Comments for Discovering Transit in Montana

Comment on Green Communities by danielnairn

danielnairn — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:13:05 +0000

“Think about this when we’re all pumping $4/gallon gas this summer, and imagine that money invested in better communities.”

It’s depressing to think of where all of my gas money ends up. A good portion goes to put more profits into the hands of multi-national oil companies, much more to fund some regimes that don’t care for us very much, a few more cents to the refineries, some tax money to pave over more land for us to drive on … and only a smidgen goes to the local gas station owner (they earn most of their profits from convenience store purchases). This money is just flowing right out of our communities.

Comment on Green Communities by Green Communities · Atlanta Senior Community Living and Retirement Homes

Green Communities · Atlanta Senior Community Living and Retirement Homes — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:16:54 +0000

[…] Benjamin Courteau released a breaking post on Green Communities. See below for a quick excerpt: […]

Comment on Zoning in the Root I. by danielnairn

danielnairn — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:23:10 +0000

“Land use planning and transit must go together.”

I’m glad you brought this up. I hear lots of good discussions over what to do about the I-93 corridor (including your post last week) and I know that the county is undergoing this huge zoning rewrite at the same time. Do you know the extent of the coordination between these two projects? I agree with you that they are both basically approaching the same challenge from different angles.

Comment on “Pie-in-the-sky” by Discovering Transit in Montana » Blog Archive » Using the Envision Missoula process to get more bus wheels going ’round and ’round.

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:45:33 +0000

[…] a strong showing from the business community at last week’s Envision Missoula meeting, Missoulians were overwhelmingly in support of […]

Comment on “Pie-in-the-sky” by Missoula Building Industry Association Calls for More Sprawl « 4&20 blackbirds

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:32:46 +0000

[…] Really - go read it. […]

Comment on Dead Planning Reaching Another Stand-Still by bcourteau

bcourteau — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:05:59 +0000

While it was nice to vindicate what I have known all along, that people in Ravalli County want transit, I think I’d rather see it actually happening than a bunch of statistics. At $3+/gallon people between Hamilton and Missoula are hurting. We need an alternative so that people can reduce their high transportation costs, and buy food with that $$$ instead.

Comment on The Well-Informed Bus Rider by danielnairn

danielnairn — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:10:14 +0000

Thanks for cluing me in to Google Transit. I use Gmaps all the time, but I had no idea that the transit function even existed. I agree that it has the potential to revolutionize public transportation. This summer my wife and I struggled quite a bit to figure out the bus network in Victoria, B.C. for just a half hour trip. The only booklet we found was just an addendum, and everyone we asked seem to tell us to take a different line. Finally, we just found a bus, got on, and asked the driver where to go. He was fortunately very patient with us. It was pretty convoluted, but we made it there eventually. If I only knew of Google Transit!

Missoula isn’t available yet. Do you know how to get this set up?

Comment on The Strengths of Temporal Use by Jordan Hess

Jordan Hess — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:28:01 +0000

the most noteable examaple is Bogota, Columbia, with a car-free city on Sunday mornings. Estimates are that +/- 2 million people (25% of the city) hit the streets and socialize or exercise on bikes. An article on the subject by Ken Kruckemeyer.

Comment on The Strengths of Temporal Use by danielnairn

danielnairn — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:16:56 +0000

huh, beyond carpool lanes, I hadn’t really considered temporal use. Some of these ideas have potential. It seems that the main issue would be communicating clearly to all users of the changes. Perhaps street signs could also be malleable in some way. Maybe, also, as internet becomes more ubiquitous, there will be better ways to pass this information along (wireless connected GPS units?)

The incremental change value is worth considering too. While, we are not at the place where a car-free downtown would work yet, why not inch our way toward it and see how far the public would want it. I would vote for Sunday to give it a shot. Kind of a slower day ,business-wise, as it is.

I wonder it any towns do something like this already ?

Comment on Induced Demand and Transit by nancywilson

nancywilson — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:39:04 +0000

Let’s get the state to invest in transit at least to Lolo and get it started by next fall. This transit should be opporated by Mountain Line. The state is investing heavily in Bozeman and Glacier and we need to get a piece of the pie. Missoula and Ravalli counties have been held up by this 5 Valley process that has been mostly a waste of time and it has kept this region from receiving any of the funding that Max Baucus got for Montana. I bet he wouldn’t be pleased to know that the region that elects democrats isn’t being treated well by MDT in the process of distributing his hard fought for funds.