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Life in the bus lane: can Chicagoans be convinced to make a switch?
Center running BRT with travel lane removals. Image courtesy of CTA.
[This piece also appeared in Checkerboard City, John's weekly transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets in print on Thursdays.]
"It comes down to: how do Chicagoans want their streets?" said Chris Ziemann, the city's bus-rapid-transit project manager, as we drank coffee downstairs from the Chicago Department of Transportation's (CDOT) downtown headquarters last week. "Do they want them to be congested every day at rush hour with gridlocked vehicles? Or do they want fast, reliable bus service and nice, comfortable conditions for walking?"
As car-dominated transportation systems become increasingly dysfunctional, more U.S. cities are looking to bus rapid transit (BRT) as a solution. BRT delivers subway-like speed and efficiency at relatively low costs through upgrades to existing streets rather than new rail lines. These improvements can include dedicated bus lanes, pre-paid boarding at stations in the road median, bus-priority stoplights and more. BRT is already common in Latin America, Europe and Asia, and it's currently being piloted in dozens of American cities.
CDOT and the Chicago Transit Authority are partnering on several BRT projects in various states of completion. A proposal to build corridors along Western and/or Ashland avenues may include removing two of the four travel lanes on each street and replacing them with bus lanes, a scheme that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. "This is politically the best opportunity for bus rapid transit that Chicago's ever had or might ever have in the future," Ziemann says. "Mayor Emanuel and [CDOT Commissioner] Gabe Klein really get BRT, and they want it to happen as part of their sustainable transportation policies."
For an in-depth look at the features, pros, and cons for each of the four scenarios, visit our new Western & Ashland BRT Pros and Cons website.
Chris Ziemann at the BRT open house.
The Jeffery Jump, a new express bus service, should debut this fall along Jeffery Boulevard on the Southeast Side. Ziemann acknowledges this won't be true BRT because the dedicated bus lanes will only exist on a two-mile segment of the route between 67th and 83rd streets, and only during rush hours. But the dedicated lanes, plus other firsts like traffic signals that turn green when a bus approaches, will pave the way for bolder projects.
For example, the agencies are planning to build the Central Loop Corridor, operating between Union Station and Navy Pier, as early as 2014. This would be bona fide BRT, including full-time, dedicated bus lanes, bus-level boarding platforms, a new off-street bus terminal next to the train station, and protected bike lanes on Randolph and Washington streets.
But the Western and Ashland Corridors BRT, covering a twenty-one-mile swath of the city between Howard and 95th streets, is the most ambitious project yet, with the biggest potential payoff. According to the CTA, one in four Chicagoans live within a half-mile of Ashland and Western, and the avenues have the system's second- and third-highest bus ridership, respectively. The agency predicts rapid buses on these streets would travel up to eighty percent faster than current speeds, saving the average rider fifty to sixty-five hours per year.
Image courtesy of CTA.
In general these avenues are seventy-feet-wide, curb-to-curb, with two travel lanes in each direction, plus medians with left-turn bays and parking on both sides of the street. Four potential street-configuration alternatives are proposed for each avenue, with buses running either in the center lanes or curbside, plus different combinations of travel lane, median and parking removal to make room for the bus lanes.
The Active Transportation Alliance advocacy group is pushing for the alternative that includes center-running buses and car-lane removal because it would be the most efficient and ped-friendly option. The streets would also lose their left-turn bays, but the design includes bus stations in the medians, parking on both sides of the street and wider sidewalks. According to CTA studies, this configuration would boost the average bus speed on Western from 10.1 MPH to 18.4, with a fifty-percent increase in reliability and a thirty-percent spike in ridership. Despite the loss of car lanes, the agency predicts average automobile speed would only drop from 17.9 to 16.3 MPH.
In the alternative where buses run curbside, with medians removed and parking stripped from one side of the road to make room for bus lanes, four car lanes plus left-turn bays, automobiles would maintain their current speeds. But bus speed would drop to 15.6 MPH, and there would only be a ten-percent increase in reliability and eighteen-percent increase in ridership, since curbside buses are frequently delayed by right-turning vehicles, parallel parking, double parking and cabs. Active Trans opposes this scenario because parked cars provide a buffer between pedestrians and moving vehicles, the loss of parking would hurt local businesses and peds would be forced to cross six lanes of high-speed traffic.
The CTA recently held three public meetings on the South, West and North Sides of the city to update citizens on the Western and Ashland project and ask which of the four proposed configurations they favor. The preferred alternative will be announced this winter, and next year the CTA will design the routes and conduct environmental impact studies.
That Tuesday I dropped by an open house at Iglesia Rebaño, a church in Humboldt Park. Fernando Benavides, an O'Hare Airport worker who came here with his daughter, researching a paper for school, argues BRT is a bad idea. "There are more disadvantages than advantages," he says. "Especially if you're talking about removing travel lanes or parking. Christ! It's going to mean more traffic congestion, which means more idling and pollution. I use the CTA and I don't mind the way it runs now. I just don't understand why this is needed."
CTA staffer and Fernando Benevides.
If Benavides represents the viewpoint of an average Chicagoan, could BRT, let alone car-lane removals, really be politically feasible here? Joe Iacobucci, the CTA's manager of strategic planning and policy, thinks his agency can successfully make the case that fast buses are in everyone's best interest. "That's why we're doing this outreach process," he says. "Even if you only drive and never ride the bus, you're going to see 31,000 more people taking transit on Western. A lot of those folks would be in cars otherwise, so that's going to make things easier for everybody in the long run."
For an in-depth look at the features, pros, and cons for each of the four potential street configuration alternatives, visit our new Western & Ashland BRT Pros and Cons website, which Steven created.
John Greenfield
John has lived in Chicago since 1989 and has worked a number of bicycle jobs, from messenger to mechanic to managing the Chicago Department of Transportation's bicycle parking program, arranging the installation of over 3,700 bike racks. He writes regularly for Time Out Chicago, Newcity, Momentum and Urban Velo magazines and works at Boulevard Bikes in Logan Square.	View all posts by John Greenfield
Posted on October 29, 2012 October 30, 2012 Author John GreenfieldCategories Design, Events, Infrastructure, News, Planning & Policy, Roads, TransitTags BRT, CDOT, Chris Ziemann, CTA, Fernando Benevides, Joe Iacobucci
66 thoughts on "Life in the bus lane: can Chicagoans be convinced to make a switch?"
Removing car travel lanes is never a good idea. While BRT may speed things up for bus riders, I doubt that the majority of the cars on Western or Ashland are starting and ending their trips on or near Western or Ashland, so BRT really won't get those people out of their cars. You'll end of with car traffic gridlock, and very little increase in bus ridership, and tons of taxpayer money spent and wasted on this.
I'd like to see more information about how many people could feasibly trade their car for BRT on one of these routes, before "someone" decides that Chicago needs this.
C L says:
I agree that this won't motivate a substantial number of people to switch from driving — you need to have a very specific commute for this to come close to the convenience of driving — but I like it because it will make the ride faster for public transit users who live on the route. We have really needed a faster north/south route west of the red line. If it's successful, maybe we can expand BRT so that people who live elsewhere in the city will benefit — and then, if a large area of Chicago is covered, it might make a real dent in the number of people driving.
Tim Jeffries says:
One has to ask: removing car lanes is never a good idea for whom? Certainly not for me.
In any case, to your point, most people who take buses don't take a single bus, but transfer to get to their final location. These BRT routes would decrease the overall travel time by dramatically lowering one leg of the trip. Ideally the network would be expanded so that someone could connect to another, future BRT line – say, Grand, Chicago, or Roosevelt – towards major job and activity centers. A network has to start somewhere.
1 – Really? Never a good idea? I think that's a bit of an exaggeration.
2 – You might doubt that the majority of trips are starting/ending near Western and Ashland, but isn't that the point of this alternatives analysis: to look at the data and make an informed decision?
3 – Since we're basing our opinions on pure speculation, I suspect you actually do have a sizable chunk of rush-hour destinations occurring along Ashland – The Medical District is one of the largest employment centers in the state.
4 – You've also assumed that car trips are the only ones that count. What about the bus riders who make up a respectable proportion of trips? What about other transit users that currently ride a train into downtown and then back out on a different line? For instance, for me to get to Midway from the northside, I can either do Brown Line/Orange Line or take the extremely slow #49. I currently take the train because it is often faster and always more comfortable.
The CTA produced an infographic that discusses vehicle versus people movement:
On Western, buses make up less than 1% of vehicle traffic during the morning rush hour, but carry 18% of the people traveling. On Ashland, buses make up less than 1% of the vehicle traffic daily, but carry 14% of the people traveling. http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/brt/text_of_we_ash_inforgraphic.txt
Elliott Mason says:
So clearly they deserve the dedication of some roadway. Let's round it up and be optimistic and call the bus-contained people 20%, or 1/5th. The CTA wants to permanently dedicate 50% of the current available through-lane roadway to them. Even if ridership doubles, it's still a bit unfair to the rest of the people travelling …
The CTA wants a fair shot at increasing ridership and providing more reliable and faster service. It, along with CDOT, has developed 4 scenarios (was 6) that improve upon existing conditions that will both increase ridership and provide more reliable and faster service.
