Archive for the ‘Traffic’ Category

If you still don’t have a TollTag — you might want to get one because the savings will add up fast if you the area tollroads.

The North Texas Tollway Authority has announced that it is raising tolls at the Wycliff Avenue gate of the Dallas North Tollway to make them consistent with those at other toll booths.

Beginning Oct. 1, tolls will go up a dime to 70 cents for TollTag customers and a quarter to $1 for other motorists, the authority said today.

The tolls had been lower because of construction between Lemmon Avenue and Interstate 35. Wycliff Avenue sits in the middle of the construction. The construction had limited toll road access to two lanes in each direction. But on Aug. 29, a third lane opened, marking completion of a $50 million renovation project.

The website link below is being updated with hotel room availability for Hurricane Ike evacuees.

>>>>>http://www.tacvbemergency.net/searchrooms<<<<<

Please check for availability before heading to a city as many small town hotels and budget hotels in the major cities are completely sold out.

Hurricane Ike is expected to hit south of Galveston Island as a Category 3 storm with up to 125 mph winds - wind gusts may be up to 160.

Evacuation orders are already in place for all of Galveston and portions of Houston. As the worst part of the storm is the south and east, NASA Mission Control and the largest U.S. oil refinery - which is owned by Dallas-based ExxonMobil - are all under threat. 25% of the nation’s oil is refined along the Texas Gulf Coast so there is a chance that if systems go down our gasoline prices will go up. The refineries are built to withstand hurricane force winds; however, it’s the tidal surges that has people concerned.

This morning, medical patients started arriving on military planes at DFW International Airport where they were evaluated by medical teams and sent to area hospitals.

As of now, the southbound lanes of I-45 between Dallas and Houston have not been reversed - but that is a possibility as the storm grows closer to hitting landfall Saturday morning.

The storm is expected to head for Dallas as of Sunday morning and we, at this time, are to expect 40+mph winds, gusts up to 65mph and the possibility of tornadoes to the south and east. We might also expect up to 6″ of rain which could result in flash flooding.

TxDOT has recently stated that there have been 1,000 more motorcycle wrecks this year than last year.

Let’s see….gasoline is really expensive, economy is sluggish, consumer spending is down yet motorcycle and scooter sales are through the roof. I suppose logical deductive reasoning would say that with more bikes on the road, yes, it does seem logical that there might be more wrecks.

A recent NBC5 report, or course, focuses on “inexperienced” riders v. “inattentive” drivers. It was interesting reading some of the feedback on the site that accompanied that report. Some posters - anonymous of course, God forbid they actually use their name - stated it was all the bikers fault because we ride like idiots, lane split, etc. Personally, sounds like someone has some sour grapes because Harley Davidson Financial denied their application for credit.

Speaking as a biker, I don’t lane split. A Harley with an engine guard and highway pegs is too wide to lane split. I also don’t split because I don’t trust drivers to stay in their lanes because it’s been proven time and again that the vast majority of them are clueless when they are behind the wheel.

On an almost daily basis, this biker, who cannot be classified as “inexperienced” by any stretch of the imagination, has to deal with “inattentive” drivers often. They swerve because they simply aren’t paying attention; they drift into your lane (I guess they haven’t figured out what those white striped lines on the concrete are for), they’ve evidently bought vehicles that didn’t come with the luxury option of turn signals, etc etc.

However, for every inexperienced rider on the road each day, I would dare to guess that there are 50 inexperienced drivers. With those odds, it’s kind of hard to continously bash the bikers as always being in the wrong.

Chill out, have some dip, and just share the road. Cutting in front of us bikers won’t get you to your destination that much faster and may prevent us from using our motorcycle boot to kick off your driver’s side mirror to get your attention.

NOTE: If you are a rider and you have not done so, please take time to sign the petition asking the City of Dallas to implement Designated Motorcycle/Scooter Parking.

DART posted its best ridership numbers ever in June, when more Dallas-area passengers used its buses, trains and HOV lanes than ever before.

The increases were felt across the board. There were more trips recorded for light rail, commuter rail and buses in June, DART said Thursday. And in a change, the increases went beyond the higher weekday totals that have been seen in recent months. Ridership was up on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The Trinity Railway Express, the commuter line between Dallas and Fort Worth that DART operates jointly with Fort Worth’s transportation agency, provided 251,000 rides in June. That’s 31,000 more than in May and nearly 45,000 more than a year before.

The number of light rail passengers increased, too. In June, those riders took 1.69 million trips on DART, about 200,000 more than June, 2007, and about 100,000 more than an already busy May, 2008.

Average weekday totals for light rail — about 70,000 trips a day - and for TRE — about 11,000 trips a day — were each the highest numbers in DART history.

