Austinist: Box and Horn: Mike Dahmus

Tarvin

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:37:25 -0600

I'd vote for monkey driven jet boats.

malaysand

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:09:49 -0600

I'd hope Brewster can put himself into the mindset of a resident of the Triangle considering he lives there. :) I spoke with CM Martinez and he also seems to understand the route must go up Guadalupe, FWIW.

mdahmus

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:23:35 -0600

The LRT that Krusee killed is the same stuff Dallas and all those other cities built - and it's working just great. By now, trains would be running down Guadalupe and Congress. This is a very common talking point I've come across many times from people trying to let the guy (and CM) off the hook; and it's just not true. Streetcar is a little bit cheaper to build, but it's more expensive to operate, and the cars can't go as fast. LRT could go 60 out in Leander and 20 downtown, while carrying hundreds and hundreds of passengers; streetcar is limited to 20 or so everywhere and can carry about a quarter as many as the typical LRT train.

AustinStyleWatch

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:58:19 -0600

This is a great piece and I think we need this column now more than ever. If people in Austin are going to make smart transportation decisions they need to be well informed. Another thing you might want to do a piece on that would be useful for people is a glossary of terms so people know the difference in technology between types of rails and buses: "commuter rail" as opposed to "light rail" or a "bus" vs "rapid bus." There's a good reason why light rail didn't pass and why Krusee advocated metrorail instead, the light rail technology at that time would have been way expensive, taken a long time to build, ripped up utilities etc. But there's new technology for light rail that requires the tracks to go much shallower and cuts the cost way down. Austin should get on that with a quickness. As for the Austin San Antonio rail? I still don't believe it's ever going to happen, I'd be shocked if it was passed in the next 5 years and ready in the next 10

Wad

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:12:25 -0600

Is there anything happening on a commuter/regional rail system between Austin and San Antonio?

kingkirbythegreatoftexas

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:19:13 -0600

Thanks for yelling the truth as it is.

mdahmus

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:38:12 -0600

Benj, 1. There's no demand there, nor will there ever be; the buildings south of MLK are mainly big state parking garages for state employees. While one could conceive of them being useful on the weekends as a "park here, ride train to shop downtown" thing, it's not going to help bring more people into downtown to work; those people in that garage are going to walk from the garage. The part of UT that it would run through is where relatively few people work, too; so again, no help. 2. Manor could use a lot - but the neighborhoods are virulently against it. There's none there now and very little in the future; whereas Guadalupe has a lot now and even more coming down the road. 3. I hope they're right. I think McCracken gets it - we've had a conversation or two that have made me optimistic that he believes the "to the Triangle" needs to happen up Guadalupe, not as the end of the Manor to Mueller back across 51st question-mark route that Capital Metro supports. As usual, nobody at CM and relatively few in the community bother to put themselves in the shoes of a prospective rider at the Triangle and ask "how on earth could it be worth it to hop a streetcar only to run all the way out to Mueller, back on Manor, and drop me off either at the ass end of UT or at an ugly state parking garage"...

Benj

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:30:19 -0600

Well done. And it's good to know your avatar picture is not in fact a photo of a 40ish Jello Biafra. One thing though, re Q10: Plus, instead of running in, you know, urban central Austin, Capital Metro combined with UT in a stunning festival of numbskullery to propose that this circulator should run up San Jacinto, where's there's nothing but a ton of state parking garages, and then out Manor, where nobody wants any more density. Leaving Guadalupe, where all the current density is and all the future density will be, with a big load of nothing. 1. San Jacinto would be a good,quick run through low-traffic, and would be a good idea if there were no stops between the closest point to the capitol and UT/Royal Stadium. 2. Manor needs and is ripe for more density, especially as you head east past Chestnut. Prime target for Gentrification, Baby. 3. Several business owners on GUANO between 38th and 45th seem pretty confident they're going to have a train passing their places within the next several years.

mdahmus

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:05:41 -0600

See, now you made me have to comment again, so you can slag me for commenting again to my own posting. You're fiendishly clever. The blue hair shot is actually from about 2000 or so at a party at a friend's house on Lake Austin; it shows two things I can no longer do: have blue hair and drink beer. One might assume the bile comes from the lack of one or both, but not really.

Grape Ape

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:52:19 -0600

There shouldn't be a bogus e-mail for me. BTW - I do appluad M1EK for putting his thoughts and beliefs out there for the Austinist world to see; and on top of that he puts his photo out there too - how could you miss bluehair if you ran into him? Unless of course he's mixed in with a bunch of old ladies from Tarrytown.

truecraig

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:45:57 -0600

Loud Mouth hasn't answered my call for a submission. Neither has Grape Ape. I think we may have bogus emails for them.

shilli

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:40:59 -0600

I can't wait for the LoudMouth column and the Grape Ape column. I hope that we will get reserved lanes for the new streetcar plan that Brewster et. al. are putting together now. I also hope that it will be built using an expandable technology, so that even if the first route isn't the best, new routes can be added where they make more sense. I also hope that it will get built at all.

shototsu

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:26:11 -0600

This is a depressing, enlightening read. Like many folks who've only been in Austin for around 15 years I've found the proposals floated over the last 8 or so to be confusing at best, nonsensical at worst. I remember trying to make heads or tails of the "streetcar" survey sent to my house in East Austin a while back. There wasn't any mention of streetcars taking up the same lane as traffic; merely questions about whether or not I prefer vehicles with alternative fuel. Who doesn't prefer alternative fuels these days? I felt like such a sucker after I figured out what they really meant. Now I don't trust any proposal I see, no matter how good it vaguely looks on paper.

Grape Ape

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:11:30 -0600

This is awesome! M1EK has even dominating the comments section of his own piece...brilliant!!!

mdahmus

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:05:11 -0600

We should all just tilt our heads to the right in honor of that not-quite-funny Super Bowl commercial, at which point the italics look straight up and down anyways.

mdahmus

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:03:34 -0600

Thanks again to craig for letting me do this; and the originally broken link tag at the end was almost definitely my fault.

truecraig

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:01:32 -0600

It's not the post, unfortunately. It'll be fixed in a minute. Hopefully.

LoudMouth

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:59:52 -0600

Close your tags please you old blue hair.