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A Fantasy of a Sane Transit System, Part V.

July 1, 2016 by Exangel

by Rustin Wright.

Getting more from less.

As the system started to get built, the DTC found that once it was going all around the city doing so much research and building all of this infrastructure, perhaps there were other things that these same tasks could assist in as well. After all, a modern bus stop, with a little solar panel on top and some modest lighting, as is increasingly common, is entirely capable of serving as an emergency shelter after an earthquake, fire, or other emergency. So why not make that solar panel and associated battery and electronics a bit more capable? Then put a couple of covered outlets built into one of the pylons. And should an emergency come, with the opening of a small door now people will be able to charge their phones, there is room to store a first aid kit, and people can be sure of a bit of space out of the weather with some modest light to provide medical aid, review documents, and so on. And, of course, once you’ve done that building out, the bus stops can qualify as emergency preparedness for state and federal funding, as well as technical assistance set aside for those needs.

And as the DTC studied its city’s rights of way and traffic patterns, it discovered it just made sense to place that data on a shared web  server where it could not only be used by the city’s road repair crews but also by delivery services, citizens planning construction, and so on.

And when something like an overpass needs to be rebuilt or services rerouted why not use that chance while the roads are torn up and the pipes and wires exposed to build a public bathroom or two? After all, the managers of projects like getting more toilets into New York City’s and London’s public parks, and the Portland Loo have long said that the most expensive part of a public bathroom is the cost of getting the plumbing and wiring in place.

So, over time, aspects of the DTC get subsumed into something broader, a public shared research and data service for everything connected to rights of way. Which on top of everything else, considerably breaks up the willful obfuscations which have long been used by for profit electric companies, cable providers, and their ilk to preserve their monopolies on cost effective “last mile” implementation.

One problem with this is that with so much information in the public’s hands there would always be a desire for the public to micromanage. After all, possession of a large amount of data can all too easily seduce somebody into a sense of superior competence and understanding. So while by and large this mandate for transparency is held to, there is, over time, an occasional uncomfortable awareness that by doing so it makes it harder to stick to the DTC’s other commitment of absolutely minimizing unneeded changes to routing, schedules, or other aspects of service.

And as all of this vast complex web has come together, another inevitable conflict has developed.

If a pedestrian bridge is built over a highway to allow better access to a transit station, is that bridge the “legitimate turf” of the state highway department, the city department of transportation, the DTC, or agencies responsible for access issues for the less able-bodied? There is almost never a simple answer to this. But a mandate is established to do all that can be done to determint these things clearly consistently and on the record as the system is developed.

Filed Under: EAP: The Magazine, Summer 2016: I Want the World.

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In This Issue.

  • Who Was Dorothy?
  • Those Evil Spirits.
  • The Screaming Baboon.
  • Her.
  • A Tale of Persistence.
  • A Conversation with Steve Hugh Westenra.
  • Person Number Twelve.
  • Dream Shapes.
  • Cannon Beach.
  • The Muse.
  • Spring.
  • The Greatness that was Greece.
  • 1966, NYC; nothing like it.
  • Sun Shower.
  • The Withering Weight of Being Perceived.
  • Broken Clock.
  • Confession.
  • Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse.
  • Sometimes you die, I mean that people do.
  • True (from “My Life with Dogs”).
  • Fragmentary musings on birds and bees.
  • 12 Baking Essentials to Always Have in Your Poetry.
  • Broad Street.
  • A Death in Alexandria.
  • My Forked Tongue.
  • Swan Lake.
  • Long Division.
  • Singing against the muses.
  • Aphorisms from “What Remains to Be Said”.

In The News.

That cult classic pirate/sci fi mash up GREENBEARD, by Richard James Bentley, is now a rollicking audiobook, available from Audible.com. Narrated and acted by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio, you’ll be overwhelmed by the riches and hilarity within.

“Captain Sylvestre de Greybagges is your typical seventeenth-century Cambridge-educated lawyer turned Caribbean pirate, as comfortable debating the virtues of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and compound interest as he is wielding a cutlass, needling archrival Henry Morgan, and parsing rum-soaked gossip for his next target. When a pepper monger’s loose tongue lets out a rumor about a fleet loaded with silver, the Captain sets sail only to find himself in a close encounter of a very different kind.

After escaping with his sanity barely intact and his beard transformed an alarming bright green, Greybagges rallies The Ark de Triomphe crew for a revenge-fueled, thrill-a-minute adventure to the ends of the earth and beyond.

This frolicsome tale of skullduggery, jiggery-pokery, and chicanery upon Ye High Seas is brimming with hilarious puns, masterful historical allusions, and nonstop literary hijinks. Including sly references to Thomas Pynchon, Treasure Island, 1940s cinema, and notable historical figures, this mélange of delights will captivate readers with its rollicking adventure, rich descriptions of food and fashion, and learned asides into scientific, philosophical, and colonial history.”

THE SUPERGIRLS is back, revised and updated!

supergirls-take-1

In The News.

Newport Public Library hosted a three part Zoom series on Visionary Fiction, led by Tod.  

And we love them for it, too.

The first discussion was a lively blast. You can watch it here. The second, Looking Back to Look Forward can be seen here.

The third was the best of all. Visions of the Future, with a cast of characters including poets, audiobook artists, historians, Starhawk, and Mary Shelley. Among others. Link is here.

In the News.

SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY is now an audiobook, narrated by Last Word Audio’s mellifluous Colby Elliott. It launched May 10th, but for a limited time, you can listen for free with an Audible trial membership. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to the wonders of how Arcadia was born from the worst section of the worst neighborhood in the worst empire of all the worlds since the universe began.

In The News.

If you love audio books, don’t miss the new release of REPORT TO MEGALOPOLIS, by Tod Davies, narrated by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio. The tortured Aspern Grayling tries to rise above the truth of his own story, fighting with reality every step of the way, and Colby’s voice is the perfect match for our modern day Dr. Frankenstein.

In The News.

Mike Madrid dishes on Miss Fury to the BBC . . .

Tod on the Importance of Visionary Fiction

Check out this video of “Beyond Utopia: The Importance of Fantasy,” Tod’s recent talk at the tenth World-Ecology Research Network Conference, June 2019, in San Francisco. She covers everything from Wind in the Willows to the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, with a look at The History of Arcadia along the way. As usual, she’s going on about how visionary fiction has an important place in the formation of a world we want and need to have.

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