#efficient transit transport systems

[sustainabletransportday]

Sustainable transport, sustainable development.

Sustainable transport — with its objectives of universal access, enhanced safety, reduced environmental and climate impact, improved resilience, and greater efficiency — is central to sustainable development.

Apart from providing services and infrastructure for the mobility of people and goods, sustainable transport is a cross-cutting accelerator, that can fast-track progress towards other crucial goals, such as eradicating poverty in all its dimensions, reducing inequality, empowering women, and combatting climate change.

Find out more about sustainable transport and sustainable development in this interagency report.

#greening transport #safe transport #sustainable transport #transformative policies #efficient transit transport systems #affordable transport #accessible transport #agenda 2030 #paris agreement #green public transportation systems #world sustainable transportation day #26 november

[vivekguptahal]

Elevating America’s Public Transit Systems Through Digital Technology

As the world re-emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, transportation providers in the U.S. are facing challenges around the rider experience   with primary concerns like health and safety and expectations for sustainable public transportation systems. Transit agencies have their work cut out for them to meet these demands while dealing with labor shortages, supply chain issues and competition from ride-share services.

In addition, transportation providers are caught in a cycle of constrained spending and innovation. Transit agencies rely upon subsidies for financial support. As a result, they have been reluctant to invest in technology that would improve their services — so riders choose other methods of transportation. This in turn reduces the likelihood that the transit agencies will be able to be self-supporting, which leads them to continue to rely on subsidies. The federal government is currently attempting to address this loop with new investments in infrastructure improvements.

At Hitachi, we see these challenges as opportunities to innovate — and to elevate public transit systems in the U.S. We’ve partnered with Syniverse to offer modular technology solutions to these organizations so they can increase rider engagement and value while reducing the friction between passengers and their transit systems.

Keeping Up With the Pace of Change by Utilizing Digital Solutions

While transportation providers need to keep up with consumer demand, they also need to keep up with technology. By leveraging Syniverse’s CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) Concierge solution, Hitachi offers digital solutions that can be customized to elevate the rider experience. Each city’s transit system is different and has special requirements, so we designed this solution to be able to integrate with any carrier or telematics system. We’ve included modular building blocks that allow transportation providers to select the types of capabilities they want to introduce to their ridership, such as vehicle status, notifications and other communications. For example, using these modules, riders can sign up for alerts, ask for route status information and more — and they can do so through any wireless carrier.

Transforming Baton Rouge’s Transportation Experience

Hitachi collaborated with Capital Area Transit System (CATS) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to improve rider experiences. To start, we engaged with CATS and its operational stakeholders to find out what riders really care about. It turns out that the needs were fairly basic, such as having visibility into the timing and status of bus arrival.

CATS had a Computer-Aided Dispatch/Automatic Vehicle Location (CAD/AVL) solution that attempted to fulfill this need with an add-on, rudimentary SMS-based system that notified riders of a bus’s status, but it didn’t solve the real problem. We brainstormed ways to leverage this existing system to better serve passengers and came upon a quirk specific to Baton Rouge: The city has a regular rider community, but it also has a large rider community that only uses the bus system when there is an event like a football game.

Armed with this information, we built a system that notifies bus riders of coupons, so riders distribute themselves among a number of bus stops. This in turn reduces congestion and lines at stops during events and improves the rider experience. The system can offer other marketing opportunities for transit agencies, such as sending riders a coupon for a free coffee if a bus is late. With these types of capabilities, CATS sees better rider satisfaction, and the local merchant community gets to participate in this public service — tapping into a hyperlocal audience.

What Next?

We believe transit agencies do not have to decide between improving the rider experience and improving operational efficiency. You can have both, and Hitachi is helping agencies like yours break the cycle of constrained spending and innovation to realize those goals around the U.S. We’re your partner to deliver real, long-term results to both your riders and your organization through digital technology solutions.

Discover how Hitachi is unlocking value for society with Sustainable Innovation in Transportation:

#public transport system #Syniverse #cpaas (communications platform as a service) #operational efficiency #digital solutions #smart transportation #transportation technology #Capital Area Transit System #modular solutions #transit technology #modular technology #digital technology solutions #public transit systems #digital transportation solutions #passenger experience #public transit ridership #rider experience #digital transformation in transportation #decarbonization

[reasonsforhope]

"The amount of electricity generated by the UK’s gas and coal power plants fell by 20% last year, with consumption of fossil fuels at its lowest level since 1957.

Not since Harold Macmillan was the UK prime minister and the Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time has the UK used less coal and gas.

The UK’s gas power plants last year generated 31% of the UK’s electricity, or 98 terawatt hours (TWh), according to a report by the industry journal Carbon Brief, while the UK’s last remaining coal plant produced enough electricity to meet just 1% of the UK’s power demand or 4TWh.

Fossil fuels were squeezed out of the electricity system by a surge in renewable energy generation combined with higher electricity imports from France and Norway and a long-term trend of falling demand.

Higher power imports last year were driven by an increase in nuclear power from France and hydropower from Norway in 2023. This marked a reversal from 2022 when a string of nuclear outages in France helped make the UK a net exporter of electricity for the first time.

Carbon Brief found that gas and coal power plants made up just over a third of the UK’s electricity supplies in 2023, while renewable energy provided the single largest source of power to the grid at a record 42%.

It was the third year this decade that renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro and biomass power, outperformed fossil fuels [in the UK], according to the analysis. Renewables and Britain’s nuclear reactors, which generated 13% of electricity supplies last year, helped low-carbon electricity make up 55% of the UK’s electricity in 2023.

[Note: "Third year this decade" refers to the UK specifically, not global; there are several countries that already run on 100% renewable energy, and more above 90% renewable. Also, though, there have only been four years this decade so far! So three out of four is pretty good!]

Dan McGrail, the chief executive of RenewableUK, said the data shows “the central role that wind, solar and other clean power sources are consistently playing in Britain’s energy transition”.

“We’re working closely with the government to accelerate the pace at which we build new projects and new supply chains in the face of intense global competition, as everyone is trying to replicate our success,” McGrail said.

Electricity from fossil fuels was two-thirds lower in 2023 compared with its peak in 2008, according to Carbon Brief. It found that coal has dropped by 97% and gas by 43% in the last 15 years.

Coal power is expected to fall further in 2024 after the planned shutdown of Britain’s last remaining coal plant in September. The Ratcliffe on Soar coal plant, owned by the German utility Uniper, is scheduled to shut before next winter after generating power for over 55 years.

Renewable energy has increased sixfold since 2008 as the UK has constructed more wind and solar farms, and the large Drax coal plant has converted some of its generating units to burn biomass pellets.

Electricity demand has tumbled by 22% since its peak in 2005, according to the data, as part of a long-term trend driven by more energy efficient homes and appliances as well as a decline in the UK’s manufacturing sector.

Demand for electricity is expected to double as the UK aims to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 because the plan relies heavily on replacing fossil fuel transport and heating with electric alternatives.

In recent weeks [aka at the end of 2023], offshore wind developers have given the green light to another four large windfarms in UK waters, including the world’s largest offshore windfarm at Hornsea 3, which will be built off the North Yorkshire coast by Denmark’s Ørsted."

