1.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
2.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Market Street Railway (transit operator)
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The Market Street Railway Company was a commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco. The company was named after the famous Market Street of that city, over the years, the company was also known as the Market Street Railroad Company, the Market Street Cable Railway Company and the United Railroads of San Francisco. The franchise for what would become the Market Street Railway was granted in 1857 to Thomas Hayes, the line was the first horsecar line to open in San Francisco, opened on July 4,1860, as the Market Street Railroad Company. A few years later, the line was converted to steam power utilizing an engine that was part locomotive and part passenger car. Following the opening of the cable hauled Clay Street Hill Railroad in 1873, in 1882, Leland Stanford and associates bought the Market Street Railroad Company and converted its lines to cable haulage. In the process, the name was changed to the Market Street Cable Railway Company. This company was to grow to become San Franciscos largest cable car operator, at its peak, it operated five lines all of which converged into Market Street to a common terminus at the Ferry Building, during rush hours a cable car left that terminus every 15 seconds. In 1893, Stanford died and the company was taken over by the Southern Pacific Railroad, the company was again renamed to the Market Street Railway Company, and began the process of converting its lines to electric traction. In 1895 the company placed an advertisement in the San Francisco Examiner offering horse cars for $20. Many of these became the basis for the community built from streetcars called Carville-by-the-Sea. Conversion to electricity was resisted by opponents who objected to what they saw as ugly overhead lines on the thoroughfares of the city center. At 5,12 am on April 18,1906, those objections were swept away as the great San Francisco earthquake struck, the race to rebuild the city allowed the company to replace all but the steepest of its cable car lines with electric streetcar lines. By this stage, the company had changed again. Horsecars were finally withdrawn from city streets on June 3,1914, by 1918, and assisted by the construction of several tunnels under the citys hills, Muni was in direct competition with the URR down the length of Market Street. The two operators each operated their own pair of tracks down that thoroughfare, which came to be known as the roar of the four. The two Market Street Railway tracks were on the inside and the two San Francisco Municipal Railway tracks were on the outside, competition, labor troubles and a bad accident in 1918 led to the reorganisation of the URR, to re-emerge again as the Market Street Railway Company. This continued to operate electric streetcars throughout the city, the Powell St. cable car lines, and a fleet of buses.5 million. These are the surviving vehicles from the Market Street Railway fleet, Car 578 was built in 1896 by the Hammond Car Company and is a single-truck
5.
San Francisco Municipal Railway
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The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served 46.7 square miles with an budget of about $700 million. In ridership Muni is the seventh largest transit system in the United States, with 210,848,310 rides in 2006 and the second largest in California behind Metro in Los Angeles. With a fleet average speed of 8.1 mph, it is the slowest major urban transit system in America and one of the most expensive to operate, costing $19.21 per mile per bus and $24.37 per mile per train. However, it has more boardings per mile and more vehicles in operation than similar transit agencies, many weekday riders are commuters, as the daytime weekday population in San Francisco exceeds its normal residential population. Muni shares four metro stations with BART, on weekends, most Muni bus lines are scheduled to run every ten to twenty minutes. However, complaints of unreliability, especially on less-often-served lines and older lines, are a system-wide problem. Muni has had difficulty meeting a stated goal of 85% voter-demanded on-time service. Most intercity connections are provided by BART and Caltrain heavy rail, AC Transit buses at the Transbay Terminal, 70% of stops are spaced closer than recommended range of 800–1,000 feet apart. Muni is short for the Municipal in San Francisco Municipal Railway and is not an acronym, thus, the Muni metro is often called the train or the streetcar. Most San Francisco natives use Muni when speaking about the system in general, the E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves lines are referred to by Muni as a historic streetcar line rather than as a heritage railway. Munis logo is a stylized, trademarked worm version of the word muni and this logo was designed by San Francisco-based graphic designer Walter Landor in the mid-1970s. Bus and trolleybus lines have number designations, rail lines have letters, except for cable cars, cash fares are $2.50 for adults, $1. Clipper card fares are $2.25 for adults and $1 for seniors, youth, proof-of-payment, which fare inspectors may demand at any time, is either a Clipper card, Muni Passport, or paper transfer. One fare entitles a rider to unlimited vehicle transfers for the next 90 to 120 minutes, cable cars are $7 one way, with no transfers unless the rider has a Muni Passport or Fast Pass. As of September 2014 monthly passes cost $70 for adults, $35 for low-income residents, or $24 for youth, seniors, passes are valid on all Muni lines—including cable cars—and the $83 adult Fast Pass allows BART transit entirely within San Francisco. Other passes and stickers are valid on all Muni lines, including cable cars, cable car fare is $7 per trip, with no transfers issued or accepted. Muni has implemented a smart card payment system known as Clipper
6.
Railway electrification system
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A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electrification has many advantages but requires significant capital expenditure, selection of an electrification system is based on economics of energy supply, maintenance, and capital cost compared to the revenue obtained for freight and passenger traffic. Different systems are used for urban and intercity areas, some electric locomotives can switch to different supply voltages to allow flexibility in operation, Electric railways use electric locomotives to haul passengers or freight in separate cars or electric multiple units, passenger cars with their own motors. Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network, some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own lines, switches and transformers. Power is supplied to moving trains with a continuous conductor running along the track usually takes one of two forms. The first is a line or catenary wire suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings. Locomotives or multiple units pick up power from the wire with pantographs on their roofs that press a conductive strip against it with a spring or air pressure. Examples are described later in this article, the second is a third rail mounted at track level and contacted by a sliding pickup shoe. Both overhead wire and third-rail systems usually use the rails as the return conductor. In comparison to the alternative, the diesel engine, electric railways offer substantially better energy efficiency, lower emissions. Electric locomotives are usually quieter, more powerful, and more responsive and they have no local emissions, an important advantage in tunnels and urban areas. Different regions may use different supply voltages and frequencies, complicating through service, the limited clearances available under catenaries may preclude efficient double-stack container service. Possible lethal electric current due to risk of contact with high-voltage contact wires, overhead wires are safer than third rails, but they are often considered unsightly. These are independent of the system used, so that. The permissible range of voltages allowed for the voltages is as stated in standards BS EN50163. These take into account the number of trains drawing current and their distance from the substation, railways must operate at variable speeds. Until the mid 1980s this was only practical with the brush-type DC motor, since such conversion was not well developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century, most early electrified railways used DC and many still do, particularly rapid transit and trams
7.
