"Talking Transportation"

WHEN MARIE ANTOINETTE, THE LAST QUEEN OF FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, WAS ASKED HOW TO QUELL HER STARVING PEASANT SUBJECTS, SHE IS ALLEGED TO HAVE SAID “LET THEM EAT CAKE”. And as history ...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/09/let-them-eat-pizza.html

THIS WEEK’S COLUMN IS AN UPDATE ON SOMETHING I WROTE LAST YEAR.  ALAS, LITTLE HAS CHANGED SINCE THEN… On this Labor Day weekend, here’s a question and a challenge:  Do the folks in stat...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/08/why-dont-pols-ride-mass-transit.html

You’ve seen the pictures:  washed out rail tracks, crumbled roadways, debris and flood damage everywhere.  The 1000-year storm that hit the Naugatuck Valley last week caused destruction of bi...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/08/rebuilding.html

IT MAY BE THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER, BUT THERE’S STILL NEWS ON THE TRANSPORTATION FRONT… WHO WANTS AN EV?:     According to a recent AAA New England survey more than half of respondents sa...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/08/ev-chargers-tweed-airport-tod-in-east.html

AS THE LARGEST COMMUTER RAILROADS IN THE US, METRO-NORTH (AND ITS SISTER RAILROAD THE LONG ISLAND RR) ARE VICTIMS OF GEOGRAPHY.  THEY BOTH SERVE LARGE PORTIONS OF THE NYC METRO AREA, BUT NOT ALL...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/08/can-metro-north-go-west.html

AS I CONTINUE MY SUMMER VACATION, I’VE UPDATED A COLUMN I WROTE 14 YEARS AGO… Metro-North’s train service in Connecticut is challenging because of a technological quirk of fate: ours is t...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/07/our-ac-dc-railroad.html

ENJOYING THE HEATWAVE THIS SUMMER?  THE ELECTRIC UTILITIES SURE ARE.  AND JUST WAIT ‘TIL YOU GET YOUR NEXT BILL.  THEY’VE BEEN WARNING US FOR MONTHS NOW THAT WE’LL BE IN FOR A SHOCKER ...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/07/travel-goes-electric.html

AVIATION HISTORY WAS MADE JULY 7, 1929,  WHEN THE FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL FLIGHT FROM NEW YORK TO LOS ANGELES, TOOK OFF, NOT WITH AN AIRPLANE, BUT ON A TRAIN. This was the real birth of commerc...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-first-transcon.html

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YEARS OF NEGLECT CATCH UP WITH A COMMUTER RAILROAD?  LOOK NO FURTHER THAN NEW JERSEY, WHERE NJ TRANSIT IS IN THE MIDST OF A MELTDOWN.  THIS SHOULD SERVE AS A WARNING TO CONNEC...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/06/nj-transit-meltdown-offers-hope-for.html

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE US NAVY IS NOW ENGAGED IN ITS BIGGEST SEA BATTLE SINCE WORLD WAR II? THAT’S THE NEWS FROM THE RED SEA WHERE US NAVY AND OTHER ALLIES’ WARSHIPS ARE PATROLLING THE WATE...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/06/us-navy-at-war-in-red-sea.html

READY FOR A SUMMER VACATION?  CAR PACKED, AIRLINE TICKETS AT HAND?  YOU MAY NOT REALIZE IT, BUT BIG BROTHER’S COMING ALONG WITH YOU.  HOWEVER YOU CHOSE TO TRAVEL, DON’T EXPECT TO HAVE MUCH...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/06/big-brother-on-your-trip.html

What was she thinking?  Just 25 days before implementation, why did NY Governor Kathy Hochul pull the plug on New York City’s congestion pricing scheme in a move one pundit called “the ...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/06/congestion-pricing-on-hold.html

DID YOU KNOW THAT CONNECTICUT IS HOME TO THE “BEST BRT” SYSTEM IN THE US?  DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT BRT IS? Well, BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit, and Connecticut’s almost ten year-old CTf...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/05/ctfastrak-1-in-us.html