If you want to make comparisons of vehicle quantity, road space, and persons traveled, I think a fairer comparison would be the number of square feet each person takes up divided by mode.
If you look at an uninterrupted (no intersections), 1,000 feet long, single direction stretch of Western Avenue (with one lane for buses and one lane for every other vehicle), here's what you can carry there: In the bus lane, 60 people. You can actually carry about 240 if you wanted to "bus bunch" but frequency won't be that high. In the travel lane, 37.2 people.
Here's my math:
I don't believe this is how many people will see the project, but in terms of democratizing road capacity and squeezing efficiencies out of existing infrastructure, big buses in their own lanes so they can go fast is the way to do that.
Thing is, though, if you stripe off a buses-only lane, then THAT is the area being occupied by the people riding the busses, not the footprint of the bus. Because nobody but the busses (and therefore the bus-riders) is permitted to use the interdicted pavement, it has a disproportionate impact.
I have no problem if the remainder of the space is moderately acceptable for the rest of the users, but on Western and Ashland, two car lanes plus left-turn boxes in the center is barely adequate as it is — shrinking it from two traffic lanes to one (and removing the left-turns, so any time anyone needs to turn left ALL traffic in that direction stops until they can find a gap) is a major difference in a way that going from three lanes to two (or four to three, etc) really isn't.
I'm a lifelong transit-head, I've been riding the CTA by preference since I was so little my mom had to hold me in her arms, and it's still my first choice when logistically useful, but I also learned to drive as an adult 6 years ago, and Western and Ashland are particularly tense, densely-used, car-full streets at the size they currently are.
If there were a BRT (-ish; I don't think any of these are proper BRT, really) solution being proposed that would preserve two traffic lanes AND the bus lane, maybe by completely axing parking or something, that might work — even then, two lanes and no left-turn pull-outs would still chunk up the traffic a lot, but acceptably (to me).
One car lane and no left-turn boxes is a traffic modality useful on tiny side streets, not on the best option in the area for an "arterial" through street.
Erik Swedlund says:
In two of the four proposed configurations, left-turn lanes remain. In the the other two configurations, left turns are prohibited entirely (so there won't be anyone blocking traffic waiting to turn left).
Um, wrong. At least one of the CTA proposals retains exactly the same number of through car lanes; it reduces parking and left-turn pockets.
Having spent about a decade living on the West Side, I'd dispute that 'most Ashland/Western cars end or start their trips near Ashland/Western' claim; those two streets are the closest thing to north/south arterials between Damen and Cicero for a good swath of the city, meaning if you need to get north, you go over to them and use them to go a good long distance before going east/west again to your destination.
There isn't a better option, and it completely sucks if you're a driver who has to go from west-side-south-of-Roosevelt to west-side-north-of-Fullerton on a regular basis.
Removing car travel lanes is never a good idea? I take it you never biked over the new North Damen bridge before they converted it from four lanes of speeding car traffic to two lanes of smoothly flowing traffic plus bike lanes, to name one of many successful "road diets" in Chicago.
Adam Herstein says:
Any time you make driving even the tiniest bit less convenient, drivers get all up in arms. Remember all the people opposed to the parklets because they removed TWO parking spaces?
Despite the fact that better bus service can benefit everyone, some motorists driving sigle-occupancy vehicles look at it from a very selfish point of view, and want to make driving for just them better.
We will always have these kind of people. The goal should just be to be louder than them.
BlueFairlane says:
LAZ makes any option that removes parking to preserve travel lanes a non-starter, so if this happens, Ashland and Western become single-lane for cars. The question is what impact this will have. Considering the volume of traffic on these streets and the lack of substantial alternative until Central Park, I find the idea that the average speed will be reduced a mere 1.6 mph kind of funny. This is especially funny when you include the elimination of left turn lanes.
Now, to be sure, I don't drive in the city, so I only care as much as it affects my biking routes and the very short distances I do drive between my house and the Kennedy on my way out of town. I ultimately see Western and Ashland becoming impassable to cars much of the time. That's going to have a trickle effect on side streets as drivers seek alternative routes. If it happens, it will be fun to watch it play out.
I disagree that any option that removes parking is a non-starter. The display boards have a page dedicated to each scenario on each street (so 8 pages) and each describes how much metered parking would be removed. Less than 10% of the parking along Western Avenue in the project stretch is controlled by Chicago Parking Meters, LLC (LAZ being CPM's contracted operator). To appease the contract, the parking spaces must be leased from CPM or must be swapped for similar value, unmetered spaces elsewhere in Chicago.
Check out http://gridchicago.com/brt
joejoejoe says:
I believe Ald. Waguespack did one of these parking swaps (put a meter in an unmetered space, got a space for a parklet). He would be a good person to interview on the narrow topic of buying back individual parking spots for use by the city, what it costs, whether it can be scaled up for something like Western BRT. 10% of 14 miles is 1.4 miles of completely metered space – that's a lot of spaces to find one or two at a time.
Joe, in response to another commenter bringing up parking meters, I listed in the BRT Pros and Cons website we made to list how many metered parking spaces are affected. Western has very few metered spaces in the project scope while Ashland has several times as many.
Here's the site:
http://gridchicago.com/brt/
Look for "5% of parking spaces removed (42 are CPM)" where CPM means Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, the Morgan Stanley-Abu Dhabi company.
You have educated me on the parking meters. I never drive on Western, so I'd never noticed that none of the spaces in the stretch nearest me (say, between Logan and Milwaukee) are metered. I took a walk yesterday and saw that all that's free parking and therefore easy to get rid of. I had no idea.
I have to wonder about the segments where there is metered parking, whether the city would opt to narrow Western to one lane rather than play space juggle. I think shifting it to one lane in splotches would be far more destructive to traffic flow than shifting the whole thing to one lane.
ardecila says:
I'm not sure this is the case. I think a mixed strategy should absolutely be part of CTA's toolbox. For example, on the West Side between Roosevelt and Lake there are a lot of closely spaced intersections where there are lots of turning movements and weaving, and four traffic lanes are more important than parking (businesses in the area are pretty meager anyway). North and south of there, it may be feasible to return to a two-lane arrangement when the stoplights occur at regular 2-4 block intervals. In those sections, you might have "hot spots" around expressway interchanges and diagonal streets where, again, the extra traffic lane is more valuable than parking. The result is a mix of widths with wider areas when lots of people are merging in (just like a freeway).
How about the concept of "traffic evaporation" – if you provide less space for driving, less people will drive. A section of Wacker Drive has been closed to cars for months now during repairs, but has anyone really noticed Loop traffic getting any worse than it was before? Conversely, did the recent expansion of the Dan Ryan make traffic flow any better, or did it just cause more people to choose to drive, filling the traffic vacuum. I remember that when they fixed the Hillside Strangler and made it easier to drive through that section of the suburbs, more drivers immediately took advantage of this, so there wasn't much of a gain in travel times.
I don't think you can use Wacker as an analog, as there are a number of similarly high-volume, redundant streets that cover the same ground nearby. In fact, if you were to distribute the 21,200 vehicles the City of Chicago data portal lists traveling Wacker each day evenly to the eight streets east to Grant Park, which collectively see 151,700 vehicles, you would see an increase on those streets of about 1.7% (That said, several people I know who work in the Loop have, in fact, said traffic on those streets is worse.)
The difference with Western and Ashland is that there is no similar redundant street pattern. Western near where I live (at Fullerton) carries 39,200 vehicles per day. You have a to go a half mile east before you find a comparable street (Damen), which carries 22,100. Your next option, Ashland, is another half-mile east, which carries 40, 200 vehicles. In the Loop, you have eight streets handling 15,000-20,000 vehicles per day in a space a little over a half-mile wide. You have nothing like that between Western and Ashland.
As far as traffic evaporation goes, while I understand the concept, I think the name is imprecise. Traffic doesn't evaporate. It just goes someplace else. Traffic on Wacker had lots of other places to go. Traffic on Western and Ashland doesn't. Some portion of that group will opt for the bus. The rest will move to the side streets. The interesting thing will be seeing what proportion of it does what.
The CTA display boards addressed traffic distribution extremely vaguely. I look forward to more information about traffic studies and prediction models to see what traffic might do (I question how well we can guess how people would change their modes or routes).
Traffic does in fact evaporate if people respond to conditions, like the Wacker closure, and opt to leave their cars at home and take other modes instead.
Again, I have to point out that Wacker is a bad example. It's barely a half-mile long, and is only one of many redundant routes through the Loop. I sincerely doubt anybody changed modes because of the closure.
This discussion inspires a thought experiment. (This will be long, so I apologize for taking up space.) Again, I posit that traffic doesn't evaporate, as people are still going to make the trip. Some will change modes and take the bus. (I suppose if you equate it to a phase change from liquid to gas, you could call it evaporation. I consider that buzz-word torture, but mileage varies on that sort of thing.) So, the first part of the experiment is to ponder what volume a one-lane version of, say, Ashland could handle. How much evaporation needs to take place?
