Ubiquiti user here. Expensive as hell, but delivers on that high price in terms of quality and reliability and zero chance of my footage ending up somewhere else. Feel very happy despite the thinner wallet.

The re-done blue line was designed and built to allow for hitting their top speed, but a variety of crossing and signaling issues have kept that from coming to fruition. The red line, downtown, and north shore certainly not going to get anywhere near that for sure.

As with all infrastructure, getting the planning right is only half the battle, execution can just as easily make or break a project.

A small nitpick, but even the older Siemens units can do 65, and the newer CAF ones hit 70ish in testing the blue line before opening.

I agree all the other expenses will keep this from happening unless the city population booms and the airport becomes a major hub again, both of which I don’t see happening any time soon.

Sounds like a good start, I’ll start there for adding to my reading list. Thanks, cheers!

In no way doubting this; I’d like to know more about this.

I have a very rosy image of Fred from growing up in pgh. I think getting a complete picture, however imperfect, is a good way to properly honor someone’s life.

Would like to know more if you have good sources to share. On mobile at the moment, and intend to research later, but figured why go down a previously traveled path, yknow?

Two data points that influence time of day:

Paying for nightshift labor is more expensive.

Working at night is significantly more dangerous for workers than daytime.

Bump for cross your paws. Most recent addition to our household came via then, and very impressed at their support throughout. Ours came from a hoarding situation, and they were great about transitioning vaccination records, tracking behavioral things, etc. really hoping all these fur babies find a loving home.

Oh there are definitely ongoing, nuanced costs to both.

DOMI has done a decent job timing bike lane painting with resurfacing, so the paint crew is already there and the cost drops. On the flip side, complete street intersection upgrades (bike boxes, the retro reflective polymer tape that lasts longer than paint, etc) can balloon intersection upgrade costs closer to 500k, but definitely provide the improvements you called out.

My point to the “BiKe LaNeS CoSt MoNeY” comment was the highlight that it’s a balancing act, and simply saying bike lanes are why we don’t have good traffic lights is just wildly out of touch with how these things work. And that doesnt even factor in traffic analysis, neighborhood complaints, federal grant funding streams, politics, yadda yadda.

So a more nuanced response like yours is welcomed. Cheers!

Ha. I was also raised by a civil engineer and was constantly taught “lessons” growing up.

Still have lots of family in road construction, and the insights and frustrations they share are too innumerable to communicate to the general public. It’s really frustrating that everyone assumes people are doing their life’s work trying to make things more difficult for someone else.

Cost of upgrading a non actuated light (timed only) to mag loop or camera actuated is usually 50-100k per intersection.

Cost of adding bike lane painting is 5-15k per mile.

I drive penn ave and liberty ave both directions pretty frequently. Doing the speed limit on both, I very rarely hit constant red lights on liberty, but penn gets worse the closer you get to the intersection by target.

In the latter case, the rapid changes in development is certainly part of it. A lot of lights have been added, and the changing to bidirectional penn circle (which I whole heartedly support) has added twice the number of cycles to those intersections.

Do you notice it in both directions? Time of day? How fast are you traveling? There are certainly some light timings that stink in the city, I’m just having a hard time seeing this here.

Nailed it.

Been to many cities with awesome meatpacking/warehouse/etc parts of town with great industrial vibes and cool shops.

Was REALLY hoping for that here as the housing density has grown by leaps and bounds.

I’ll be curious if the suburbanites keep it afloat, or if all these chains will sink. I’ll punt my optimism that maybe we can get more local and interesting shops/restaurants 5 years out.