,000,000 people – per square mile.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

Uh, yeah, we’d say so.

First, although crowded to the extreme, Kowloon Walled City wasn’t very big – a bit less than 0.01 square mile. Yep, that’s 1/100 of a square mile. About the same area as a square, 530 feet on each side, or a circle, 600 feet in diameter. Prior to evacuation and demolition, an estimated 50,000 people lived in about 300 structures.

“5,000,000 people per square mile” . . . derived from a population of 50,000 people?

If that makes sense to you, then you might want to apply for a job at Wendell’s new amusement park . . . we hear it’s gonna be called WEASEL WORLD.

As for Randal . . . we hear he’s got something planned for Portland . . . sort of an “out in the woods experience.”

(Of course, one of the reasons that Portland’s land-use policies attract broad public support is that people need not go to a theme park for a real “out in the woods” experience.)

And when those theme parks do get built, we have no doubt that the following Mark Twain quote will adorn the entrances:

“There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.”



posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/15/2003 11:40:00 AM

 
Wendell Cox Blows a Fuse

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

"Truth passes through three phases: 1) It is ridiculed. 2) It is violently opposed. 3) It is accepted as self-evident." Albert Schopenhouer. In the United States, rail is currently passing through Phase Two.


From the Cabalmaster:

As just about everyone in cyberland knows by now, a large-scale power outage struck the northeastern U.S. and southern Ontario, Canada, starting on the afternoon of August 14, 2003. The cause has been attributed to overloading of the interconnected networks of transmission lines – “the grid” – serving the region. Deregulation of electric power generation during the early 1990s has imposed loads much greater than grid components, some of them a century old, were designed to carry.

The blackout also led to the following pronouncement by our favorite target for ridicule and satire, self-styled Sage of St. Louis, the one, the only, the . . . well, Mr. Fudge.

“. . . The blackout demonstrated the vulnerability of downtown areas that rely on electric urban rail. But it goes further. Toronto's extensive GO Transit commuter rail system, though dieselized, had to suspend service because of computer failures.”

“. . . And then there is land use. People who live in suburban one and two story houses ("ticky-tack" or not) do not have to depend on elevators, which of course don't operate during blackouts. Nor are they forced to abandon their lofty living quarters out of fear that there would be no way to warn or rescue them in the event of fire.

“. . . The land use lesson is simply this. Higher density urban areas are more vulnerable to all manner of malady. This is most recently illustrated by the SARS epidemic, which got its start in the high-income world's most dense urban area, Hong Kong, took the highest toll in densely populated Beijing and reached its North American peak in densely populated Toronto.

“The blackout is just one more reason to reject the current fashion in planning dogma that would force us out of cars and force us, on the flimsiest of fabrications, to live closer together.”

The full article, posted on the “PLANetizen” website, is here www.planetizen.com/oped/item.php?id=103.

We’ll give Wendell credit for one thing – he did not, as various “Coxwatch” sites reported, call for the abolition of electric transport owing to Blackout 2003. However, his PLANetizen piece inspired the following ditty by an FOC, which we couldn’t resist sharing:

Dah, dah, dah,
a wacky tabacky,
a wacky tabacky,
Has Wendell been smoking,
that wacky tabac?

Or has he lost (ha!)
lost (ha!)
lost his marbles?
Well, I just don’t know what to say!

(We don’t, either.)

We doubt that Wendell Cox has taken up the “Wisdom Weed” (as it’s known among Rastafarians), but his “PLANetizen” post reached a new apex of asininity (. . . but, whatd’ya expect . . . he’s Wendell . . .).

Wendell also inspired a rich variety of commentary on “PLANetizen.” Choice excerpts:

“Is there a cartoonist out there who can take on....(‘da...da...’)...
The adventures of...(more trumpets)...
‘Captain Paveman!!!
...Today, our hero has just learned of a meeting of evil light rail advocates tonight in Metropolis
...can he get there in time to save us? He peels out of the 'sprawl-cave' (disguised as a quick-lube joint on the arterial) and onto the freeway
...but wait! Traffic is backed up! Can he make it? Tune in next time...

[“Captain Paveman!” WE LOVE IT!! How we wish it was one of US who thought of that . . . but maybe it WAS one of us . . . we are, after all, a SECRET cabal . . .]