The busiest stretch of one-lane street I can think of is Milwaukee at Wicker Park. Averaging the three data points nearest Damen give a daily traffic volume of 13,500 vehicles. That's about the most I think that street can reasonably handle, based on rush hour congestion. Averaging data from several points along Ashland suggests the street handles about 35,000 vehicles. So to bring Ashland to Milwaukee levels, you need to evaporate 21,000 vehicles.
Which brings me to the second part of the thought experiment. As Steven says, it's hard to predict how people will react. If these people are to change modes rather than change routes, CTA will need to accommodate them, and they'll need to do it in such a way that the hassle of the crowds seems less than the hassle of driving. One assumes CTA already planned to increase capacity along Ashland. How much will it need? Rather than do annoying math, I'll make it simple and assume one car equals on person. The average CTA bus holds about 80 people, so to accommodate 21,000 extra passengers, you would need to add 255 bus trips.
Now, these are all back-of-the-envelope figures, and there are weaknesses to the way I've figured it. The number of new trips needed for the Ashland route wouldn't be quite that large … but I think it's reasonable to assume half that number. And this is why this line of thinking is important. If this is to work, CTA needs to show it can handle the traffic. It needs to make a substantial investment in increasing service along these routes, such that a CTA bus equates to a CTA train. That is to say, you'll need many buses running in tandem. Otherwise, the routes won't be attractive to people, and they'll just keep diving, no matter how bad the traffic jam.
I don't think one can assume 13,500 vehicles is all Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park can handle in 24 hours. You could assume it cannot handle any more at the busiest time of day than it handles now, but the day is long and traffic in most hours of the day is probably less than half as much as the busiest hour of the day. Demand for that one or two hour period each day is great and that's when efficient modes (like buses) are most needed, but they are not in demand as they are slow (just as slow as everyone else).
One option to avoid congestion (from a personal and city government perspective) is to adjust work times, a strategy in the Transportation Demand Management toolbox.
Well, that's one of the faults with this data, though I do think you can assume that the 24-hour numbers represent s degree relative path preference. As in, Ashland sees three times as much traffic than Milwaukee over a 24-hour period, so it's resonable to assume Ashland sees three times as much traffic at 5 pm as Milwaukee sees at 5 pm, and so on. This won't be 100% true, as congestion on one street can drive vehicles to another, but I think it's a close thing.
I think the city hits a problem when it starts including things like adjusting work times into the mix. A useful transportation system will be useful when people want to use it, whenever that may be. It you're depending on people leaving an hour earlier or an hour later for a system to function, you're just going to make people more resistant to change. They leave when they want and turn the radios up in their cars as they take to the side streets.
Edit to add: The most important point, regardless of the actual numbers of evaporation, is that CTA will need to run a lot more buses than they do now. There's no getting past that.
With the increased reliability and 83% decreased travel time along the route, one can expect to carry 83% more passengers on Ashland and Western without buying more buses or hiring more drivers. That's about 25000 more passengers/day.
Damen is a one-lane road in many sections with a higher traffic count than Milwaukee. 22,100 just south of Webster. 19,200 just south of Belmont. 20,300 just north of Lake Street.
Again, though, that still works out to 2/3 what Ashland handles. So even if you drop the traffic on Ashland by only a third, you still have to have a lot of buses. 10,000 people instead of 20,000, 128 buses instead of 255. This is the point CTA has to see. If you are going to remove a car lane, simply making that lane bus-only won't be nearly enough. You're going to need more buses. A lot of them.
Now, if you leave the car lane, you can get by on current service levels. But what's the point of that? If your goal is to get people to change modes, then you need to have the preferred mode ready for them to jump into.
AKA60643 says:
There are relatively few north-south streets east of the Dan Ryan that are uninterrupted for any distance. Halsted goes through, but many people avoid the Englewood section. Racine is interrupted. Ashland and Western go through from one end of the city to the other. Damen and California are each interrupted in multiple locations. Kedzie goes through, but parts of it are narrower and slower. Central Park is interrupted. Pulaski is similar to Kedzie, with narrow, congested sections. Cicero is like a highway, but that's 3 miles west of Western. Laramie and Central are interrupted. Austin, Narragansett and Oak Park are all interrupted more than once south of Pershing. Harlem is the next uninterrupted street – 3 miles west of Cicero.
Between State (0 E/W) and Harlem (7200 W), a distance of 9 miles, the only uninterrupted N-S streets are Halsted, Ashland, Western, Kedzie, Pulaski, and Cicero.
It doesn't really matter for vehicular traffic if a street is interrupted if there is an alternative nearby at the location of the interruption. That's what makes a gridded road system so resilient. It will be important to balance the grid so that mobility isn't impaired unnecessarily at the choke points, but there's no reason beyond driver convenience why Western or Ashland need to be a 4-lane through-way their entire length.
That makes sense – those are all mile-streets, i.e. they run at one mile intervals. Halsted is 800 W, Ashland 1600 W, Western 2400 W, Kedzie 3200 W, Pulaski 4000 W, Cicero 4800 W. That the way the city grid was designed. One-mile streets are major, contiguous streets; half-mile streets are lesser volume, not necessarily contiguous arterials; the rest are mostly side streets, save for the diagonals – many of which existed before the grid was laid out.
Also note that there are many more interruptions on the south side than the north side due to rail lines/yards and industrial areas.
I really don't see the advantage of BRT (or even BRT-lite like most CTA plans) over light rail. It's a little bit cheaper to paint the lanes than to lay track (or, as I'd suggest as my pie-in-the-sky money-is-no-object option for Western, elevate it), but anything using buses instead of trains will always be limited by the capabilities of buses.
Separate the right-of-way completely, use trains, get them up to decent speeds, and avoid traffic lights altogether. Run them on electricity and quit spewing diesel fumes along the streets.
Oh, and I'd like a pony, too. :-> Failing that, why on earth does the CTA keep cutting express bus routes (which actually did save significant time, especially at non-rush-hour) and then coming up with complicated "We need to redo entire streets!" plans for quasi-BRT to replace them? A local AND an express bus, on streets that have a lot of long-distance commuters, seems a sensible solution to me, if you can't afford to put in a proper train.
BRT is a lot cheaper. Light rail would cost about 4x or more per mile than any of the scenarios presented by CTA and CDOT.
What are the limitations of the buses' capabilities?
BRT doesn't preclude the installation of rail transit in the future.
Depends how you do it. If you're just painting lanes as bus lanes, yeah, BRT is cheaper, and I'm all for that.
If you start "building new lanes", then LRT is cheaper.
This includes anything where you have to tear up and rebuild the road.
Charlotte, NC did something clever: they started installing tracks when they did previously-planned road-reconstruction projects along routes which were planned to get either light rail or streetcars. The tracks sat there until the funding could be found to finish the rail projects, but by building them when the road was torn up down to the subbase anyway, they found out the true cost: not that much more than a road reconstruction.
And I'm going to suggest that with the BRT on Ashland and Western. In areas where the road is merely going to be resurfaced, go ahead and simply paint a bus lane. But whenever the road is rebuilt from subbase up, put the tracks in under that bus lane. When the volume gets high enough to demand rail service, you'll have half the work done already for little extra cost.
BTW, did you know you can edit your previous comments if you made them as a registered user? (You can register with Disqus, Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.)
Are you aware of some cost comparisons showing LRT and BRT projects's costs?
As Steven mentioned below, light rail is prohibitively expensive. New York City's MTA is currently building its first new line in over eighty years after numerous stops and starts due to funding problems… Chicago simply doesn't have the money to build a new fixed-guideway rail line right now. Additionally, light rail is not nearly as dynamic as BRT – once you put the track into place, you can't move it. If neighborhood demographics change or ridership decreases, there's nothing that can be done. BRT combines the speed and reliability of light rail with the dynamism and cost-effectiveness of bus systems.
Having a series of both local and express buses riding on a shared ROW seems a little ineffective, don't you think? NYC's train system runs similarly to this, but they have dedicated tracks with no interference. It'd be much more efficient to have a dedicated BRT system instead of increasing the number of buses and having express and local buses fighting with each other and with auto traffic, increasing congestion and not achieving any sort of measurable positive result.
The Western/Ashland BRT project represents a very important tipping point for this city. Iif fully implemented, would put Chicago at the forefront of progressive transportation systems and, perhaps more importantly, put it in a real conversation about its place as a true "global city". Cycling, BRT, complete streets – this is the future of urban transportation. Take a look at other places around the world and you'll see that they're only widening the gap… its high time Chicago got on board.
Minneapolis, Houston, and Dallas all have light rail in place that is popular and expanding. When he was DC DOT head Gabe Klein called light rail a "no-brainer" when it came to economic development and spoke at length about light rails advantages in economic development vs. other modes.
It is a false choice to talk about BRT or nothing in these corridors. Using the 4x cost difference that Steven mentioned as a baseline it is conceivable that differences in operating costs, economic development benefits of light rail vs. BRT, and the scalability of each mode makes the Western/Ashland BRT less than the clear choice for the moment.
But we never see an apples-to-apples consideration of different modes in all aspects with this project. When BRT supporters want to criticize light rail, they cite cost. My suggestion that the X49 bus is even cheaper gets dismissed as having a lack of vision and doing nothing for development. When the economic development benefits of light rail are mentioned vs. BRT, I hear crickets. Transit times are compared side-by-side to local bus service with no comment, with the more reasonable (and unfavorable to BRT) comparison of the old express bus service ignored. Operating costs over the life of the system for different modes are not discussed.