Volt
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The volt is the derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. One volt is defined as the difference in potential between two points of a conducting wire when an electric current of one ampere dissipates one watt of power between those points. It is also equal to the difference between two parallel, infinite planes spaced 1 meter apart that create an electric field of 1 newton per coulomb. Additionally, it is the difference between two points that will impart one joule of energy per coulomb of charge that passes through it. It can also be expressed as amperes times ohms, watts per ampere, or joules per coulomb, for the Josephson constant, KJ = 2e/h, the conventional value KJ-90 is used, K J-90 =0.4835979 GHz μ V. This standard is typically realized using an array of several thousand or tens of thousands of junctions. Empirically, several experiments have shown that the method is independent of device design, material, measurement setup, etc. in the water-flow analogy sometimes used to explain electric circuits by comparing them with water-filled pipes, voltage is likened to difference in water pressure. Current is proportional to the diameter of the pipe or the amount of water flowing at that pressure. A resistor would be a reduced diameter somewhere in the piping, the relationship between voltage and current is defined by Ohms Law. Ohms Law is analogous to the Hagen–Poiseuille equation, as both are linear models relating flux and potential in their respective systems, the voltage produced by each electrochemical cell in a battery is determined by the chemistry of that cell. Cells can be combined in series for multiples of that voltage, mechanical generators can usually be constructed to any voltage in a range of feasibility. High-voltage electric power lines,110 kV and up Lightning, Varies greatly. Volta had determined that the most effective pair of metals to produce electricity was zinc. In 1861, Latimer Clark and Sir Charles Bright coined the name volt for the unit of resistance, by 1873, the British Association for the Advancement of Science had defined the volt, ohm, and farad. In 1881, the International Electrical Congress, now the International Electrotechnical Commission and they made the volt equal to 108 cgs units of voltage, the cgs system at the time being the customary system of units in science. At that time, the volt was defined as the difference across a conductor when a current of one ampere dissipates one watt of power. The international volt was defined in 1893 as 1/1.434 of the emf of a Clark cell and this definition was abandoned in 1908 in favor of a definition based on the international ohm and international ampere until the entire set of reproducible units was abandoned in 1948. Prior to the development of the Josephson junction voltage standard, the volt was maintained in laboratories using specially constructed batteries called standard cells
8.
Direct current
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Direct current is a flow of electrical charge carriers that always takes place in the same direction. The current need not always have the magnitude, but if it is to be defined as dc. This contrasts with alternating current which varies the direction of flow, sources of direct current include power supplies, electrochemical cells and batteries, and photovoltaic cells and panels. The intensity, or amplitude, of a direct current might fluctuate with time, in some such cases the dc has an ac component superimposed on it. An example of this is the output of a cell that receives a modulated light communications signal. A source of dc is sometimes called a dc generator, batteries and various other sources of dc produce a constant voltage. This is called pure dc and can be represented by a straight, the peak and effective values are the same. The peak to peak value is zero because the instantaneous amplitude never changes, in some instances the value of a dc voltage pulsates or oscillates rapidly with time, in a manner similar to the changes in an ac wave. The unfiltered output of a wave or a full wave rectifier. In 1820, Hans Christian Orsted discovered that electrical current creates a magnetic field and this discovery made scientists relate magnetism to the electric phenomena. In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. He improved a 50-year-old idea using lower current electricity, a vacuum inside the globe and a small carbonized filament. At that time, the idea of lightning was not new. Edison not only invented an incandescent electric light, but an electric lighting system contained all the necessary elements to make the incandescent light safe, economical. Prior to 1879, direct current electricity had been used in lighting for the outdoors and it was in the 1880s when the modern electric utility industry began. It was an evolution from street lighting systems and from gas and it was located in Lower Manhattan, on Pearl Street. This station provided light and electricity to customers in a one square mile range, the station was called Thomas Edisons Pearl Street Electricity Generating Station. This station introduced four elements of an electric utility system, Efficient distribution, competitive price, reliable central generation
9.
Electric Transit, Inc.
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ETI was formed in 1994, and ownership was divided as 65% by Škoda and 35% by AAI. The latter was a wholly owned subsidiary of United Industrial Corporation, up to that time, Škoda had built more than 12,000 trolleybuses since 1935, but none for cities outside Europe and Asia. The company was awarded its first contract in November 1994, when the Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority, of Dayton, the order was later reduced to 61 vehicles, and ultimately to 57. Three prototype trolleybuses were delivered in December 1995 and January 1996 and these were designated by ETI as model 14TrE, the E standing for export, and were given fleet numbers 9601-9603 by MVRTA. Following modifications to the design, construction of the 54 production-series ETI trolleybuses for Dayton took place in 1998-99 and these were model 14TrE2 and were numbered 9801-9854 in MVRTAs fleet. In July 1997, the San Francisco Municipal Railway contracted with ETI for the provision of 250 trolleybuses, ETI designated the two types for San Francisco as models 14TrSF and 15TrSF, respectively. In February 2000, Muni exercised contract options to purchase an additional 20 two-axle, two prototypes for the two-axle trolleybuses were received by Muni in January 1999 and June 1999, respectively, while an articulated prototype was received in April 2000. The 238 production-series two-axle trolleybuses were delivered between May 2001 and early 2004, the production-series articulateds were all delivered in 2003. All 273 of Munis ETI trolleybuses had entered service by April 2004, except in the case of the prototypes, final fitting-out was undertaken in leased premises located in the two cities purchasing the vehicles, Dayton and San Francisco. In 2003, ETI engaged in a bidding for a large contract being offered by TransLink, of Vancouver. Canada for supply of trolleybuses to the Vancouver trolleybus system, the joint venture did not seek any further new business, and in May 2004 it finalized an agreement with San Francisco Muni to transfer to Muni its remaining contractual obligations. List of trolleybus manufacturers United Streetcar – another joint venture between Škoda and a U. S. company Various issues, Trolleybus Magazine. United Industrial Corp. profile on Funding Universe, retrieved 2009-06-20 Skoda manufactures trolley busses for San Francisco -2001 audio clips from Radio Prague, retrieved 2009-06-20
10.
