Railtown

Railtown
Author: Ethan N. Elkind
Publisher: University of California Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2014-01-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520278275

The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city. Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision. Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow.

High-Speed Rail Authority in California

High-Speed Rail Authority in California
Author: Elaine M. Howle
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2010-11
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1437933386

Report concerning the Calif. High-Speed Rail Authority¿s (Authority) readiness to manage funds authorized for building the high-speed rail network in Calif., including the $9 billion in general obligation bonds the voters authorized in Nov. 2008. This report concludes that the Authority has not adequately planned for the future development of the program. State law requires the Authority to establish an independent peer review group to review the Authority¿s plans, but only five of the eight members have been appointed. Additionally, the Authority does not currently categorize and track expenditures for admin., which state law limits to 2.5% ($225 million) of the $9 billion in bond funds authorized. Charts and tables.

High Speed Rail in the United States

High Speed Rail in the United States
Author: David Randall Peterman
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 31
Release: 2010-06
Genre:
ISBN: 1437927009

Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) What is High Speed Rail (HSR)?; (3) HSR Options; (4) Components of a HSR System: Conventional HSR; Track; Signal and Commun. Networks; Magnetic Levitation; (5) HSR In: Japan; France; Germany; Spain; China; (6) Background of Intercity Passenger Rail in the U.S.; (7) Previous Efforts in the U.S.; (8) Recent Congress. Initiatives to Promote HSR; (9) Potential Benefits: Alleviating Highway and Airport Congestion; Alleviating Pollution and Reducing Energy Consumption by the Transport. Sector; Promoting Econ. Develop.; Improving Transport. Safety; Providing a Choice of Modes; Making the Transport. System More Reliable; (10) Infrastructure and Operating Costs; (11) Ridership Potential; (12) Funding Consider.

High-speed Rail

High-speed Rail
Author: Petra Todorovich
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: High speed ground transportation
ISBN: 9781558442221

This Policy Focus Report was a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Regional Plan Association and their joint venture America 2050. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has been engaged in a series of projects with the Regional Plan Association for more than a decade. The partnership spawned the national initiative known as America 2050, which is aimed at meeting the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation, in preparation for a population increase of about 130 million by 2050. A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions - large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. High-speed rail is capable of linking employment centers and population hubs in corridors up to 600 miles in length in 11 U.S. megaregions.This Policy Focus Report was a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Regional Plan Association and their joint venture America 2050. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has been engaged in a series of projects with the Regional Plan Association for more than a decade. The partnership spawned the national initiative known as America 2050, which is aimed at meeting the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation, in preparation for a population increase of about 130 million by 2050. A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions - large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. High-speed rail is capable of linking employment centers and population hubs in corridors up to 600 miles in length in 11 U.S. megaregions.

The World According to China

The World According to China
Author: Elizabeth C. Economy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-10-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509537511

An economic and military superpower with 20 percent of the world’s population, China has the wherewithal to transform the international system. Xi Jinping’s bold calls for China to “lead in the reform of the global governance system” suggest that he has just such an ambition. But how does he plan to realize it? And what does it mean for the rest of the world? In this compelling book, Elizabeth Economy reveals China’s ambitious new strategy to reclaim the country’s past glory and reshape the geostrategic landscape in dramatic new ways. Xi’s vision is one of Chinese centrality on the global stage, in which the mainland has realized its sovereignty claims over Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the South China Sea, deepened its global political, economic, and security reach through its grand-scale Belt and Road Initiative, and used its leadership in the United Nations and other institutions to align international norms and values, particularly around human rights, with those of China. It is a world radically different from that of today. The international community needs to understand and respond to the great risks, as well as the potential opportunities, of a world rebuilt by China.

