Fw: "Transporte, um Direito do Cidadão, um Dever do Estado"

"Public Transportation: A Citizen Right, A State Duty"

Via cosmopista.com

This text in the post title above is painted as a small logo on every single bus in São Paulo, Brazil. Politicians in developed countries (US too) could use some inspiration. This article (in Portuguese) discusses, among other things, Brazilian infrastructure investment gaps in the nineties, and how the São Paulo State is catching up to provide adequate transit to its residents.

For background, public transit in the São Paulo region is made of two elements:

• Rail (Metrô + CPTM), run by the São Paulo State.
• Bus (Ônibus): local buses run by the city of São Paulo, and regional buses run by a conglomerate of several regional operators (EMTU).

Earth Hour to Start in 15 Minutes in the US

Go to this page to watch pictures of Earth Hour around the globe.

During Earth Hour, the world's countries dim their lights symbolically to demonstrate the collective need to reduce power abuse in order to fight climate change, energy shortages, and other issues.

Fw: Electric cars could help cool down our cities

Via CityMetric

I like the concept of electric vehicles avoiding the production of extra heat during Summer. You can read on here. The following vicious circle tends to happen in hot cities:

1. City gets hot (lack of tree cover, building materials that retain heat)
2. Car engines (traffic) produce additional heat
3. Motorists turn on AC to cool themselves, using additional car engine power, and producing additional heat around them.
4. Go to 1.

Electric vehicles reduce 2 and partially 3. There is great potential for compounded benefit. What do you think?

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Fw: Costa Rica hasn't used any fossil fuel in over two months

Via Engadget

Wow! No fossil fuels in two months! Costa Rica did it with a surplus of rain and geothermal resources. Read on here!

Photo: Dirk van der Made/Wikimedia Commons

Atlanta Transit Updates

A few milestones that keep March 2015 busy for transit in Atlanta.

• Atlanta Regional Commission continues growth survey

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) continues surveying the needs of its population and the future. There are a few days left to take the latest survey about preparing for rapid change, and innovation, including anticipating future transportation and energy needs. The first survey sent in Summer 2014 was about capturing the preferences of future Atlanta population.

• MARTA starts service to Clayton County

In its first jurisdictional expansion since it started operating over 35 years ago, MARTA just began bus service in Clayton County on March 21. An inaugural celebration took place on March 14.
A group led by Friends of Clayton Transit rode the first bus out to Clayton on March 21 at 6:15am. (I didn't participate in that group.) Congratulations to Clayton County for returning on the Atlanta transit map!

• Renew Atlanta Bond Referendum passes, project list to be finalized

Atlanta residents passed a $250 million bond proposal to modernize infrastructure: roads, bridges, and possible improvements for bikes and pedestrians. Details about what is involved in this post.

• Atlanta Streetcar to begin paid fare soon

The Atlanta Streetcar started operations on December 30, 2014. MARTA operates it on behalf of City of Atlanta, so the streetcar is not really part of the branded MARTA system. The three-month free ride period is now almost over, and a one-way ride will cost $1 with no transfers (see all fares here). (The date when fares take effect has not been announced yet - I will write a separate post when that happens).

• Georgia Legislature considering transportation bill

There is a transportation bill, HB106, being considered by the Georgia Legislature. It is being written and rewritten with several ground-breaking provisions that, if passed with the intended spirit:

• Would repeal the 50/50 MARTA budget restriction
• Would eliminate the $5000 electric vehicle tax credit
• Would institute a user-fee (aka tax?) for motor vehicle registration, with perhaps a higher fee for electric motor vehicles
• Would allow counties to team up and hold joint referendums to raise sales taxes for "regional" transportation projects

"Data from the Sun" (Analyzing solar imagery)

Speaker Rafal Angryk being introduced.

Last night, the Atlanta Data Science Meetup hosted a talk by Dr. Rafal Angryk on analyzing solar data (solar event imagery, to be precise). Dr. Angryk has a computer science background and recommends reading Fourth Paradigm (free from Microsoft). He conducts solar imagery research at Georgia State University's Institute for Insight, which is a multi-disciplinary center for advancing analytics. Here are my notes from this very interesting topic.

The analysis and prediction of solar storms from solar imagery is relevant for several reasons. Particles emitted by the Sun are responsible for northern and southern lights. During a solar storm, authorities have two minutes to reach, or the intensity of the particle radiation can reach levels hazardous to:

• Space crew,
• Airline routes that fly through the poles,
• Telecommunications equipment,
• Satellites,
• Power grid. Quebec was affected by a solar storm in 1989.

Solar surface image (source: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory)

Solar imagery comes from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, in both raster and vector formats. 150GB of imagery are produced every day. Dr. Angryk's group extracts parameters from these images, 6 months at a time, performs dimension reduction, then indexes the findings (k-nearest neighbors or kNN index) for comparison. Over 180,000 features have been identified over 5 years of data.

Dr. Angryk's lab created imagefarmer.org to find whether a shot of the sun is similar to similar to a database of existing photographs. This opens the possibility of comparing a computer-generated Sun image to real photos.