Where is the context in any of these projects?
I digress: transit modes should not be selected based on their economic development potential but for their ability to provide accessibility and mobility. There are countless other tools to impact the growth of an economy.
2/3 of ballot initiatives for tax increases for large transit projects like light rail pass when introduced. The people are way in front of the planners when it comes to thinking big. Texas thinks big so Houston and Dallas have light rail. Minnesota has honest government so Minneapolis has light rail. You need something going for you besides an army of public relations drones and poll-tested BS in order to have nice things.
Illinois and Chicago are dysfunctional in many ways. I don't know how you fix it but not rolling over like a dog for every PR issued by City Hall is a start.
I would find BRT on Western very useful – but only if it extends to 95th. If it ends at 79th (and I have to wait – and wait – and WAIT to transfer), it's useless to me.
Extending Western BRT to 95th would offer a more direct connection from Beverly to Midway Airport (via the orange line), which would eliminate a lot of car trips. If I want to take transit to Midway now, the only tolerable options involve 3 buses, or Metra/Rock Island to the Loop, then the orange line.
Western BRT from 95th could also offer a better plan B connection to the Loop for nights and weekends when the Metra schedule is inadequate at best. It would offer me a non-car alternative to visit friends in Little Village, Pilsen and Lawndale – replacing trips I need to make by car now.
I understand that running the Western bus all the way to 95th is a LONG run, but with its current end points (79th and Berwyn), it leaves too many people at the north and south ends of the city with poor service. Having BRT in the middle won't make up for that. If it's extended, its potential for replacing car trips is much greater.
Just curious, but how much time and money does a taxi trip take to Midway, assuming a taxi operator would pick you up from your home?
I agree with this. I live pretty far north of the route (in Rogers Park), and so I won't be able to use it either. Of course, no matter how far it goes, the people who live beyond the route will complain — but I do hope they extend the route north and south if it's a success.
I used to take the X54 to Midway quite happily; the difference in travel times between the (now defunct) express and the local is big enough as to make it a completely unworkable solution anymore, coming from the north side, so now instead of a calm one-seat airport trip, I have to do brown-to-Orange and wrangle my 3yo kid through the chaos of Clark and Lake.
If I take a taxi it's nearly $30, which is unsupportable for our family (though comparable to storing one's car in the long-term parking for a short trip).
Isn't car parking about $30 a day at the airport?
In the garage right by the terminal, not in the remote lots. Rates here. It varies from $10-30, depending on location.
Two very simple questions that I'd like CTA and CDOT to answer:
1) Will local bus service be retained on either the Western or Ashland BRT routes?
2) Can we see a cost/benefit analysis of reinstating the X49 or X9 bus with Ventra and signal clearance vs. BRT?
These are not difficult questions. If they can't be answered in a straightforward manner by city planners at CDOT or CTA I think it tells you a lot about the credibility of the rest of the information they are presenting when they talk about the Western and Ashland BRT corridors.
In your second question when you include Ventra in there, are you proposing a scenarios where the X routes only accept Ventra? As it stands, buses would still accept cash alongside all Ventra media and compatible media.
I'd be OK with eliminating cash as an option for express buses. I know that fare collection slows down buses. Speeding boarding time counts the same as speeding bus speeds in traffic to commuters.
I believe San Fran has open boarding on their trains and buses with pretty tough enforcement. That's one way of dealing with the cashless system. If you let people board with no cash, they are just rolling the dice on getting a pricey citation. It's a $100 ticket if you get caught riding without a fare in SF. I think that is a good way of running things.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/transportation/2012/09/muni-sees-huge-increases-fare-evasion-citations-under-new-deployment-st
All light rail and streetcar systems have open boarding (just like Metra). This is called "proof of payment" and it works quite well.
SF Muni has back door boarding: http://sfist.com/2012/06/29/muni_etiquette_update_how_to_utilize_back_door_boarding_for_everyones_enjoyment.php Riders on these buses are still subject to fare inspection.
Metra has open boarding but not a proof of payment system. They have on-board fare verification. PoP is when you don't have fare verification, but rather roving fare checks.
My question to CTA planners is whether this is all-or-nothing. CTA could perhaps use different types of bus lanes along the length of Ashland and Western, so in some places you'd axe a traffic lane and in some places a parking lane, in some places you'd run buses in the median and in some places you'd do curbside.
Local service will be preserved alongside the BRT. AFAIK, the local service will not use the bus lanes except at major intersections, where the local bus will berth at the BRT platform to allow for easy transfers.
The trick is that the busses need to have priority for the entire corridor while balancing parking vs. travel lanes may evaluated over shorter sections.
I'm continuing to hammer the point that no information at all has come out regarding the interactions of local and express bus services on the corridor, or what headway these services would have. As I understand it from the conversations I had at the consultation meetings, removing local service is (I believe quite properly) under consideration.
The trouble with "bus lanes in some places" is that politics always means that bus lanes get put in low-traffic locations (where they aren't needed) and the buses are forced into mixed traffic in the high-traffic locations (where the bus lanes ARE needed). Switching between curbside and median slows things down enormously, too.
It does seem that it would be fine to have two travel lanes in some areas and a travel lane / a parking lane in other areas, but they would have to be large, continuous areas.
It would be pretty awesome if the new BRT buses had space for bikes ON the bus instead of those racks on the front.
The BRT buses would likely NOT have front bike racks because of the delay loading and unloading bikes would cause. Additionally, if there is level boarding (i.e. a raised platform), loading bikes onto front racks wouldn't be possible.
So will they have vertical hanging racks like many streetcars and light rail cars do or just ban bikes altogether? Obviously I'd prefer the former. All aisle seating like the 5000-series 'L' cars would make it easier to load bikes onto the bus as well.
There's an alternative available: angled slots. http://www.vta.org/brt/bikes_on_buses.html
I was mistaken: The Orange Line BRT in Los Angeles has front-mounted bike racks. It also has a complementary off-street multi-use trail. http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/03/23/streetfilms-brt-and-bikes-on-las-orange-line/
jen b says:
catching up on my reading for the week, and almost no one is mentioning Cleveland. they invested in bus rapid transit, and re-did Euclid Avenue from downtown to the Cleveland Clinic with center-island bus shelters; it looks fantastic and seems to work. the buses do have separate stoplights, allowing left turns by cars.
http://www.rtahealthline.com/healthline-what-is.asp
http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6203
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NEWS | Airbus Helicopters H145 / EC145T2 in Servicios Aereos De Los Andes
Second H145 Delivered to Peruvian Los Andes
Servicios Aereos los Andes from Peru received its second H145/EC145T2 from Waypoint Leasing. It will be based in Kiteni, near Cuzco, and will be used in support of the main gas pipeline in the country
Airbus Helicopters, January 25, 2019 - Donauwörth, Germany - Airbus has delivered a second H145 helicopter to Servicios Aéreos Los Andes, a Peruvian operator specializing in air services for the energy industry.
It is the second aircraft of this model that Los Andes receives under a leasing contract with Waypoint Leasing.
The new helicopter will be based in Kiteni, near Cuzco, and will carry out transport missions of passengers and external cargo in support of the main Peruvian gas pipeline.
"Two years ago we started operations with a first H145 helicopter in the harshest conditions of the Peruvian Andes mountains and we are extremely satisfied with the performance of the aircraft, which has already accumulated 900 hours of flight with an availability close to 95%", said Luis Aurelio Fontenoy Miranda, General Manager of Los Andes Air Services.
"This second H145 will enter into operation in the Amazon rainforest under equally demanding operating conditions, not only due to the environment but also to the nature of the internal and external cargo mission."
"I appreciate the confidence of Los Andes in the H145. Because of its versatility, power to operate in heat and altitude conditions, and operational and economic efficiency, it is the ideal helicopter for the various operations that Los Andes performs in extreme conditions ", said Jerome Ronssin, Managing Director of Airbus Helicopters for the Southern Cone. "Los Andes will be able to count on Airbus support to continue enjoying a high availability of the helicopter."
When it received its first H145 in 2017, Los Andes became the first operator of this model in Latin America. Today, in addition to the two H145 of Peru, this model is in service in Argentina, Brazil and Chile, and is confirmed as the new reference in the region for operations in heat and altitude conditions.
The H145 is the most powerful helicopter in its category and incorporates state-of-the-art technological innovations such as the four-axis autopilot and the new Airion Helionix avionics, designed to offer greater mission flexibility and improve flight safety.
Aircraft mentioned in this article :
Airbus Helicopters H145 / EC145T2 OB-2186-P ( Servicios Aereos De Los Andes )
This article is listed in :
Airbus Helicopters H145 / EC145T2 in Servicios Aereos De Los Andes
Airbus Helicopters H145 / EC145T2 in Waypoint Leasing
What links here :
Peru' Los Andes Second H145
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Q: Не адаптивная верстка Решил для себя полностью верстать все проекты под Bootstrap 3, но как я понял он для адаптивного дизайна.
А можно на нем сделать простой сайт не адаптивный, чтоб при уменьшении экрана появлялась горизонтальная полоса прокрутки и не происходило перестраивания элементов?

