Monday, December 31, 2018

In Motion Charging: Part II

https://youtu.be/-OMdhZs5mok

In my previous blog about In Motion Charging, I gave a brief introduction to the subject. I am a lazy researcher, but looking over some documents, I got a better view of the subject. The basics are that a bunch of cities, worldwide, basically the transportation organizations, will no longer buy buses that run on carbon fuels in order to protect the environment. The type of buses desired are battery powered, that may require recharging at some point in the day. Thus we can see that battery powered buses are not perfect. In fact, to get a battery to do a heavy job of transporting passengers has been under research for at least 100 years. Some streetcars in Manhattan were light and battery powered. I am not sure if those cars were recharged or that a new battery was slipped in. Move forward 100 years and it seems now, that for smaller buses, on infrequent trips, the units work well but some time must be spent in recharging; perhaps at night or at bus stops by raising a device to the re-charging pole. But what happens for bus routes that are very busy, carry a lot of passengers and use air-conditioning and perhaps are articulated into two or three units? It seems that for some routes, the buses cannot spend excessive time in recharging mode for economic and logistic reasons. In the literature, IMC for trolley buses was discussed as a solution because while the bus is under the wired portion of the route, the battery can be re-charged. It seems to me that the literature is talking about existing trolley bus systems where IMC can extend a route and cut down on recharge time. It is not clear if the literature is talking about brand new trolley buses systems with route length extensions that are wireless. The question is: Can battery buses handle summer loads with recharging down time? Is the trolleybus with IMC electronics considered an alternative for cities that currently do not have trolleybuses? If these battery buses can handle crush loads with recharging time that is reasonable, the trolleybus will be in trouble. If the only solution is IMC trolleybuses, can the world cities afford to build trolley bus systems from scratch? How long would it take? And as a aside, can a city with new trolleybus overhead use it for trolley trucks (e-highway?). I think that this would be a good investment for a city. So far, I do not see a movement to build new trolleybus systems.

Just my opinion.
Tramway Null()

Sunday, December 23, 2018

In Motion Charging: Can this save the traditional trolleybus?

Hi Folks:

Sorry not to have added a new entry recently into this blog. In New York City, nothing is much happening from my viewpoint. The Brooklyn Queens light rail is decades away, if it should be built. There are new deliveries of R-179 cars. I was on one last week on the "C" train and I believe the number of the car was 3136? The car that I was in had no advertising cards set up and the only difference that I noticed between the R 179 and perhaps the R 160 was that the door indicator light was somewhat different with a flatter lens. Last week, California and perhaps several other states said that they will no longer purchase diesel buses or other type of similar buses and will use instead battery buses. No mention was made of trolley buses. It it known that battery buses are not perfect and that they have to be charged for a certain amount of time. Could a busy bus route, with crowds of passengers on a hot summer day, with hills be handled by a battery bus? It was pointed out by some, and I am sorry that I do not have a link, that perhaps In Motion Charging could solve the problem. IMC would be a battery bus that has trolley poles and that a portion of the route would be under wire. When the trolleybus is under wire, the batteries can be charged and the trolley - battery bus can complete the balance of the route without wires. I believe the technology for this exists already. In the next several months or years, this and other factors will determine if trolley bus systems can survive. If battery buses cannot handle the load, and hills and ice, perhaps new trolleybus systems can be developed where part of the journey is wireless. I would like the two former routes in South Philly to be reinstated with TB's , if the battery bus experiments fail. IMC will be ideal where several bus routes share a street and later branch out. The common street can have the overhead. One group even suggested that some bus routes in downtown Brooklyn that run on Fulton Street can be a candidate for this technology.

Let us see what happens,

Tramway Null(0)

See "Pedestrian Observations" 2018 /12/9 In-Motion Charging
See their opinion about Boston and even Brooklyn!

I do not find the situation where a bus raises a pantograph for recharging at a bus stop interesting from a rail buff standpoint. Here, I believe they are talking about a regular trolleybus with traditional overhead. The line can be extended without wires. All the time the bus is under wires the batteries will be recharged more efficiently that recharging and losing time at bus stops. InEurope, I believe there are units operating under this mode. If the battery buses can be recharged fast while caring big loads in the summer, the trolleybus is dead.
According to Canada's "National Observer", trolley:motion, an organization that promotes the use of trolleybuses is help conducting an experiment in converting a regular battery bus to a trolley bus to be used on demanding routes. If this experiment is a success, Trolley:Motion will help electric battery bus companies offer a bus with optional trolley poles for in motion charging. This is wonderful.