The keys to define features and similarities are: (i) content and (ii) time sequence. Typically, features of the Sun surface are defined by their center (location) and curvature (extent). Features are then linked in time to create a temporal "signature" of an event. Some events last 30 minutes, others last 12 days. Noise is filtered out to avoid erroneous results. The resulting dataset is thus multidimensional.

By extracting and sequencing the features of solar images, it becomes possible to predict the evolution of a solar event and inform the authorities so they can protect people and assets from solar storms. Dr. Angryk hopes he can use image analysis to foster collaboration between the teams specialized in solar observation with teams specialized in the physical modeling of the Sun's activity.

One could also imagine the technology developed in our day-to-day life. The cited example would be a completely personalized shopping experience, where shoppers presented with a choice of similar items according to their taste.

YPT Panel on Renew Atlanta Infrastructure Bond Referendum [Update: Passed 9:1]

Shot I took of the panel discussion. From left to right: Rebecca Serna (Atlanta Bicycle Coalition), Sally Hammock (PEDs), Jalal Slade (City of Atlanta), Kwanza Hall (Atlanta City Council), and Tom Weyandt (Moderator).

[Update] The bond referendum passed by a 9:1 margin. Nice to see Atlanta moving forward with infrastructure upkeep.

On March 5, 2015, YPT Atlanta (Young Professionals in Transportation) hosted a panel discussion on the upcoming Renew Atlanta Infrastructure Bond Referendum. The event was held at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. with a good turnout (25 pers). The Twitter handle is #RenewATL. Early voting is under way for the referendum, which date is March 17, 2015 (St. Patrick's Day). The municipal bond is a $250 million package to modernize a sizeable portion of Atlanta's roads, bridges, facilities, and more. If approved by Atlanta residents, the bond will be solely funded by existing city taxes over 20 years. 

Here are my summary notes from the event, paraphrased and in no particular order: 

• Tom Weyandt, Transportation Policy Advisor for Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, introduces the panel.
• Jalal Slade, City of Atlanta Senior Real Estate Advisor, describes the main highlights of the bond:
• The bond addresses $250 million out of about $1 billion of infrastructure upgrade backlog. The amount was selected for it's balanced impact on the city's finances.
• There will be two separate questions on the ballot:
• a $180 million allotment for transportation (roads, bridges, sidewalks, complete streets with bike lanes, traffic signal synchronization),
• a ~$84 million allotment for facilities (parks, fire and police stations).
• The project list will be finalized during the weeks after referendum passage, before actual bond issuance.
• Oversight may be similar to the management in place for Atlanta Airport.bonds.
• Kwanza Hall, District 2 Council Member, provides additional details:
• 2/3 of the bond amount will be for city-wide projects (~$134 million for transportation, $44 million for facilities).  
• The remainder will be for local projects.
• A small amount will be available to each City Council member for small fixes, and as buffer to complete or "top-off" projects that affect a particular district. Hall mentioned about the MLK Natatorium, once used for Olympic trials.
• Maturity of the bond is 20 years, and will be repaid using existing city taxes.
• City tax revenue is high enough to make bond an attractive option. 
• Sally Hammock, PEDs CEO, explains a drawback of the bond project line up:
• Only $5 million have been allocated for sidewalks, vs. the $40 million planned initially (sidewalks cost the city $15 million/year). 
• Sidewalks tend to be seen as add-on to large projects rather than priority projects.
• Sidewalk maintenance could be added to the city's annual budget. She references a Georgia Tech study on the state of sidewalks to quantify the current needs.
• Rebecca Serna, Atlanta Bicycle Coalition (ABC) CEO, explains the transportation opportunities:
• A chance to rebalance modes, especially bikes and foot traffic.
• ABC has an objective of 15% allotment for "complete streets" in the project list. The actual fraction is about 13%, which is very close to the objective. The transformation of DeKalb Ave. using the complete streets approach will be the flagship project for bikers.
• Improved infrastructure such as new bike lanes must connect together rather than form a patchwork.
• The projects under this bond should be used as credit for future bonds.
• A topic on funding expansion is brought up by the moderator and the audience:
• Budgeting serves short-term projects better rather than 20-year projects.
• Rebecca Serna suggests levying parking fees.
• Kwanza Hall suggests figuring out how to attract economic development to the city and into existing buildings. He mentions incentives for students to remain after college, and the low occupancy of Bank of America Tower in Midtown Atlanta.
• Q&A session
• A resident mentions about Lee Street improvements, in Southwest Atlanta (near West End). There is an advocacy group for that corridor, however it is unlikely that Lee Street will be included in the bond project list.
• A Georgia Tech student asks about transit projects. Unfortunately there are none, however transit buses will benefit from road projects.
• A resident asks about financing after the bond matures. The answer from Kwanza Hall leaves may ideas open, most notably a 3% capex line in the city budget, property sales (Underground Atlanta, will provide capital and operational revenue). He also mentioned partnering with energy companies to promote building efficiency. It is still a "best bang for the buck" attitude.
• The panelists are asked about the tally after votes are cast. The panelists expect a large win.

Transportation: Attitudes changing in Georgia Legislature

Via AJC.com

This article from Atlanta Journal Constitution highlights the changing attitudes of the Georgia Legislature towards transportation. Rural lawmakers, once reluctant to provide state funding for transit and transportation investments, are moving a $1 billion transportation funding bill for overdue projects...