“So you can get home, then what? I can walk home (single family townhouse), and walk to the store. Those in the suburbs, once home without electricity are stuck there without a chance of getting anywhere else.”

“Has Wendell been so busy formulating his clever essay that he is unable to receive any news of the situation in Arizona and the failure of their hi-tech fossil fuel delivery system? I think that this commuter utopia in AZ has been a great example of the "real" benefits of Mr. Cox's ideas and assertions. I do find it more reasonable to expect more interruptions in petroleum delivery as opposed to more failures with the power grid. Yes these cars are great when you can put some gas in them, but short of continued supply they have about a 300 mile life span, and if we design our world in such way that we cannot get basic needs without the motor car we really are short-sighted fools.

“The commuters of Toronto and New York seemed to fair pretty good in this unusual circumstance, considering the unexpected nature of the event. I haven’t heard of any of them rushing out to buy cars and move to the Midwest as of yet, but I’ll keep looking!

“I have to go, I need to walk to my house so I can drive my truck to the filling station, in case there’s a black out later today and the sidewalks get closed (chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon here, you know!).”

“Where was Mr. Cox last winter when the east coast was being hit by snow storm after snow storm, during each of which, the metroplitan areas commuter rail systems brought people home much quicker than the ‘flexible’ automobiles. . . . Seach mode has its role. ‘Consutancies’ funded by interest groups contribute little to a healthy discussion regarding transportation policy.”

“I live in Brooklyn, my mother lives in suburban Detroit. I WALKED home from work after the blackout. I visited the store on the way, buying food and supplies. My greatest inconvenience was a couple of blisters on my feet and a sweaty night's sleep. My mother, who doesn't have a job, was stuck in her house with an electric garage door she couldn't open, no water from the faucet, a freezer full of rotting food, and her closest outpost of civilization (the strip mall) about 3 miles away. I was home partying on the roof, listening to the ‘sweet symphony’ of your precious cars all night as they moved 1/2 mile per hour to their suburban chateaus (an automobile isn't very ‘flexible’ when it's surrounded on all sides by friends) while my mother worried when she would next experience civilization, quietly contemplating starving in the land of plenty. All in all, my dense urban surroundings were considerably more convenient than the pre-industrial ghost town my mother had to face last Thursday.”

“Right there [on the post] are four anecdotal counter-examples to Mr. Cox's ever-so-thoroughly-researched-by-watching-the-evening-news assertion that Detroit was untouched, plus my own story of the convenience of urbanized, clustered development.”

“Google Search: transit stranded blackout: 1670 hits just days after the biggest [blackout] in history.
“Google Search: motorists stranded snow storm: 2590 hits in the middle of summer.”

“I hope that Mr. Cox tells the Parisians to decamp for the ‘burbs since their reliance of subways and regional rail is just asking for disaster as well inviting disease epidemics. Also, didn't you know a low-density city can survive a nuclear ‘exchange’ better than a high-density metropolis.

“We've probably got about 25 years to get ready for the next major black-out (since the last one was in 1977). Let's start unbuilding New York tomorrow!”

Blackout 2003 caused major disruption to ALL transportation – not just rail systems, which were the focus of mainstream media attention. The media ignored the impact on road transportation – perhaps because this could not be assessed from a few “central” locations.

In New York and other major cities, traffic quickly became gridlocked owing to lack of traffic signals. Lack of ventilation forced closure of tunnels, and gasoline could not be obtained because no electricity was available for pumps. After darkness fell, driving became hazardous owing to lack of street lighting.

Many New Yorkers and other big-city residents were able to get home – on foot – and stock up on food and supplies along the way. Foot traffic became so heavy in New York that it spilled over into streets – a graphic demonstration of how motorists benefit directly from the subway system.

These and other details are covered in an excellent commentary “August 2003 Electric Power Blackout: Massive Disruption of All Transportation”, see here www.lightrailnow.org/features/f_000020.htm,

Wendell stopped short of saying – but hinted rather strongly – that electric transport, in fact all rail transport, is a bad idea because of the posibility of service interruptions resulting from power outages.

An FOC had this to say: “Pardon mon impudence, but by the same ‘logic’ used by Wendell Cox, automobiles should be banned because, after all, girls get pregnant in them . . .”