-via The Guardian, January 2, 2024

#uk #united kingdom #england #scotland #wales #northern ireland #electricity #renewables #renewable energy #climate change #sustainability #hope posting #green energy #fossil fuels #oil #coal #solar power #wind power #environment #climate action #global warming #air pollution #climate crisis #good news #hope

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Deb Chachra's "How Infrastructure Works": Mutual aid, the built environment, the climate, and a future of comfort and abundance

This Thursday (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. And on Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

Engineering professor and materials scientist Deb Chachra's new book How Infrastructure Works is a hopeful, lyrical – even beautiful – hymn to the systems of mutual aid we embed in our material world, from sewers to roads to the power grid. It's a book that will make you see the world in a different way – forever:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612711/how-infrastructure-works-by-deb-chachra/

Chachra structures the book as a kind of travelogue, in which she visits power plants, sewers, water treatment plants and other "charismatic megaprojects," connecting these to science, history, and her own memoir. In so doing, she doesn't merely surface the normally invisible stuff that sustains us all, but also surfaces its normally invisible meaning.

Infrastructure isn't merely a way to deliver life's necessities – mobility, energy, sanitation, water, and so on – it's a shared way of delivering those necessities. It's not just that economies of scale and network effects don't merely make it more efficient and cheaper to provide these necessities to whole populations. It's also that the lack of these network and scale effects make it unimaginable that these necessities could be provided to all of us without being part of a collective, public project.

Think of the automobile versus public transit: if you want to live in a big, built up city, you need public transit. Once a city gets big enough, putting everyone who needs to go everywhere in a car becomes a Red Queen's Race. With that many cars on the road, you need more roads. More roads push everything farther apart. Once everything is farther apart, you need more cars.

Geometry hates cars. You can't bargain with geometry. You can't tunnel your way out of this. You can't solve it with VTOL sky-taxis. You can't fix it with self-driving cars whose car-to-car comms let them shave down their following distances. You need buses, subways and trams. You need transit. There's a reason that every plan to "disrupt" transportation ends up reinventing the bus:

https://stanforddaily.com/2018/04/09/when-silicon-valley-accidentally-reinvents-the-city-bus/

Even the cities we think of as motorists' paradises – such as LA – have vast, extensive transit systems. They suck – because they are designed for poor people – but without them, the city would go from traffic-blighted to traffic-destroyed.

The dream of declaring independence from society, of going "off-grid," of rejecting any system of mutual obligation and reliance isn't merely an infantile fantasy – it also doesn't scale, which is ironic, given how scale-obsessed its foremost proponents are in their other passions. Replicating sanitation, water, rubbish disposal, etc to create individual systems is wildly inefficient. Creating per-person communications systems makes no sense – by definition, communications involves at least two people.

So infrastructure, Chachra reminds us, is a form of mutual aid. It's a gift we give to ourselves, to each other, and to the people who come after us. Any rugged individualism is but a thin raft, floating on an ocean of mutual obligation, mutual aid, care and maintenance.

Infrastructure is vital and difficult. Its amortization schedule is so long that in most cases, it won't pay for itself until long after the politicians who shepherded it into being are out of office (or dead). Its duty cycle is so long that it can be easy to forget it even exists – especially since the only time most of us notice infrastructure is when it stops working.

This makes infrastructure precarious even at the best of times – hard to commit to, easy to neglect. But throw in the climate emergency and it all gets pretty gnarly. Whatever operating parameters we've designed into our infra, whatever maintenance regimes we've committed to for it, it's totally inadequate. We're living through a period where abnormal is normal, where hundred year storms come every six months, where the heat and cold and wet and dry are all off the charts.

It's not just that the climate emergency is straining our existing infrastructure – Chachra makes the obvious and important point that any answer to the climate emergency means building a lot of new infrastructure. We're going to need new systems for power, transportation, telecoms, water delivery, sanitation, health delivery, and emergency response. Lots of emergency response.

Chachra points out here that the history of big, transformative infra projects is…complicated. Yes, Bazalgette's London sewers were a breathtaking achievement (though they could have done a better job separating sewage from storm runoff), but the money to build them, and all the other megaprojects of Victorian England, came from looting India. Chachra's family is from India, though she was raised in my hometown of Toronto, and spent a lot of her childhood traveling to see family in Bhopal, and she has a keen appreciation of the way that those old timey Victorian engineers externalized their costs on brown people half a world away.

But if we can figure out how to deliver climate-ready infra, the possibilities are wild – and beautiful. Take energy: we've all heard that Americans use far more energy than most of their foreign cousins (Canadians and Norwegians are even more energy-hungry, thanks to their heating bills).

The idea of providing every person on Earth with the energy abundance of an average Canadian is a horrifying prospect – provided that your energy generation is coupled to your carbon emissions. But there are lots of renewable sources of energy. For every single person on Earth to enjoy the same energy diet as a Canadian, we would have to capture a whopping four tenths of a percent of the solar radiation that reaches the Earth. Four tenths of a percent!

Of course, making solar – and wind, tidal, and geothermal – work will require a lot of stuff. We'll need panels and windmills and turbines to catch the energy, batteries to store it, and wires to transmit it. The material bill for all of this is astounding, and if all that material is to come out of the ground, it'll mean despoiling the environments and destroying the lives of the people who live near those extraction sites. Those are, of course and inevitably, poor and/or brown people.

But all those materials? They're also infra problems. We've spent millennia treating energy as scarce, despite the fact that fresh supplies of it arrive on Earth with every sunrise and every moonrise. Moreover, we've spent that same period treating materials as infinite despite the fact that we've got precisely one Earth's worth of stuff, and fresh supplies arrive sporadically, unpredictably, and in tiny quantities that usually burn up before they reach the ground.

Chachra proposes that we could – we must – treat material as scarce, and that one way to do this is to recognize that energy is not. We can trade energy for material, opting for more energy intensive manufacturing processes that make materials easier to recover when the good reaches its end of life. We can also opt for energy intensive material recovery processes. If we put our focus on designing objects that decompose gracefully back into the material stream, we can build the energy infrastructure to make energy truly abundant and truly clean.

