Public Transportation for Everyone

*This post is heavy on links. I’ve done that for three reasons. 1. Credibility: To show that the things I’m talking about are working in real places. 2.To help readers visualize what I’m talking about. Many of these links have prominent photos. 3. So the reader can dig deeper without having to search so many terms and ideas on their own.*

The Problem

Like many Americans, I’ve experienced fast, efficient, clean, safe and pleasant public transportation in Europe and Asia, but not so much here at home. I’m not going to tell you that great projects haven’t been accomplished here. We even have more in the works. Still, in suburban Atlanta I must drive 30 minutes before starting a trip to downtown Atlanta on MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority). MARTA trains max out at 70 MPH, so, it’s not true rapid transit. None of MARTA’s trains and only 3 bus routes run in my home town in North Fulton. None of the buses comes near my home.

That’s not a fluke either. My last home (8 miles away from the current one) in Cobb County was just 2 miles from the closest bus stop. That’s close by comparison, but it was functionally a worse commute. Cobb Transit is a separate transportation system. A trip to downtown Atlanta requires going to the transfer station. The whole one way trip is a three hour venture (if you drive, not walk, to the bus). Riding may allow multitasking freedom, but who has 6 hours to devote to a daily commute? That leaves you 2 hours in your day to do everything that’s not sleeping, if you only work 8 hours a day.

Even with notorious Atlanta gridlock, known for ranking in the 10 ten of worst commute cities in the nation regularly, only people who have no other choice would do that. Basically, if you don’t live where the few lines go, the slogan “Be Smarta, take MARTA” rings hollow. It’s not just here in the south, the whole country lags behind the rest of the world in rail transportation.

If there were good public transportation options, the freedom to read, scroll, sight see, or pay attention to anything other than traffic while getting there twice as fast would be the immediately obvious personal benefit. Commuters would get a piece of their lives back.

But, there are so many other valuable benefits, creating a smaller carbon footprint, creating greater freedom and mobility for people who don’t or can’t drive, and the little bit of extra walking fits improved health into the commute time of transit users. Even if you are a die hard driver, having widespread public transportation takes drivers off the road and makes more space for you while slowing the pace of doubling and tripling numbers of auto lanes and other infrastructure expenditures.

When there is stellar urban planning, the world becomes a different place.

Why it Hasn’t Changed

As modern transportation developed in the US, natural resources were still seen by governments and commercial interests as cost free. That attitude allowed a strong auto industry to shape the country and the nuclear threat even had its part in the story of how and why the interstate highway system was built. While “The New World” may have seemed forever exploitable, it was never really the case. Life and resources without limits would be convenient. It’s a really seductive desire and shifting perspectives is hard.

Technology has saved us from the effect of attempting unlimited development at certain points of pressure, but, how and where will it continue to do so? While pushing the envelope, the only way to find the edge is to exceed it. What I am suggesting is to make our best shot at balancing the built, human and natural environments.

The rough part of the challenge in getting from where we are to a better place is that routes all over the US are limited because of low ridership, and ridership is low, at least in part, because of limited routes. Change will require a push, a big one. We don’t just need to overcome normal resistance to change, we also have to overcome the influence of powerful special interests who benefit from the status quo. The US political system has gridlock that makes Atlanta traffic look like child’s play.

Demand for better high speed rail is coming, though. The need to repair and update our transportation infrastructure makes the news every day, and pressure from the public to do it well will continue to increase. Doing it differently for tomorrow may feel unfamiliar now, but we have the potential to be so much more comfortable tomorrow if we honor the connections between the human, infrastructure and natural systems we effect.

How we build will make or break our future.

How to Fix It

I have a vision to share, something to start now and improve on continuously. Look at the photos below and imagine a more robust freedom, freedom of space, freedom from congestion. Our DOT dollars could be building infrastructure for tomorrow, not gobbling precious paradise and paving it. Park, recreation and greenspace dollars could be building something integrated, more efficient and more convenient, to borrow a phrase from nutritionists, something more nutrient dense, something that gives us more of what we need without all the stuff that’s killing us.