A: Почитайте в официальной документации раздел Disabling responsiveness, там описано, как отключить адаптивность в 3-ем бутсрапе.
A: В примерах есть не адаптивный макет - Non-responsive Bootstrap

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


What your customers are saying about you is more important than what you are saying about yourself!
Digital branding vs digital marketing – what's the difference?
You may think digital branding and digital marketing are the same thing, but they're not. Digital marketing is focused on promoting a particular product or service, while digital branding is a more holistic approach, spreading the core values of your company.
While digital marketing is great in attracting one-time buyers, a good brand experience stays with the customer after they made a purchase and it's what they remember when they're ready to buy again.
This isn't a hard sell. Instead, you're demonstrating your brand attributes so consumers will decide for themselves whether you've got what they're looking for. When you show, rather than tell, your value, it becomes easier for customers to come to you, which is what digital branding is all about.
It is a proven fact that people do business with people and brands that they know, like and trust.
The simple reality is that people react more positively to real people. That's why it's so important you give your business brand a likable personality. Whatever image you want your business to portray, when you take a personalised approach instead of a generic, robotic, one-size-fits-all stance, you become more approachable, compelling and, above all, human. This makes it easier for people to relate to your business – and choose your services or product when they want to make a purchase.


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Ten Years After O Brother : Measuring the Shockwaves
Mr Edyoulis Posted On August 10, 2010
Neither the Coen brothers nor T Bone Burnett could have possibly foreseen the shockwaves that emanated from the soundtrack release of the film "O Brother Where art Thou". A timely release to a nation fractured with doubt and a desire for authenticity spawned a ripple effect. Millions were affected, and a thousand string bands were launched reigniting interest in vital American folk traditions. Not bad for a 5 inch wide piece of polycarbonate.
A little background and context is in order. Joel and Ethan Coen approached T Bone Burnett to act as music producer for their loose retelling of Homer's Odyssey set in Depression era Mississippi. T Bone delved into the archives and came up with a note perfect selection of early 20th century folk, blues, ballads and gospel. The album was released in December of 2000 and slowly started catching on amongst aficionados and the general public.
Sales were decent but not spectacular for the first few months, and surely no indication of what was to come. Why exactly did this selection of 15 songs resonate so strongly with people? Turn of the century introspection possibly or a hangover from a decade of dotcom greed? A pop and country music landscape beyond bleak, an audience yearning for real music, are all possible explanations for the disc's eventual massive success. But one of the unspoken catalysts that broke the disc wide open were the September 11th attacks. These deeply traumatic events caused Americans to suddenly value an un-sexy and un-commercial art form like folk music as a spiritual salve. When the world appeared hostile and uncertain, scratchy early recordings collected by Harry Smith and the Lomaxes bound a wounded nation. Sales went through the roof in the winter of 2001 and the disc won multiple Grammy's in 2002, including Album of the Year. Sales eventually reached over 7.5 million in the U.S.. A companion tour, "Down from the Mountain" sold out large venues across the nation as no one could get enough of the old high lonesome.
Country Radio said "Take a hike, we don't care how much its sold, we're not playing it" and tried to slam the door. The "Great Folk Scare" of the 21st century? Perhaps, but that's missing the main point.
The real effects of O' Brother lie not in units moved or Nashville's cold rejections. The main result was the launch of countless young string bands who warmed their hands over this new found treasure trove of possibilities. Rather than picking up Korgs and sampling equipment, young nonconformist types caressed old banjos, dulcimers, and fiddles and began learning the tunes and traditions carefully protected and preserved by the tightknit Folk, Bluegrass and Old Timey communities.
Instead of viewing these young whippersnappers as competition, the music's elders gladly embraced them, invited them to sit by the campfire, and taught them everything they knew. Artists and bands like Gillian Welch, Old Crow Medicine Show, Uncle Earl, Devil Makes Three, Crooked Still and countless others have indirect roots in this phenomenon. Everything from strict traditionalists to punk string bands erupted in an unprecedented revival of creativity. Young pickers dusted off old recordings, learned old tunes, wrote new ones to accompany them and hit the festival circuit. Lo Fi and field recordings were in. Pitch correction and overdubbing were out. Festivals multiplied like rabbits.
Mainstream country artists Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless and Marty Stuart dove in and released bluegrass centered discs. Nashville still resisted embracing its own roots, preferring instead to pimp every empty hat act it could.
In the end, the folks who were only in it for the trend moved on to form Gypsy Balkan bands and only the truly dedicated stuck with it. No one gets rich making folk music and bluegrass is very hard to play well so that filtered out three quarters of the problem right there. The string band scene in 2010 is as strong as ever with new bands coming up all the time. Young players are learning at a faster rate as the scene feeds on itself. The new crop of wunderkids are a good two to three years younger than they were just five years ago. A college age player like Sarah Jarosz is almost a veteran at this point.
Cultural touchstones are frequently disheartening. Mainstream media rarely produces anything that feels authentic. So when the Coen Brothers and T Bone reintroduced us to our own music heritage, we seized upon it like a drowning man does a life preserver. The strength of the movement is deeply inspiring and the bands that formed in its wake continue to nourish and enrich our culture. For those that braved the cold years when no one seemed to care, this renaissance validated their fervent belief in the value of this unique and wonderful music.


I can confirm of those who made a choice of option 1 or option 2 for Stamford Bridge for the Local Plan Review about 75% choose option 1. Of the remaining approximately 25% half choose option 2 while the other half choose neither option.
Many asked what does significant mean in numbers. The response below is from ERYC. I have highlighted the last sentence as I believe this to be highly relevant.
"Turning to the specific question that you have raised, unfortunately there isn't really a simple answer to this at present. The current consultation is seeking views on the principle of future growth in Stamford Bridge working on the basis that the existing highways infrastructure (and in particular the river crossing) acts as a significant constraint to further growth. The Council's position is that funding to address this problem would have to be generated through new development and in turn, the scale of such development (given the likely cost of a new bridge crossing / bypass) would have to be significant.
At this stage, it is very difficult to quantify 'significant'. Further work will need to be undertaken to establish the overall capacity of the area to accommodate growth and likely costs of necessary infrastructure (i.e. how many new houses / other required developer contributions / viability). This will in part be informed by the level and nature of response that we receive to the current options consultation – and of course we may get a response which indicates an alternative way forward for Stamford Bridge.


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Q: How can I calculate score from json value in laravel? I have this JSON data when I saved. I have a total of 43 data inside this JSON.
"{"question":["1","1","1","1","1","1","1","2","2","3","3","2","2","1","3","2","1","2","3","1","2","3","3","3","2","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3"]}

Then, I'm trying to calculate the score of this JSON data using this calculation. But it not calculate it because I did not get the JSON data value. I tried dd($survey_score) and it just totals up to 100 as it only assumes all value is "1".
$survey_score = round(((($request->question_1)+($request->question_2)+($request->question_3)+(..plus untill 43 question))/129),0) * 100;

So my question is how can I calculate this JSON value in my Laravel Controller? Thank you!

