Working as part of the coalition, rather than as transit engineers, changed their worldview.
And last Thursday, a bit farther south, a team of New York City Transit engineers and contractors went underground, past the abandoned turnstiles and token booths of the Cortlandt Street station that served the trade center.
The Eighth and Ninth Rails (Vertical Rails) These rails run vertically from the floor of the track and were installed because early transit engineers were unsure if it was better for a subway car to move horizontally through the tunnel or perpendicular to the ground and straight into the ceiling.
Jodie Marcyniuk, a transit priority engineer at Calgary Transit, notes that each of its transmitter-equipped buses saves 2,000 gallons of fuel and nearly 50,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year compared with buses on regular routes.
In December, he faced down a strike threat by transit workers, engineered the ouster of his second schools chancellor and played host, to glowing reviews and extensive television coverage, of the city's New Year's Eve celebration.
At least 40 other cities are exploring streetcar plans to spur economic development, ease traffic congestion and draw young professionals and empty-nest baby boomers back from the suburbs, according to the Community Streetcar Coalition, which includes city officials, transit authorities and engineers who advocate streetcar construction.
The reason can be found at a cavernous bus garage in the Bronx, where over the last several months transit mechanics and engineers have been completely rebuilding the guts of the city's oldest and most polluting diesel buses, installing cleaner, custom-made engines and placing powerful filters on the exhaust pipes.
She's anything but, having recently earned the support of the Colorado Property Rights Coalition, well-respected engineers, transit specialists, federal environmental experts, and ordinary citizens across the political spectrum.
But what about the highway designers, traffic engineers, transit planners and land-use regulators who placed a bus stop across from apartments but made no provision whatsoever for a safe crossing?
"Transit people think like engineers," he added.