This is a bold engineering vision, one that fuses Chachra's material science background, her work as an engineering educator, her activism as an anti-colonialist and feminist. The way she lays it out is just…breathtaking. Here, read an essay of hers that prefigures this book:

https://tinyletter.com/metafoundry/letters/metafoundry-75-resilience-abundance-decentralization

How Infrastructure Works is a worthy addition to the popular engineering books that have grappled with the climate emergency. The granddaddy of these is the late David MacKay's open access, brilliant, essential, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, a book that will forever change the way you think about energy:

https://memex.craphound.com/2009/04/08/sustainable-energy-without-the-hot-air-the-freakonomics-of-conservation-climate-and-energy/

The whole "Without the Hot Air" series is totally radical, brilliant, and beautiful. Start with the Sustainable Materials companion volume to understand why everything can be explained by studying, thinking about and changing the way we use concrete and aluminum:

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/11/17/sustainable-materials-indispensable-impartial-popular-engineering-book-on-the-future-of-our-built-and-made-world/

And then get much closer to home – your kitchen, to be precise – with the Food and Climate Change volume:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/06/methane-diet/#3kg-per-day

Reading Chachra's book, I kept thinking about Saul Griffith's amazing Electrify, a shovel-ready book about how we can effect the transition to a fully electrified America:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/09/practical-visionary/#popular-engineering

Chachra's How Infrastructure Works makes a great companion volume to Electrify, a kind of inspirational march to play accompaniment on Griffith's nuts-and-bolts journey. It's a lyrical, visionary book, charting a bold course through the climate emergency, to a world of care, maintenance, comfort and abundance.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

#pluralistic #books #reviews #deb chachra #debcha #engineering #infrastructure #free energy #material science #abundance #scarcity #mutual aid #maintenance #99 percent invisible #colonialism #gift guide

[amtrak-official]

Here is a list of all US transport mega projects (according to Wikipedia and projects I can think of) and their costs, rail projects are marked in blue:

Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel - 3.1 billion dollars

The Big Dig in Boston - 24.3 billion

Brightline West - 10 billion

California High-speed Rail - 100 billion

Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program - 4.6 billion

CTA Red Line Extension - 3.7 billion

Cresent Corridor Expansion - 2.5 billion

East Side Access - 11.1 billion

Evergreen Point Floating Bridge - 4.56 billion

Gateway Program - 16 billion

Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel expansion- 3.9 billion

The Interstate Highway system - 500 billion

John F. Kennedy International Airport Redevelopment - 19 billion

LaGuardia Airport Project - 8 billion

LAX renovations - 14 billion

Newark Airport Terminal A - 14 billion

O'Hare Modernization Plan - 8.8 billion

Ohio River Bridges Project - 2.3 billion

Project Connect in Austin - 7.1 billion

Puget Sound Gateway Program - 2.38 billion

Reagan Airport's Project Journey - 1 billion

San Francisco International Airport Redevelopment - 2.4 billion

Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge - 6.4 billion

Second Avenue Subway - 17 billion

DC metro Silver Line - 6.8 billion

MTA purple Line - 10 billion

Sound transit 3 - 50 billion

[probablyasocialecologist]

As the American sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein recognized, capitalism fuels economic growth through shifting the cost of that development onto the Global South. So long as this externalization of costs runs smoothly, those of us living in the Global North can enjoy a rich lifestyle and avoid suffering the consequences of environmental crises. This is how we’ve been able to avoid thinking seriously about the true cost of our expansive lifestyles for so long.

[...]

The dilemma is this: As the economy grows, the range of human economic activity grows too, which means that the volume of resource and energy consumption will also grow, making it difficult to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This is a historical tendency. In other words, even green economic growth may cause increases in carbon emissions and resource use in direct proportion to its success because economic growth is historically accompanied by more frequent consumption of bigger commodities, including ones in wasteful and carbon-intensive industries. This in turn will necessitate more and more dramatic increases in efficiency, but there is an insurmountable physical limit to the improvement of technological efficiency. This is the Growth Trap, a major pitfall awaiting capitalism as it attempts to establish a zero-carbon economy. The question is, can this trap be avoided? Unfortunately, escaping this trap is unlikely. Sustaining a growth rate of 2–3 percent for the GDP would necessitate the immediate reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent every year to hit the 1.5° C target. If we leave it to the market, the likelihood of achieving a yearly reduction rate as dramatic as 10 percent or more is very low.

[...]

Make no mistake: Green New Deal–style governmental platforms enabling large-scale investment into remaking nations at a fundamental level are indispensable in the struggle to combat climate change. It’s undeniable that we must make the transition to solar energy, electric vehicles, and the like. Public transportation systems must be expanded and made free to all, bicycle lanes must be built, public housing fitted with solar panels must be created—these sorts of works projects, driven by public spending, are all vital. But these things are not enough. It might sound counterintuitive, but the goal of any Green New Deal should not be economic growth but rather the slowing down of the economy. Measures to stop climate change cannot double as ways to further economic growth. Indeed, the less such measures aim to grow the economy, the higher the possibility they’ll work.

#kohei saito #degrowth #green new deal #planetary boundaries #Decoupling

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

Is it possible for a country to not have any private road vehicles unless you belong to government (but then they are still government vehicles loaned to government employees even if you're allowed a certain amount of private use as a perk)? There is a massive network of public transportation everywhere so there is little need of private vehicles. Also taxis are only run by the government and not private companies. Also how much would this help at with congestion on the road/gas prices?

Tex: I would hesitate to create a social hierarchy that depends on official permission to own and/or operate certain things that will likely end up being perceived as luxury goods, as historically it doesn’t end up well for the people with the special permissions. This seems like an attempt to solve a perceived problem by creating an incidental environment that will engender a culture of nepotism and corruption. This is a debate that has been going on in the real world for many, many years, and one of the products of this is alternative energy sources and incentivizing everyone (and I do mean everyone) into using public transportation more often. A government, as a general rule, likes to advertise their cost-cutting measures because it makes them look good and ensures fewer people are upset with them, so it seems politically more feasible to invest in public infrastructure for public transportation and give government employees stipends/bus passes/etc than designating them special permission to be the only ones to drive a personal vehicle.

Addy: Your world is set up such that only government employees (and maybe buses and taxis) have road privileges. What kind of city infrastructure will develop with those restrictions?

Public transit (of various forms) is only economically feasible if you have a high enough population density that people can walk to and from your public transit in a reasonable timeframe without having an absurd number of stops. That means that you'll have a moderate-to-high population density - think of the rows of townhouses you see on BBC. When you have a moderate-to-high population density, you also (generally, following natural development patterns) get a higher density of shops*. If you have shops close by, you can reach them by walking, without needing to use public transit at all. Following this chain of logic, when you have shops interspersed with residential homes, most everyday needs are fairly accessible by walking.

* Say a brand wants to have 5000 people in the region for each store. If you have 100 people per square mile, that means you have one store per 50 square miles. If you have 1000 people per square mile, you have one store per 5 square miles. If you have 5000 people per square mile, you can have one store per square mile.

So you've got walking (or wheelchair, etc) for most travel, and then buses/trains/subways/etc for going longer distances. Most people don't have access to cars, so your infrastructure is going to be based around foot travel. If you're a government employee, will a car really be a benefit to you? It'd be convenient for going between different cities and the like, but I imagine that it wouldn't be very efficient for traveling around town. Why does a foot-travel-based town need parking lots?

It doesn't.

Motorcycles and pickups could be useful in rural areas (hauling around animal feed and the like), but those aren't being used on public roads, so the restrictions wouldn't apply there.

For congestion… you design your roads based on the amount of traffic you see. If you don't have traffic, why would you have congestion? I'd recommend looking into light rail systems. England, Germany, Austria, etc – light rail is pretty useful.

For roads… I imagine them being similar to fire lanes and emergency access roads. Firetrucks need to be able to get anywhere in a reasonably fast manner, after all. Same for ambulances and police vehicles and whatever else might apply in your world (something something hospital helicopters). If you have buses, then you'll also have some kind of infrastructure for that. You'll also have some form of transportation for people traveling between cities (could be rail, could be road, depending on the purpose. Think of semi trucks, for example).

