Transportation Network Efficiency Expert, Slime Mold

I found a very interesting experiment that places a slime mold specimen in a situation that encouraged it to grow in a way that lent insight into Tokyo's rail system efficiency.

Some organisms have the ability to create efficient networks that allow them to access resources with minimum energy output. A team led by Atsushi Tero of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan set up an environment that mimicked the Tokyo metropolitan area with food crumbs representing destinations. Researchers placed the slime mold Physarum polycephalum into the environment and allowed it grow and establish its own feeding network. The final result was a remarkably efficient network eerily similar to Tokyo's existing rail network.

Researches critically compared the organism's design with Tokyo's design and used what they learned to create biologically inspired algorithms for more efficient transportation network design. Innovation is definitely interdisciplinary.

Here are links to the published research in Science Magazine, a good supporting article by Wolfgang Marwan of Otto van Guericke University (Germany), and a concise overview from MSNBC.

• Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design
• Marwan Article
• MSNBC's "Better Transit Design through...Slime Mold?"

If the links don't work, try searching "Network Design" on sciencemag.org. USF's online database subscriptions include this journal, so you should be able to access it through the USF library.

"Mobility Market" downtown

I hope some of you will be able to visit the downtown Tampa "Mobility Market" on Friday, Feb. 19:

http://www.madduxpress.com/economic-development/2010/02/16/tampa-downtown-market-hosts-mobility-market-3696

http://www.shelterforce.org/article/1856/getting_from_here_to_there/

Here's an interesting look at how transit, land use and community development goals can be made compatible.

The politics of high speed rail

When Florida was awarded high speed rail, I sort of cynically said "it helps to be a swing state"! Well, according to this article, which quotes US Sec. of Transportation LaHood, there was more to it: apparently Florida's congressional delegation and its state legislature all did their part to ensure that the state got a big share of the available funds:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/10/how-florida-cashed-in-on_n_454467.html

I attended the public meeting held jointly by the County government and HART last night at Gaither High School. For those of you thinking of attending one of these meetings next week: the first hour is a chance to look over maps and other materials they've provided. Then they have a brief video about transporation issues, that explains why they are asking for a 1% sales tax increase, and how that money will be spent (75% bus and rail; 25% road and trail improvements). After the video they broke us into two groups to learn more about either transit or non-transit issues. I confess I did not stay until the very end! But I did hear about 30 minutes of the discussion group about transit.

Some of the comments from the public were of the predictable "Don't tax me!" variety. And there were the usual attendees who simply want to gripe about a bad intersection near their home, as well as one fellow who announced he was running for county commissioner and then held the floor with a mini-lecture for a very long time.

But one interesting concern, esp. of interest to planners, did come up in the transit discussion. Many of those in attendance live in the new developments off Dale Mabry highway in the north part of Hillsborough County, close to the border with Pasco. The HART planners explained that they made recommendations for transit improvements based on the Hillsborough county Future Land Use Map (FLUM). But much of the volume on the major roads in that area comes from the many new subdivisions built in across the county line in Pasco County-- and yet the Hillsborough County planning doesn't process doesn't fully consider how much new development Pasco County anticipates in the coming years. This strikes me as a structural problem in much of the planning process: although there is some cooperation between municipalities and counties, much of planning still fails to work at a regional level.

Identifying routes, stops

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2010/2/3/578647.html?title=Five%20sites%20approved%20for%20high-speed%20rail%20stop%20in%20Polk&cid=rss

Both proposed light rail and high-speed rail systems are still under study, so we don't know exactly where routes will be located or stations built. The link above raises these issues in the case of Lakeland.

These decisions will have a huge impact on all kinds of land use, development, and environmental concerns. Real estate values will be affected as well. You can think about the many planning issues that will emerge around any proposed rail routes.

Lots written after high speed rail announcement!

From Orlando newspapers, questions about whether that city will be ready to link the new line to other transportation:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-cfb-kassab-high-speed-rail-20100129,0,7422852.column">href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-cfb-kassab-high-speed-rail-20100129,0,7422852.column">

I've found similar concerns from the Tampa end:

What have you heard/read about the proposed high-speed line?