Designing the Megaregion

Designing the Megaregion
Author: Jonathan Barnett
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2020-03-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1642830437

The US population is estimated to grow by more than 110 million people by 2050, and much of this growth will take place where cities and their suburbs are expanding to meet the suburbs of neighboring cities, creating continuous urban megaregions. There are now at least a dozen megaregions in the US. If current trends continue unchanged, new construction in these megaregions will put more and more stress on the natural systems that are necessary for our existence, will make highway gridlock and airline delays much worse, and will continue to attract investment away from older areas. However, the megaregion in 2050 is still a prediction. Future economic and population growth could go only to environmentally safe locations. while helping repair landscapes damaged by earlier development. Improved transportation systems could reduce highway and airport congestion. Some new investment could be drawn to by-passed parts of older cities, which are becoming more separate and unequal. In Designing the Megaregion, planning and urban design expert Jonathan Barnett describes how to redesign megaregional growth using mostly private investment, without having to wait for massive government funding or new governmental structures. Barnett explains practical initiatives to make new development fit into its environmental setting, especially important as the climate changes; reorganize transportation systems to pull together all the components of these large urban regions; and redirect the market forces which are making megaregions very unequal places. There is an urgent need to begin designing megaregions, and Barnett shows that the ways to make major improvements are already available.

California Dreaming

California Dreaming
Author: Lawrence J. McQuillan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781598132434

Land of Opportunity-or Financial Armageddon? A crisis is brewing in California and elsewhere across the United States. For decades, public pension officials and politicians of both parties have promised their employees increasingly generous retirement benefits-while low-balling the contributions that are needed to cover these promises-presenting our greatest financial challenge since the Great Depression. Pushing today's pension liability onto our children and grandchildren leaves them with a depleted future and a potentially bankrupt California. State and local governments will scramble to find funds, forcing them to raise taxes, slash public services, and/or declare bankruptcy. Schools, parks, emergency services, and public-employee retirement benefits will be at risk. Politicians will defer until circumstances force them to reckon with a disaster of their own making. In California Dreaming, Lawrence J. McQuillan pulls back the curtains covering this unfunded liability crisis. He describes the true extent of the problem, explains the critical factors that are driving public pension debt sky-high, and exposes the perverse incentives that have rewarded lawmakers and pension officials for not fixing the problem and letting it escalate. Finally, he offers the six crucial reforms needed to restore the financial health of California and other threatened jurisdictions. If McQuillan's roadmap for reform is adopted, the prospects for achieving a thriving, balanced and equitable future are highly favorable. If not, the many opportunities that once made the Golden State seem like a Promised Land will quickly evaporate.

The Economics and Politics of High-Speed Rail

The Economics and Politics of High-Speed Rail
Author: Daniel Albalate
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2012-06-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0739171240

The technological revolution linked to high speed rail (HSR) has been accompanied by myths and claims about its contribution to society and the economy. Although HSR is unquestionably a technological advance that has become a symbol of modernity, this review and analysis of the international experiences shows that the conditions necessary to have a positive impact, economically, socially and environmentally, are enormously restrictive. The Economics and Politics of High Speed Rail: Lessons from Experiences Abroad, by Daniel Albalate and Germà Bel, introduces the main questions policy makers and scholars should examine when considering and studying HSR implementation, with particular emphasis on the US’s recent interest in this technology and possible application in California. Albalate and Bel then review the experiences of the most significant implementations of HSR around the globe. This in-depth international perspective includes chapters on the pioneers of HSR (Japan and France), the European followers (Germany, Spain and Italy), as well as Asian experiences in China, Taiwan, and Korea. Albalate and Bel’s study provides a clear distinction between the myths and realities associated with this transportation innovation. Among the most relevant findings, this study highlights how HSR projects that do not satisfy highly restrictive conditions—on mobility patterns, measured costs, and economically rational designs—that make it desirable have been the source of huge financial debacles and the economic failure of HSR in most cases, which result in unfortunate consequences for taxpayers. The Economics and Politics of High Speed Rail is a rigorous investigation of the economic and political challenges and ramifications of implementing new public transportation technology.