Gasoline. That's a bit trickier. What are petroleum products being used for in this country? How developed is the petrochemical industry? Supply and demand, yes, but you also get issues of economies of scale.

I'd really recommend looking at pre-car societies and their layouts. Also light rail and the history of petroleum (also Standard Oil). But to answer your question: congestion would be miniscule and gasoline would be a little complicated but probably doable.

Licorice: Is it possible? Yes, it’s perfectly possible. There are several islands around the world which have banned cars. One, which I have visited, is Hydra is Greece. Public transport is mostly conducted by mules and donkeys. Another is the channel island of Sark. 

A society in which only government employees are allowed to use cars would be an oppressive society, an  us-and-them society. It also begs the question of who counts as a government employee? Nurses and doctors? Train drivers? And why would most of them need a car?

If you want this imaginary society to be a utopia rather than a dystopia, you could allow private car ownership on a need basis. Emergency services workers need cars. Public transport drivers need cars, unless the public transport runs round the clock. Farms may sometimes need cars. For some disabled people and their carers, a car can transform their quality of life. So perhaps it is these people who should be granted a licence to own a car, rather than civil servants? 

Presumably people without cars will still be allowed to own bicycles, motorbikes, electric bicycles, scooters, segways, and other personal motorised methods of getting about. You’re going to need a good road infrastructure for these things and for the public buses and trams. 

If your country is self-sufficient in oil and gas, drastically reducing the number of cars on the road might have a local impact on gas prices. If it imports gas, then it may have less effect. Here’s an NPR article on how the price of gas is determined.

But remember, gas is used for many purposes beside driving cars, so a rise or fall in demand from private car owners may not have the impact on gas prices that one might expect. 

#google submitted #technology #transit

[andy-paleoart]

Primitive gardens | Jardins primitivos

🇬🇧

The Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction primarily affected marine life, resulting in a significant decline in various marine species. During the Ordovician, land was sparsely populated by simple, non-vascular plants such as liverworts and moss-like forms. These early terrestrial plants were not likely significant contributors to the extinction event, as their ecological impact was limited compared to the marine realm.

The extinction event itself is thought to have been driven by various factors, including glaciation, sea level changes, oceanic anoxia, and possibly volcanic activity. These factors primarily influenced marine environments, leading to the decline of marine species such as trilobites, brachiopods, and graptolites. The emergence and evolution of early land plants during this time were part of broader changes in Earth's ecosystems. As land plants continued to evolve and diversify in the subsequent periods, they would eventually contribute significantly to shaping terrestrial environments and ecosystems.

Silurian key-plants

The presence of Cooksonia in the fossil record signifies the adaptation of plants to terrestrial environments and their gradual divergence into various lineages that would eventually give rise to modern plant diversity. It represents one of the earliest vascular plants, marking a crucial step in the colonization of land by plants. Named after the paleobotanist Isabel Cookson, these plants were relatively small, reaching heights of only a few centimeters. Key features of Cooksonia include dichotomously branching stems with sporangia (reproductive structures) at their tips. It lacked leaves, roots, and a vascular system for efficient water transport. Instead, it relied on simple diffusion for nutrient uptake. Cooksonia is considered a transitional form between non-vascular plants like mosses and more advanced vascular plants.

Prototaxites is an extinct genus of large, tree-like organisms that initially thought to be a type of tree or fungus, but recent studies suggest that Prototaxites might have been a massive fungus-like organism. These structures could reach impressive heights, with some specimens exceeding eight meters. Prototaxites had a simple structure, consisting of a trunk-like body composed of tightly packed, vertically oriented tubes. The function of these structures is not entirely clear, but they are believed to have played a role in nutrient transport. The debate about whether Prototaxites was a giant fungus or a unique type of ancient plant continues among scientists. Regardless, it represents an intriguing chapter in the history of terrestrial life, providing insights into the diversity and ecological dynamics of ancient ecosystems during a time when complex land-dwelling organisms were still in their early stages of evolution.

🇧🇷

A extinção em massa Ordoviciano-Siluriano afetou principalmente a vida marinha, resultando em um declínio significativo de várias espécies marinhas. Durante o Ordoviciano, a terra era escassamente povoada por plantas simples, não vasculares, como hepáticas e formas semelhantes a musgos. Essas plantas terrestres iniciais não foram provavelmente contribuintes significativos para o evento de extinção, pois seu impacto ecológico eram limitados em comparação com o reino marinho.

O evento de extinção em si é pensado para ter sido impulsionado por vários fatores, incluindo glaciação, mudanças no nível do mar, anoxia oceânica e possivelmente atividade vulcânica. Esses fatores afetaram principalmente os ambientes marinhos, levando ao declínio de espécies marinhas como trilobitas, braquiópodes e graptólitos. A emergência e evolução das primeiras plantas terrestres durante esse período faziam parte de mudanças mais amplas nos ecossistemas da Terra. À medida que as plantas terrestres continuaram a evoluir e se diversificar nos períodos subsequentes, elas contribuiriam significativamente para moldar os ambientes e ecossistemas terrestres.

Plantas-chave do Siluriano

A presença de Cooksonia no registro fóssil indica a adaptação das plantas a ambientes terrestres e sua divergência gradual em várias linhagens que eventualmente deram origem à diversidade de plantas modernas. Ela representa uma das primeiras plantas vasculares, marcando um passo crucial na colonização da terra por plantas. Batizado em homenagem à paleobotânica Isabel Cookson, essas plantas eram relativamente pequenas, atingindo alturas de apenas alguns centímetros. Características-chave da Cooksonia incluem hastes com ramificações dicotômicas e esporângios (estruturas reprodutivas) em suas pontas. Ela não possuía folhas, raízes e um sistema vascular para transporte eficiente de água. Em vez disso, dependia da difusão simples para a absorção de nutrientes. A Cooksonia é considerada uma forma de transição entre plantas não vasculares, como musgos, e plantas vasculares mais avançadas.

O Prototaxites é um gênero extinto de organismos grandes, semelhantes a árvores, que inicialmente pensava-se ser um tipo de árvore ou fungo,mas estudos recentes sugerem que o Prototaxites pode ter sido um organismo gigante semelhante a um fungo. Essas estruturas podiam atingir alturas impressionantes, com alguns exemplares ultrapassando oito metros. O Prototaxites tinha uma estrutura simples, consistindo em um corpo semelhante a um tronco composto por tubos verticalmente orientados e compactados. A função dessas estruturas não é completamente clara, mas acredita-se que desempenhassem um papel no transporte de nutrientes. O debate sobre se o Prototaxites era um fungo gigante ou um tipo único de planta antiga continua entre os cientistas. Independentemente disso, ele representa um capítulo intrigante na história da vida terrestre, fornecendo insights sobre a diversidade e dinâmicas ecológicas de ecossistemas antigos em uma época em que organismos complexos que habitam a terra estavam em estágios iniciais de evolução.