Hmmm . . .

Another FOC weighed in as follows:

“Cox spent a number of years in L.A., where it is said that ‘there's no such thing as bad publicity.’ Maybe true, but there is such a thing as bad and ludicrous content. If he continues with the ever-more ludicrous pronouncements, he’ll eventually marginalize himself, just like [Ross] Perot did.”

(Which would mean, among certain other things, that we smart-aleck TransitCabalists would have to find someone else to serve as our prime target for ridicule and satire . . .)

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/10/2003 02:48:00 PM

 
WEAPONS OF MASS DISAPPEARANCE STASHED IN NON-EXISTENT TUNNEL NETWORK?

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

"Truth passes through three phases: 1) It is ridiculed. 2) It is violently opposed. 3) It is accepted as self-evident." Albert Schopenhouer. In the United States, rail is currently passing through Phase Two.


From the Cabalmaster:

We here at The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal tend to frown on “conspiracy” theories. They provide all-too-simple explanations for complex problems and situations.

But there is such a thing as “disinformation,” and we can’t help wondering if earlier reports of an extensive tunnel network beneath the streets of Baghdad fits into this category to some extent.

President Bush announced the start of the Iraq war on March 19, 2003. The Iraqi regime collapsed on April 9, and President Bush declared the end of “major combat operations” on May 2. The U.S. State Department lifted its ban on travel by U.S. citizens to Iraq on July 15. This had been in effect 12 years – since the beginning of Gulf War I in 1991. The Big Bad Baghdaddy, aka “Da Guy Wid Da Mustache,” was last seen and filmed in public on or about April 9, but is presumed to be alive, in hiding . . . somewhere.

Meanwhile, we Opinionated Ones note, with interest, that we could find no online items about this story dated after April 9.

The prime source for the CBS “60 Minutes” report in February 2003 was an Iraqi scientist, imprisoned during the 1991 Gulf War who later escaped. This source stated that “Da Guy Wid Da Mustache” got hold of plans drawn up for transit tunnels, then told the military to build them for weapons of mass destruction. This eventually became a “very complex network, multi-layered tunnels” extending more than 60 miles. But the scientist never saw the tunnels himself. An analyst for the military-affairs think tank GlobalSecurity.org (see here globalsecurity.org) stated that few people have, and added “There is tons of conjecture on this subject right now, but there's been no official confirmation or official imagery.” see here straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/story/0,4395,182204,00.html.

(An explosion on June 16 destroyed a car and injured several people in a “road tunnel” in central Baghdad (see here www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/iraq/1954550 ), but this “tunnel” is probably better described as a “long underpass.”)

A 60-mile network of large tunnels, beneath a densely-populated city of three million people, that no one has seen?

One possible explanation: Iraqi disinformation, intended to discourage the U.S. from invading. However, if this is true, then the previous regime may have received a rude surprise in December 2002. As U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld put it:

“They've got enormous miles and miles and miles of underground tunneling, I don't know how inspectors on the surface of the Earth can even know what's going on in the underground facilities.”

It is also possible, of course, that the tunnels do exist, to an extent long known by U.S. intelligence, but not yet described in detail to avoid compromising intelligence sources and methods.

An urban legend? We Opinionated Ones tend to shy away from simple explanations, and this is one. Baghdad is large enough and populous enough to justify a subway, and the previous regime wanted to build one. The previous regime also wanted to build all sorts of nasty weapons, and the facilities required for development and concealment.

In any case, we know we’re not the only ones waiting for the full story to emerge.

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/10/2003 02:34:00 PM

 
JUST BECAUSE I’M PARANOID DOESN’T MEAN THEY’RE NOT OUT TO GET ME!

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

"Truth passes through three phases: 1) It is ridiculed. 2) It is violently opposed. 3) It is accepted as self-evident." Albert Schopenhouer. In the United States, rail is currently passing through Phase Two.


From the Cabalmaster:

Some things speak for themselves:

They can't refute me so they try to discredit me personally. There's a real campaign to destroy me. I recognize that.

Wendell Cox, Rail critic may sign on to SM battle, by Katherine Marks, Staff Writer, North County Times, June 1, 2003; see www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030601/64211.html.

