November « 2009 « The Transport Politic

Qatar Signs Massive $25 Billion Deal with Germany’s DB to Develop Rail Network

November 23rd, 2009 |

» Rapidly growing Middle Eastern state will invest massively to expand already booming economy.

If Dubai and Abu Dhabi have grabbed most of the headlines recently, neighboring Qatar has been quietly building up from an out-of-the-way desert country to a center of world trade. Despite the country’s overall small 1.5 million-person population, the capital city Doha has been the site of increasing government-sponsored development thanks to huge oil and gas revenues and the country is now arguably the richest on the planet per capita. Next year, its economy is set to expand by 16%, the largest increase in the world, further solidifying

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Stretching the Limits of Washington’s Dense Core

November 19th, 2009 |

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» After the completion of Metro’s first 106 miles, it’s time for another big investment.

If Washington’s Metro system is proof of anything, it is that American cities have the capability to build massive, expensive transit systems that work. Since the network opened in 1976, it has expanded to 106 miles of two-way track, five lines, and 86 stations. Despite ever-increasing sprawl, huge increases in car use, and relocation of business and government facilities from downtown to the suburbs, Metro now handles 800,000 daily trips and it has redefined life in the center of the region and around stations. As

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Despite Extraordinary Ridership, Vancouver’s New Canada Line is Suffering

November 17th, 2009 |

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» Public-private partnerships have their costs.

It was originally supposed to open twelve days from now, but Vancouver’s Canada Line has already racked up millions of rides since it commenced operations in mid-August — and it’s now carrying almost 100,000 people a day on average. The 12-mile automated light metro, which was built at a cost of C$2 billion, was one of the first major works of transit infrastructure built with the help of a public-private partnership (PPP) in North America. The deal, which allows a company called InTransit BC to contribute about C$700 million to the project in exchange for the

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Building Cities, It Turns Out, Is a Partisan Issue

November 16th, 2009 |

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» While livable cities advocates might suggest that their cause is a nonpartisan one, reality suggests otherwise.

American politics are quite unique compared to those in other countries because of the practical obsession on the part of members of both parties of achieving “bipartisan” or “nonpartisan” policy objectives. In most countries, when a party wins a landslide election, the winning group pursues its objectives, with little or no consideration of losing parties not taking part in a governing coalition. In the next election, policy differences are clarified and voters can make a choice. In the United States, on the other hand, the

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