In my opinion, it is a good for a city to have a few sets of overhead wires for trolleybus lines. How about using them for trolley trucks? What I see from videos from Siemans E-highway, the overhead is very different, but let us give it a try. If many bus companies offer buses with trolley poles, perhaps more cities will consider battery buses with In Motion Charging with wires for a major part of the route, and thus, the trolleybus is saved.

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Plotting Japanese Railways: Source: R Blog

Hi folks:

I ran into this posting in R-Bloggers for 11/9/18 by "R on Chi's Impe[r]fect blog. I just looked at it for a few moments and it should be of interest to "R" users, map makers and railway fans form all over. The code looks complicated but the diagrams are great. I hope this helps someone. Will eventually get to look at the code.

Voronoi diagram with ggvoronoi package with Train Station data

November 9, 2018

By R on Chi's Impe[r]fect Blog

(This article was first published on R on Chi's Impe[r]fect Blog, and kindly contributed to R-bloggers)

I’ve always been curious to make Voronoi diagram, I just think they are beautiful! When I came across data set with train stations in Japan. I instantly thought this would be great data sets to make Voronoi diagram! I’ve gotten data sets from (Ekidata)[http://www.ekidata.jp/] site. I’m amazed how many train stations we have in Japan, as well as coverage of train systems in Japan.
There are couple of packages I could’ve used to make Voronoi diagram, but I’ve utilized package ggvoronoi. I really like using “outline” inside of geom_voronoi function to mask out the shape! (Which I wasn’t sure how to do before using deldir package).

Voronoi Diagram with Train Station as a seed.

ggvoronoi makes it easy to plot voronoi diagram! All I really needed to produce voronoi diagram was longitude & latitude.
Initially I’ve plotted all the train station as a point (using geom_point), you can see that station will reveal shape of Japan, as JR (Japan Railway) really covers coast line of Japan. There are total of 10828 points, as there were 10828 stations listed in most recent data set downloaded today.
I also used treemap package to create treemap.
I’ve colour coded rectangle inside of treemap with company types. 47% of 10K+ stations are JR Japan Railway stations in Japan.
Tokyo (area: 2,188 sq.km) has 943 stations all together, followed by Hokkaido 650 stations, but Hokkaido is the biggest prefecture in terms of area (83,456.87 sq.km) . It would be interesting to get area data for each prefecture, so we can calculate stations per area.

jp <- ggplot2::map_data('world2', region='japan')
names(jp) <- c("lon","lat", "group","order","region","subregion")
## for train, I'm going to tidy up the map bit. (I've excluded Okinawa for now)
jp_outline <- jp %>% filter(subregion %in% c("Honshu","Hokkaido","Kyushu","Shikoku"))

## I also wanted prefecture level data, so I've used map data from mapdata package.
jp_outline_detailed <- map_data("japan")


## station_master lists all stations of all lines
plotPoints <-station_master %>%
  ggplot(aes(x=lon, y=lat)) +
  theme_void(base_family="Roboto Condensed") +
  geom_polygon(data=jp_outline, aes(group=group), fill="#ffffff", color="#33333380") +
  geom_point(aes(color=pref_cd),size=0.1, alpha=0.8) +
  scale_color_viridis_c(end=0.5, guide="none") +
  labs(title="Each Train Station as a point") +
  coord_quickmap()

## station_master2 is reduced version of station_master
plotVoronoi <-station_master2 %>%
  ggplot(aes(x=lon, y=lat)) +
  theme_void(base_family="Roboto Condensed") +
  geom_polygon(data=jp_outline, aes(group=group), fill="#ffffff00", color="#33333380") +
  geom_path(stat="voronoi", size=0.1, aes(color=pref_cd)) +
  coord_quickmap() +
  scale_color_viridis_c(end=0.5, guide="none") +
  labs(title="Voronoi Diagram with station as a seed")

## use patchwork package to plot 2 plots side by side
plotPoints + plotVoronoi

## All of Japan - Takes long time to draw on my machine.
station_master2 %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x=lon, y=lat)) +
  theme_void(base_family="Hiragino Sans W5") +
  geom_voronoi(aes(fill=station_cnt),size=0.05, color="#ffffff", 
               outline=jp_outline) + ## this outline feature is awesome!
  coord_quickmap() +
  scale_fill_viridis_c(end=0.8, option="magma", guide="none")

Treemap with treemap package

With treemap, I can easily see which prefecture has more stations. Also I wanted to see which railway company are dominant in each prefecture.