Nob Hill, San Francisco
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Nob Hill is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, centered on the intersection of California Street and Powell Street. It is one of San Franciscos 44 hills, and one of its original Seven Hills, prior to the 1850s, Nob Hill was called California Hill. It was renamed after the Central Pacific Railroads Big Four – called the Nobs – built mansions there, the actual peak of Nob Hill lies slightly to the northwest, approximately at the intersection of Jones and Sacramento Streets. South of Nob Hill is Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, the district of Union Square, the Tenderloin neighborhood. To the east is San Franciscos Chinatown and a little farther, northeast of Nob Hill is North Beach and Telegraph Hill. North of Nob Hill is Russian Hill, and eventually, the areas of the waterfront such as Pier 39. The area was settled in the rapid urbanization happening in the city in the late 19th century, because of the views and its central position, it became an exclusive enclave of the rich and famous on the west coast who built large mansions in the neighborhood. This included prominent tycoons such as Leland Stanford, founder of Stanford University, for this reason, its early citizens were known as nabobs, which was shortened to nob, giving the area its eventual name. The neighborhood was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, except for the walls surrounding the Stanford, Crocker, Huntington. Those walls remain and black caused by smoke from the intense fires that burned after the quake can still be seen. Also gutted by the fires was the newly completed Fairmont Hotel at Mason and California Streets, both structures had stone exteriors that survived the fires, and both buildings were subsequently cleaned and refurbished. The Fairmont Hotel remains in operation to day and the Flood Mansion is the headquarters of the exclusive Pacific-Union Club. While the neighborhood was able to maintain its affluence following the quake, some rebuilt mansions further west in San Francisco, for example, in Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow. In place of where the mansions had been located, swank hotels were erected, hotels built over the ruins of the former mansions include the Mark Hopkins, Huntington and Stanford Court. Nob is disparaging British slang abbreviation of noble/nobility referring to the monied, the location is also derisively referred to as Snob Hill. The intersection of California and Powell streets is the location of two of its four well-known and most expensive hotels, the Fairmont Hotel, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Mark Hopkins Hotel and the Huntington Hotel are located one block away at Mason & California. The hotels were named for three of The Big Four, four entrepreneurs of the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, Leland Stanford, the fourth, Charles Crocker has a garage named after him in the neighborhood. The Fairmont is also named for a San Francisco tycoon, James G. Fair, opposite the Fairmont Hotel and Pacific Union Club is Grace Cathedral, one of the citys largest houses of worship
11.
Grade (slope)
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The grade of a physical feature, landform or constructed line refers to the tangent of the angle of that surface to the horizontal. It is a case of the slope, where zero indicates horizontality. A larger number indicates higher or steeper degree of tilt, often slope is calculated as a ratio of rise to run, or as a fraction in which run is the horizontal distance and rise is the vertical distance. The grades or slopes of existing physical features such as canyons and hillsides, stream and river banks, grades are typically specified for new linear constructions. The grade may refer to the slope or the perpendicular cross slope. There are several ways to express slope, as an angle of inclination to the horizontal, as a percentage, the formula for which is 100 rise run which could also be expressed as the tangent of the angle of inclination times 100. In the U. S. this percentage grade is the most commonly used unit for communicating slopes in transportation, surveying, construction, and civil engineering. As a per mille figure, the formula for which is 1000 rise run which could also be expressed as the tangent of the angle of inclination times 1000 and this is commonly used in Europe to denote the incline of a railway. As a ratio of one part rise to so many parts run, for example, a slope that has a rise of 5 feet for every 100 feet of run would have a slope ratio of 1 in 20. This is generally the method used to describe railway grades in Australia, any of these may be used. Grade is usually expressed as a percentage, but this is converted to the angle α from horizontal or the other expressions. Slope may still be expressed when the run is not known. This is not the way to specify slope, it follows the sine function rather than the tangent function. But in practice the way to calculate slope is to measure the distance along the slope and the vertical rise. When the angle of inclination is small, using the slope length rather than the horizontal displacement makes only an insignificant difference, Railway gradients are usually expressed in terms of the rise in relation to the distance along the track as a practical measure. In cases where the difference between sin and tan is significant, the tangent is used. In any case, the identity holds for all inclinations up to 90 degrees, tan α = sin α1 − sin 2 α In Europe. Grades are related using the equations with symbols from the figure at top
12.
Trolleybus
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A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws power from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit and this differs from a tram or streetcar, which normally uses the track as the return path, needing only one wire and one pole. They are also distinct from other kinds of buses, which usually rely on batteries. Power is most commonly supplied as 600-volt direct current, but there have been, currently, around 300 trolleybus systems are in operation, in cities and towns in 43 countries. Altogether, more than 800 trolleybus systems have existed, but not more than about 400 concurrently, the trolleybus dates back to 29 April 1882, when Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens demonstrated his Elektromote in a Berlin suburb. This experiment continued until 13 June 1882, after there were few developments in Europe. In 1899, another vehicle which could run either on or off rails was demonstrated in Berlin, routes followed in Eberswalde and Fontainebleau. Max Schiemann on 10 July 1901 opened the worlds fourth passenger-carrying trolleybus system, although this system operated only until 1904, Schiemann had developed what is now the standard trolleybus current collection system. In the early days there were a few methods of current collection. The Cédès-Stoll system was operated near Dresden between 1902 and 1904, and in Vienna, the Lloyd-Köhler or Bremen system was tried out in Bremen, and the Cantono Frigerio system was demonstrated near Milan. Throughout the period, trackless freight systems and electric canal boats were also built, Leeds and Bradford became the first cities to put trolleybuses into service in Great Britain on 20 June 1911. Apparently, though it was opened on 20 June, the public was not admitted to the Bradford route until the 24th, Bradford was also the last to operate trolleybuses in the UK, the system closing on 26 March 1972. The last rear-entrance trolleybus in Britain was also in Bradford and is now owned by the Bradford Trolleybus Association, birmingham was the first to replace a tram route with trolleybuses, while Wolverhampton, under the direction of Charles Owen Silvers, became world-famous for its trolleybus designs. There were 50 trolleybus systems in the UK, Londons being the largest, by the time trolleybuses arrived in Britain in 1911, the Schiemann system was well established and was the most common, although the Cédès-Stoll system was tried in West Ham and in Keighley. Smaller trackless trolley systems were built in the US early as well, the trackless trolley was often seen as an interim step, leading to streetcars. Buses and trolleybuses in particular were seen as entry systems that could later be upgraded to rail as appropriate, some trolleybus lines in the United States came into existence when a trolley or tram route did not have sufficient ridership to warrant track maintenance or reconstruction. In a similar manner, a proposed tram scheme in Leeds, worldwide, around 300 cities or metropolitan areas are served by trolleybuses today. See also Trolleybus usage by country, for example, new systems opened in Lecce, Italy, in 2012 and in Malatya, Turkey, in 2015
13.