A: Try this, it will work :
$a = '{"question":["1","1","1","1","1","1","1","2","2","3","3","2","2","1","3","2","1","2","3","1","2","3","3","3","2","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3"]}';

$a = json_decode($a, true);

$sum = 0;
foreach($a['question'] as $key => $value){
     $sum += $value;
}

echo $sum; // 83

Above code has tested here

A: $a = '{"question":["1","1","1","1","1","1","1","2","2","3","3","2","2","1","3","2","1","2","3","1","2","3","3","3","2","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3"]}';

$arr = json_decode($a, true);

echo array_sum($arr['question']);

Output: 83

A: You can covert your data to collection.
 $scores = '{"question":["1","1","1","1","1","1","1","2","2","3","3","2","2","1","3","2","1","2","3","1","2","3","3","3","2","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3","1","2","3"]}';
$arr = json_decode($scores, true);
$result = collect($arr['question'])->sum();

Output: 83


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Home » Frugal Living » Food and Drink » Store Brands Rival Heinz and Hellman's in Taste Test
Store Brands Rival Heinz and Hellman's in Taste Test
By Lars Peterson on 13 September 2013 1 comment
It's hard to resist the siren song of the big national brands. All that pretty packaging beckons from the store shelves, the last chance to close the sale after millions have been spent on advertising and marketing to make those names well-known and trustworthy. (See also: Market Clones: Pay Less for Pricey Products)
In the past decade retailers have gotten into the branding game, too, with their own branded products, many of which are produced by the very same companies that produce those national brands. Trader Joe's, for example, has built its business this way. Costco, Target, Walmart, and even Whole Foods all have their own store brands, which can be 10% to 30% cheaper than comparable national brands.
Savory Store Brand Condiments Win Big
For its October 2013 issue of the magazine, Consumer Reports conducted a taste test of store brands and national brands across several grocery store categories. The store brands did pretty well, in general. While none are exact copies of the big brands, most were rated by testers as high quality, the equal, or nearly so, of the big players.
The big winners, however, were store brand ketchup and mayonnaise. In a blind taste test of Consumer Reports staffers who said they preferred the national brands, 45% chose Target's Market Pantry brand (13% had no preference; 41% chose Best Foods/Hellman's or Heinz).
Consumer Reports' testers pitted Heinz ketchup against the store brands and found one "near-twin" (Target's Market Pantry brand ketchup) and another high quality substitute (Sam's Club). Both were ranked "Just As Good" by the tasters, and both are at least 30% cheaper than Heinz. Avoid, however, substituting with Whole Foods' 365 brand ketchup. Tasters thought it was "thin and dark," and, in general, Whole Foods' 365 brand products do not offer consumers much in the way of savings.
Before I switched to Vegenaise, Best Foods (Hellman's back east) was my favorite, and it's America's leading brand. But in Consumer Reports' test, three store brands were rated "near-twin" (Market Pantry, Walmart's Great Value, and Costco's Kirkland Signature). Whole Foods' 365 brand mayo joined those three as "Just as Good." Again, the store brands are as much as 25% cheaper than Best Foods/Hellman's.
The next time you visit the market to stock up on pantry staples like ketchup and mayo, consider reaching a little lower on the shelf for the store brand. You'll see the difference in your pocketbook, but you probably won't taste the difference on your sandwich. You may even prefer it.
What are your favorite store brand substitutes for the big national brands?
Tagged: Food and Drink, Shopping, condiments, discounts, store brands
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Alex #1
Personally I don't think the Targed ketchup brand comes even close to the Heinz taste.
Because I didn't like the taste of the store bran ketchup we once bought (cannot remember which store) I mixed it one to one with Dijon mustard.
It may sound weird, but it's my favorite dip now. I use it for almost everything shrimp, chicken nuggets, fries, celery sticks etc.
With that mix I don't think the brand matters a lot.
Lars Peterson
More from Lars »


Roger Meyer from the California Rare Fruit Growers Association will speak about "Growing Jujube" and "Our Trips to find Interesting Things to Grow Around the World".
Tony has many years of experience in the pathology of horticultural crops including some that would fall into the 'rare fruit' category. He has been involved in the publication of two books on fruit and vegetable diseases which are reference material for the diagnosis of plant diseases in a wide range of crops. He has firsthand knowledge of field-based and postharvest pathology as well as research and crop disease diagnostics. Currently he is involved with an aid project in Pakistan, producing a nursery manual for mango farmers. Photography is a key area of interest.


Cook Medical is launching the Perc NGage® and Perc NCompass® nitinol stone extractors for performing percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL).
The biggest trial of a drug-eluting peripheral vascular stent has yielded impressive results out to five years when compared with balloon angioplasty or bare metal stents.
Cook Medical has initiated a recall of 696 of its CloverSnare™ 4-Loop Vascular Retrieval Snare devices because of a potential for device failure with serious consequences.
Cook's peripheral drug stent, the first of its kind in China, is being conducted at up to 20 clinical sites and will enroll 175 patients with one-year follow-up.
Cook Medical has announced the Melker Cuffed Emergency Cricothyrotomy Catheter Set, a compact surgical set which it says is specifically packaged for performing Seldinger Cricothyrotomy procedures and ideal for smaller workspaces.
Cook Medical has updated us with news that the first ten patients in its VIVO venous stent study have been treated with the Zilver Vena stent.
CSF Leakage at the skull base is an occupational hazard for neurosurgeon and otolaryngologist alike. Now Cook Medical has introduced a naturally sourced dural substitute that it claims hits the spot in resolving the troublesome condition.
Cook Medical's EchoTip® ProCore™ Endobronchial Ultrasound Needle gives physicians the ability to retrieve both cell and tissue samples from lymph nodes or tumors in the pulmonary area.
The prospect of removing an esophageal stent may be slightly daunting, but that's what Cook Medical is investigating with a new US clinical study involving its supposedly retrievable new offering.
Cook Medical has a new device which it says simplifies percutaneous nephrolithotomy procedures, during which physicians break up and remove large kidney stones. LithAssist™ combines suction control and provides access for a laser fiber and is the first device globally to provide suction control and laser fiber access.
Cook Medical has completed patient enrollment in a study evaluating a technique for achieving vascular access via below-the-knee arteries. The new access technique could be used in treating peripheral arterial disease (PAD), including patients with critical limb ischemia.
Cook Medical has launched the Biodesign® ENT Repair Graft, which acts as an adjunct to aid in the natural healing process following nasal and sinus mucosal surgery. The product is designed for rhinologists who treat patients that suffer from difficult-to-heal conditions in the nasal passages.


Explore the marine wonders of numerous gorgeous islands. From one dive to another, take advantage of this unique opportunity to discover the hidden treasure of these lagoons. In addition to these breathtaking underwater experiences, enjoy some relaxing time in beautiful resorts every step of the way. From your first stay in Tahiti to Tikehau, passing through the inescapable islands of Moorea and Bora Bora… let the magic happen!


DSC stands for Digital Selective Calling and is a means of calling other ship stations or shore stations, like ports.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has published guidance on the many advantages of DSC.
Can I use hand held VHF DSC? Is hand held VHF DSC legal now?
Yes. In response to approaches from both users and manufacturers, we have made arrangements to authorise the use of some hand held VHF DSC in UK territorial sea - this means within 12 nautical miles of low tide or, for example, half-way across the English Channel to France.
Full technical details are available in the document IR2083 (PDF). If the use of your apparatus conforms to IR2083, then it can be covered by the UK Ship Portable Radio Licence. Your dealer or the manufacturer can advise you. Apparatus must include the CE mark to show that it complies with the applicable EU Directives.
I bought a hand held DSC in the USA/over eBay/at a car boot/off a bloke in the pub. Can I use that?
Almost certainly not, but see the answer to the preceding question. Canadian and US-specification apparatus has a different channel plan from Europe, and other channel plans must not be used. If apparatus allows the user to select a channel plan, you must select the plan that applies to Europe.
Do I need a special licence? Will my existing Ship Radio Licence cover it? Must I vary my existing licence?
You must have a separate Ship Portable Radio Licence for each hand held VHF DSC radio. This is because each individual radio is given a separate identity. The apparatus must not be used outwith UK territorial sea. So, it cannot be covered by a normal Ship Radio Licence, as this does not impose any territorial restrictions. If you already have a Ship Portable Radio Licence, you should ensure that it includes hand held VHF DSC. If it does not, you can change it online, free of charge.
Can I use it on inland waters?
In common with other ship radio apparatus, hand held VHF DSC may be used in UK inland waterways. However, it must not be used overseas, for example for ATIS, the Automatic Transmitter Identification Scheme which identifies individual vessels on the inland waterways of continental Europe.
Can I use hand held VHF DSC for ATIS?
ATIS identification numbers relate to a ship, while the MMSI of hand held VHF DSC relates to the individual piece of equipment.
The Ship Portable Radio Licence is not valid beyond UK territorial sea and we do not issue an international call sign with that licence, so the hand held VHF DSC cannot be used anywhere in continental Europe.
Other countries may not authorise hand held VHF DSC (or may not do so in the same way that we do). So, they could regard a hand held VHF DSC as being illegal under their legislation, even if it is switched to ATIS working. This could result in enforcement action by the authorities overseas.
Can I use it on any vessel?
As it is licensed under a Ship Portable Radio Licence, you can use the hand held DSC on any ship within UK territorial sea. However, this is at the discretion of the ship's master.
What operator certificate do I need?
You must hold at least the Short Range Certificate to use hand held VHF DSC, just like any VHF DSC radio.
What if I sell my radio?
You must surrender your Ship Portable Radio Licence. Until you do, we cannot transfer the MMSI to the new owner. If the new owner makes a DSC distress call, the MCA will always respond but it may affect their efficiency if they don't have the correct contact details.
Do I need to register my DSC, like an EPIRB?
No. We share MMSI details with the MCA to assist their search and rescue operations. We shall share MMSIs for individual hand held VHF DSC radios with the MCA in the same manner.
I am a dealer. Can I sell any hand held DSC radio?
Under European law, if a piece of hand held VHF DSC apparatus conforms to the relevant Directives, it will have a CE mark and can be sold in any EU country, including the UK, even if its use can't be authorised here. If a manufacturer in another Member State produces an example that carries the CE mark but that does not conform to our Interface Requirement, it can be sold in the UK but it cannot be used under a UK Ship Portable Radio Licence. If hand held DSC does not carry the CE mark, it may not be sold here.
I am a dealer. Can I programme a normal ship MMSI into a hand held DSC set?
While there is no specific law against doing this, it remains that using hand held DSC programmed with an MMSI, other than one that starts 2359xxxxx, is not authorised by the Ship Radio (or Ship Portable Radio) Licence and is therefore unlawful. The courts may hold that it is also unlawful knowingly to facilitate such an unlawful act. Remember - we have agreed this MMSI arrangement with the MCA, to assist in their response to any distress calls. Programming the wrong type of MMSI may affect the MCAs efficiency.
Some the internationally established parameters may change, leading to a need for changes in the way that VHF DSC is used or authorised. For example, an MMSI format may be adopted that differs from the 2359xxxxx format described above. Users would then have to get a new MMSI from us and have it programmed into their set. Dealers would advise how to do this, as sets can often not be reprogrammed by users.
ATIS - the Automatic Transmitter Identification System - has been developed to identify vessels travelling on the inland waterways of several European countries.