Commuter time could be shortened and made more enjoyable. Demand is building and the time is now for building forward.

Everything I’m going to share here is doable, and it uses money that is already being spent, just not as well. I’ve included links to existing projects and research for everything I want to t incorporate in my vision. We just need to put it all together to reap the synergy and benefit from the connections. Things like “no mow rights-of-way” are an awesome improvement over dousing the roadways with chemicals and mowing constantly. We need more of those type changes, but we also need to leapfrog well beyond that with systems that compliment each other and solve the bigger problems.

It’s time to win the next era, and making public transportation desirable, efficient, highly effective and integrating it into other public services while giving it a sense of place is a significant piece of that.

If You Build It

A multi-use, multi-level public transportation system centered around a high speed rail is key. We can move more people greater distances at lower cost with a smaller carbon footprint. Integrated systems can also give people incentives to stay local. Hubs and stations that contain many of the things that people seek to reach while using rail transportation will help keep things local and best serve human needs and wants. This system will increase options, improve public transportation and reduce traffic on roads. Participation from the community and local organizations will insure commitment and success.

The systems I envision will primarily fit inside existing transportation corridor footprints and can be designed to reduce heat island effects, hide currently visible utilities infrastructure from view underground while still leaving it accessible and increasing safety. It will provide public and ecosystem services, help stabilize the natural environment, reduce carbon footprint, in some places reverse habitat loss, remediate significant factors driving climate change, beautify public spaces, promote public health and greatly amplify public transportation utility while making it all more inviting. Basically it will be destination transportation that solves other critical problems too.

That’s a lot, Here goes!

The Concept

In short, the idea is to begin building in an area with medium to high density residential population (to serve more users). Using land that is already supporting transportation, build a multi-use high speed rail transportation and underground utility corridor. By combining the best of elements that already exist and are working in places all over the world we can build a beautiful system. These elements will be layered under, above and around existing medians and rights of way of existing roads, highways, railways, trails and other features.

The more dense the population is in any given area, the more densely design elements will be incorporated. Design and planning will be done in a way that allows updating and expansion for increased capacity as population increases.

There will be, layered throughout the design, office, commercial, private, and public areas. Some areas could have adjoining hotels or condos. They could be adjacent, attached or even integral, sharing design elements like the Contemporary Resort at Disney.

In remote areas a layer might more likely be a wildlife crossing above, or below, the railway. In areas where there is demand, a layer very much like a large wildlife crossing could be multipurpose and include habitat, parks, trails, wildlife corridors and neighborhood athletic fields. Landscaping with locally native plants that increase biodiversity and help stabilize both the natural and built worlds will be important in all areas, urban and remote. Construction should incorporate things like LEED and other green building standards.

The Space

One

One part of the concept is to build up and down instead of out. That is crucial to the success of the plan. What the vast Americas had to offer to the colonial mindset was “endless natural resources”, a phrase so ingrained, that it has still been used in my lifetime. In fact some people still dream of life without limits. That’s not what I’m suggesting here.

Two

Another part of the plan is to put those things people want most in the transportation corridor making local spaces more functional, pleasant and sustainable.

Three

A third piece is design that works with nature instead of against it. Good rainwater management, for instance, is not more expensive than bad rainwater management. In fact, doing it wrong is very expensive. Living Green Walls and Green Roofs are less expensive than flood damage. Reintroducing native plant landscapes instead of exotics helps even more.

Giving people a piece of their lives back while using money that would have be spent on destructive infrastructure is where we need to be.

For Starters

In an existing roadway, first, dig the median out to make a utility tunnel. Put in all feasible public utilities in addition to transportation facility utilities. The tunnel will contain things like communication fiber infrastructure (phone and other telecom). Put in any systems needed to manage and run the transportation system. When those ugly phone and power lines are inside the tunnel, they won’t fall on people during tornados, hurricanes or wind and ice storms. No more digging up underground utilities for maintenance, just go to the access tunnel.

Local power production will be a part of the plan. Incorporating solar and wind power can supply the transportation corridor and adjoining facilities while reducing pressure to import it from distant power plants.