Public transport
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Public transport modes include city buses, trolleybuses, trams and passenger trains, rapid transit and ferries. Public transport between cities is dominated by airlines, coaches, and intercity rail, high-speed rail networks are being developed in many parts of the world. Most public transport runs to a timetable, with the most frequent services running to a headway. Share taxis offer services in many parts of the world. Paratransit is sometimes used in areas of low demand and for people who need a door-to-door service, there are distinct differences in urban public transit between Asia, North America, and Europe. In Asia, mass transit operations are run by profit-driven privately owned and publicly traded mass transit. In North America, mass transit operations are run by municipal transit authorities. In Europe, mass transit operations are run by both state-owned and private companies. Public transport services can be profit-driven by use of pay-by-the-distance fares or funded by government subsidies in which flat rate fares are charged to each passenger. Services can be profitable through high ridership numbers and high farebox recovery ratios, or can be regulated. Fully subsidized, zero-fare services operate in some towns and cities, for geographical, historical and economic reasons, there are differences internationally regarding use and extent of public transport. It has 3,400 members from 92 countries, conveyances designed for public hire are as old as the first ferries, and the earliest public transport was water transport, on land people walked or rode an animal. Ferries appear in Greek mythology—corpses in ancient Greece were buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay the ferryman Charon to take them to Hades, the omnibus was introduced to London in July 1829. The first passenger railway opened in 1806, it ran between Swansea and Mumbles in southwest Wales in the United Kingdom. In 1825 George Stephenson built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in northeast England, the usability of different types of public transport, and its overall appeal, can be measured by seven criteria, although they overlap somewhat. These are speed, comfort, safety, cost, proximity, speed is calculated from total journey time including transfers. Proximity means how far passengers have to walk or otherwise travel before they can begin the public transport leg of their journey, timeliness is how long they have to wait for the vehicle. Directness records how far a journey using public transport deviates from the shortest route, an airline provides scheduled service with aircraft between airports
14.
States of the United States
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The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major territories, and various possessions. The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D. C. are in central North America between Canada and Mexico, the state of Alaska is in the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, each state has its own constitution, grounded in republican principles, and government, consisting of three branches, executive, legislative, and judicial. All states and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented by two Senators, while Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, each new state has been admitted on an equal footing with the existing states. As provided by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress exercises exclusive jurisdiction over the federal district, which is not part of any state. Prior to passage of the 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which devolved certain Congressional powers to a mayor and council. Even so, Congress retains the right to review and overturn laws created by the council, as it is not a state, the district does not have representation in the Senate. However, since 1971, its residents have been represented in the House of Representatives by a non-voting delegate, additionally, since 1961, following ratification of the 23rd Amendment, the district has been entitled to select three electors to vote in the Electoral College. In addition to the 50 states and federal district, the United States has sovereignty over 14 territories, five of them have a permanent, nonmilitary population, while nine of them do not. With the exception of Navassa Island, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands, Navassa Island is claimed by Haiti. The five inhabited territories each have limited autonomy in addition to having territorial legislatures and governors, california is the most populous state, with 38,332,521 residents, Wyoming is the least populous, with an estimated 582,658 residents. The District of Columbia, with an estimated 646,449 residents as of 2012, has a population than the two least populous states. The largest state by area is Alaska, encompassing 665,384 square miles, while the smallest is Rhode Island, encompassing 1,545 square miles. The first state to ratify the current Constitution was Delaware, which it did on December 7,1787, while the newest state is Hawaii, which was admitted to the Union on August 21,1959. The largest territory in terms of population and size is Puerto Rico, with 3,725,789 residents as of the 2010 Census. The most recent entity to come under the sovereignty of the United States in its current form is the Northern Mariana Islands, which formally did so on November 3,1986. S
15.
O'Shaughnessy Dam (California)
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OShaughnessy Dam is a 430-foot high concrete arch-gravity dam in Tuolumne County, California, in the United States. It impounds the Tuolumne River, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at the end of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. The dam and reservoir are the source for the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, the dam is named for engineer Michael OShaughnessy, who oversaw its construction. An act of Congress was required to circumvent federal protection of the Tuolumne River, Construction of the dam started in 1919 and was finished in 1923, with the first water delivered in 1934 after numerous delays. From 1935–38 the dam was raised to increase its capacity for water supply, the dam, aqueduct and appurtenant hydroelectric systems are collectively known as the Hetch Hetchy Project. Deriving from a wild and pristine area of the Sierra Nevada. Hetch Hetchy represented the first great environmental controversy in the US, preservationist groups such as the Sierra Club lobby for the restoration of the valley, while others argue that leaving the dam in place would be the better economic and environmental decision. In the late 19th century, the city of San Francisco was rapidly outgrowing its limited water supply, the city looked east to the Sierra Nevada, where snowmelt fed the headwaters for many of Californias largest rivers. In 1900, a United States Geological Survey report also described the Tuolumne River as the best source of water for San Francisco. Although Phelan managed to secure rights for the Tuolumne River in 1901. But when the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire razed the city, at the time, Hetch Hetchy was an isolated, seldom visited subalpine valley, visited intermittently by gold seekers and sheepherders. Even though the valley was not well known to the public, organizations such as the Sierra Club treasured it for its spectacular beauty. Led by naturalist and mountaineer John Muir, the Sierra Club adamantly opposed the city of San Francisco as it sought permission from the government to build a dam in the valley. In 1908 Secretary of the Interior James R. S, though highly controversial, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 43 for and 25 against. The consensus was that since Hetch Hetchy lay on public land, Muir, the Sierra Club and other groups were outraged by the federal governments permission for development at Hetch Hetchy. However, on December 24,1914, with construction on the dam barely underway, Muir died, Muir had said – As well dam for water tanks the peoples cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has been consecrated by the heart of man. S. Army Corps of Engineers reported in 1913 as a better and cheaper source than Hetch Hetchy, by this point, however, San Francisco had become obsessed with developing Hetch Hetchy, and dismissed or discarded other rivers and valleys that would have served them better. As if it was created for their purpose, work on the Hetch Hetchy project began in early 1914 shortly after the passage of the Raker Act
