Steam Train Wedding - Music Video

As we were driving by a railway station in the Berner Oberland (Switzerland) we saw a steam engine being prepared for a trip. I screamed that we had to stop and go back. We got to the station in time to see a wedding party boarding the steam train for an excursion.

I just had to write a song about the experience. It's on YouTube: Steam Train Wedding.

Swiss International Air Lines: Minding the network (SFO 1)

Swiss Airlines just started a blog about flying and their operations. The first post was Swiss International Air Lines: Minding the network (SFO 1) is about scheduling flights. It was quite fascinating.

Another great source of information on flying is Patrick Smith's Salon column "Ask the Pilot". Patrick even answered one of my questions (about how flights are controlled over areas where there is no radar coverage, e.g. over the Atlantic Ocean). His explanations are clear and I really enjoy the fact that he says exactly what is on his mind (see some of his columns on security!).

The second Swiss Blog was on preparations for starting service in San Francisco. Of course I asked if they were making any special arrangements for "cows who come to San Francisco with flowers in their horns" but no response yet!

Cali Columbia's Bus Rapid Transit System Film

Here's a film from current TV on Cali Columbia's new bus rapid transit system which is called MIO. It's a nice film illustrating many of the benefits of BRT. At one point a user complains that she likes the older minibuses better - because the new system is too crowded! Not sure if that's really a negative ... a few more buses might solve the problem.

For a slightly less serious look at South American BRT systems check out my music video parody: The Bus From Curitiba on YouTube.

Two Vienna Musical Stars

Last fall IKEA set up a truck with their catalog cover furniture minus people at the MuseumsQuartier. Passers-by could have their photo taken in the scene. Thinking quickly I went downstairs into the U-Bahn station and asked to borrow the Mozart Kugel (a type of candy) man. Back upstairs to the photo shoot and now, here it is, two of Vienna's musical geniuses together on the same stage!

Don't forget to vote for my latest music video: Flowers in your Horns!

What the iPad means for social media

Nice article from Salon on social media:

What the iPad means for social media

And, don't forget my music video Psycho (Social) Networker on YouTube.

Posted using ShareThis

The Bus from Curitiba

My latest music video: "The Bus from Curitiba" probably needs some explanation, so here's a little bit about bus rapid transit and then the words with a couple comments.

Bus Rapid Transit and Public Transit Priority
Curitiba Brazil is famous for pioneering the development of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). In the 1970s the city decided to build a very efficient bus-based public transport network instead of a relatively short section of metro line (which would have cost the same amount of money). The results have been nothing short of fantastic.

Curitiba's BRT system has been replicated throughout the world, although not to the extent that it deserves. Many cities are seduced by the thought of rail-based public transport preferring the sexiness of rail over the benefits of creating a more comprehensive public transport network.

Rail-based public transport is critical in large cities where there is sufficient demand, but I think it's better to build an attractive and efficient public transport network - based on buses - and then replace buses with higher capacity rail lines when necessary rather then building 'starter rail lines' and hoping to attract riders. It's the network that enables people to get 'from everywhere to everywhere' thus addressing the oft heard complaint that "I can't get there with public transport."

For more information on Curitiba see: the great Streetfilms Curitiba video showing the system in operation and describing how it works; Professor Robert Cervero's excellent book The Transit Metropolis (which also describes many other interesting examples of public transport throughout the world); and the wikipedia article Rede Integrada de Transporte.

BRT can be defined as the systematic application of public transport priority techniques. Zurich is a great example of another approach towards systematically applying public transport priority techniques; rather than building any large project Zurich incrementally added improvements that speed-up bus and tram service over the last thirty years thus creating a fast and efficient surface public transport system. You can read more about Zurich in Professor Cervero's book and in some of my publications and on my website improving public transport efficiency.

The Bus from Curitiba - Words and Comments

I visited Curitiba to ride the buses in 1997. The city was extremely pleasant and enjoyable. In addition to the buses I remember a fantastic passion fruit smoothie. Here are the words:

Fast and fun and clean and quickly,
The bus from Curitiba comes cruising,
And when she comes the people all say ahh ...
When she moves she's like a Samba that
Rides so smooth and sways so gentle
That when she passes each one she passes says ahh ...
Oh I would ride her so gladly,
If transport planning wern't done so badly,
Yes, I would ride her so gladly,
But each bus that we put in a plan,
Just gets replaced by a tram,
Fast and fun and clean and quickly,
The bus from Curitiba comes crusing
And when she passes I smile
But we don't BRT
Not in our city,
No we just don't BRT.