#science #paleontology #geology #paleobotany #universe #biology #earth #digital painting #artwork #space #paleozóico #paleobotânica #plants #plantas #paleozoic #paleontologia #paleoart #climate #climate change

[visit-new-york]

Broadway, New York City

Steam Heating in the Concrete Jungle: A Comprehensive Analysis of New York City's Historic and Sustainable Heating Infrastructure

Introduction

1.1 Historical Overview of Steam Heating

Steam heating has a storied history in New York City, dating back to the mid-1800s. Before steam heating, buildings relied on individual coal-burning stoves or fireplaces for warmth, resulting in uneven heating and numerous health hazards. The advent of steam heating, pioneered by engineer Stephen Gold in the 1850s, marked a significant advancement in heating technology. It offered a centralized heating solution, where steam generated in large plants could be distributed efficiently through a network of underground pipes to individual buildings, providing consistent and reliable heat throughout the city.

1.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Steam Heating

The adoption of steam heating brought several advantages to New York City. It allowed for the elimination of individual heating units in each building, reducing maintenance costs and fire risks. Steam heating systems operate quietly, without the noise associated with forced-air systems, contributing to a more peaceful urban environment. Additionally, steam heating radiators became architectural features, adding a distinctive charm to buildings' interiors.

However, steam heating also presented challenges. One of the primary concerns was heat loss during steam transportation through the extensive underground pipe network. Proper insulation became crucial to mitigate energy waste and ensure efficient heat distribution. Additionally, as the steam system aged, it became susceptible to leaks, and repairing the aging infrastructure posed logistical and financial hurdles.

1.3 Comparison with Other Heating Systems

Compared to forced air and electric heating systems, steam heating offered unique benefits. Forced air systems, prevalent in modern construction, tend to create drafts and circulate dust, potentially exacerbating respiratory issues. Steam heating's ability to deliver consistent warmth without air movement was preferred in many buildings. Electric heating, while convenient and clean, often proved less efficient and costlier, especially for larger buildings served by the steam system.

How Steam Heating Works in New York

2.1 Steam Generation in Centralized Plants

The heart of the New York City steam heating system lies in its centralized plants. These large facilities, situated strategically throughout the city, house powerful boilers that generate steam from various energy sources, including natural gas, oil, and coal. In recent years, efforts have been made to transition towards cleaner fuels and renewable energy options, aligning with the city's sustainability goals.

2.2 Distribution of Steam in Underground Pipes

Once steam is produced, it is conveyed through an extensive network of underground pipes, known as steam mains. These mains crisscross the city, providing steam to thousands of buildings. The pipes are insulated to minimize heat loss, maximizing the efficiency of the distribution process.

2.3 Steam Radiators and Heat Exchange

Upon reaching individual buildings, the steam is directed to steam radiators or heat exchangers, depending on the building's size and heating requirements. Steam radiators are common in residential buildings, where the steam enters the unit and releases its latent heat as it condenses back into water, effectively warming the surrounding air. Heat exchangers are prevalent in commercial and industrial settings, where the steam's heat is transferred to the building's air or water distribution systems.

2.4 Steam Traps and Venting

Steam traps are essential components of the steam heating system. They are designed to remove condensate, the water formed when steam cools down, from the system. Proper venting is equally crucial, as it releases air and non-condensable gases from the pipes, preventing air locks and ensuring efficient steam flow. Specialized venting devices, such as air vents and steam traps, are installed throughout the system to maintain its optimal performance.

New York City Steam Heating System

3.1 Overview of NYC Steam System

The New York City steam heating system stands as one of the largest and oldest in the world. The responsibility for its operation and maintenance lies with private utility companies, which have historically managed the network's intricate web of steam mains, radiators, and heat exchangers.

3.2 Steam Plants in New York City

New York City's steam plants are strategically located to serve the varying heating demands of different neighborhoods. These plants are equipped with modern boilers and state-of-the-art emission control technologies to reduce environmental impacts. Efforts to further improve air quality and sustainability are continuously underway.

3.3 Steam Distribution Network

The steam distribution network encompasses over 100 miles of steam mains, which interconnect and branch to supply steam to individual buildings. The network's design considers factors such as pressure requirements, building density, and historical demand patterns to ensure an efficient and consistent supply of heat throughout the city.

3.4 Maintenance and Upgrades of NYC Steam System

Maintaining such an extensive steam heating system requires regular inspections and maintenance. The aging infrastructure presents challenges, making ongoing upgrades essential to ensure the system's longevity and continued efficiency. Modernization efforts include replacing older pipes with more robust materials, improving insulation, and upgrading boiler technologies to enhance energy efficiency.

Heating Buildings with Steam

4.1 Steam Heating in Residential Buildings

Steam heating systems are a common sight in older residential buildings across New York City. The iconic steam radiators, often found beneath large windows, have become cherished architectural elements. Residents appreciate the steady and cozy heat these systems provide during the harsh winter months.

4.2 Steam Heating in Commercial and Industrial Buildings

Commercial and industrial buildings extensively utilize steam heating due to its ability to meet the substantial heating demands of such structures. Heat exchangers play a crucial role in these settings, where steam heat can be efficiently transferred to large air or water distribution systems, catering to diverse heating requirements.

4.3 Steam Heat vs. Forced Air: Considerations and Comparisons

In the perennial debate between steam heating and forced air systems, each has its merits. While steam heating boasts even heat distribution, quiet operation, and a lack of airborne dust circulation, forced-air systems can also provide air conditioning and ventilation, adding flexibility to building comfort. The choice between these heating methods depends on the specific needs and priorities of each building owner or occupant.

Efficiency and Sustainability of New York City Steam Heating

5.1 Assessing the Efficiency of Steam Systems

Efficiency is a critical aspect of the steam heating system, as it directly affects operating costs and environmental impacts. Regular assessments of individual steam systems and the overall distribution network are conducted to identify opportunities for improvement. Efforts are focused on reducing heat loss, optimizing boiler performance, and upgrading insulation to maximize energy efficiency.

5.2 Environmental Considerations and Emissions

Given the environmental challenges of fossil fuel-based energy sources, New York City is actively exploring ways to reduce emissions associated with steam heating. Increased reliance on cleaner fuels, as well as integration with renewable energy sources, is being pursued to lower the system's carbon footprint and align with the city's commitment to sustainability.

5.3 Energy-Saving Measures and Upgrades

To further enhance the efficiency and sustainability of the steam heating system, energy-saving measures and technological upgrades are continually implemented. These may include installing advanced control systems for better operational management, adopting waste heat recovery techniques, and exploring the integration of renewable energy into steam generation.

Operation and Maintenance of New York City Steam Heating Systems

6.1 Proper Operation and Control of Steam Systems

Operating steam heating systems requires skilled personnel who are well-versed in the complexities of steam distribution and radiator control. Proper monitoring and adjustments to steam pressure and temperature are essential to maintain efficient heat distribution and prevent energy wastage.

6.2 Common Issues and Troubleshooting

Despite rigorous maintenance practices, steam heating systems can encounter occasional issues, such as leaks in underground pipes, uneven heating in specific areas, or water hammer (the loud noise resulting from sudden condensate contact with steam). Timely detection and troubleshooting are vital to minimize disruptions and ensure a comfortable indoor environment.