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Caltrain
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Caltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Clara Valley. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th, extra trains were often run for special events held in AT&T Park in San Francisco, Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, and SAP Center in San Jose. Caltrain operates 92 weekday trains,6 of which are extended to Gilroy, weekday ridership in February 2016 averaged 62,416, up 83% since 2010. Caltrain is governed by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board which consists of agencies from the three counties served by Caltrain, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara, each member agency has three representatives on a nine-member Board of Directors. The member agencies are the City and County of San Francisco, SamTrans, Caltrain has 29 regular stops, one football-only stop, and two weekend-only stops. As of October 2012 Caltrain runs 92 weekday trains,36 Saturday, the original commuter railroad built in 1863 was the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road, it was purchased by Southern Pacific in 1870. Southern Pacific double-tracked the line in 1904 and rerouted it via Bayshore, after 1945, ridership declined with the rise in automobile use, in 1977 SP petitioned the state Public Utilities Commission to discontinue the commute operation because of ongoing losses. To preserve the service, in 1980 Caltrans contracted with SP. Caltrans purchased new locomotives and rolling stock, replacing SP equipment in 1985, Caltrans also upgraded stations, added shuttle buses to nearby employers, and dubbed the operation CalTrain. The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board was formed in 1987 to manage the line, subsequently, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties commissioned Earth Metrics, Inc. to prepare an Environmental Impact Report on right-of-way acquisition and expansion of operations. With state and local funding, the PCJPB bought the right of way between San Francisco and San Jose from SP in 1991. The following year, PCJPB took responsibility for CalTrain operations and selected Amtrak as the contract operator, PCJPB extended the CalTrain service from San Jose to Gilroy, connecting to VTA Light Rail at Tamien Station in San Jose. In July 1995 CalTrain became accessible to passengers in wheelchairs, five months later, CalTrain increased the bicycle limit to 24 per train, making the service attractive to commuters in bicycle-friendly cities such as San Francisco and Palo Alto. In July 1997 the current logo was adopted, and the name became Caltrain. A year later, VTA extended its rail service from north Santa Clara to the Mountain View Caltrain station. In June 2003, a connection for the Bay Area Rapid Transit. In 2006, Caltrain announced that wireless internet access would be available on trains at no additional charge, Caltrain invested more than $1 million in researching and testing WiFi in 2006. Caltrain still hopes to offer the service eventually as part of a comprehensive communication package
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Bay Area Rapid Transit
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Bay Area Rapid Transit is a public transportation system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The rapid transit elevated and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in Alameda, Contra Costa, BART operates 5 routes on 104 miles of track connecting 45 stations, plus a 3. 2-mile automated guideway transit line to the Oakland International Airport which adds an additional station. A spur line in eastern Contra Costa County will utilize other rail technologies, with an average of 433,000 weekday passengers and 128.5 million annual passengers in fiscal year 2016, BART is the fifth-busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the United States. The systems acronym is pronounced Bart, like the name, BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, formed in 1957. As of 2017, it is being expanded to San Jose with the consecutive Warm Springs, some of the Bay Area Rapid Transit Systems current coverage area was once served by an electrified streetcar and suburban train system called the Key System. This early 20th-century system once had regular trans-bay traffic across the deck of the Bay Bridge. By the mid-1950s, that system had been dismantled in favor of highway travel, a new rapid-transit system was proposed to take the place of the Key System during the late 1940s, and formal planning for it began in the 1950s. Some funding was secured for the BART system in 1959, passenger service began on September 11,1972, initially just between MacArthur and Fremont. All nine Bay Area counties were involved in the planning and envisioned to be connected by BART, before the system began revenue service, serious problems in the design and operation of the Automatic Train Control system were observed. Three engineers working for BART, Max Blankenzee, Robert Bruder, BART management was dismissive of their concerns, so the three took the issue to the board of directors. All but two of the directors voted in February 1972 to support management and reject the safety concerns, management retaliated against the engineers, firing them in March 1972. The IEEE later filed the first amicus brief in its history to support the engineers. The California Society of Professional Engineers reported to the California State Senate in June 1972 that there were serious safety risks with the ATC. Legislative analyst A. Alan Post, opened an investigation immediately, an ATC failure caused the train to run off the end of the elevated track and crash to the ground, injuring four people on-board, and drawing national and international attention. The “Fremont Flyer” led to a redesign of the train controls. The California State Public Utilities Commission imposed stringent oversight over train operations, the legislative analyst issued the first of three “Post Reports” in November 1972. The report was “sharply critical” of BART, finding that the ATC system was unreliable, the ATC program was mismanaged, and “no solution was in sight. ”The report accused BART of paying excessive fees for engineering services. BART’s general manager called the indictment of safety in the Post Report “not only disappointing, telephone calls were placed manually between stations, instead
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Muni Metro
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Muni Metro is a light rail/streetcar hybrid system serving San Francisco, California, operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, a division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. With an average ridership of 128,500 passengers as of the fourth quarter of 2014. Muni Metro operates a fleet of 151 light rail vehicles made by Breda, Muni Metro is the modern incarnation of the traditional streetcar system that had served San Francisco since the late 19th century. Recently, the system has undergone expansion, most notably the Third Street Light Rail Project, completed in 2007, other projects, such as the Central Subway, are underway. Muni Metro descended from the traditional streetcar system started on December 28,1912. The first streetcar line, the A Geary, ran from Kearny and Market Streets in the Financial District to Fulton Street, the system slowly expanded, opening the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1917, allowing streetcars to run to the southwestern quadrant of the city. By 1921, the city was operating 304 miles of trolley lines and 25 miles of cable car lines. The last line to service before 2007 was the N Judah. However, five heavily used streetcar lines traveled for at least part of their routes through tunnels or otherwise reserved right-of-way, as a result, these lines, running PCC streetcars, continued in operation. The new tunnel would be connected to the existing Twin Peaks Tunnel, the new underground stations would feature high platforms, and the older stations would be retrofitted with the same, which meant that the PCCs could not be used in them. Hence, a fleet of new rail vehicles was ordered from Boeing-Vertol. The K and M lines were extended to Balboa Park during this time, on February 18,1980, the Muni Metro was officially inaugurated, with weekday N line service in the subway. The Metro service was implemented in phases, and the subway was served only on weekdays until 1982. The K Ingleside line began using the Metro subway on weekdays on June 11,1980, the L Taraval and M Ocean View lines on December 17,1980, and lastly the J Church line on June 17,1981. Meanwhile, weekend service on all five lines continued to use PCC cars operating on the surface of Market Street through to the Transbay Terminal, finally, on November 20,1982, the Muni Metro subway began operating seven days a week. At the time, there were no plans to revive any service on the surface of Market Street or return PCCs to regular running. However, tracks were rehabilitated for the 1983 Historic Trolley Festival, Muni criticism had been something of a feature of life in San Francisco, and not without reason. The Boeing trains were sub-par and grew crowded quickly, Muni did take steps to address these problems