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/03/2003 06:12:00 PM

 
LIGHT RAIL VOTE IN IRVINE (ORANGE COUNTY) CA – Addendum, part 1

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

"Truth passes through three phases: 1) It is ridiculed. 2) It is violently opposed. 3) It is accepted as self-evident." Albert Schopenhouer. In the United States, rail is currently passing through Phase Two.


From the Cabalmaster:

We here at the Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal have received a bit of feedback to our coverage of the June 2003 light-rail vote in Irvine, CA.

1.) What is a “Grand Jury,” and

2.) Why did the one in Orange County investigate the CenterLine light rail project?

In brief, each of California’s 58 counties is required by law (the “California Penal Code”) to establish a panel, including either 19 or 23 people (depending on population), charged with investigating alleged civil and criminal violations. Each Grand Jury sits for a term of one year. The Grand Jury has the power to investigate the administration and affairs of any local government, special district or other public agency within the county. Public agencies are required by law to respond to findings and recommendations.

All matters before a Grand Jury are confidential.

Investigations may begin at the discretion of Grand Jury members and, in some counties, in response to concerns or complaints from citizens.

The following are excerpts from the Orange County Superior Court website, see here www.occourts.org/grndjury.

“The California Penal Code is silent on the matter of providing public input to the Grand Jury. Thus, the Grand Jury is under no legal mandate to make any kind of response to correspondence received. However, the Orange County Grand Jury has chosen to receive such letters to give it the ability to identify areas of government that may merit investigation within Orange County. All correspondence is maintained as confidential and not subject to review by any agency.”

“All letters will be acknowledged. However, action by the Grand Jury may be limited by time, insufficient evidence to warrant a study, or matters not under the Grand Jury’s purview. All letters will also receive a close out letter. This letter may refer the individual to other agencies that may help resolve the issue. Due to the confidentiality of all matters before the Grand Jury, the response will not disclose the details of the investigation or its results.”

“The Grand Jury does not act as an ombudsman for county citizens. However, the Grand Jury will review all concerns and may produce a study on the issue, if the concern is deemed appropriate. Otherwise, no further action will be taken.”

“The Grand Jury cannot resolve any issues involving policy. Policy is set by elected officials. Resolution of policy issues may be addressed by contacting the respective public agency.

“The single method the Grand Jury communicates with the public is by issuance of the “Final Report” (see California Penal Code §933). These reports may be found in local libraries and on the Grand Jury web site.” [This is incorrect, annual Grand Jury “Final Report” documents for Orange County are not available online. Grand Juries typically release a number of reports each year; and those by the Orange County Grand Jury are available here www.occourts.org/grndjury/gjreports.asp ]

-----

Now that you know what a Grand Jury is . . . and certain particulars related to how it operates . . . you may be anticipating our answer to the second question:

Why did the [Grand Jury] in Orange County investigate the CenterLine light rail project?

We hate to let you down, but we don’t know, and the “whole truth” may never be known. Remember: all proceedings before a California Grand Jury are confidential, and all related correspondence is confidential, not subject to review by any agency.

“Holy potential for mischief, Batman!”

An FOC has this to say about the 1998-1999 Grand Jury’s light rail report:

The decision to build light rail, wise or unwise, was a public policy matter. But somebody convinced the Grand Jury that [Orange County Transportation Authority] violated the PENAL CODE.

“Only in California”? Well, what would YOU do if you wanted to kill CenterLine and were looking for a low-budget, low-effort, low-risk strategy?

. . . it’s obvious that anti-rail factions orchestrated a complaint, then fed a barrage of propaganda to Grand Jurors, who, wittingly or unwittingly, played along . . .

. . . and if you check this out, what you DON’T find will be more interesting than what you DO . . .

Your Favorite Transit Pundits took up the challenge above == and things unfolded as by script.

Although the 1999 report received much publicity, and was circulated far and wide by the usual cast of rail opponents, not one word about what triggered the investigation was printed. No surprise: the Grand Jury report was silent on this matter. It’s unlikely that this or other details would come to light given that Grand Jury proceedings are confidential.

As we’ve already noted, the “Final Report” for 1999 is not available online; this may, or may not, contain additional information about the light rail report.