As large scale utilities move into underground spaces, roadside easement space in these areas may become available for bike lanes, walking paths and/or creating green space with restored native biodiversity and improved water management.

Some public access areas will also be underground. Around hubs and line changes, or anywhere else it is feasible, bicycle, motorcycle and auto parking, charging stations, postal sercices and parcel delivery lockers, library services, bike and auto services like tire stores, or bike shops, and, of course, any other businesses that other subways around the world have incorporated could make a home in this underground as well. Locating these things below ground will decrease heating and cooling expense while improving viewscapes and viewsheds outside. It will create public and commercial space that destroys less of the crucial habitat that buffers human activity and provides ecosystem services.

The earth removed to make underground spaces can be used to build up the above ground layers I’ll describe later.

Ground Level

I see high speed rail commuter lines as the first or ground level (in every sense of the phrase), so, that could also go physically underground where needed (like other metro/subway systems).

Why do I keep mentioning high speed rail specifically? Travelers in Tokyo (the largest city in the world) can make a near (or distant trip) in a small fraction of the time it takes to make a similar trip in a US city like Atlanta (where the population is much, much less dense). The cost and impact per person mile is also a fraction of the cost of what we are doing here. It’s more pleasant too. A public transportation user can occupy themselves in any self contained activity, including work or even napping, instead of being frustrated by drivers, and if it’s high (or even medium speed rail) get there sooner, safer, at lower cost and with less negative environmental impact.

I see the first ground level as the most vibrant mixed-use level. Any of the businesses and public use facilities that I mentioned potentially going underground can be incorporated in the support structure there as well. Some convenience businesses will be particularly good to intersperse in many locations like convenience and transportation services, perhaps including bicycle storage and others. There could be upscale quick service food, produce markets or kiosks, restaurant row or food hall type space, incubator businesses, coffee shops, small intimate music venues and work/study spaces, mini-maker spaces, tool rental, small community centers, day care for people. All these things will be in convenient pockets spread across the system.

Being at ground, or road level, there will be open breaks that allow for turn lanes, u-turn lanes and cross streets as needed for people using the roadway.

Like many systems around the world, the high speed transit level will also have parallel local transportation lines with slower speeds and more frequent stops. Where there isn’t enough space to build a local traffic line parallel, those lines will move to a location appropriate to the local conditions.

Up One Level

Bicycle use is increasing and designing in safety for cyclists and those around them is critical. The next element of the plan seeks to allow important active mobility to solve this issue. Where commuter bike paths are not already in place elsewhere, they can be the second level. In many places, this will be above the rail lines, but I also see it flowing wherever beautiful design and traffic flow takes it.

The bike path can have loops and elevated access trails directly connected to ground level roads, paths and other existing systems so that, in some places, this level can be accessed without going through the other levels, transforming commuter and pleasure cycling to a viable option for more people.

Coffee shops and restaurants with balcony seating overlooking cityscapes, landscapes or parks, with a green roof for shade and rain or storm water management fit all the goals. Some area balconies could have solar pergolas and canopies for shade and power production.

The Winding Path

In higher traffic areas a corridor beside or above the bike paths for walkers, families with young unpredictable children and slow scooters will be available. It will be for the people who want to move along on their own power, but for whatever reason, won’t move as quickly, or as predictably as a commuter cyclist. Half of this corridor could be dedicated to hover boards, skaters and other users that don’t mix well with commuter cyclists or pedestrian traffic. The point here will be to get some level of separation between types of users where it is possible.

Occasional public, skate, bike, exercise and passive park side features where commuters bikes, boards and skaters (anyone) could detour from time to time for recreation and distractions will enhance the corridor. Making these easy access from the transportation corridor will increase user interest and integrate the system. These parks can come out into an adjacent built up area maybe in an extension like a rink area and could be designed as public art to provide visual interest to non-users as well as users.