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Robert Frank appreciation: Why his greatness went beyond 'The Americans'
Photographer Robert Frank attends the opening of "Robert Frank, Books and Films, 1947-2016" at the Tisch Galleries on Jan. 28, 2016, in New York City. (EDITOR'S NOTE: This image has been converted to black and white.)
(Taylor Hill)
By RJ Smith
When Robert Frank arrived in Los Angeles in late 1955, he was at an emotional low point. He'd started in New York City, where he'd lived since coming to the United States at age 23 in 1947. He had chucked an award-winning stint as a fashion photographer because, in essence, it bored him.
He had been driving for weeks, and the trip had not been easy. While passing through the Arkansas taking photographs, he'd been stopped by the state police. When officers saw his New York plates and his identification showing he was born in Switzerland, they asked if he were Jewish. He was. They jailed him overnight and intimated he was a Communist spy.
Today, we know the photographer and filmmaker as a unique American artist, a 94-year-old icon when he died in Nova Scotia on Monday. But back then, he was an unknown driving a used black Ford coupe, heading for Los Angeles after picking up his family in Texas. They stayed in a Hollywood Hills apartment. They had one car, two young children, no money and they were markedly unhappy.
American photographer Robert Frank holding a prewar Leica camera, 1954.
(Fred Stein Archive/Getty Images)
"To live for two months in L.A. is like being hospitalized in a Paris hospital," he wrote his mentor, photographer Walker Evans. "If you have to stay longer one gets worse quickly." They were here three months.
Frank took memorable photographs of movie premieres, Bunker Hill mansions, a television studio; he photographed stock car races and the Rose Bowl. When he shot a premiere, his eye was on the fans, and the starlet they watched was out of focus. Several of his Los Angeles images ended up in the photo book that was the purpose of his cross-country drive, "The Americans." It was published in 1959, and it changed his life.
"The Americans" gave his adopted country the respect of being taken seriously, scrutinizing race and poverty and the spaces between people without preconceptions or sentimentality. At the time, lots of folks hated these photographs; since then, the work came to be seen as the cornerstone of Frank's career. He saw the praise coming while he was still on the road shaping the book, and he hated the fame it gave him.
Frank never wanted to repeat himself; even before "The Americans" came out, he had more or less given up still photography and turned to filmmaking, creating a whole new career. Who does that? His first movie, 1959's "Pull My Daisy," is a loopy Beat memoir that launched him as a serious filmmaker. For the next decade or so, he ran screaming from "The Americans," made poetic and little-seen (for the most part) movies that also tended not to repeat themselves.
And then he arrived in Los Angeles, again. He was scraping by when an offer of commercial work came in from an unlikely source. The Rolling Stones were in town early in 1972, putting finishing touches on a masterpiece of their own, the double album "Exile on Main St." Some of them — Charlie Watts one version goes, Keith Richards goes another — were fans of "The Americans," and Frank was invited to the band's Bel-Air villa. He arrived, shooting Super 8 film as he was introduced to one and all, and the older, cranky hipster with a marked Swiss German accent made an instant impression on band members. They asked him to shoot pictures for their album cover.
Frank wanted to photograph them in a Main Street flophouse, the band storming downtown in a convoy of Cadillacs, but he didn't have the $15 to pay the hotel clerk for a room. Just then, Mick Jagger swept in, asking how many rooms were available and whipping out cash. "Rent them all," he said. Everybody got what they wanted.
The vibes poured freely, and Jagger, who was deeply interested in movies, invited Frank to accompany the band on its North American tour that summer. The Stones gave him carte blanche to shoot what he wanted, few questions asked. The work that resulted, a notorious debauchery with a lewd title (".....Blues") , became a fresh sensation even before almost anybody had seen it.
The film features drug use and nakedness on private jets and TVs flying out windows. Those were the headlines, but what made it a lasting, haunting work was the understanding Frank had for the Stones' experience of traveling across a country you were speaking to but never really seeing. The film is a document of visually beautiful, numb boredom. America was fascinated by the band's celebrity, and the Stones were present from a great distance. "It's really crazy," Frank told a writer. "You go to a big effort to get everybody up for you, and then you use all the force you have to keep them away from you. It's like being untouchable. Going through America in a Lucite spaceship."
".....Blues" appears sporadically on the internet in sometimes edited, vastly inferior bootlegs; few have seen the original. That's because after viewing it, Jagger told Frank that the movie was great but that it could never be released. Footage of the drug use could affect the band's ability to tour across national borders, lawyers said; besides, there was little music in the footage, largely because Frank didn't care about that — he was interested in celebrity, and detachment, and America.
He wasn't going to take out the objectionable scenes, and at one point, he hid his print under the floorboards of his Canadian summer home when the Mounties came to impound it. Eventually, Frank won the right to screen the film a few times a year if he were present to take questions from the crowd. Frank was never one to enjoy the spotlight, and it was an agreement crafted brilliantly by Jagger to all but ensure that few would ever see the film to its best advantage.
Maybe that will change now. It became perhaps the most famous, certainly the most notorious, film of Frank's career. It lives as a masterpiece and a symbol of not backing down, not cashing in.
Around the time he met the Stones, Frank was revising his feelings about his most famous work. He wove a few images from "The Americans'" road trip into the album cover of "Exile." Photographs from "The Americans" would show up later in exhibitions wrapped in barbed wire, stacks of now-revered pictures on display with holes drilled through. They'd show up in his films, as mementos of his past, a past he seemed alternately at peace with and ready to bury.
Frank made "The Americans" in the 1950s, and he unmade it the rest of his life. When we celebrate him today, we should think of him as somebody restless and dissatisfied with his country and himself, someone always asking questions. The work is one fine thing to celebrate. The stubbornness is another thing worth remembering this week.
Smith is an L.A.-based writer and author of "American Witness: The Art and Life of Robert Frank (Da Capo Press, 2017). He is currently working on a biography of Chuck Berry in the age of #MeToo.
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Metaglossary.com - Definitions for "bhagavad-gita"
(Sanskrit) Lit., "the Lord's Song," a portion of The Mahabharata, the great epic poem of India.
A well-known Hindu scripture, comprising eighteen chapters of the Bhisma Parva of the Mahabharata.
"Song of the Lord." This scripture consists of eighteen chapters from the Mahabharata epic. It is chiefly a dialog between the avatar Lord Krishna and his disciple Arjuna on the eve of the historic battle of Kurukshetra, about 3000 BC The Gita is allegory as well as history, a spiritual treatise on the inner battle between man's good and bad tendencies. Depending on the context, Krishna symbolizes the guru, the soul or God: Arjuna represents the aspiring devotee. Of this Holy Scripture Mahatma Gandhi wrote: "Those who will meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day. There is not a single spiritual tangle which the Gita cannot unravel."
The section of the Mahabharata in which Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna and in a long theological discussion describes the main components of karma yoga.
"the song of God"; a seven-hundred verse record of a conversation between Lord Krishn a and His disciple, Arjuna, from the Bhis ma Parva of the Mahabharata of Vedavyasa. Krishn a teaches the science of the Absolute Truth and the importance of devotional service. Bhagavad-gita contains the essence of all Vedic wisdom. Srila Prabhupada's annotated English translation is called Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
"The Song of God"---a sacred scripture of the Hindus, one of the basic texts of the Vedanta and the Yoga philosophy the other two being Upanisads, and the Brahma-Sutra).
A scripture containing Lord Krishna's teachings. Click here to view read a version.
A scripture containing Lord Krishna's teachings. Click here to view an online version.
("Song of the Lord"). A section of the Mahabharata composed around 200 BCE, and one of the most beloved of Hindu texts. It tells the story of the warrior Arjuna who faces members of his own family in battle and is unsure of the right action. Arjuna is instructed by Krishna, who outlines three paths ( marga) of life: knowledge, duty, and devotion.


