jbridgman

ck135667 Highspeed trains in Japan run entirely elevated. Also the top operating speed for HST in Japan is 300km/h (185mph). In countries like Germany and France the normal operating speed on dedicated highspeed rail sections is 300km/h. The TGV holds the speed record at 515km/h (320mph)! That's ridiculous. I don't even know why I'm making this post now...gaaa.....

Very nice cemetary....I am a little curious of what all those trucks are doing about the cemetary. I assume there is some industry near by, but you can never tell what Dr. Vu is going to do next. (Is that his name? The evil in Rush Hour) That is so cool your from Meersburg. In fact, when I go to Fritz (do you call it that in Meersburg too?) I take a bus going to Meersburg to get to where I'm going...haha, awesome....(I'm not actually going to be in Fritz, but in Fischbach which is closer to Meersburg....I lied, lol) I'd seen some pic of Meersburg before, especially the part by the lake in different travel books while looking for Fritz. I was always impressed by how beautiful it looks, I must see it while I'm there! Thanks for the pics, the aerial picture is nice because it shows the whole town (it seems rather small, maybe this is just the old town?) Fritz in all the travel books seems much more boring, lol, since the big thing is zepplins.

Thanks alot! I've got it now. I see you are from Germnay, I forgot what city you said you are from. I'm travelling to Germany in 2 weeks and staying for 6 months in a small city called Friedrichshafen in Baten-Wuttenberg....along Bodensee. Very nice looking place...Thanks again for showing me how to do corner buildings!

Oh, okay, I get half of it now. Let's say this L is a corner building with a nice garden in the back. Now. Both legs of the L must face the street....therefore we orient the arrow so that both sides can face the street.....however...how do I know which side the arrow is on? Cuz if you get this wrong, it won't develop. Perhaps its trial and error? Perhaps I can better put it by saying that corner buildings have two fronts. How do you know which one is primary (e.g. the one with the direction arrows?) Thanks! This will be very helpful. Hope it'll help others understand also.

Okay...nice tutorial, but I don't get how you are supposed to orient the corners, what's the rule for that? Is it important that the block corners look different ways or is the more the corners of an intersection face a different way or what?

Yea...that's too bad they don't have english stuff...but hey, I can recognize tram and metro...at least its not chinese, eh? That route map is insane compared to some newer LRT....compare Nottington (I think one line) versus all the lines in Prague...yikes. I never realized that the line would push it down....I always thought the pantograph would push the line up, but I guess there's a very delicate balance that keeps it from doing that, yet still keeping contact with the line. In Japan, there aren't many example of low line because they almost all run on street medians which means the line must be high enough for clearance. And thanks for the illustration of the | and <>...that was helpful, I never realized that....I don't wanna see a tram derail, but it would be interesting to see that once....can't find a pic...shucks. thanks y'all!

Date: 9/7/2005 6:20:34 AM Author: bobek Some parts even look like this:

Date: 9/7/2005 8:17:49 AM Author: ILL Tonkso My fave Light Rail project is the Portsmouth England one, and not just cus i live there. It will require the construction of a tunnel under the (now deeper) Portsmouth Harbour that will take around 3 minutes to pass through. Now thats a cool tram journey quote> I'm suprised...wouldn't that up the cost? It seems it'd be cheaper to build a bridge over the bay (is the bay wide? I had an impression the place it crossed was a narrow part...kind of the exit of the bay...and that there was already a bridge for cars over it....Sorry if I'm mistaken.)

wait, I don't understand what you mean... 1. correct my spelling/grammar mistakes? 2. Combine responses to different posts in one? 3. I have no clue... P.S. I love the pic you post! Very clear/easy to understand.

Not bad! Looks better than what I've seen...also the way they don't have it being a huge solid cloud over the road is nice.

Date: 8/29/2005 10:54:16 AM Author: artdutra04 If you really want to see efficient use of median strips, look at these pictures of the Las Vegas Monorail system. Only a four foot wide median was needed. What do stations look like? I've seen some monorail lines in Japan before and all there stations looked very ugly, gigantic, and out of place over a road...

Date: 8/29/2005 1:42:02 AM Author: BarbulaM1 I think most LRT's look almost playful, the way their cars are articulated and how low they are to the ground, the just don't seem to be ment for long mass transit. What do you mean long mass transit? In most cities the way the cars are articulated allow very tight turns in the city. Its different from heavy rail. For example in Japan, the minimum radius for heavy rail generally is 300 m (about 1000 ft) but light rail can get around corners as small as 18 m (about 60 feet). Also trains that are low to the ground allow easier boarding from low platforms (sidewalk level) in cities where there is no room to make higher platforms (which are impractical and expensive to place in the middle of a road....just look at the slopes needed to make it barrier-free. Date: 8/29/2005 1:42:02 AM Author: BarbulaM1 The two I have been on however are the two of the larger systems in the US. The DART Light Rail in Dallas uses raised platform trains, which allow more capacity, longer distance and more speed. And the closets one to me now is the RTD in Denver, which is under going a massive expantion plan at this time. But it too uses raised platform trains. Raised platforms do not allow more capacity, longer distance or speed. LRT trains can reach speeds equivalent to heavy rail trains, they just don't travel that fast in city streets, but many do in the suburbs on a private ROW. Capacity and longer distance: how are these connected at all to the platform height? Capacity is how many people a train can carry, that depends on the size of the train, many light rail vehicles are long and can carry many people. They also operate more often which makes up for smaller vehicles. (For example in my area heavy rail operated every 30 minutes, LRT every 7 minutes....much more convenient.) Longer distance....if you want to travel further faster, you can decrease the stops....LRT can travel very fast already so this really isn't an issue, however, LRT is not a inter city train....for that a connection to a central city rail station and an inter city express train is better suited. In Japan these trains operate at 300 kph or about 180 mph. Random side not on capacity....imagine a 12 car long train operating every 2 minutes in each direction, each car 25 meters long (about 80 ft) total length 300 meters (almost a 1000 ft)....that can carry alot of people.

Date: 8/17/2005 10:34:40 PM Author: SC4BOY a bus system designed to the individual .. maybe with lots of minivans..... rather than (or perhaps in concert with) rail etc has any chance of working in the bigger USA.. quote> Hmmm.....sounds like PRT (personal rapid transit).... The ideal size for a PRT vehicle is 2-3 people....these cars operate on a 100% grade separated network. (The network needs to be a network for this to work....simply installing one line like many cities do with light rail will not work....you need a network, similar to city streets) Its like riding a bus...except that there are no bus routes....you get on a bus and your the only passenger, the only stop is your destination. And since the driver is a computer you can be sure of your safety. (Because the vehicles are computer operated, extremely short headways are possible to you can still have fairly decent capacity) One way the PRT could be used (instead of a city wide network) is as a feeder system for a monorail/light rail/heavy rail station. It allows people out of walking distance to get to the station without using cars. PRT works best with pedestians.

He got imprisoned for his radical ideas....j/k. Perhaps this have moved into discussion and the cj has sort of terminated for it has illustrated some major points of new urbanism. It'd be interesting for the otherside to created a cj in the sprawl style (except many cj already are built in this style)