March 7: The case for far-side stops | Wendy’s on South Broad | The Geator: Bike commuter

A new paper published in Transportation Research Record attempts to settle the geeky but consequential debate over whether far-side stops or near-side stops are the better policy for buses. Aarian Marshall says far-side stops (on the other side of a traffic light) can speed up buses, although near-side stops are considered safer by some planners. MOTU and SEPTA piloted far-side stops on the Route 47, but stopping at all the stop signs and lack of signal priority at signalized intersections negated any time savings. Here are some other ideas from Michael Noda for other ways to speed up Philly’s buses. 

There’s a Wendy’s planned for the old Beneficial Bank building on South Broad Street and some neighbors aren’t happy, says Taylor Farnsworth. 

Journalist Dustin Slaughter asks why the City Solicitor’s office needs to be involved in seemingly every Right to Know request. Slaughter is investigating the handling of RTK requests at 34 city agencies to better understand the bottlenecks journalists face trying to get information from the city.

Ahead of a possible strike at New Jersey Transit, a new analysis from advocacy group New Jersey for Transit points out that New Jersey’s capital investments in transit have fallen 19 percent since 2002, while ridership grew by 20 percent over the same period. 

What should come after net metering for rooftop solar? James Wimberley looks at the battles playing out across the globe (and here in Pennsylvania) between solar, fossil fuel companies, and utilities over rates for residential rooftop solar producers and suggests a way forward. “It really does look as if net metering will have to be replaced in the USA by a more complex value-of-solar tariff (VOST), as in Minnesota and (surprisingly) Maine.” 

Jerry “The Geator” Blavat is a bike commuter. Here’s his interview with Randy LoBasso at the Bicycle Coalition blog. “[I]t’s faster for me to get where I have to go, rather than waiting for a cab or getting public transportation—especially in Center City,” said Blavat.