## Treemap to see which prefecture has more stations.
station_master %>% 
  count(pref_name,company_type_descr,company_name_r) %>%
  add_count(pref_name,wt=n) %>%
  mutate(pref_descr = paste(pref_name,":",nn,"駅")) %>%
  treemap(index=c("pref_descr","company_type_descr","company_name_r"),
          vSize="n", vColor="company_type_descr", type="categorical",
          fontfamily.labels="Hiragino Sans W3",
          align.labels=list(c("left","top"),c("center","center"),c("right","bottom")),
          fontsize.labels=c(13,0,11),
          palette=viridis_pal(end=0.6)(4),
          border.col="white",
          bg.labels=0,
          position.legend="bottom",
          title.legend="", 
          title="Number of Stations by Prefecture\ncoloured by operating company types")

Writing Function to Plot Prefecture Level Voronoi

There are 47 prefectures in Japan. So I’ve decided to write function to draw voronoi as below. I think below can be simplified…, but for now it does the job…

## function to draw voronoi map at prefecture level
draw_pref <- function(pref_no=1,zoom=T,save_file=F,folder_name="prefecture",...){
  region <- prefs %>% filter(pref_cd==pref_no) %>% pull(pref_name_en)
  region_jp <- prefs %>% filter(pref_cd==pref_no) %>% pull(pref_name) 
  pref_summary  <- station_master %>% 
    filter(pref_cd==pref_no) %>% 
    summarise(station_cnt=n(),
              line_cnt =n_distinct(line_name), 
              company_count=n_distinct(company_name_r))
  
  tmp_df <- station_master2 %>% filter(pref_cd==pref_no)
  pref_outline <- map_data("japan", region=region)
  
  capital <-jpnprefs %>% mutate(pref_cd=row_number()) %>% filter(pref_cd==pref_no)
  
  ## calculate distance between capital city & each station so i can colour the cell of voronoi.
  tmp_df <- tmp_df %>%
    mutate(dist_from_capital = 
             sqrt((lon-capital$capital_longitude)^2 + (lat-capital$capital_latitude)^2))
  
  # finding bounding box from train station data... , so I can crop the map if I want to.
  bbox <-tmp_df  %>% ungroup() %>% 
    summarise(xmax=max(lon), xmin=min(lon), ymax=max(lat), ymin=min(lat))
  
  
  base_map <-tmp_df %>% ggplot(aes(x=lon,y=lat)) +
    theme_void(base_family="Hiragino Sans W5") +
    #geom_voronoi(aes(fill=comp_cd_min) ,size=0.1, color="#ffffff", 
    #           outline=pref_outline) +
    geom_voronoi(aes(fill=dist_from_capital) ,size=0.1, color="#ffffff", 
               outline=pref_outline) +
    #scale_fill_gradientn(colors = c("#440154FF","#000000FF","#31688EFF", "#1F9E89FF","#6DCD59FF"),
                       #breaks=c(0,7,30,100,200), limits=c(1,250), guide="none") +
    scale_fill_viridis_c(end=0.9, guide="none", option="magma") +
    labs(title=paste0(region_jp," (",region,")"), 
         caption=paste0("Capital City of ",region," is ",capital$capital, " @ (",
                        round(capital$capital_longitude,2),",", round(capital$capital_latitude,2),")"),
         subtitle=paste(pref_summary$station_cnt,"stations", 
                       pref_summary$line_cnt," lines operated by", 
                       pref_summary$company_count, "companies in", 
                       str_to_title(region))) +
    geom_point(data=capital, aes(x=capital_longitude, y=capital_latitude),shape=4, color="#ffffff") 
  
  if (zoom) {
    print(base_map + 
            coord_quickmap(xlim=c(bbox$xmin-0.1,bbox$xmax+0.1), 
                           ylim=c(bbox$ymin-0.1,bbox$ymax+0.1)))
    } else {
    print(base_map + coord_quickmap())
    }
  
  if(save_file){
    ggsave(paste0(folder_name,"/",
                  formatC(pref_no, width=2,flag="0"),"-",str_to_lower(region),".png"),
           width=9,height=9,dpi=300)
  }
  
}


## function to draw treemap at prefecture level
draw_treemap <- function(pref_no=1,...){
  station_master$color <- 
    viridis_pal(end=0.6)(nlevels(station_master$company_type_descr))[station_master$company_type_descr]
  title_text <- prefs %>% filter(pref_cd==pref_no) %>% pull(pref_name_en)
  
  station_master %>% 
    filter(pref_cd==pref_no) %>%
    count(company_type_descr,company_name_r,line_name,color,station_name) %>%
    treemap(index=c("company_type_descr","company_name_r","line_name","station_name"),
            vSize="n", vColor="color", type="color",
            fontfamily.labels="Hiragino Sans W3",
            fontfamily.title="Roboto Condensed",
            align.labels=list(c("center","center"),c("left","top"),
                              c("right","bottom"),c("center","center")),
            fontsize.labels=c(0,13,11,0),
            border.col=c("#ffffffff","#ffffff90","#ffffff30","#ffffff10"),
            border.lwds = c(3,2,1,0.2),
            bg.labels=0,
            title.legend="", title="",
            aspRatio = 16/9)
}

Tokyo!