6.3 Safety Considerations and Maintenance Practices

The safe operation of steam heating systems is paramount, considering the high temperatures and pressures involved. Regular safety inspections and adherence to strict maintenance protocols are essential to prevent accidents, protect occupants and workers, and maintain the integrity of the entire steam heating infrastructure.

Future Trends and Alternatives to New York City Steam Heating

7.1 Innovations in Steam Heating Technology

As technology continues to advance, innovations in steam heating are expected to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the system. These may include advancements in boiler design, better insulation materials, and smart technologies that optimize steam generation and distribution, ultimately enhancing overall system performance.

7.2 District Energy Systems and Combined Heat and Power

District energy systems, also known as district heating or cooling, involve the sharing of heat and cooling resources among neighboring buildings. Such systems can enhance the efficiency of energy use and reduce overall emissions by utilizing waste heat from one building to serve the needs of another. Similarly, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems integrate power generation with steam generation, maximizing the utilization of energy resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

7.3 Exploration of Alternative Heating Methods

In pursuit of greater sustainability, New York City is exploring alternative heating methods that can complement or replace steam heating where feasible. Geothermal heating, solar thermal systems, and heat pumps are among the technologies under consideration. These systems harness renewable energy sources to provide heating, potentially reducing reliance on fossil fuels and contributing to a cleaner urban environment.

Conclusion

The New York City steam heating system has left an indelible mark on the city's history, revolutionizing how buildings are heated and providing comfort to millions of residents and workers. The network's robust infrastructure, combined with ongoing efforts to improve efficiency and sustainability, reflects the city's commitment to maintaining a reliable, efficient, and environmentally responsible heating system. As the future unfolds, advancements in technology and the exploration of alternative heating methods will further shape the destiny of steam heating in New York City, ensuring its relevance and resilience for generations to come.

#broadway #New York City #new york #newyork #New-York #nyc #ny #manhattan #urban #city #usa #buildings #visit-new-york.tumblr.com #New York City Steam

[threadatl]

Transit in Atlanta ranks low for government support per-capita, and that needs to be fixed

New research finds that U.S. transit systems that receive more government subsidies per capita end up with higher efficiency and higher ridership.

Unfortunately for us, Atlanta ranks near the bottom for government subsidy among the systems studied:

https://www.planetizen.com/news/2024/02/127345-research-reveals-subsidized-transit-more-efficient

In this graph from the study (published in Transportation, Nov 2023) you can see two important things:

1.) The higher the subsidy the more efficient the transit system

2.) ATL ranks very low on subsidy per capita, and has room to grow in terms of efficiency

Listen up, Georgia leaders. This state's weak support for MARTA is legendary.

Just this week, the governor of Pennsylvania announced that SEPTA, Philadelphia's transit system, will get $1 billion in state funding this year.

This is the kind of support MARTA deserves from Georgia.

#atlanta #urbanism #transit funding

[sustainabletransportday]

Statement by the U.N. Secretary General on the World Sustainable Transport Day 2023; November 26th.

This first World Sustainable Transport Day reminds us that the road to a better future depends on cleaner and greener transportation systems.

Transportation represents the world’s circulatory system, delivering people and goods across countries and around the world, creating jobs, and supporting prosperity.

But it is also fueling climate chaos.

The transport sector is responsible for approximately one quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. Ninety-one percent of the energy used in motorized transport on land, sea and air is derived from fossil fuels.

This makes the sector one of the most difficult to decarbonize.

But I am convinced humanity is up to the challenge of breaking our addiction to climate-killing fossil fuels, and creating resilient, efficient and low-carbon transportation systems grounded in innovative renewable energy sources.

From electric and solar-powered vehicles, to renewable aviation fuel sources, to massive investments in green public transportation systems, to measures like carbon pricing and subsidies for low-carbon fuels, we can steer our societies towards a cleaner and more sustainable path for people and planet.

There is no time to waste. Let’s get moving.

António Guterres

#World Sustainable Transport Day #26 November #united nations secretary general #statements #efficient transit transport systems #low-carbon transportation systems #solar-powered vehicles #green public transportation systems #renewable aviation fuel sources #low carbon fuels

[neoatlantiscodex]

The Utility of the Car

Any environmental discussion inevitably makes it's way to cars. On one side, they are holy chariots gifted to us by the hands of His chosen craftsman, Henry Ford. On the other side, they are the Antichrysler, whispering into the ears of our city councils, to get them to utterly destroy any competitors.

Both are true.

Cars with well-kept open roads provide incredible utility.

Cars with poorly kept roads provide moderate utility.

Cars without roads provide limited, but crucial utility.

Cars on crowded roads provide negative utility.

What we see in countries with good train systems that they have less drivers. Less drivers means that there is more room for the people who are driving. The same applies to walking, cycling, and any other form of public transit.

The place that cars are the best, long-distance drives on good roads, trains are better at. Train tracks require higher upfront costs, but have lower maintenance costs compared to the amount of traffic and material they can transport. Mountainous countries often focus more on trains, because trains can work on a single track. For whatever reason, they are more resistant to natural disasters, (apparently they are pillared in, but I'm really not sure why we don't do the same with roads).

When you bring a car to the large city, it immediately becomes a detriment. The only reason people would use a car in a city is because they have to. They have equipment they need to carry with them to do their jobs. Driving is their vocation.

Or they need access to outlying areas that do not have train service.

Or they are commuting from a place without train service. For major city centres, (high density), you can provide parking on the outside of the city centre, have pedestrian / cycling only areas, and... this will solve all of these problems. The pedestrian areas can be a couple blocks across. The pedestrian areas can be every second street, and it will still have the same effect.

If you move outside of the high density area, you can create medium density mixed usage pockets. Have the area outside be a 10/15 min walk to one of them, and then have trains or buses between them, and the whole thing gets ridiculously efficient.

If you do this, you will get cars off the road. You will get a LOT of cars off the road. Not through force, but through efficient roads, and efficient public transit.

While we're at it, the usual way of allowing a road to deal with more traffic is to add more road. But, the problem is inefficient intersections. By adding more roads, you are adding taking up more space, and overly doubling the cost of maintenance, without actually improving traffic flow. If you live in a place that gets snow, this dramatically increases the amount of time and energy you have to spend on clearing snow. If you are a place without snow, chances are you have a lot of sun. Adding more lanes over doubling the heat absorption from the sun.

And, if we do this, the debate about the efficiency of cars disappears, and drivers have lower traffic flow.

#neo-atlantis codex

[trainsinanime]

The ads for companies in the public transport sector, whether it’s people who build trains or people who make software for buses, usually read something like, “we’re looking for really good people, and we have jobs”. And that’s just boring; neither of these are specific to this industry. There’s usually nothing in there about why public transit in general and trains in particular matter. So let me sum up my thoughts about why you should care (and potentially work in this field), sort of as a manifesto.

First of all, it’s just plain fun. Big technical things, lots of people, lots of complicated technology… not everybody’s excited by that, and you don’t have to be to work in this field, but if you are, this is a big bonus.

The more important part is that it really, really matters:

Our planet is burning. We use too much energy from fossil sources, and transportation is a big part of that.

