Recently in Transportation Category

I was driving home today on Congress, turning right to a side street, when a person on a skateboard rode out in front of me. I honked and him, and he yelled profanely back that he was at a crosswalk.

For those unaware, it is illegal to ride a skateboard on the sidewalk on Congress Ave between the river and the Capitol, on 6th between 700 East 6th and 1200 West 6th, and on Guadalupe between MLK and 29th street.

I probably shouldn't have honked, but he shouldn't yell at me when he's the one actually illegally.

Today I would like to propose another prayer intention, given the news we receive, especially during this period, of numerous road accidents. We must not get used to this sad reality! Human life is too precious and it is too unworthy of man to meet death or become an invalid due to causes that could mostly be avoided. There is certainly a need for a greater sense of responsibility, above all by drivers, as accidents are often caused by excessive speed and imprudent conduct. Driving on public roads calls for moral and civic sense. Indispensable to fostering this is authorities' constant endeavor to prevent, keep watch and restrict. Moreover, as the Church, we feel directly involved at the ethical level: Christians must above all make a personal examination of conscience on their own conduct as drivers; moreover, communities should educate everyone to consider traffic as a field in which life must be protected and love of neighbor concretely exercised.

--Pope Benedict XVI, Sunday, August 17th during his weekly Angelus reflection

My little Versa, named "Vessie" that replaced "Susie", hit the 10,000-mile mark today. The milestone came a bit earlier than it would, but a trip to El Paso or back last weekend help push it closer.

A car, while being just a pile of nuts, bolts, belts and fluids, does take on a personality unlike most objects in our life. I spent more time in my office, using my computer, in my apartment, or standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what to eat for lunch than I do in my car typically. I ride public transit for work more often than not; so I only use the car for errands, appointments and long-distance traveling. That being said, it has a personality more defined than the rest.

My car is a "she". No particular reason for it; I just think of the car in the feminine. I give her a name, Vessie. Does coaxing her to do something help her, in fact, do something. Of course not, but I feel like we're a team trying to achieve a goal.

Perhaps it is the remains of a coachdriver and his horse. The activity and the goal were the same: to travel from point A to point B. Talking to a horse, however, has a much greater probabilty of doing something to enhance performance.

In either case, here's to the first 10% of my car's life (hopefully, at least).

Capital Metro, the public transit authority for the Austin-area, has a blog entry about training the Austin Police Department's DWI unit to drive a new Breath-Alcohol Testing bus donated to the City by CapMetro.

The simulator is pretty sweet; would love to have a chance to see how hard it would be to drive a bus. I'm hoping there's an open house of the bus as well. I suppose they would drive it to a DWI enforcement zone (i.e. South 1st or South Congress around the time bars close) and test folks inside.

The video from Fox News 7 is below.

One thing I check every week is the City of Austin's website to see what road closures will occur due to special events. Living so close to downtown, the Palmer Event Center and Auditorium Shores, it is very common for something to be going on.

One thing I check every week is the City of Austin's Event Closure Page, listing road closures due to special events.

The week's press release, released yesterday, informed me that South 1st Street between Oltorf and Cesar Chavez will be closed between 7 am and 5 pm on Saturday. That's the street I live on and that's a long time for the street to be closed.

I placed a call to the City's 311 line to ask if this was a complete closure or if there will be a lane open. During the marathon, for example, one southbound lane was open, allowing traffic to make it to Oltorf westbound and back to the normal street system.

As the operator was aware, the street will be closed. Period. She transferred me to Special Events, who basically said she knew the same thing. I asked about the way the marathon had it setup and asked if that wasn't in the works. She wasn't sure and said she would do research, getting back to me later in the day. She asked me exactly what street I lived on so she could help figure out a route if South 1st was completely closed. Yes, my friend, I live on South 1st.

This wouldn't be a big deal except Vanessa and I have an appointment at 10 am and with the 10K's 4-mile point being right at our apartment complex, I highly doubt all of the racers would be passed us by the time we would need to leave.

Let's hope for good news.

As many of you, I own a 2000 Hyundai Elantra that has been lovingly named "Susie Brahmaputra", or Susie for short. It is the first car I owned, being purchased for me by my mom using life insurance money left from my dad. The car itself is a little tank. I've been mudding with it up on dirt roads in Oklahoma. It has driven me virtually everywhere. I left the lot with it at 128 miles and at last note, it has 87,383 miles on it.

A week ago today, I drove from Austin to Wichita Falls to be with my family for my mom's operation. Since I left in the morning, i wanted to avoid as much traffic as possible and decided to avoid IH-35. The "back way" to Wichita Falls is US 183 north out of Austin to US 281 north in Lampasas. US 281 will take you all the way to Wichita Falls.

On US 281 between Jacksboro and Windthorst, out of the corner of my eye, I see a full-grown buck (male deer) clear out of the high grass next to the roadway. I slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid a hit, but to no avail.

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I was not injured, so no worries there. Susie, however, did not fair so well. Not realizing the full extent of the damage, I called State Farm and was referred to a body shop in Wichita Falls (after limping home).

State Farm called the next morning and told me that the initial estimate would total the car. They would send out their own person to look at the damage to confirm or refute the total value loss. Long story short, I am now looking for a new car.

We signed over the car to State Farm yesterday morning and received our settlement. They'll take Susie to be chopped up and the rest of her will be used for parts.

May Susie rest in pieces.

