Category Archives: Mass Transit / Public Transit

Roundabouts

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Roundabout

Roundabouts are a road design used to replace a traditional four or six-way intersection, referred to as a crossroads intersection, with a circular path around which traffic flows, continuously, in one direction. The graphic provides an overview of such a roundabout.

For a driver not accustomed to this sort of intersection, a roundabout may be disconcerting at first. However, study after study shows that in the right locations roundabouts are an improvement over more traditional crossroad intersections in two ways: by increasing the flow of traffic and by reducing (by 76%) the number of injury-producing accidents. The reduction in accidents leading to fatalities in a roundabout versus a crossroad intersection is even greater since speeds are reduced throughout the intersection. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are 90% fewer fatal accidents in crossroads intersections that have been replaced by roundabouts.

Today’s market size is the estimated number of roundabout intersections worldwide, in 1997 and in 2012.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 1997 and 2012
Market size: 35,000 and 60,000 respectively
Source: “The Widening Gyre,” The Economist, October 5, 2013, page 16. The graphic comes from a Michigan Department of Transportation website, here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Transportation
Posted on November 25, 2013

Catastrophe Bonds

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Catastrophe bonds, or cat bonds, are bonds sold by an entity wishing to reduce its liability in the face of catastrophic losses such as the ones being caused by the seemingly increasingly violent natural storms occurring around the world. The market for cat bonds has been strong and growing as both the need for risk mitigation has risen as have the number of large investors searching for lucrative investment opportunities in an era of low interest rates.

An example of a cat bond is one issued by New York City’s transit authority in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. When insurance carriers, reeling from the costs associated with that storm, hesitated to underwrite the risk of future water surges, the transit authority issued a catastrophe bond in the amount of $200 million. The money will be used to repair damage to the subway system in the event of another flooding storm that reaches the same levels as Sandy within the next three years. If there is no serious storm within that period of time, the money will be returned to investors with an interest payment that—in 2012 for cat bonds—was running at 11% over the rate for Treasury Bills.

Today’s market size is the total value of catastrophe bonds outstanding as of October 1, 2013, worldwide.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2013
Market size: $19 billion (up from $4 billion a decade ago)
Source: “Perilous Paper,” The Economist, October 5, 2013, pages 76-77.
Original source: Swiss Re Capital Markets
Posted on November 20, 2013

Bike Parking Racks

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The current Transportation Commissioner in New York City, Janette Sadik-Khan, is working on increasing the ease with which people are able to use bicycles in that city, even encouraging people to use bikes as their commuter vehicles. While New York has a long way to go to reach the level of biker welcomeness found in other large, world cities it has made progress, doubling the number of bike paths to an estimated 500 miles since 2007. As biking becomes easier in the “Big Apple” the demand for more safe places to park bikes is expected to continue to rise.

Today’s market size is the estimated number of bike parking racks in place in New York City as of the summer of 2011.

Geographic reference: New York
Year: 2011
Market size: 12,800
Source: Frank Bruni, “Bicycle Visionary,” The New York Times, September 11, 2011, page SR1.
Original source: NYC Department of Transporation and John Pucher, co-author of an upcoming book titled City Cycling.
Posted on September 12, 2011

Public Transportation

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The Capital Area Transit Authority (CATA) is the largest public transit provider in the Lansing, Michigan tri-county area. The tri-county area consists of Ingham, Clinton, and Eaton counties. CATA has been operating public transportation in the area since 1972. Ridership grew steadily during the 1970s, before leveling off during the 1980s and most of the 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s, the number of rides fluctuated around 3-4 million annually. In 1999, CATA took over the Michigan State University bus service. Since then ridership has increased nearly 3-fold. In contrast, the population of the tri-county area grew by 22.6% from 1970 to 2010. Data represent the number of rides annually on CATA vehicles in 1972 and 2010.

Geographic reference: Lansing, Michigan area
Year: 1972 and 2010
Market size: Less than 1 million rides and 11.35 million rides respectively
Source: “CATA Demand Grows with Community Need,” CATA 2011 Community Report: Greater Lansing on the Move, August 2011; Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, “Tri-County Regional Growth: Choices for Our Future,” Draft Report, August 2002 available online here; “Ingham County, Michigan” available online here; “Clinton County, Michigan” available online here; and “Eaton County, Michigan” available online here

Public Transportation in Detroit, Michigan

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In 1945, public transportation in Detroit consisted of 22 streetcar lines. The last streetcar line stopped operation in April 1956. By 2010, public transportation in Detroit consisted of 48 bus routes serving Detroit and 22 surrounding communities. Data show the annual number of passengers that rode these forms of public transportation in the city.

Detroit is known as the home of the auto industry and as such has never been a strong proponent of mass transit. Furthermore, and worth noting in this context, is the fact that in 1945 the City of Detroit had a population of approximately 1,736,000 and in 2010 its population was less than half this number (715,000). Is the shrinking of this once major U.S. city in any way related to its lack of mass transit offerings? That is a question we can not answer in this brief little blog but it is food for thought.

Geographic reference: Detroit, Michigan
Year: 1945 and 2010
Market size: Nearly 500 million and less than 40 million respectively
Source: Doug McInnis, “Talk of the Town: Midtown Detroit Undergoes an Economic Revival,” Wayne State, July 2011, pages 10-19; “DDOT FAQ’s,” available online here.
Original source: 1945 data compiled by the late transit historian Jack Schramm.
Posted on August 2, 2011