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San Francisco cable car system
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The San Francisco cable car system is the worlds last manually operated cable car system. An icon of San Francisco, the car system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Of the 23 lines established between 1873 and 1890, only three remain, two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fishermans Wharf, and a route along California Street. While the cable cars are used to an extent by commuters. They are among the most significant tourist attractions in the city, along with Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cable cars are not to be confused with San Franciscos heritage streetcars, which operate on Market Street, the first successful cable-operated street railway was the Clay Street Hill Railroad, which opened on August 2,1873. The promoter of the line was Hallidie, and the engineer was William Eppelsheimer, the line involved the use of grip cars, which carried the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars, the design was the first to use grips. The term grip became synonymous with the operator, the line started regular service on September 1,1873, and its success led it to become the template for other cable car transit systems. It was a success, and Hallidies patents were enforced on other cable car promoters. Accounts differ as to exactly how involved Hallidie was in the inception of the line, the next cable car line to open was the Sutter Street Railway, which converted from horse operation in 1877. This line introduced the side grip, and lever operation, both designed by Henry Casebolt and his assistant Asa Hovey, and patented by Henry Casebolt. This idea was brought about because Casebolt did not want to pay Hallidie royalties of $50,000 a year for use of his patent, the side grip allowed cable cars to cross at intersections. In 1878, Leland Stanford opened his California Street Cable Railroad and this companys first line was on California Street and is the oldest cable car line still in operation. In 1880, the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway began operation, the Presidio and Ferries Railway followed two years later, and was the first cable company to include curves on its routes. The curves were let-go curves, where the car drops the cable, in 1883, the Market Street Cable Railway opened its first line. This company was controlled by the Southern Pacific Railroad and was to grow to become San Franciscos largest cable car operator. At its peak, it operated five lines all of which converged into Market Street to a terminus at the Ferry Building, during rush hours, cars left that terminus every 15 seconds. In 1888, the Ferries and Cliff House Railway opened its initial two-line system, the Powell-Mason line is still operated on the same route today, their other route was the Powell-Washington-Jackson line, stretches of which are used by todays Powell-Hyde line
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Overhead line
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An overhead line or overhead wire is used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses, or trains. Overhead line is designed on the principle of one or more overhead wires situated over rail tracks, the feeder stations are usually fed from a high-voltage electrical grid. Electric trains that collect their current from overhead lines use a device such as a pantograph and it presses against the underside of the lowest overhead wire, the contact wire. Current collectors are electrically conductive and allow current to flow through to the train or tram, non-electric locomotives may pass along these tracks without affecting the overhead line, although there may be difficulties with overhead clearance. Alternative electrical power transmission schemes for trains include third rail, ground-level power supply, batteries and this article does not cover regenerative braking, where the traction motors act as generators to retard movement and return power to the overhead. To achieve good high-speed current collection, it is necessary to keep the wire geometry within defined limits. This is usually achieved by supporting the wire from a second wire known as the messenger wire or catenary. This wire approximates the path of a wire strung between two points, a catenary curve, thus the use of catenary to describe this wire or sometimes the whole system. This wire is attached to the wire at regular intervals by vertical wires known as droppers or drop wires. It is supported regularly at structures, by a pulley, link, the whole system is then subjected to a mechanical tension. As the contact wire makes contact with the pantograph, the insert on top of the pantograph is worn down. The straight wire between supports will cause the wire to cross over the whole surface of the pantograph as the train travels around the curve, causing uniform wear. On straight track, the wire is zigzagged slightly to the left. The movement of the wire across the head of the pantograph is called the sweep. The zigzagging of the line is not required for trolley poles. Depot areas tend to have only a wire and are known as simple equipment or trolley wire. When overhead line systems were first conceived, good current collection was only at low speeds. Compound equipment - uses a second wire, known as the auxiliary
21.
F Market & Wharves
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The F Market & Wharves line is one of several light rail lines in San Francisco, California. Despite its heritage status, the F Market & Wharves line is an part of Munis intermodal urban transport network, operating at frequent intervals for 20 hours a day. It carries local commuters and tourists alike, linking residential, business, unlike the San Francisco cable car system, standard Muni fares are levied. The streetcar line was discontinued in 1951 and was replaced by the 30-Stockton route, the F-line designation was therefore available for use by the current line, although that service is over a completely different route from the F-line of 1915 to 1951. Market Street is a major artery for the city of San Francisco. In the 1960s construction began on the Market Street Subway, which would carry BARTs trains on its lower level, all streetcar lines currently operating in the subway previously ran on the surface of Market Street, and were eventually diverted into the upper level of the tunnel. This diversion, together with the provision of new rail cars. The diversion of the Market Street streetcar lines into tunnel and the replacement of the existing streetcars with new rail cars was completed by November 1982. However, the trackage on Market Street was retained. In 1982, San Franciscos cable car lines were shut down for almost two years to allow for a major rebuild, to provide an alternative tourist attraction during this period, the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festivals began in 1983. These summertime operations of vintage streetcars on Market Street were a joint project of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the trolley festival route went from the Transbay Terminal at First and Mission Streets to Market, then up the retained Market Street tracks to Duboce Avenue. From there, it