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Immigration Fees to be Increased for First Time in Six Years
(ESPAÑOL) Effective Dec. 23, for the first time in six years, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has increased immigration fees for many applications and petitions.
"We have been preparing our clients for this increase in fees for quite some time," said Lisa Rivas, a Danbury immigration attorney. "Some of my clients are trying to get their forms in as soon as possible before the fee increase takes effect."
The I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status will increase from $985 to $1,140. The other application needed for permanent residency petition, the I-130 Petition for Alien Relative, will jump from $420 to $535.
Applicants also pay a $85 biometrics fee, which was not increased.
"When it comes to increasing immigration fees, it can prevent someone from pursuing immigration benefits," Rivas said.
According to USCIS, the agency is almost entirely funded by fees paid by applicants and petitioners for immigration benefits. The law requires USCIS to conduct fee reviews every two years to determine the funding levels necessary to administer the nation's immigration laws, process benefit requests and provide the infrastructure needed to support those activities.
The fees will increase by a weighted average of 21 percent for most applications and petitions. USCIS says that the increases are needed to recover the full cost of services provided by the agency.
"This is our first fee increase since November 2010, and we sincerely appreciate the valuable public input we received as we prepared this final rule," said USCIS Director León Rodríguez, in a statement.
"We are mindful of the effect fee increases have on many of the customers we serve," he said. "That's why we decided against raising fees as recommended after the fiscal year 2012 and 2014 fee reviews. However, as an agency dependent upon users' fees to operate, these changes are now necessary to ensure we can continue to serve our customers effectively. We will also offer a reduced filing fee for certain naturalization applicants with limited means."


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The FAQs: What You Should Know About the Military's Transgender Policy
July 29, 2017 | Joe Carter
What is the military's current policy on transgenderism?
In June 2016, Ash Carter, the secretary of defense under President Obama, repealed the ban on allowing transgender men and women to serve openly in the military. At the time, Sec. Carter gave the services one year to implement any necessary changes.
At the beginning of this month Defense Secretary Jim Mattis modified the policy by putting a six-month hold on allowing additional transgender people from enlisting in the service.
Didn't President Trump change the policy this week?
No, not yet. On Wednesday President Trump tweeted that the current policy will be changing:
After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you
But on Thursday officials at the Pentagon clarified that the tweets are not considered an order from the commander in chief. According to the Associated Press, transgender troops will be allowed to remain in uniform until Defense Secretary Mattis receives an authoritative directive to remove them. For now, "there will be no modifications" to current policy, said Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an internal memo to all military service chiefs, commanders, and enlisted leaders.
How does the current policy affect transgender people and others in the military?
Earlier this month, the U.S. Army began implementing mandatory training to educate soldiers on the service's transgender policy. This training provides some insight on how the policy is being implemented. Some of the changes are:
• If the "gender transition is medically necessary" the soldier "will be provided medical care and treatment for the diagnosed medical condition" at the taxpayer expense.
• If approved by a doctor, soldiers will be held to the standards of their gender marker in DEERS (i.e., their personnel record). In other words, by receiving the certification by a physician and changing the "gender marker" in his paperwork, a man who identifies as a woman will be allowed to use the lower physical fitness standards for women and can be restricted from serving in positions requiring routine exposure to direct combat.
• Soldiers will use the billeting, bathroom, and shower facilities associated with their gender marker in DEERS.
• Soldiers are told that it is considered "gossip" to reveal a "Soldier's gender identity, sexuality, medical challenges, and/or gender transition."
• Soldiers going through the gender transition process may be eligible for "extended leave status or participation in other voluntary absence programs during the gender transition process" or receive special treatment, such as having their physical fitness test delayed.
• The training tells soldiers to "understand that you may encounter individuals in barracks, bathrooms, or shower facilities with physical characteristics of the opposite sex despite having the same gender marker in DEERS."
• The document adds, "all Soldiers should be respectful of the privacy and modesty concerns of others. However, transgender Soldiers are not required or expected to modify or adjust their behavior based on the fact that they do not 'match' other Soldiers."
What caused President Trump to change his mind about the policy?
According to David Brody of Christian Broadcasting Network, members of Trump's evangelical advisory board discussed strategy to reverse the military transgender policy at the White House two weeks ago.
Brody also said the group had sent the president a letter this week asking him to reverse the current policy.
How many transgender troops are currently in the military?
No one knows the exact number. The Department of Defense calculates up to 7,000 while the RAND Corporation says somewhere around 2,500. The Williams Institute, a pro-LGBT think tank estimates that currently there are approximately 15,500 transgender individuals serving on active duty or in the Guard or Reserve forces.
Shouldn't individuals who are qualified and willing to serve be allowed to serve in the military?
Even if we set aside that reality that the biological nature of maleness and femaleness cannot be changed, there are legitimate reasons to consider transgender people unqualified to serve.
For instance, those in transition often have to take hormone injections. But a need to consistently have injections to treat a condition, such as diabetes, is consider medically disqualifying. As Donna Carol Voss says,
What happens on a Forward Operating Base if medical supplies are delayed? Or if a soldier is cut off from the base for any length of time? What happens to that soldier's mental and emotional functioning without the needed hormone injections? If the discomfort with one's biological sex is so great that one is willing to receive hormone injections to ease it, we can assume that not receiving the injections would be detrimental to one's well-being and therefore combat effectiveness.
Another disqualifying factor is suicide. Anyone who has attempted suicide is considered medically disqualified and unfit for service. Since 41 percent of people who identify as transgender have attempted suicide (compared to the 4.6 percent of the overall U.S. population who report a lifetime suicide), almost half would be disqualified for this reason alone. And as Ryan Anderson notes, people who identify as transgender also suffer a host of mental health and social problems—including anxiety, depression, and substance abuse—at higher rates than the general population.
Note: Many of these same disqualifying factors that endanger military readiness are reasons why Christians need to show extra compassion for transgender individuals. For more on how we can apply the gospel to this issue see Andrew T. Walker's article, "The Christian Response to Gender Dysphoria" and Sam Allberry's "What Christianity Alone Offers Transgender Persons."
Joe Carter is an editor for The Gospel Coalition, author of The Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents, the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible, and the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator. He serves as an elder at Grace Hill Church in Herndon, Virginia. You can follow him on Twitter.
LGBT • Sexuality • Transgender • War
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Manchester United: Harry Maguire needs better defensive partnership, says ESPN's Steve Nicol
By Stephan Georgiou
'There must be somebody' – ESPN pundit believes Manchester United defender needs a new partner
ESPN pundit Steve Nicol thinks Manchester United's Harry Maguire is in need of a new defensive partner for England, after criticising the performance of the defence following the Three Lions' 5-3 victory over Kosovo.
Michael Keane was guilty of the error that led to the visitors' early goal and quashing many punters' casino.com bonus, while further lapses in the English defence led to the Kosovans staging a fightback, thanks in part to Maguire giving away a second-half penalty.
While England survived something of a scare despite going on to miss a penalty of their own, Nicol felt that as the better of the two centre-backs, Maguire must have a new partner to help marshal the England backline.
Speaking for ESPN FC, he said: "If you're Gareth Southgate, then [the defence] has to be your concern.
"For me, it comes down to the central-defensive partnership with Keane and Maguire. Now, I'd prefer to have a pairing that complements each other, and the fact that both Maguire and Keane, for me, neither of them have got any real pace, they're both pretty good on the ball and they're both strong in the air.
"I don't think either of them covers particularly well, and I don't like the pairing. Michael Keane, I don't think, is an international footballer.
"There must be somebody who can complement Maguire."
Nicol's summation that Maguire and Keane are both quite similar is arguably accurate, with the duo's strengths both including aerial duels and concentration, as well as being threats from set-pieces, according to WhoScored.
Finding an appropriate partner – or partners – for Maguire could be the way forward, though Southgate's decision to seemingly bin the system with three centre-backs that got them to the World Cup semis could be the source of the problem, with England switching to a back-four following the finals.
So perhaps their progress at the European Championships, which is favoured by Coral, will be more of a pointer towards whether the system or the personnel is key to England's – and Maguire's – success at keeping opponents out.
Manchester United fans – how much has Maguire impressed you so far this season? Has his price tag had an adverse effect on his performances? Let us know by commenting below!
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Article title: Manchester United: Harry Maguire needs better defensive partnership, says ESPN's Steve Nicol


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