While it’s interesting to see Voronoi map of Japan, I wanted to zoom into selected prefectures that I care maybe more about.
Firstly, Tokyo. I love looking at Tokyo’s train map such as this one. JR East Route Map PDF.
For below voronoi diagram, I’ve decided to colour the voronoi cell with distance from Shinjuku (capital city of Tokyo) to corresponding station cell. (I actually think it’s more interesting to get train usage data, and colour the cell with train usage data, but because there are so many different operating company, getting data about train usage seemed like pretty hard task to do…)
I like how dense train staions are packed around central tokyo (east side), but as you go towards the west, cell becomes bigger and bigger. In fact, far west side of Tokyo, there are NOT that many stations at all.
I’ve also created treemap for Tokyo below. Personally I was surprised that there are maybe more Tokyo metro stations than JR stations in Tokyo. I’ve also came to realize that there are so many companies…

draw_pref(13, zoom=T, save_file=F)

draw_treemap(13)

station_master %>% 
  filter(pref_cd==13) %>%
  arrange(e_sort) %>%
  ggplot(aes(x=lon, y=lat)) +
  geom_sf(data=jpn_pref(13), inherit.aes=F, color="#33333320") +
  geom_point(aes(color=company_name_r, shape=company_type_descr), alpha=0.8) +
  theme(axis.text=element_blank(),
        axis.title=element_blank()) +
  theme_minimal(base_family="Hiragino Sans W5") +
  geom_text_repel(data=station_master2 %>% filter(pref_cd==13 & station_cnt>6), 
            aes(label=station_name),
            family="Osaka", min.segment.length=0, nudge_x=0.25, segment.color="#33333350") +
  scale_color_hue(l=45) +
  coord_sf(ylim=c(35.5,35.9), xlim=c(138.8,139.9)) ## to remove islands of Tokyo

Plotting Kanagawa Prefecture

Kanagawa prefecture is where Yokohama, Also where one of my favourite place, Kamakura is. I like the shape of prefecture, as it sort of looks like a dog?! Maybe camel?!
Capital city of Kanagawa prefecture is Yokohama, and I’ve again coloured cell based on distance from Yokohama. Similar to Tokyo, east side of Kanagawa has a lot of stations but west side is pretty sparse.

draw_pref(14, zoom=T, save_file=F)

draw_treemap(14)

## See Station in Kanagawa
station_master %>% 
  filter(pref_cd==14) %>%
  arrange(e_sort) %>%
  ggplot(aes(x=lon, y=lat)) +
  geom_sf(data=jpn_pref(14), inherit.aes=F, color="#33333320") +
  geom_point(aes(color=company_name_r, shape=company_type_descr), alpha=0.8) +
  theme(axis.text=element_blank(),
        axis.title=element_blank()) +
  theme_minimal(base_family="Hiragino Sans W5") +
  geom_text_repel(data=station_master2 %>% filter(pref_cd==14 & station_cnt>3), 
            aes(label=station_name),
            family="Osaka", min.segment.length=0, nudge_x=0.25, segment.color="#33333350") +
  scale_color_hue(l=45)

Plotting Chiba Prefecture

Chiba is where Narita Airport is. I just had to plot it out, because I like the shape of prefecture

It looks like a hummingbird to me, but Chiba prefecture actually have a maskot called Chi-ba-kun, and it’s a dog character.

draw_pref(12, zoom=T, save_file=F)

draw_treemap(12)

## See Station in Chiba
station_master %>% 
  filter(pref_cd==12) %>%
  arrange(e_sort) %>%
  ggplot(aes(x=lon, y=lat)) +
  geom_sf(data=jpn_pref(12), inherit.aes=F, color="#33333320") +
  geom_point(aes(color=company_name_r, shape=company_type_descr), alpha=0.8) +
  theme(axis.text=element_blank(),
        axis.title=element_blank()) +
  theme_minimal(base_family="Hiragino Sans W5") +
  geom_text_repel(data=station_master2 %>% filter(pref_cd==12 & station_cnt>3), 
            aes(label=station_name),size=3,
            family="Osaka", min.segment.length=0, nudge_x=0.25, segment.color="#33333350") +
  scale_color_hue(l=45)

Bonus: Plotting Hokkaido Prefecture

Hokkaido is the largest prefecture in Japan, and it has 2nd most numbers of train stations. (While it has 2nd most stations in number, Hokkaido is about 37 times bigger than Tokyo in area).
Shape of Hokkaido is pretty iconic (at least in my mind.) I recently found out there’s heart-shaped lake called Toyoni lake in Hokkaido too, but I didn’t spot heart-shaped Voronoi cell…

draw_pref(1, zoom=T, save_file=F)

draw_treemap(1)

## To see station on actual map
station_master %>% 
  filter(pref_cd==1) %>%
  arrange(e_sort) %>%
  ggplot(aes(x=lon, y=lat)) +
  geom_sf(data=jpn_pref(1), inherit.aes=F, color="#33333320") +
  geom_point(aes(color=company_name_r, shape=company_type_descr), alpha=0.8) +
  theme(axis.text=element_blank(),
        axis.title=element_blank()) +
  theme_minimal(base_family="Hiragino Sans W5") +
  geom_text_repel(data=station_master2 %>% filter(pref_cd==1 & station_cnt>=3), 
            aes(label=station_name),
            family="Osaka", min.segment.length=0, nudge_x=2, segment.color="#33333350") +
  scale_color_hue(l=45, name="company name")

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Monday, November 12, 2018

El Paso Trolley Opens

Hi Folks:

I just heard that a small system of PCC restored streetcars opened in El Paso, Texas. I saw some clips of the trolley restoration and the first day of operation and I am quite impressed. I believe the shells of the original PCC fleet were stored in the desert and were restored beautifully with all the modern conveniences including air-conditioning. Even though, of course, I am at home and saw the video, you can "feel" the smooth running of the PCC cars. Unlike the original system, the new PCC streetcars use pantographs instead of trolley wheel and bow. They really look cool. I wish El Paso much success and that more lines could be established. For New York City, I would be happy if a stationary exhibit of a streetcar, PCC or not would be available.

Good luck El Paso!
Tramway Null()

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Visiting QGIS Again

I have not worked with QGIS is some time. I was called upon to do an analysis of distances between certain clients and institutions and I therefore revisited QGIS. Several years ago, I made a map with some altitude files (both vector and raster) and this map contains both types of files. The subway lines are in green are of the vector types and the contours for the Hudson River and New York upper bay are also contour raster files. The eastern part Staten Island is also shown and is a raster file. It is interesting that the Bay Ridge Division of the LIRR is also shown. Some persons want to make this line into a Triborough crosstown line to Co-Op City in the Bronx. Also is shown next to the West End Line (fourth green line from the right) is a vertical straight line that comes from an uneven edge of an aerial photograph. This map is not useful but it is interesting to look at and perhaps can be considered a work of art? The Hudson River depth file comes probably comes from a New York State data source file that I extracted and used many years ago.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Church - McDonald Streetcar Line died 10/31/56

/Tonight is the anniversary of the end of streetcars in Brooklyn on 10/31/56 which may have been also a Wednesday. On this date, the Church Avenue, Church - McDonald and the Cortelyou Road trolleybus (B-23) also ended. In this shot taken off the web shows a southbound Church - McDonald streetcar along the incline of the IND subway system between Ditmas and Church Avenue stations. To the right of the PCC streetcar is a R-1-9 subway car going south towards the Ditmas Avenue station. The Brooklyn - Queens Tram shown below is not doing well and around a week ago it was declared that the Staten Island Ferris Wheel is also dead. I guess trolleys in Brooklyn, old or new and a ferris wheel in Staten Island were not meant to be.

Friday, October 19, 2018

Ashland Street Connection

Currently in subchat, there is a thread dealing with the Myrtle Avenue Line in Brooklyn and its demise. There is some discussion stating how useful would the line be today if it was still in existence and a thought / experiment dealing with a re-introduction of the line. Where would the line end in the western part of Myrtle Avenue now that Metrotech occupies the former Myrtle -Jay Street-Bridge Street area?

Around 1969, before transit became fashionable and the only way to do research was to go to the Public Library, I went to the Research Division of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. I remember either looking at a early New York Regional Plan (the first? ) written in the early 1920's or the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit (BMT) document dealing with transit development, also dated in the 1920's. Something was mentioned about an Ashland Street connection where an elevated line would be connected to the relatively new BMT subway in the area. Dual Contracts was not finished and the BMT was having trouble building the Nassau Street Loop at this time. For better service, it was proposed to connect one of the elevated lines to the subway and have the line go to one of the BMT branches in Manhattan. I do not remember if the document had a map showing where this would be built.

It would be very difficult these days to construct an elevated line in a residential area, however, something that I never saw before is happening today: Large skyscrapers are being built near the elevated Flushing Line. Attitudes are changing about being near rapid transit and younger persons may be less against elevated lines.

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Myrtle Avenue and Flatbush Avenue Extension: Revisited

https://pcullinan.smugmug.com/Brooklyn/The-Myrtle-Avenue-El/Myrtle-Ave-El-Oct-1969/i-z5WGrVN

For the last few weeks, there has been a thread going on in subchat dealing with the Myrtle Avenue El, whose anniversary of it's abandonment was in early October. This line, the last one to end service with wooden cars, ended service in October, 1969. I rode on that line, in the early afternoon of the last day. Growing up, my mother used to take me to downtown Brooklyn for shopping in the big department stores on Fulton Street and as we walked, at each intersection to the north, I saw views of the line about one block away. When I was very small, I remember seeing gate cars on the line (prior to 1958), but no matter how much I begged my mother, should would not take me on the line.
In the picture above, taken off the web at the address indicated, is view of Flatbush Avenue Extension and Myrtle Avenue. You can see part of of green arched structure that I remember as a child. As you look at the left of the picture, you can see black squares. These are the air vents to the BMT Subway at the Myrtle Avenue station which is now abandoned. I believe that on the Myrtle Avenue El, there was no station at Flatbush Avenue because Flatbush Avenue Extension was a street created to reach the Manhattan Bridge and it did not exist when the el was constructed in the 19th Century. Thus this intersection was between the Navy Street and Bridge Street Stations. When elevated service ended on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1944?, the line had to be reconfigured at the western end. I believe the Bridge Street station was extended westward towards Jay Street with a passenger walkway to the IND Jay Street - Borough Hall (Now Metrotech) station. Many people do not know that Myrtle Avenue continued westward towards Court Street or Adams Street with the el passing the Sand Street on it's route over the Brooklyn Bridge to Park Row in Manhattan. The Supreme Court at Adams Street is the approximate location where Myrtle Avenue and its' el continued westward.
I remember that there was some sort of unusual transfer procedures for Myrtle El passengers that were established. It went something like this: Passengers paying fares at some westerly Myrtle Avenue El Stations got a ticket to transfer to the IND Jay Street Subway station at Myrtle and Jay streets. They used the new walkway and gave the paper transfer to the agent. According to the ticket, this transfer was also valid for streetcars on Jay Street (1944-1951) as well. These streetcars were Park Row bound. The ticket was only valid until the Broadway-Nassau stations (Fulton Street today). Theoretically, the passenger who have to exit the subway at Broadway Nassau. Going to Brooklyn, only those paying fares at Broadway Nassau got a ticket to transfer to the Myrtle El at Jay-Bridge Street station on the Myrtle El. At some point, probably at nights, perhaps in the 1950's, the fare agent booths were closed at night and passengers paid there fares to conductors on the el trains. I am sorry that the el is gone even though I have no business in this part of Brooklyn. Els were considered as "old fashioned" and transportation planners considered smelly stinkeroo diesel buses as a solution to all our transit woes. Picture from Brooklyn Public Library. The arch was visible from many blocks away. Myrtle-Gold Street station should be underneath the arch. Thus at Myrtle - Flatbush, you have subway, trolley and elevated service. The area looks very different today.

Tramway Null()

Thursday, August 30, 2018

New News About Waterfront Streetcar Plan

https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEJ9dk4yabILl_q8gpCXyDqEqFwgEKg8IACoHCAowjuuKAzCWrzwwloIY?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

Breaking News: City Announces BQX Next Steps

Breaking news about the Brooklyn Queens Connector: Released 8/30/18 over 1 hr ago.