followed a temporary streetcar detour built in the 1970s to bypass subway construction under Market, Duboce, Church Street, the Trolley Festival proved so successful it was repeated every year until 1987. In that year, preparation began for the introduction of a permanent F line, after that year’s festival finished, Muni replaced the old Market Street tracks with new ones, restoring tracks to upper Market Street and recreating a line to Castro. Different types of streetcars were evaluated to provide the backbone of the F-line fleet, resulting in the decision to use the PCC car. Fourteen such cars were acquired second-hand from Philadelphia to add to three of Muni’s own retired double-ended PCCs, at that point in history, this was a rare instance in which a streetcar replaced a bus line in operation, rather than the other way around. Ridership exceeded expectation, and the need for extra cars resulted in the acquisition of ten Peter Witt style cars just being retired in the city of Milan, Italy. These cars were built in the 1920s to a once common in North American cities. The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront roadway of San Francisco, along San Francisco Bay, at one time busy with port and ferry related traffic, it fell into decline as freight transferred to the container terminals of Oakland and the Bay Bridge replaced the ferries
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San Francisco Transbay Terminal
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It opened on January 14th,1939 as a train station and was converted into a bus depot in 1959. Long-distance buses from beyond the Bay Area such as Greyhound and Amtrak also served the terminal, several bus lines of the San Francisco Municipal Railway connected with the terminal. It closed on August 7,2010, to make way for the construction of the replacement facility, the Transbay Transit Center, and associated towers. All long-distance and transbay bus operations were transferred to a Temporary Transbay Terminal at the block bounded by Main, Folsom, Beale. The new Transbay Transit Center broke ground on August 11,2010, US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and the Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom attended the ceremony. The new transit center is scheduled to be completed in 2017, bus services such as Greyhound and local Muni streetcar lines had stops at the main entrance. The Terminal was designed by Timothy L. Pflueger in the Art Moderne style, bids were taken for construction of the terminal in June 1937, excavation began on 29 July 1937, and the first steel was erected on 12 January 1938. Structural concrete was complete by May 1938, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Electric Railway Terminal Building was formally dedicated on January 14,1939. State officials and guests rode electric trains to the opening ceremony, the terminal cost was estimated at US$2,300,000, and it was expected to serve upwards of 60,000 passengers per day. Governor Frank Merriam piloted the first electric train across the bridge on 23 September 1938, although regular service did not commence until January 1939, trains were controlled with a custom electric switchboard, which was considerably simpler than the typical mechanical lever system then in use. A loop was built so trains could turn around and go back across the bridge, even after rail service ended, the loop continued to be used by AC Transit, Thruway Motorcoach and Greyhound buses until the station closed. Surprisingly, a track was never made to connect to the Southern Pacifics Third, the SP and Sacramento Northern trains ceased service across the Bay in 1941 only two years after the Terminal was completed. Interurban stated they were forced to service, citing falling passenger counts, revenues. After Interurban was granted permission to discontinue service, Sacramento Northern also applied to service in 1941. Sacramento Northern carried only a fraction of the total rail traffic over the Bay Bridge. The last train crossed the bridge on 20 April 1958, less than twenty years service was inaugurated in 1939. There have been attempts to restore rail service across the bridge. During the next year, the Transbay Terminal was rebuilt into a bus depot, the tracks were removed and replaced with pavement for use primarily by the buses of the publicly owned successor of the Key System, AC Transit
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Daly City, California
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Daly City is the largest city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with an estimated 2014 population of 106,094. Located immediately south of San Francisco, it is named in honor of businessman, archaeological evidence suggests the San Francisco Bay Area has been inhabited as early as 2700 BC. People of the Ohlone language group occupied Northern California from at least the 6th century, seven years later, in 1776, an expedition led by Juan Bautista de Anza selected the site for the Presidio of San Francisco, which José Joaquín Moraga would soon establish. Later the same year, the Franciscan missionary Francisco Palóu founded the Mission San Francisco de Asís, as part of the founding, the priests claimed the land south of the mission for sixteen miles for raising crops and for fodder for cattle and sheep. In 1778, the priests and soldiers marked out a trail to connect San Francisco to the rest of California, at the top of Mission Hill, the priests named the gap between San Bruno Mountain and the hills on the coast La Portezuela. La Portezuela was later referred to as Dalys Hill, the Center of Daly City, during Spanish rule, the area between San Bruno Mountain and the Pacific remained uninhabited. Upon independence from Spain, prominent Mexican citizens were granted land parcels to establish large ranches, Rancho Buri Buri was granted to Jose Sanchez in 1835 and covered 14,639 acres including parts of modern-day Colma, Burlingame, San Bruno, South San Francisco, and Millbrae. Rancho Laguna de la Merced was 2,219 acres acres, following the Mexican Cession of California at the end of the Mexican–American War the owners of Rancho Laguna de La Merced tried to claim land between San Bruno Mountain and Lake Merced. An 1853 US government survey declared that the area was in fact government property. There was a land rush as settlers, mainly Irish established ranches in farms in parts of what is now the neighborhoods of Westlake, Serramonte. A decade later, several families left as increase in the fog density killed grain, the few remaining families switched to dairy and cattle farming as a more profitable enterprise. In the late 19th century as San Francisco grew and San Mateo County was established, Daly City also gradually grew including homes, Daly City served as a location where San Franciscans would cross over county lines to gamble and fight. As tensions built in approach to the American Civil War, California was divided between pro-slavery, and Free Soil advocates, two of the main figures in the debate were US Senator David C. Broderick, a Free Soil advocate and David S. Terry who was in favor of extension of slavery into California. Quarreling and political fighting between the two led to a duel in the Lake Merced area at which Terry mortally wounded Broderick. The site of the duel is marked with two shafts were the men stood, and designated is California Historical Landmark number 19. On the morning of April 18,1906 a major earthquake struck just off the coast of Daly City near Mussel Rock. After quake and subsequent fire destroyed many San Franciscans homes, they left to temporary housing on the ranches of the area to the south, including the large one owned by John Daly
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Rush hour