We’d like to know the names of the 1998-1999 Orange County Grand Jurors. We assume this information is in the public record, but it is not available online. We suspect this would lay to rest a rather wild “conspiracy” rumor: that light-rail opponents got on the panel and instigate the investigation. We avoid unfounded rumors and mention this one only to discredit it. It doesn’t take much to qualify as a Grand Juror (see here www.occourts.org/grndjury/#qualif). The time commitment (3-4 days per week, possibility of evening and weekend meetings) and meager compensation ($50 per day, maximum $250 per week, plus mileage) suggests that the lineup of people waiting to serve as Grand Jurors is not very long. Grand jurors, as the saying goes, give up a year of their lives. We Opinionated Ones believe that few if any anti-rail agitators would be willing to do this, given the additional fact that Grand Juries are kept busy by matters other than rail-bashing.

Although you can find the 1999 report on Wendell’s website (here, www.publicpurpose.com/lib-orcorail.htm), you might want to download the “official” version from the Orange County Courts website, here www.occourts.org/grndjury/GJLtRail.pdf; 17 pages, PDF format. We’ve excepted, from Page 2 (“official”), the paragraph outlining how the investigation was conducted:

“METHOD

“The Grand Jury gathered data from many sources including: the federal government, cities and agencies that have developed light rail, OCTA, academia, and technical sources listed in the Bibliography. The Grand Jury analyzed transit performance data and past forecasts to derive the actual performance of the light rail segment of transit systems as compared to past projections of that performance. Past projections compared to actual performances establish what Orange County could expect from a similar light rail system. The Grand Jury conducted interviews with the OCTA, transportation and economics experts in academia, and Los Angeles “Blue Line” operators and planners.”

Our next excerpt was inspired by . . . Wendell Cox!

No, we’re not kidding!!

The Weasel King notes that the report is “presented without alteration” on his website.

Seeing this, Your Favorite Transit Pundits decided to make a couple of . . . well, alterations. We excerpted the “Bibliography” – deleting ONLY those items prepared by or for the Orange County Transportation Authority. We then separated, but did not delete, items prepared by public agencies or governments other than OCTA:

(Transit Profiles: Agencies in Urbanized Areas Exceeding 200,000 Population, 1996 National Transit Report Year, Federal Transit Administration, 1996 National Transit Database. Highway Statistics 1996, Office of Highway Information Management, Office of Policy Development, Federal Highway Administration.)

(Draft Technical Appendix for the 1998 RTP, Part II, Nov 1997, Southern California Association of Governments.)

(The Urban Rail Project, Scoping Report, August 18, 1998, presented by Katz & Associates/Spencer La Blac & Associates, La Jolla, CA 92037.)

(Urban Rail Study, Public Outreach Results Milestone January 3, 1999, prepared by Katz & Associates/Spencer La Mar & Associates.)


Wait’ll you see what was left . . .

Cars and Demographics, Lave, C., Fall 1992, Access No. 1, 4-11, University of California Transportation Center, Berkeley, California 94720.

Improving Transportation in the San Fernando Valley, Gordon, P., & Moore, J.E. II, & Poole, R.W. Jr., & Rubin, T.A., January 1999, Policy Study #249, Reason Public Policy Institute, Los Angeles, CA 90034.

Light Rail in Milwaukee, Cox, W., March 1998, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report, Volume 1 Number 3, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc., Thiensville, WI 53092.

New Rail Investments-a Review, Richmond, J.E.D. June 29, 1998, A. Albert Taubman Center for State and Local Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.

The Proposed Central Florida Light Rail Transit System Described and Evaluated, 1998, Florida Public Policy Institute, P.O. Box 13295, Tallahassee, FL 32317-3295.

Bad Marriage: Consultants, Public Funds, Lave, C., June 30, 1998, The Los Angeles Times, Op, Ed Section.

Where’s the Debate in the Planning of Light Rail? Mootchnik, D., December 1998, The Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed Section.


Oh.

. . . it’s obvious that anti-rail factions orchestrated a complaint, then fed a barrage of propaganda to Grand Jurors, who, wittingly or unwittingly, played along . . .

(We never dreamed it would be quite so obvious.)

We’ll continue this story in our next post.

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 9/03/2003 05:59:00 PM