Rail ridership has been trending up for months, as commuters recoiled at the idea of paying $4 or more for gasoline. Weekday ridership has been sharply up, but the overall increases have tended to be more modest.

In addition, bus ridership — by far the biggest share of DART’s customers — had not increased so steadily. Indeed, May bus numbers were down from a year before.

But that changed, too, in June. Though about 3,000 fewer bus trips were made in June than in May, the June figure was still up 6 percent, or 220,000 trips, than June, 2007. DART buses provided some 3.8 million trips for the month.

Counting the 4.5 million passengers DART said were in vehicles using the HOV lanes, the total DART ridership for June was 10.3 million — the highest total ever for the 25-year old agency.

DART has steadily expanded its network of HOV lanes in the past year, however, making year-to-year comparisons that include HOV riders less useful than apples-to-apples comparisons of bus and rail ridership, for instance.

DART released the numbers after agency president Gary Thomas alluded to the double-digit increase for rail ridership to group of officials from Fort Worth who had traveled by train to see the Mockingbird Station development in Dallas.

So there is now a 2-year waiting list to get a Smart Car. We live in Texas. Lots of SUV’s and Pickup Trucks. And let’s not forget the NAFTA Highway (I-35) cuts right through Dallas so there are lots of 18-wheelers.

So how does this little putt putt car hold up?

A friend of mine got one a couple months ago and the thing is only 6″ longer than my Harley - yes, we parked them right next to one another. It was eerie how much room was inside - almost as much room as the interior of my Corvette.

People are jumping to get these Smart Cars and Mercedes-Benz, who manufactures them, swears they are amazingly safe.

UmmmHmmm…..right.

So, on what was technically Wednesday morning at 1:30 a.m., I receive a phone call from my British biker friend. “Raine! Come quick! I’ve wrecked my car! It’s on it’s side!” Luckily I’m nocturnal by nature so I was still up and I asked him where he was and it was only a few blocks away.

So I go downstairs and try to quietly turn on my Harley so I don’t wake up the adjoining lofts — I know, it’s silly. No matter how softly you hit the Start button it’s still going to fire up like a Harley during mid-day.

It was a beautiful evening, just after a rain storm as I made my way over to the intersection of Chaos and Destruction. Yep….Smart Car. Being toppled back upright. Lots of police cars with their lights on.

It seems, that when he turned from Fitzhugh onto Bryan (which is a 2-lane street cutting through residential areas at that point), he thinks he glanced down at his new iPod that he got for his birthday and, according to what the witnesses told me, he just barely glanced the curb and the car went flying. I saw the mark on the curb…maybe 4″ long about 25 yards from the intersection. The telephone pole that stopped the car was another 20 yards down the road.

Now this guy is a decent driver, doesn’t drive like a bat outta hell like Texans do because he’s British. His weapon of choice is his Ducati “Paul Smart” model.

The bloody car was toast. A single car faux pas, barely touching a curb, catapulted it into a pole and onto it’s side.

British is about 6′-2″ and 130 pounds. He was wearing his seatbelt but he was complaining about his left wrist and hand hurting terribly and as the night progressed his ribs and sternum became worse.

Everyone, British, me, the cops, were all puzzled that a car could have totaled itself by such a minor mishap.

The tow truck finally showed up and 2 hours later, we were finally able to leave. Oh, and technically it was British’s 45th birthday on Wednesday so I doubt he’ll be forgetting that bday anytime soon. He climbed onto the back of my bike and I rode about 15mph through downtown to get him to his loft. He refused to let me take him to Baylor Hospital which was only 5 blocks away because he thought it’d be crowded. I was telling him, “It’s 3:20a on a Wednesday morning…this is the perfect time to go..no crowds and I haven’t heard CareFlight all evening.” But he adamantly refused. I finally got home about 4a.

So…are you considering buying a Smart Car? Speaking as an eye-witness to this event, any thoughts I had of getting one are completely gone. There is no way I’d risk driving a car that cannot even hold up to such a simple mishap.

British has decided that cars are too dangerous. From here on out, he’s sticking to his motorbikes.

Many companies are unable to pay their staff additional wages, but they have found a way to give them a perk — have a 4-day work week. By working 10 hours on 4 days, the employee still gets their hours but saves a day of commuting.

A couple Dallas companies have recently made this transition including Dallas Concilio and Automotive Service Association.

A companion poll on WFAA, is showing that 95% of viewers would prefer a 4-day work week.

Because of the higher gas prices, people are cutting back in other ways including:

•We are eating out 35 percent less.

•Entertainment budgets are cut by 31 percent.

•Grocery bills are down 27 percent.

•21 percent are cutting out vacations.

For the time being, the days of decadence and debauchery are gone — frugal and thrifty are now haute couture.