IN MY COLLEGE DAYS I DID SOME STRANGE STUFF… LIKE DRIVING ALL NIGHT FROM CHICAGO TO NYC, HITTING 75 MPH ON INTERSTATE 80, JUST ME AND THE TRUCKS.  I WAS SO TIRED AND DID EVERYTHING I KNEW TO S...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/05/drowsy-driving.html

DON’T YOU JUST LOVE THAT “NEW CAR SMELL”?  WELL, THAT’S COMING… SLOWLY… TO AMTRAK, AS THE NATION’S PASSENGER RAILROAD REPLACES ITS OLD FLEET OF CARS. GOODBYE AMFLEET:      A...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/05/new-cars-for-amtrak.html

KUDOS TO THE CDOT FOR THEIR AMAZING WORK LAST WEEK CLEANING UP FROM THE FIERY TRUCK CRASH IN NORWALK WHICH CLOSED I-95 CAUSING COUNTLESS HOURS OF DELAYS AND DETOURS.  IT’S AMAZING WHAT CDOT CR...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/05/hero-trucker-wrong-way-crash-trains.html

ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER FIERY TRUCK CRASH ON A CONNECTICUT HIGHWAY, THIS TIME IN NORWALK ON I-95 . You’ll remember it was just last June when a similar inferno closed I-95 in Philadelphia as a...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/05/truck-inspections.html

IT’S THE BUZZWORD DU JOUR IN HARTFORD THESE DAYS:  TOD, OR TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT.  WHAT IT IMPLIES AND HOW IT’S IMPLEMENTED AREN’T ALWAYS THE SAME. THE IDEA IS TO PUT NEW, DENSER...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/04/is-tod-being-derailed.html

STUCK IN BUMPER-TO-BUMPER TRAFFIC THE OTHER DAY ON I-95 I GRUMBLED TO MYSELF “WHERE IS ALL THIS TRAFFIC COMING FROM?”   AND THEN I REMEMBERED: If you’re stuck in traffic, you are the tr...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/04/you-are-traffic.html

LOTS OF TRANSPORTATION RELATED STORIES TO CATCH UP WITH, SO HERE GOES: WATCH NEW JERSEY:     Commuters in the Garden State are in for some  expensive travel as NJ Transit just approved a 1...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/04/transportation-updates.html

HOW OLD IS “TOO OLD TO DRIVE”?  NONE OF US ARE GETTING ANY YOUNGER, BUT WHEN IS IT TIME TO HANG UP OUR KEYS FOR OUR SAKE AND THAT OF OTHERS? “AGE IS A NUMBER, NOT YOUR CAPABILITIES,” S...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/04/too-old-to-drive.html

WITH THE SAD NEWS OUT OF BALTIMORE THIS WEEK ABOUT THE COLLAPSE OF THE KEY BRIDGE, I THOUGHT WE’D REPRISE A STORY I WROTE AWHILE BACK ABOUT NYC’S ICONIC GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE. It’s th...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-george-washington-bridge.html

AWHILE BACK I WAS IN GREENWICH DOING ONE OF MY REGULAR TALKS ABOUT TRANSPORTATION AND CONDUCTED A QUICK POLL, ASKING THE CROWD, “HOW MANY OF YOU DRIVE EVS (ALL-ELECTRIC VEHICLES)?”   BEING ...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/03/should-evs-be-taxed.html

WE ALL KNOW HOW BAD THE TRAFFIC IS DESPITE THE STATE POLICE’S RECENT TICKETING BLITZ ON RECKLESS DRIVERS.  ON THE MERRITT AND WILBUR CROSS PARKWAYS, IN JUST ONE WEEK, THEY MADE 170 TRAFFIC ST...

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/03/license-plate-readers.html

IT’S NOT SAFE TO RIDE THE SUBWAYS IN NEW YORK CITY. Not that the subways aren’t operated safely, it’s just that the people riding them are victimizing each other as well as MTA personnel....

http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2024/03/nyc-subways-are-not-safe.html