Meeting Agenda:
Faster Headlines
High Speed Flight - Next Week (With Badger Aviators)
High Speed Rail Alliance / Texas Central Railways
Walk to Go Faster
Faster Headlines:
UW-Madison International Division
The Bond Buyer
Smart Cities Dive Opinion
(Note: This is more about the author than the actual article)
Smart Cities Dive
NBC 5 St. Louis
Deccan Herald
vimeo
Wired
Interesting Engineering
From the Captain:
To build a high speed rail system, focus on walkability
Ok, I realize it doesn't make much sense at first. However, if you look at the design of high speed rail hubs throughout the world, those cities tend to be more walkable communities.
This occurs, because the high speed rail station are hubs from which the rest of the city spreads out from. Along those streets that spread out from the station are mixed use developments with shopping arcades along the streets with residential apartments/condos/town houses and offices above. The result is not only a lively a fun place to live, but is more sustainable and livable. After all, no longer are people stuck in cars at a stop light trying to simple go shopping or to work. Instead, they are mingling while walking together on the wide sidewalks around the cities.
The irony is that this design is not new. American cities back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century had this design. This is why it is easy to walk from the main rail station in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and San Diego to the major parts of the city. Even Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Denver were originally designed this way.
The irony is that walkable cities are more profitable for real estate developers AND for the cities themselves. By placing a high speed rail station at the core, we can build better future cities for everyone. Of course, the problem is we have no new high speed rail today in America, but once it gets going we are going to see a whole new revolution in the design of cities.
- Mike Schlicting
For more information:
Fortune Builders
Vintage Tech: Coming: Super Bullet Trains for America (1982)
Yep. It is the early 80s. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is at the top of the charts, Steve Jobs and Wozniak are working on the first version of the Mac, the cassette player is replacing the groovy 8 track player, and on television every pre teen kid is crazy about about autonomous Knight Rider Pontiac Firebird named KITT that talks (and gives more attitude than Siri or Alexa every will).
On the cover of Popular Mechanics in 1982 was the feature of the superfast high speed California train called the Highball. For drinkers, the name "Highball" may have lifted an eyebrow, but the name itself was based on the white sphere mounted on a pole that signals permission for a train to proceed at full speed, not the drink (maybe). Either way, this train was supposed to be the fastest in the world and speed through California from San Diego to San Francisco.
Nearly 40 years later, KITT is now long retired, and the majority of us are reading this on a MacBook Pro. The cassette player is history, but that bullet train featured... hmm, maybe someday?
Fun fact: the car's name was KITT (for Knight Industries Two Thousand) and was voiced by William Daniels. After the show ended, Daniels went on to be Mr. Feeny in the 1990s sitcom "Boy Meets World", and briefly in the pilot for Girl Meets World. For those of us who were KITT fanatics, it would be like Apple's Siri suddenly showing up as a comedian on YouTube. It just didn't seem right.