OK, I am not being totally fair. Planning isn't always done badly, but as I outline above, I think too often we ignore the bus option (of course capital and operating funding programs also enter into the picture, but that's for another song). And, of course, trams make sense in larger cities with strong demand, but gladly and badly is a pretty good rhyme don't you think?

Psycho (Social) Networker

My newest music video on the perils of on line social networking. Hope you like it.

Swiss Travel System Video Contest - Bad News For Andy

Unfortunately my video entry for the Swiss Travel System Casting competition was not selected. Since I won't be heading to Switzerland, maybe somewhere else would be nice? Check out the video.

By the way, the Swiss Travel System Casting competition was lots of fun and congratulations to the winners! You'll really enjoy Switzerland and its fantastic travel system.

Swiss Travel System Video Contest!

Here's my entry in the Swiss Travel System's video casting contest. Please take a look and rate the video highly ... extra points for those who know what I am alluding to ... send me a comment! Thanks, Andy

Oh Lord, won't ya buy me a cobra tram?

Finally a new music video. Just before heading out to dinner with friends in Zurich I heard Janis Joplin's Mercedes Benz song. All I can say is that it was inspiring ... and I am not the only one, there's lots of versions on YouTube.

We went to dinner at a great little neighborhood restaurant with big windows on one of Zurich's public transport priority streets. All night long trams passed by until finally it clicked ...

Cobra trams are Zurich's new low floor streetcar. They were a bit undependable when they first arrived although seem to be doing well now. They are quite elegant: big windows, lots of room around the doors to move in and out, nice seats, clean lines and quiet. Their wheels are independent (in other words there is not a common axle between wheels on either side of the streetcar) which make them very quiet.

Unfortunately as the public transport vehicle manufacturing industry has consolidated over the last few years the major manufacturers have discontinued the "cobra" design, so Zurich's are unique. Here's a press release by the manufacturer Bombardier describing the cobra trams (PDF).

James Bond in Bremen

I have always believed that comedy is a great way to learn and communicate. My music video on high speed rail and some others I have "in production" are all done with that in mind.

At the VREF's Future Urban Transport Conference this week, Michael Glotz-Richter, from the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen's Sustainable Mobility department showed us two films on how James Bond was able to outwit his opponent using public transport and bicycling in Bremen. The films are great examples of using comedy to encourage sustainable transport. The public transport film is above, the James Bond bicycling in Bremen is here.

Zurich's public transport operator has been a leader in using comedy in transport advertising and has even done some research to determine its effectiveness. This sounds like a good Transportation Research Board paper!

Brûlé: Rail Transport Quality and Market Streets

Tyler Brûlé's weekly column in the Financial Times today World-class city or grim ghost town? addresses two of my favorite subjects: quality in rail transport and vacant storefronts on shopping streets.


First, transport. Brûlé is right-on in his questions about EuroStar and Belgium's rail stations. My favorite Belgium railway story is that in the International Airport - picture thousands of people coming from all over Europe every day to do EU business - the automated ticket machines don't take credit cards (photo above is of the ticket machine, photo on right is of the lines waiting to buy tickets - note they don't even use customer-friendly queuing system).

You can use your VISA card to buy gasoline at every gas station in the world ... when will railways learn?

By the way, I've written a song about the railway ticket machines, music video coming soon!

Second, empty storefronts. Again, Brûlé raises some interesting questions as he praises the large number of home-grown businesses on Lisbon's shopping streets. I have always thought that landlords are short-sited when they throw out solid local businesses in favour of chain stores.

But, crisis brings opportunities. We need to develop business models, call them market 2.0 streets. These streets would be managed using a cooperative approach: say one chain store, five local businesses with the six landlords sharing the profits. Add-in ideas like locally-based programming, extra cleaning and more safety - paid for jointly by the cooperative and we may be on to something.

Better yet, cheap storefronts on these streets for local businesses would be incubators - helping creative people to develop new ideas and products ... real products and services that people need. Could these market 2.0 streets be a path out of today's economic problems?

Uncle Jay Explains: Year-end! 12-22-08

Great video by Uncle Jay explaining all the news in 2008 in about 4 minutes. Here it is:

Finally good news in the papers!

Good news! I can return to the cafes of Vienna and walk by newstands with pride again! Here's proof, three newspapers from Cafe Prückel's collection.

Note it's also nice that the French and German's agree.

CERN Superconductor Video Rap

I just saw this music video on what the new supercollider at CERN is supposed to do (it was on a Wired Blog posting) of the top 10 physics videos. Finally, science presented in a way I can understand. Here's Wired's explanation of what happens in the LHC and what theories they hope to understand better and, here is the video - I just hope that the dancers don't give up their day jobs: