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Marco Chitti

@ChittiMarco

10 Oct

Let me engage in the "EU-vs-US-at-the-same-scale" comparison in a slightly different manner, hopefully more informative about the different trajectories car-dominated planning took in the postwar years

Because the problem is not only how many freeways the US built, but how 🧵

A premise: Italy engaged in one of the most extensive freeway building program in Europe starting from the 1950s. The 1955 so-called "Romita Plan" for the development of a nation-wide motorway network actually slightly predates the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956

The single main difference is maybe less in the quantity and rapidity of the development, but how it was developed: the Italian one, was essentially intended as an intercity network that barely brushed past cities quite far from the core. A few examples >>

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Marco Chitti

@ChittiMarco

10 Oct

A reminder that in the 1960s the dominance of the private automobile was still considered an inevitable destiny for cities worldwide: the urban freeway and renewal program for Providence is uncritically presented in a 1964 issue of the Italian journal "Urbanistica"

Not to say that this was the only dominant idea among planner circles, but it was generally acknowledged as a mainstream idea that cities needed to make room for more cars, whatever it costs. But to what extent adapt the city to the car was the matter of intense debates.

In fact, the sane journal published a very critical review of the impact of the freeway-sation of urban boulevards in Rome, that involved grade-separared intersections and extensive tree cutting to accommodate more traffic lanes.

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Marco Chitti

@ChittiMarco

21 Sep

1/ Let's play a little game for this post-election day.

What if we superpose the major planned or under construction transit projects in the Greater Montréal to the provincial and federal electoral maps?

An entertaining thread (with some political insights)

2/ Let's start with the REM, the Réseau Express Métropolitain, that we can possibly call the REL - Réseau Express Liberal-o-tain, as it is designed to hit perfectly a full jackpot of Liberal strongholds both at provincial and federal level

3/ The REM de l'Est, a creature of the current government, hits the sparsely populated but CAQ/BQ dominated East Island tip. It's somehow a REM-d'la-CAQ, especially the eastern leg.
The reason it brush past some Québec Solidaire circonscriptions is just b/c they are on the way.

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Marco Chitti

@ChittiMarco

26 Aug

One of the various criticism against the REM is the fact that it will take over the Mont-Royal tunnel, the only route that allows through running via the Gare Centrale, notably for ViaRail High Frequency Train.

I think this criticism is not completely fair. I'll tell you why.

A premise: I've criticized the REM project at length on what I think are several shortcomings in the planning and implementation phases, but I don't want to be hostile to the project aprioristically and just relate taken-for-granted opinions.

Let's imagine that Montréal, instead of doing the REM, took the RER GO approach: transform its infrequent commuter rail network in a modern, electrified, frequent S-Bahn. Let's just forget for a second all the issues with CP,CN, the bridges etc.

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Marco Chitti

@ChittiMarco

26 Aug

@yfreemark

A couple of consideration about transit spending for operation in Italy, following @yfreemark 's piece about the US

In Italy, public subsidies amounts to € 6.6 bn annually (2017), but mostly comes from the "federal":
Central govt -> € 4.8 bn (72%)
Local govt -> € 1.8 bn (28%)

That covered some 2 bn in vehicle*km of service (incl. bus/tram/metro/train/ferry), for 5.2 billion passengers, for a total costs (subsidy+fares) of € 11 bn divided as 7 bn for urban transit (4€/vehicle*km) and 4 bn for rail (15.5€/train*km), the rest for ferry

note that that data is uncomplete, though. It covers only the regions with "ordinary statute" and not the four regions with autonomous statute and the two autonomous provinces, that encompass a little less than 1/6 of the population

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Marco Chitti

@ChittiMarco

25 Aug

https://twitter.com/JakeAnbinder/status/1430617006823325700

Should I work, or should I tell y'all the story of that weird giant roundabout and of the forever-soon-to-be-opened rail line that cross it ?

https://twitter.com/JakeAnbinder/status/1430617006823325700

Or maybe we can talk about the even bigger one, 6km in radius, a little bit to the West, circling around Bitonto...

Ok, that's the wikipedia article (Italian only): it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strada_Po…

it's called the "Polygonal Road" and was built in the postwar years (46-48) for what looks like weird reasons in a country that was in rubbles...

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