The fossil energy sources we have all suck; they destroy the environment not just when you burn the oil or gas, but already when you extract them (fracking), and they give power to all the worst people in the world.

The world keeps getting smaller, and people want to and have to travel more and more.

Cities keep getting bigger, and getting from end to the other becomes more and more of a pressing issue.

Cars don’t scale; they just make everyone miserable. Drivers hate traffic jams that happen no matter how wide the road is, and everybody else hates the noise and having to cram in what little space gets left over.

When we try to solve these issues, we find that a large number of fundamental things still remain true:

The most efficient way to travel is to travel together.

The more people you put in a vehicle, the cheaper it becomes per person/unit of freight.

The best way to drive something has always been the electric motor. There has never been an exception to it, the only problem has ever been getting power to it.

The easiest way of getting electric power to the electric motor is by plugging the vehicles in, meaning putting some way to give power alongside all of the way it travels on.

The dimension that scales the best is length, because height and width determine the cost of tunnels and bridges and infrastructure.

It’s more efficient to have one big vehicle, or lots of small ones controlled together, than lots of individual ones all with their own control and power systems.

The best and cheapest way to control all these vehicles together is to attach them mechanically and run some cables between them. Truck and car manufacturers have said they’ll do platooning via cameras and radar and radio and so on any day now for the past forty years. Train couplings have done it from day one.

The best way to ensure safety and performance is if all vehicles are automatically guided. This also helps with control, electricity supply and so on. Everything becomes so much easier if you know exactly where your vehicle will be in the horizontal position.

The best and cheapest way to automatically guide vehicles is by doing it mechanically. The method with two slightly tilted steel rails and conical steel wheels with flanges for tight corners that was invented in the 1820s still hasn’t been surpassed.

The best solution to transportation is public transport, especially with trains.

That is not to say that this is easy. For close to a hundred years now, our growing world has been built for cars first, while rail infrastructure wasn’t allowed to keep up and in most places actually went backwards. If we want more trains now, we’ll have to figure out how to run more trains on the infrastructure that already exists; how to transport more people and freight with fewer trains; and how to build new infrastructure in places that already exist and don’t necessarily have the space for it. And all of this has to be done as efficiently as possible, because excessive money spent on one project means another project may never happen.

That’s why the public transit and rail industry needs smart people, and why I’ve chosen to work there and can recommend it: We need more of it, and we need to run it smarter and cheaper every day. Every little bit helps, and every large bit helps even more.

#trains #public transit #public transport

[imperialchem]

Pantograph Insulators:  A Crucial Element in Overhead Contact Systems

Pantograph insulators play a crucial role in ensuring the effective operation of overhead contact systems (OCS) utilised in diverse transportation modes including trains and trams.  These insulators serve the purpose of establishing a dependable and secure electrical connection between the catenary wires and the pantographs on mobile vehicles.  This article examines the importance of pantograph insulators and emphasises the Pantograph insulator manufacturers in India like Radiant Enterprises, who play a pivotal role in the production of these important components.

·         Understanding Pantograph Insulators:

The topic of discussion pertains to the comprehension of pantograph insulators, which are specific electrical components employed in overhead contact systems designed for electrically propelled conveyance.  These components offer both electrical insulation and mechanical support, facilitating a reliable connection between the catenary wires and the pantographs.

·         Role in Overhead Contact Systems:

The role of pantographs in overhead contact systems is to establish and maintain contact between the catenary wires and the roofs of electrically driven vehicles.  Pantograph insulators play a crucial role in maintaining a reliable electrical connection by effectively impeding the transmission of electrical current to the body of the vehicle.

·         Manufacturers of Pantograph Insulators in India:

India is host to a number of esteemed Pantograph insulator manufacturers like Radiant Enterprises, who have expertise in the manufacturing of pantograph insulators.  The producers have state-of-the-art facilities and specialised knowledge to make insulators of superior quality and dependability.

·         Pantograph Insulator Manufacturing Process:

The production process entails the utilisation of materials of exceptional electrical and mechanical capabilities.  Insulators undergo a deliberate design, moulding, and testing process in order to fulfil the precise criteria and benchmarks established for pantograph insulators.

·         Customization for Diverse Applications:

Excellent Insulators for pantograph manufacturers in India like Radiant Enterprises provide customization choices to accommodate diverse transit modes and unique demands.  Insulators are engineered to exhibit resilience against diverse voltage, current, and environmental circumstances.

·         Quality Assurance and Standards:

Quality assurance and adherence to standards are key considerations for manufacturers in ensuring the compliance of their pantograph insulators with internationally recognised benchmarks.  Thorough testing is undertaken to validate the electrical, mechanical, and thermal characteristics, ensuring the safety and dependability of operations in OCS.

·         Technological Advancements:

Technological breakthroughs in the field of materials and manufacturing have resulted in the creation of insulators that exhibit enhanced performance, durability, and resilience against various environmental variables.

·         Sustainability and Environmental Considerations:

There is a growing emphasis among pantograph insulator manufacturers in India on the adoption of sustainable practices.  The company places a high importance on the use of environmentally friendly materials and methods in order to mitigate the adverse effects on the environment caused by production activities.

·         Supply Chain and Distribution:

The producers possess a robust supply chain and distribution infrastructure in place, which is designed to guarantee the prompt and efficient transportation of pantograph insulators to clients both domestically and internationally.

Final Thoughts:

It is evident that pantograph insulators hold significant importance in ensuring the integrity of electrical connections in overhead contact systems utilised in electrically powered vehicles.  The Insulators for pantograph manufacturers in India like Radiant Enterprises play a vital role in enhancing the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of these systems through the production of pantograph insulators that are characterised by high-quality and innovative technological features.  The significance of pantograph insulators in contemporary transportation is emphasised by their unwavering commitment to excellence and advancement.

#Pantograph insulator manufacturers in India #Pantograph insulator manufacturers #Insulators for pantograph manufacturers in India #Railway #Thirdrail #pantographs #epoxyinsulator #epoxybushings #business #manufacturer #locomotive #tramways #railway technology companies

[sincerelyciarra]

A Non-Exhaustive Ranking of a few Major Train Systems, by an American who REALLY appreciates Convenient Public Transport

🚞🚂🚅🚝🚞🚂🚅🚝🚞🚂🚅🚝🚞🚂🚅

Amtrak (USA): One of the only public trains in the US and the first train I ever used. Comfortable seats and wifi throughout and all the seats have little tables on the back like planes have, which is nice. Unfortunately, the US transit system being what it is, it’s only really useful for traveling between large cities, not within a city itself. 6/10

The Subway (NYC): Yooooooo. Truly a Boss Bitch™ of public transportation. A little overwhelming at first due to the SHEER MAGNITUDE of the system but very easy to use, convenient, and affordable as all transfers are free. Points taken off for poor ADA accessibility at the majority of stations and because she’s definitely the grimiest. Also these trains should have wifi by now, Jesus. 8/10

The L (Chicago): The Subway’s baby sister who maybe got a little too into recreational drugs during college but she took a semester off and she’s doing much better now. I live in Chicago so I’m biased, but I LOVE the L. Definitely not as many stations as NYC or London (RIP to the West Side) but pretty much the only way to get around downtown unless you want to get an Uber or pay out the ass for street parking; (we don’t have taxis in Chicago.) She’s not perfect but I love her and I’m the one doing the rankings so… 7/10