Shorter: To Gowanas Red Hook Only from Long Island City
More Expensive to Build
Longer To Build 2029
Uses Overhead
More Inland
Depends on Government allocations for support

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Interesting Article

https://placesjournal.org/article/roads-to-rails/?gclid=CjwKCAjwwo7cBRBwEiwAMEoXPHvesNGvNLJSCBcZavTyg_WRJ3CJJbFrItlJ1nHitEAHClNTYes-CRoCZWwQAvD_BwE

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Russian R-1 Tram Abandoned

http://www.metro-report.com/news/single-view/view/russia-one-tram-abandoned.html

Hi Folks:

Remember in 2014 news came out about a very futuristic Russian tram that was about to go into production. I just found out (see link above) that the project in 2017 was abandoned because the tram would be very difficult to build and maintain because of its' layout. Also for this new car, the current trucks {bogies?) would not work. The Staten Island Ferris Wheel, also something new, seems to be also dead due to legal or financial reasons

It was a beautiful tram. Shows that form and function do not always follow. The car looked beautiful but would be very difficult to build and operate. Good luck to the designers in the future. Some of us here in New York City would be happy if we were able to have a heritage trolley using old, Russian, or any other tram cars from somewhere in the world such as second hand equipment running a few hundred meters. It does not look like it will happen. If the Russian R-1 design was successful in being a good operating streetcar, many new communities would have taken a look at trams for city transit.

Good luck next time,
Tramway Null(0)

Thursday, July 26, 2018

July 27, 1960: Last Day of Regular Electric Surface Transit in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The picture above was taken from the nycsubway.org web site from their Trolleybus section. This is a Brian Cudahy picture from 1954 showing a Lorimer Street trackless trolley near the Myrtle Avenue El . 58 years ago service was stopped on the small ( 200 unit? ) trolleybus system for which mainly lasted ( most routes except Cortelyou Road) for only 12 years (1848-1960).

Today. chances are getting smaller for New York City to see a trolleybus system or a regular streetcar/light rail system. Overhead technology is becoming obsolete and an "electric bus" does not require wires anymore. Just a good battery or charging station. Light rail, no way because it is expensive and will take away parking spaces.

I thought that trolleybus or light rail service will return to Brooklyn in:

1961 because a report came out explaining about diesel bus pollution, but I was wrong.
I though that trolleybuses and streetcars might come back because of the 1960's environmental movement. But I was wrong.

I though they would come back due to oil embargos in the 1970's and 1980's, but I was wrong.

I thought they would come back because of high oil prices, but I was wrong.
I thought they would come back because diesel bus fumes is the cause of lung diseases in Harlem and upper New York, but I was wrong.

I thought they would come back due to peak oil, but I was wrong.
I thought they would come back due to global warming, but I was wrong.
I thought they would come back to Second Avenue around 1992 because the MTA was interested in setting up a Select Bus Service using trolleybuses, but I was wrong.
I thought streetcars would come back on 42nd Street after various attemps, but was not signed off by the mayor. But I was wrong.

I thought that streetcars would come back on the Brooklyn - Queens waterfront, but I was wrong. Where will we park our cars and it is too expensive!

I guess I just was wrong!

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Brooklyn Journey to Work by Streetcar: Part II: Including aggregate travel time in Minutes

In the previous map above, dealing with numbers of individuals using streetcar or trolley to get to work recently raises a question: Do they mean bus instead of streetcar, or perhaps they do have long journeys to work and need to use the Newark Subway, or other light rail lines (Hudson-Bergen) or Philadelphia lines as well? This would make for very long travel times. Using "R", I was able to bring in the American Community Survey of travel times in minutes, arranged by Census Tract. A description of the material can be found in Census Reporter B08136_009 table that I brought in.
Through various steps, of converting the "R" data to an EXCEL file, geocoded it and brought it into ARCGIS, I was able to add a new layer to my original map. The B08136-009 table has a lot of "NA's", so I had to convert these to 0's so ARCGIS can use these values. Sample of table produced from the ACS for Brooklyn is shown below:

Simple feature collection with 761 features and 5 fields
geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
dimension: XY
bbox: xmin: -74.04241 ymin: 40.56677 xmax: -73.83304 ymax: 40.7394
epsg (SRID): 4269
proj4string: +proj=longlat +datum=NAD83 +no_defs
First 20 features:
GEOID NAME variable estimate moe geometry
1 36047000301 Census Tract 3.01, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.00025 4...
2 36047003100 Census Tract 31, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.982512 ...
3 36047004100 Census Tract 41, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.987 40....
4 36047005602 Census Tract 56.02, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.037068 ...
5 36047006200 Census Tract 62, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.033389 ...
6 36047006700 Census Tract 67, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.999725 ...
7 36047007600 Census Tract 76, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.016651 ...
8 36047008400 Census Tract 84, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.007977 ...
9 36047010400 Census Tract 104, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.011154 ...
10 36047012100 Census Tract 121, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.993379 ...
11 36047013500 Census Tract 135, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.985707 ...
12 36047015000 Census Tract 150, Kings County, New York B08136_009 9530 4202 MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.013926 ...
13 36047017000 Census Tract 170, Kings County, New York B08136_009 39560 10566 MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.017019 ...
14 36047017900 Census Tract 179, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.974281 ...
15 36047019200 Census Tract 192, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.001931 ...
16 36047020000 Census Tract 200, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.01142 4...
17 36047021400 Census Tract 214, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.005564 ...
18 36047022900 Census Tract 229, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.959568 ...
19 36047024300 Census Tract 243, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.955122 ...
20 36047025600 Census Tract 256, Kings County, New York B08136_009 NA NA MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.988688 ...

My theory for this map is that streetcar usage should be tied with long trips. In the legend, length of journey in minutes, I tried to show this by using stripes. Only some polygons are showing using trolleys as a mode also having long travel times (stripes with an orange background Census Tract).

The bottom line is that we cannot say that use of streetcars as a mode for today's Brooklynites is a mistake, or one of the travel modes of Brooklynites that work in Newark and other cities in New Jersey or elsewhere.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Brooklyn New York Journey to Work by Streetcar or Trolley: ACS 2012 -2016

From Census Reporter:

Table universe: Workers 16 Years and Over

Columns in this table

Total:
Car, truck, or van:
Drove alone
Carpooled:
In 2-person carpool
In 3-person carpool
In 4-or-more-person carpool
Public transportation (excluding taxicab):
Bus or trolley bus
Streetcar or trolley car (carro publico in Puerto Rico)
Subway or elevated
Railroad
Ferryboat
Bicycle
Walked
Taxicab, motorcycle, or other means
Worked at home

Subtable 10 just deals with trolley trips (number of workers above 16 for a census tract)

Resultant File that can be exported into EXCEL then geocoded into ARCGIS. The field that that is analyzed is called "estimate".

GEOID NAME variable estimate moe geometry
756 36047028800 Census Tract 288, Kings County, New York B08006_010 0 11 MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.998254 ...
757 36047041300 Census Tract 413, Kings County, New York B08006_010 18 29 MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.913946 ...
758 36047035400 Census Tract 354, Kings County, New York B08006_010 0 16 MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.976549 ...
759 36047036300 Census Tract 363, Kings County, New York B08006_010 0 11 MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.9223 40...
760 36047119000 Census Tract 1190, Kings County, New York B08006_010 0 11 MULTIPOLYGON (((-73.877339 ...
761 36047018200 Census Tract 182, Kings County, New York B08006_010 0 11 MULTIPOLYGON (((-74.005521 ...
> write.csv(tarr, file = "Streetcar_Bklyn2.csv")

R Code:

library(tidycensus)

> library(tidyverse)

> library(viridis)

> census_api_key("Use your own key"), install = TRUE)

Error: A CENSUS_API_KEY already exists. You can overwrite it with the argument overwrite=TRUE

> tarr <- get_acs(geography = "tract", variables = "B08006_010",

+ state = "NY", county = "Kings", geometry = TRUE)

Getting data from the 2012-2016 5-year ACS

Downloading feature geometry from the Census website. To cache shapefiles for use in future sessions, set `options(tigris_use_cache = TRUE)`.

Using FIPS code '36' for state 'NY'

Using FIPS code '047' for 'Kings County'

Hi Folks:

I came across a procedure for extracting data from the census using "R". Interestingly, there is census data dealing with the journey to work. There are table codes for this case and I used table prefix 08: Journey to Work: Worker's Characteristics: Commuting. The code given in R by "RBloggers" is able to extract a vast amount of statistics using the County variable. Yes, Brooklyn has not had streetcars or trolleys since 1956 but look at the results in the map. Are these Brooklynites working in Jersey City or Newark New Jersey where there are streetcars? Do they work or Phildadelphia or elsewhere? Or did they missunderstand the question? I am not sure.

The code for NY state is:

ny %>%
+ mutate(NAME = gsub(" County, ny", "", NAME)) %>%
+ ggplot(aes(x = estimate, y = reorder(NAME, estimate))) +
+ geom_errorbarh(aes(xmin = estimate - moe, xmax = estimate + moe)) +
+ geom_point(color = "red", size = 3) +
+ labs(title = "Journey to Work by Streetcar in New York State ACS",
+ subtitle = "2012-2016 American Community Survey",
+ y = "",
+ x = "ACS estimate (bars represent margin of error)")
>
>

> ## End(Not run)

And when run, see the counties in NYS that have streetcar ACP statistics: Lines are MOE's Margins of Error.

GEOID NAME

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