Parks will be all over the place, above the hubbub where possible not just for flood control (roots take up water) and climate (plant life mediates the heat island effect). Passive parks, athletic parks and trails will all be a part of integrating the system well. Projects like the Big Dig transform the world. The interviewer in the link shows that people complained about the challenges of the process, but the same people also enjoyed the changes and were glad that that the Big Dig improved their lives. The path may sometimes be rocky, but I see changes, large and small, flowing from one thing into another beautifully to balance form and function and move us to a more functional future.

Up on the Roof

The roof of the transportation column, that’s up top, regardless of how many layers are at any given location, will have segments of solar power canopy.

Other segmentscomponents that include the features of a green roof, a linear park and wildlife bridges with additional features that local communities ask for.

It might include children’s sports fields or complexes, water features, public art, native trees and plants, some edible plants, possibly community vegetable gardens, space for public meetings, green space for group or individual exercise or meditation, outdoor exercise equipment, story teller’s square, entertainment, etc. This is the space that is used like a local public park, incorporating the destinations that many people seek into the transportation column itself, making it a space undoes much of the damage that transportation causes now and increases available land for public use. It will reduce heat island effects and remediates storm water management problems.

In locations important because of adjacent habitat or parks, the linear park on the top level will connect to adjacent land to become a habitat greenway or wildlife bridge where animals can move across the transportation column from habitat on one side to habitat on the other reducing road kill and other negative effects of fragmentation. The earth for this can be partially sourced with the material dug out for the underground utility corridor.

Throughout the system I see a lot of structural, functional, system, environmental and social integration similar to the way this park was designed, almost as though it were a living organism. The more natural systems that can be used to provide services the better. Note that they use a lake for irrigation and even have gardens in the underground parking structure! If the photos are slow to load, it’s worth the wait.

In areas where hard surfaces are required, pervious pavements will add to resilience in dealing with storm water management.

Solar and or wind power will be incorporated throughout the structure anywhere from canopies that shade the railway to windows, or even a small contained systems that power only a street light. Incorporating solar and wind power generation features will improve efficiency and reduce costs while saving even more land for other uses.

There will be low maintenance green or living walls with local native plants where appropriate providing shade and other cooling as well as ecosystem services and landscaped beauty. If this is what you think of when you hear “living wall”, there should be places for that too.

Building up and putting this in existing transportation corridors, will preserve the opportunity for land that would otherwise be gobbled up in new roads to remain available for higher and better use. At the same time, filling and covering the transportation center with living green roofs and linear parks takes land that would otherwise contribute to heat island effects and turns it into temperature mediating spaces that provide multi-use public space as well as transportation.

Covering this transportation system with native plants and green spaces where possible will improve appearance, reduce the effects of Urban Heat Island, improve stormwater management, reduce flood risk, reduce climate change effects, and be inviting.The green roof with linear parks and public use areas will draw people in to local and community use of the facility, provide hard to find space for all kinds of parks, and so much more.

Public Health

Public health is obviously important. Concern for that caused ridership to decline over the pandemic, but, the US is atop the list for most commutes by automobile, yet, only Peru had a higher number of Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 people.

Why Covid-19 was so bad in the US is way to complicated and controversial to try to deal with here, but it’s clear that clinging to our cars didn’t save us. And, we’ve learned how to make public transportation even safer now with technology like UVC light.

For better health, waiting areas and seating compartments will be well ventilated with air circulation, filtration and cleaning systems that reduce novel, modern and ancient health risks. I see this high speed/local speed architecture as incorporating all of the smartest and newest technology, not just in healthcare. Of course, stellar management, training and employees will be needed.

Moving Out

As the line moves out to less densely populated areas, the speed will increase, the stops, services and amenities will spread out and number of wildlife bridges will increase. In less dense areas, the rail can still benefit from a canopy of solar power collectors that will also shade the train cars.

I can see dollar signs in the eyes of many readers. The money is going to get spent. It’s just a matter of how. I look at this Billion dollar project and see people sitting in cars, the 100 year flood zones being redrawn even more frequently than they are now and the heat island effect skyrocketing.

We can spend it better, to serve more people better with fewer expensive side effects and more services. If we combine these features in a powerful way, the rewards will be many. The ideas I’ve shared, and more are out there. People are making them work.

We can make them work.