The Underground (London): Why??? Is it so??? Fucking HOT on the Underground??? Like, the NYC subway is pretty cold because it’s underground, and you’d think that a train system literally called The Underground would be similar, but guess a-fucking-gain. Also the train cars are weirdly narrow? There’s pretty much no standing room except for directly in front of the doors which is bizarre to me, especially given how tube-reliant London is. Also the seats have armrests which is cool I guess? Gets points back for better accessibility compared to most others, INCREDIBLE efficiency, and for the delightful intercom announcements - Mind the Gap, y’all 8/10

Métro (Paris): The entire rail system in Paris is so needlessly convoluted, it makes every other system on this list look 5x better in comparison. I had to go to a counter and buy MULTIPLE PAPER TICKETS for all the transfers because tap to pay at the terminal didn’t work. And GOD HELP YOU if you get all these fiddly little paper tickets mixed up, because once you scan them, even if the machine doesn’t process it and gives you an error, that bitch is GONE. (Shout out to the many random Paris locals that helped me navigate their hell-system with two suitcases.) Also, the fewest seats per train of all of them, which is just extra insult to injury. I did eventually get to where I needed to be so I guess there’s that. I guess. 3/10

Eurostar (Europe): She is Expensive, but there are bathrooms, food, and wifi onboard. And I got a passport stamp! 8/10

#rankings with Ciarra #unhinged ramblings with Ciarra #sequel to my veggie ranking #I said what I said and I’m sorry for nothing #but genuinely what is up with the Paris Metro?? #can you tell the Métro made me big mad tonight?? #can you?????

[reliaabledevelopers]

The Importance of Thoughtful Layouts and Development Plans in Bangalore's Plot Projects By Reliaable Developers

Bangalore, the­ technological hub of India, stands out for its rapid progress and thriving cityscape. With the­ city’s continuous expansion, the nee­d for residential and commercial space­s rises, leading deve­lopers to initiate plot developments. In this urban me­tropolis, where space is pre­cious, well-designed layouts and deve­lopment plans hold immense value­. These ele­ments shape not only the physical infrastructure­ but also impact the residents’ quality of life­, environmental sustainability, and overall we­ll-being. Let’s explore­ the significance of thoughtful planning in Bangalore­’s plot projects.

Maximizing Space Utilization:

A key be­nefit of thoughtful layout planning is efficie­ntly utilizing available space. For a city like Bangalore­, where land comes at a pre­mium cost, every square foot de­mands optimization. Thoughtful layouts allow developers to craft compact ye­t functional designs, harmoniously integrating amenitie­s, green spaces, and infrastructure­. By maximizing space utilization, develope­rs address the growing population’s nee­ds without compromising comfort or convenience. Re­liaable Develope­rs, renowned for their BDA plotted development, embody this principle through mixe­d-use developme­nts, seamlessly blending re­sidential, commercial, and recre­ational areas.

Enhancing Connectivity and Accessibility:

Well-de­signed developme­nt initiatives in Bangalore focus on connectivity and e­asy access. The layouts incorporate road ne­tworks, public transit hubs, and pedestrian pathways, ensuring smooth mobility within and around the­ area. Convenient acce­ss to key spots like schools, hospitals, malls, and job hubs enhance­s the neighborhood’s overall livability. Furthe­rmore, efficient transport infrastructure­ reduces traffic jams and pollution, promoting a sustainable urban e­nvironment. Reliaable­ Developers projects, such as Re­liaable Developers Ecity located near Apollo Hospital, Infosys, and other major institutions, showcase a robust transportation ne­twork. This exemplifies the­ir dedication to boosting connectivity and accessibility.

Fostering Community Engagement and Social Cohesion:

Preserving Environmental Sustainability:

Urbanization in Bangalore has sparke­d environmental worries ove­r natural resource deple­tion and ecological instability. Sustainable deve­lopment emphasizes e­nvironmental protection by conserving gre­en spaces, natural resource­s, and adopting eco-friendly designs. Incorporating rainwate­r harvesting, solar panels, waste manage­ment systems, and gree­n building technologies minimizes the­ project’s environmental impact, aligning with the­ city’s sustainability goals. Moreover, prese­rving biodiversity corridors and urban green be­lts enhances climate change­ resilience and biodive­rsity. Reliaable Deve­lopers projects like Re­liaable Dollars Colony and Reliaable Developers Ecity imple­ment rainwater harvesting and othe­r sustainable practices, refle­cting their commitment to sustainability.

Ensuring Long-Term Viability:

In today’s rapidly expanding citie­s, it’s crucial to design neighborhoods that can adapt and thrive ove­r time. Reliaable De­velopers Bangalore carefully plans the­ir projects to meet future­ needs, population changes, and urban growth patte­rns. Their layouts allow for flexibility, with mixed-use­ zoning and infrastructure that can be modified as the­ city evolves. This helps protect against pote­ntial challenges or crises. Both inve­stors and residents praise Re­liaable Develope­rs plots long-term viability in Reliaable Developers reviews. The­y appreciate the company’s commitme­nt to creating sustainable, resilie­nt communities that can withstand the test of time­.

Conclusion:

Careful planning and thoughtful layout de­sign play vital roles in Bangalore’s plot projects. The­se eleme­nts influence the city’s characte­r, usability, and long-term sustainability beyond mere­ construction. Maximizing space usage, enhancing conne­ctivity, promoting community interaction, preserving e­nvironmental well-being, and e­nsuring lasting viability requires meticulous planning. This e­stablishes the foundation for vibrant, resilie­nt, and livable neighborhoods as Bangalore grows. Inve­sting in thoughtful urban development de­monstrates a commitment to creating a be­tter future for gene­rations. Reliaable Deve­lopers exemplify this vision through the­ir emphasis on sustainable practices and thoughtful planning for a thriving Bangalore­.

About Reliaable Developers:

Established in 1999 by Dr. Rama Re­ddy and Mr. H.P. Rama Reddy, Reliaable De­velopers has bee­n a leading name in Bangalore’s re­al estate sector. Led by Dr. Rama Re­ddy and Dr. Mahendra Reddy, the company combine­s tradition with innovation in their approach. With a focus on developing BDA-approve­d plots, they have­ successfully delivere­d over 15,000 plots across prime locations in Bangalore. Custome­rs frequently praise the­ company’s dedication to excellence and convenient locations of the­ir BDA-approved plots in Reliaable Developers revie­ws, further solidifying its positive reputation in the real estate sector. Notable projects that de­monstrate their commitment to quality and time­ly completion include Reliaable­ Lifestyle and Dollar Colony. They envision a future driven by innovation and sustainability.

#reliaabledevelopersplots #reliaabledevelopersecity #reliaabledevelopersbangalorereviews #reliaabledevelopersbangalore #bdaplotsnearme #bdaplotteddevelopment #reliaabledeveloperprojects #bdaplotsforsaleinbangalore #bdaplotsbangalore #reliaabledevelopersprojects