Yesterday, the first toll roads in the Austin area opened to traffic. Loop 1 now extends north to the new State Highway 45 which currently stretches between RM 620 and the new State 130. 130 is open from US 79 in Round Rock down to US 290.

I was already scheduled to be in Round Rock last night so I was able to drive the stretch from Loop 1 to IH-35. I'm a bit of a dork so I enjoyed myself. Once tolls are collected, cars using the TxTag transponders can stay in the main lanes and pay without slowing down. Cash customers will take an exit of sorts to a row of toll booths. The few toll roads I have driven on (mostly in Oklahoma), transponder customers still had to slow down to 40 MPH and still drove through the plaza. Since traffic does not have to slow down, traffic can flow very smoothly through the toll plazas.

I'm interested to see how IH-35 is impacted once the full length of 130 opens. 130, once current construction is complete, will run from IH-35 north of Georgetown to 183 in Austin. Future construction is planned to extend 130 to IH-10 east of San Antonio. IH-35 can use all the help it can get!

I'm currently 37,000 feet above the United States, just crossing the Sabine River out of Texas. This is my first flight aboard an EMB. This American Eagle-operated airplane was 13 rows with 3 seats in each row with no first class- for those who wouldn't like to fire up the calculator, that means 39 plus a crew of 3 or 4.

To pass the time, I'm doing a few different things. First, I'm doing homework. I've written most of a film review for my Studies of U.S. Poverty course and now I'm writing a blog entry. While the blog entry would usually be personal time for me, my Collaborate Technologies course asks a few blog entries from me. While doing all of this, I'm listening to old Busted Halo podcasts. Busted Halo is a young adult website produced by The Paulist Fathers.

I've somewhat read the print material on Busted Halo and to be honest, it has never jumped up to the top of my bookmark list (or now my del.cio.us links or a feed on Google Reader). Everything on there seems to be great; just never really called out to me. By virtue of working for the Paulists through the University Catholic Center, I've been able to meet a good number of people involved with Busted Halo and I've even been recruited to help with their Word on the Street segment (I still need to produce something! Fr. Dave Dywer, CSP (NYD, since he's the Fr. Dave in NYC) if you're reading, I haven't forgotten about it yet!). My boss, Fr. Dave Farnum, CSP (TXD as NYD has referred to him), recently traveled to a preaching conference and walked away after talking to NYD with the idea of podcasting some of the homilies from the University Catholic Center.

I figured, what the heck, if I'm going to start producing podcasts for Fr. Dave and the UCC, I should listen to some of the Busted Halo podcasts. I downloaded all 73 released episodes and I'm currently listening to the 4th episode- I'm impressed.

In terms of new media- Internet-accessed media, EWTN has been the big fish in the Catholic pond. EWTN is a fine network and produces quality Catholic content. The downside to EWTN's content is that there is a high assumption that you're already well-formed in the Church. A random member of the intended audience has probably been Catholic for sometime, attend Mass every Sunday if not more often, may have a decent understanding of Catholicism and Catholic tradition. If you're on the fringe of the Catholic Church or not even in the Church at all, there is a high barrier of entry presented by EWTN.

I've really enjoyed the Busted Halo podcasts so far as that barrier of entry is eliminated. The assumption made by NYD and Mike is that if you're listening, you're seeking to grow closer to God and are open to the Catholic tradition. Now, this is not to say that these podcasts contain only very superficial material. This was my fear and it was proven incorrect.

Some of the topics they have touched upon is the role of fundamentalism in today's political landscape in an interview with former President Jimmy Carter, explaining some of various saints and holy people (St. Nick, Dorothy Day and others) without shying away from some of the darker aspects of these individuals background, looking at parishes across the United States that have young-adult programming. NYD went into the need for confession, including why when a Catholic is under serious (mortal) sin he or she should abstain from Communion.

In other words, I think anyone could listen to these podcasts and be able to follow what is going on without a problem. At the same time as an amateur Church expert, I enjoy listening myself and have found these podcasts useful and interesting.

On Tuesday, I flew from Ausin to New York CIty (LGA). I haven't flown much and so far, every place I have traveled to included a direct flight. American, my airline of choice, doesn't fly to LGA direct so I had to connect at DFW.

I arrive in DFW after an uneventful, on time flght from AUS. I check the departure board in the C Terminal of DFW. If you haven't been, they're large flat-screen monitors. Very classy. Anyhow, the 11:39 a.m. DFW-LGA is on time at gate C22.

I walk five feet and my cell phone buzzes.

It's a text message from American. My flight is cancelled.

Confused, I went back to the departure board I was just at. It says on time still. I stare at it. ON TIME fades to CANCELLED.

Luckly, I called American at the number they sent with the text message. The ticket agent was extremely nice and put me onto a plane that left earlier- which I didn't mind at all since I was already at the gate.

On the plane, we are delayed due to a broken part and then have to circle LGA for awhile. I end up arriving a bit before schedule.

I was told to take a taxi to get to the retreat house but I decided that I didn't like that option. I find the Q33 bus and take that to a transfer station on 74th in Queens. I make my way to the F train and ride it to the end. After a nice two-block walk uphill, I've arrived at the Bishop Molloy Retreat Center.

I'm in the Galveston area for a day or two and found myself with some time to kill. SH 87 includes a TxDOT-operated ferry leaving Galveston Island. Since I've never been on a ferry, I took the chance to do something new. I enjoyed it quite a bit and am dubbing the event "my spring break cruise".