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Berlin's public transit (BVG & S-Bahn) is having problems with its PoP system that we always aspire to on this board:

"Schwartzfahrer" (Riders without a ticket) are up 25% this year over last year. The fine for being caught will rise 50% from €40 to €60. S-Bahn has increased "Kontrolleure" (ticket inspectors) from 40 to 80. The BVG (U-Bahn/MetroBus/MetroTram) is increasing from 40 to 85-100.

http://www.energy.de/berlin/uebersicht/lesen/article/schwarzfahren-in-berlin-bald-teurer/
 
datadyne007 said:
Berlin's public transit (BVG & S-Bahn) is having problems with its PoP system that we always aspire to on this board:

"Schwartzfahrer" (Riders without a ticket) are up 25% this year over last year. The fine for being caught will rise 50% from €40 to €60. S-Bahn has increased "Kontrolleure" (ticket inspectors) from 40 to 80. The BVG (U-Bahn/MetroBus/MetroTram) is increasing from 40 to 85-100.

http://www.energy.de/berlin/uebersicht/lesen/article/schwarzfahren-in-berlin-bald-teurer/
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Missed this here in open thread.

What's the problem? The point of a PoP system is to react dynamically to changing conditions. If fare evasion is up by a quarter (remember, that's +25%, not absolute 25%, so that could mean going from 4% to 5%) then adjust the penalties and add more patrols. Moving right along...

If you think that PoP is supposed to achieve perfect, absolute, 100% compliance no questions asked, then you don't understand how these things work. Heck, nothing achieves 100% compliance in the real world. That's just insane...
 
Not expecting 100% compliance. Just pointing out that they perhaps sat on a low penalty & enforcement for too long. Like you said, you have to react dynamically.

Berlin's transit actually has much larger problems right now with striking causing massive delays.
 
In case anyone wonders why London is building subways so much faster (and more cheaply) than US cities, here's what a resident association of abutters to the Northern Line extension to Battersea had to say. They start by
giving an honest description of the project and its benefits:

The Government is planning to build an extension of the Northern Line from Kennington to Battersea Power Station via Nine Elms.

This project is part of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area, which will see the transformation of 195 hectares of land along the river between Lambeth and Bridge and Battersea Park, and the creation of 16,000 homes and up to 25,000 jobs over the next 20 years.
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They explain why this project will actually affect them:

Tunnelling work will go under our estate and permanent shafts to provide ventilation, cooling and emergency access are planned near Kennington Green and in the old Lodge on the other side of Kennington Park.
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And they arranged meetings to ask for reasonable mitigation measures, and seem very pleased with them:

The shaft at Kennington Green will be very close to Sherwin House and residents’ concerns about traffic, noise and pollution during building works were spelt out to the Lambeth Council transport planning officer who attended our February meeting. He said that the Council intended to restrict works’ lorries to the major roads in the area and that they would be banned from using any side streets. We will be holding them to that commitment!

As well as our concerns about the effects of the work at Kennington Green, we also made it clear that we would expect TFL to carry out full surveys of our estate before any tunnelling takes place, given the seventy-odd years of vibrations from the tube our foundations have been subjected to.
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That's how the public process is supposed to work - a recognition that the ultimate goal is compromise to produce results that benefit everyone.
 
Since when is London known for building subways cheaply?

I guess doing it more cheaply than NYC is something, but not much of an accomplishment, since every city in the world does it more cheaply than NYC.

London is not far behind NYC in cost.
 
From Reddit. Why it's not ok for streets to belong only to high-speed vehicles:

FY6zI4a.jpg
 
One of the family members posted the rare find to online noticeboard Reddit recently, but stopped short of revealing the location, so as to prevent any break-ins.
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1416114535927_wps_24_A_Redditor_by_the_name_of.jpg


Do these people not know how the internet works?
 
That comic just about sums up my (low) opinion of architects.
 
Not to excuse those kinds of architects (although they are really inexcusable), but I think a fair share of the blame also falls on the people who picked them in the first place. Nobody forced the Port Authority to go with a crazy, irresponsible starchitect like Calatrava. And Boston's fugly city hall was "selected from 256 entries by a jury of prominent architects and businessmen."

Well, okay, in that case we can heap more blame on architects. And businessmen.
 
Can We Please Stop Drawing Trees on Top of Skyscrapers?
Just a couple of years ago, if you wanted to make something look trendier, you put a bird on it. Birds were everywhere. I’m not sure if Twitter was what started all the flutter, but it got so bad that Portlandia performed a skit named, you guessed it, “Put a Bird on It.” (“What a sad little tote bag. I know! I’ll put a bird on it.” Etc.)

514872fdb3fc4b29b7000031_can-we-please-stop-drawing-trees-on-top-of-skyscrapers-_mvrdv-jakarta-view02-500x500.jpg


It turns out architects have been doing the same thing, just with trees. Want to make a skyscraper look trendy and sustainable? Put a tree on it. Or better yet, dozens. Many high-concept skyscraper proposals are festooned with trees. On the rooftop, on terraces, in nooks and crannies, on absurdly large balconies. Basically anywhere horizontal and high off the ground. Now, I should be saying architects are drawing dozens, because I have yet to see one of these “green” skyscrapers in real life. (There’s one notable exception—BioMilano, which isn’t quite done yet.) If—and it’s a big if—any of these buildings ever get built, odds are they’ll be stripped of their foliage quicker than a developer can say “return on investment.” It’s just not realistic. I get why architects draw them on their buildings. Really, I do. But can we please stop?

Find out why it’s not a good idea to put trees on skyscrapers, after the break…
http://www.archdaily.com/346374/can-we-please-stop-drawing-trees-on-top-of-skyscrapers/
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Alright, no big production this time. I cried wolf once before but it's officially official: I'm moving to NYC. It was decided 4 days ago and I move in 4... there's already a bedroom down there waiting for me and everything. Washington Heights here I come.

So it's been fun, guys. Glad I was able to make it to the latest meet-up and hang with some of y'all. I'll be back and forth, and you can guarantee I'll be taking pictures if and when I'm in town, so I'll still be popping in here and there. Otherwise, You'll be able to find me happily stalking around The New York equivalent to this place. Cheers!
 
kz1000ps said:
Alright, no big production this time. I cried wolf once before but it's officially official: I'm moving to NYC. It was decided 4 days ago and I move in 4... there's already a bedroom down there waiting for me and everything. Washington Heights here I come.

So it's been fun, guys. Glad I was able to make it to the latest meet-up and hang with some of y'all. I'll be back and forth, and you can guarantee I'll be taking pictures if and when I'm in town, so I'll still be popping in here and there. Otherwise, You'll be able to find me happily stalking around The New York equivalent to this place. Cheers!
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We have a NYC thread. Feel free to photo dump whenever!! =)

Happy travels.
 
Please update the NYC photo thread on here I would love to get occasional updates on what is happening there.
 
You guys are right! I keep forgetting that thread exists. Welp time to go share some of my recent pics...
 
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