Maglev is cool, and it’s really fun to watch videos of maglev trains, just ’cause they’re so fast. Here are a few videos to enjoy.

Imagine the possibility of someday getting Maglev in the U.S. Atlanta to Miami in 2.5 hours, or your pizza is free.

Here’s a very useful and interesting science news site: Science Daily. Among recent stories:

• If All Drivers Were Polite, They Would Get Where They’re Going Faster
• How Did Continents Split? Geology Study Shows New Picture
• Life’s Harsh Lessons ‘Make You More Gullible’

Every time Fox News happens to be on, I find something to blog about.

Just now, the discussion topic between several talking heads was whether there is more corruption in Congress or the corporate world. What a lame topic: less than 500 members of Congress versus several hundred thousand people involved in corporate management and governance. Where are you more likely to see more corruption? How do you define corruption? Why is this worth a spit of air time on a cable channel that claims to be a news channel? What business is Fox really in if their typical discussion topic is as cynical as this?

I grew up in Cobb County. Known for many years for its odd smash of politics — at least two separate flavors of Republicans, theocrats and oligarchs, have vied for power for as long as I can remember — coupled with a style of sprawl that has a prettier face than Gwinnett’s, I have somehow managed to call this place home for most of my life.

I even lived a couple of years in Cherokee County, while I attended little Reinhardt College.

Everything anyone has ever known about Cobb and Cherokee is about to change.

Today, the GDOT board, in its infinite wisdom, cleared the way for a major widening of I-75 and I-575. Previous reports have indicated that I-75 will be widened to 23 lanes across.

This is a sad day for the entire metro area, and especially for Cobb and Cherokee Counties. When the Northwest Corridor study began, no alternatives to the standard asphalt answer were ever seriously considered. Instead, GDOT is choosing to create what will be one of the world’s widest highways.

Notice, I said GDOT is making this choice. Their only consultation with the public so far has only served as a diversion. While local citizens have focused on where the so-called Bus Rapid Transit stations should be located and how they should be laid out, GDOT has focused on how they can pour as much asphalt as they could and enrich their road contractor pals over at Georgians for Better Transportation.

GDOT doesn’t care about whether the project makes sense, and I don’t see any indication that Sam Olens cares about the project, either, especially now that he’s become drunk from the GBT Kool-Aid. And don’t count on the General Assembly to intervene, either, like they love to do with rail projects. GBT spent nearly $20,000 over the past year or so to keep legislators fat and happy.

Before long, I’ll be moving out of Cobb County. Once this latest boondoggle is complete, I don’t think I’ll ever move back.

So today, I get another degree. This one, a Bachelor of Science in Urban Policy Studies, with a specialization in Planning and Economic Development. The degree comes from the Department of Really Long Names and Titles, also known as the Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Clearly, the folks there like to double up on their studies.

In related news (pun intended), my cousin and the rest of the Hofstra softball team will be beating the crap out of the Georgia State softball team in the CAA Championship Games today.

From the outset, I’ll admit to having not done any research before writing about this subject, so this will be brief. Hopefully.

As mentioned in this week’s Loaf, MARTA is to the point of changing bus routes on a monthly basis. However, there are better ideas:

Caleb Racicot, a former city of Atlanta planner, says the lack of sensible routes is the product of MARTA’s attempt to provide door-to-door service. By that logic, a single bus route can travel down as many as 30 different streets. To make matters worse, few bus stops display a map of the routes — or even the route number of the bus that stops there.

Racicot says there’s a simple solution: bus routes that go up and down major corridors, such as Peachtree Street, Moreland Avenue, Ponce de Leon Avenue and Memorial Drive.

That approach might have people walking a bit more, because only the bigger streets would have bus service. But riders would have a far easier time navigating a more grid-like system as opposed to a collection of routes that resembles a plate of spaghetti.

This is a great start. When reworking the entire system, MARTA, and all of the local governments that fall within MARTA’s service area, would benefit from a more focused approach to bus routing than what’s been done in the past.

Weaving the urban fabric is an important function of MARTA. It sounds like some corny phrase, I know, but it basically means enhancing the connections that make an urban environment strong. With well-designed bus and rail routes, MARTA’s economic impact could be measurable and significant.

According to Otis White, transit and cities go together like cake and icing (can you tell I’m hungry as I write this?):

Transit ridership is good for cities. It allows more density, which encourages neighborhood retail, which then allows streets to become more active and safe . . . which encourages even more transit ridership — thus creating what social scientists call a “virtuous cycle.”

[Look for the story titled, “How do you get people on a bus?”]

What’s been mentioned (and lamented upon) time and again is that some of MARTA’s revenue comes from a 1 percent sales tax. However, out of this lemon, there is a way to make pie. (Just call me a starving writer, because I’m still hungry as I write this.)

In recreating its entire bus system, MARTA should begin with a formula. Create bus routes that follow the major roads in the service area. Identify both regional and local commercial centers within the service area. Coherent, walkable commercial centers such as Atlantic Station and Little Five Points should service as primary connection points.

In designing each route, apply this simple formula:

C_o < (e * .01) + F + A

Where:

• C_o = The operating cost of the route
• e = The projected economic impact of the route
• F = Projected fare revenues from the route
• A = Projected advertising revenues from the route

So, the operating cost of the route should be less than one percent of the projected economic impact, plus fare revenues, plus advertising revenues.

By including a route’s projected economic impact as part of the route planning process, MARTA can maximize the potential benefit to local governments and communities. MARTA could serve more riders more conveniently and more reliably.

This is only a start to route planning: coherence, economic impact. But it shouldn’t end there by any means. If this approach doesn’t create additional room for providing service for the transit-dependent (within reason), then there will be no proof in the pudding, especially for the concept of a dedicated transit sales tax.

This quote from the most recent AP story on gas prices shows the Cato attitude pretty well:

Jerry Taylor, an energy analyst at the Cato Institute, which favors limited government and free markets, said the price of gasoline as a share of a worker’s earnings is not that high when compared with the share of earnings 50 years ago.

But reports about “skyrocketing gas prices” have an influence because “there’s a big market for fist-shaking and red-faced conniption in the media.”

Fifty years ago, cities weren’t as sprawled as they are today, and people drove less. While the per gallon price of gasoline is not really that high when you look only at monetary inflation, gas prices are very high when you also consider suburban inflation.

Among the podcasts I’ve been listening to is KQED’s Perspectives. Every day, KQED listeners give their thoughtful commentary of the day. It’s kind of like NPR’s This I Believe, except Perspectives is a bit more down-to-earthish.

Two recent episodes caught my attention, and they turned out to be written by the same guy, JD Samant. The first episode was And Versus Or. It is yet another commentary in what is becoming a longer line of commentaries wishing for more moderation in politics: “There’s a little too much ‘or’ going on these days for my comfort,” JD opines. “Why not a little more ‘and’?”

The second episode was about Elizabeth, “clearly the number one most nicknamed name in the English-speaking world.”

So, if you’re a little tired of all the partisan ugliness in the world, and you’re perhaps ready for someone to point out some of the hidden, amusing things in life, check out JD’s commentaries, wherever you can find them.