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A rush hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday—once in the morning and once in the afternoon-evening, the term is often used for a period of peak congestion that may last for more than one hour. By analogy to vehicular traffic, the term Internet rush hour has been used to describe periods of peak data network usage, resulting in delays and slower delivery of data packets. The name is sometimes a misnomer, as the period often lasts more than one hour. Rush hour may be 6–10 am and 4–8 pm, Peak traffic periods may vary from city to city, from region to region, and seasonally. The frequency of public service is usually higher in the rush hour. The resulting crowding may force many passengers to stand, and others may be unable to board, if there is inadequate capacity, this can make public transport less attractive, leading to higher car use and partly shifting the congestion to roads. Transport demand management, such as road pricing or a charge, is designed to induce people to alter their travel timing to minimize congestion. Similarly, public transport fares may be higher during peak periods, season tickets or multi-ride tickets, sold at a discount, are commonly used in rush hours by commuters, and may or may not reflect rush hour fare differentials. Staggered hours have been promoted as a means of spreading demand across a time span, for example in Rush Hour. In Australia, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and in New Zealand, Auckland and Christchurch are usually the most congested cities in the morning 6–9am, in Melbourne the Monash Freeway, which connects Melbournes suburban sprawl, to the city is usually heavily congested each morning and evening. In Perth, Mitchell Freeway, Kwinana Freeway and various arterial roads are usually congested between peak hours, making movement between suburbs and the city quite slow, efforts to minimise traffic congestion during peak hour vary on a state by state and city by city basis. In Melbourne, congestion is managed by means including, Inbound transit lanes on busy freeways which are limited to motorcycles, free travel on metropolitan trains before 7am. Passengers must exit the system at their station before 7am. Dedicated bus lanes on major city roads such as Hoddle Street. Introduction of dedicated lanes in the inner city area to encourage cyclists. Prohibition of parking along busy roads during peak periods to create an extra lane for traffic. In São Paulo, Brazil, each vehicle is assigned a day of the week in which it cannot travel the roads during rush hour
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J. G. Brill Company
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The J. G. Brill Company manufactured streetcars, interurban coaches, and buses in the United States for almost ninety years. The company was founded by John George Brill in 1868 as a manufacturing firm in Philadelphia. Over the years, it absorbed numerous other manufacturers such as Kuhlman in Cleveland. With business diminishing, in 1944 it merged with the American Car and it ceased trolley and bus production in 1954, though some of their interurbans served the Philadelphia area till the 1980s. Brill was the longest lasting of the trolley and interurban manufacturers. It manufactured over 45,000 streetcars, trams, motor buses, trolleybuses, at its height, it was the largest manufacturer of streetcars and interurbans in the U. S. and produced more streetcars and interurbans and gas electrics than any other manufacturer. In 1868, the Brill company was founded as J. G, after James Rawle joins the firm in 1872, it is renamed J. G. In 1926, ACF Motors Company obtained a controlling interest in Brill, the firm built about 1,100 trolley buses and a few thousand buses under the name. On January 31,1946, a controlling interest in ACF-Brill was acquired by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation for $7.5 million. Consolidated Vultee was sold on November 6,1947, to the Nashville Corporation, in early 1954, the Brill name disappeared when ACF-Brill ceased production and subcontracted remaining orders. In Europe, Cie. J. G. Brill of Gallardon, birney safety car – by subsidiary, the American Car Company. Steel heavy interurban cars built 1920-1930s, the Brill Center Door car was typical of suburban trolleys and interurbans built around 1920. These tended to be large, heavy, double-ended cars, with passengers entering and exiting via doors located at the center of the car, many rebuilt into one man cars. All-steel, had standard controller stand, capable of 70 mph, Brilliner – Brills competitor to the PCC looked somewhat like the first PCCs. The Brilliner was not successful compared to the PCC. Few were sold, whereas PCCs were well sold worldwide, twenty-four built for Atlantic Citys Miss America Fleet. Brill diners - Brill sold and designed diners, generally one of its four subsidiaries. The last one believed to be operating is the Capitol Diner in Lynn, Massachusetts, up to that time, both the wood and most of the steel interurban cars were large, sat high, and were heavy
26.
St. Louis Car Company
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The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri. The St. Louis Car Company was formed in April 1887 to manufacture and sell streetcars and other kinds of rolling stock of street, in succeeding years the company built automobiles, including the American Mors, the Skelton, and the Standard Six. The St. Louis Aircraft Corporation division of the company partnered with the Huttig Sash, during the two world wars, the company manufactured gliders, trainers, Alligators, flying boats, and dirigible gondolas. Among their most successful products were the Birney Safety Car and the PCC streetcar, a design that was very popular at the time. The firm went on to some of the vehicles used in the transit systems of New York City and Chicago. In 1960, St. Louis Car Company was acquired by General Steel Industries, St. Louis Car continued business until 1968 and finally ceased operations by 1974. The St. Louis Car assembly plant and general office at 8000 Hall Street, St. Louis is now the St. Louis Business Center, a mixed use industrial and commercial complex redeveloped starting in 2005. Today, San Francisco’s Municipal Railway has assembled one of the most diverse collections of vintage streetcars, trolleys, up to 20 or more of these wonderful vintage vehicles carry passengers along Market Street and The Embarcadero every single day. The St. Louis Car Co. later known as General Steel Industries, manufactured not only St. Louis streetcars and trolleys but cars for such far-flung transit systems as the Metro in Paris, France. Meissner, Jr. succeeded his father as head of the company, streetcars held sway in St. Louis and its suburbs from the 1880s until the mid- and late 1940s. Young records that new state-of-the-art buses began to encroach on the streetcars domain, New streamlined streetcars were brought into service in 1946 to replace older cars, some dating back to 1903. By 1947, with the removal of eight lines, only a more than half of the original streetcar system remained. The advent of early home TV-watching also cut down the ridership, another 14 other local transit companies were also sold to Bi-State for another $5 million, with the whole package funded by a bond issue. The old streetcars were phased out by Bi-State, with the last car running in 1966. S, beggs List of rolling stock manufacturers Middleton, William, Jr. Builders of wooden railway cars, St. Louis Car Company from ironhorse129. com — some photos of early SLCC cars
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Marmon-Herrington
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The Marmon-Herrington Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer of axles and transfer cases for trucks and other vehicles. Earlier, the company built military vehicles and some tanks during World War II, Marmon-Herrington had a partnership with Ford Motor Company, producing trucks and other commercial vehicles, such as buses. The company may be best known for its all-wheel-drive conversions to other truck makers units, founded in 1931, Marmon-Herrington was based in Indianapolis, Indiana, with a plant in Windsor, Ontario, and remained in Indianapolis until 1963. It is now based in Louisville, Kentucky, the company was founded in 1931 by Walter C. Marmon and Arthur W. Herrington and focused on building all-wheel-drive trucks and it was the successor to the Marmon Motor Car Company, a maker of automobiles from 1902 to 1933. Construction of all-wheel-drive vehicles and conversion of existing vehicles to AWD were among the companys products, Marmon-Herrington also made multi-stop delivery vans and passenger vehicles. The company designed an armoured vehicle which could be constructed on a commercial truck chassis. Instead the American government was approached with a request that it produce a replacement for the Tetrarch, the design offered by Christie in mid-1941 was rejected as it failed to meet the specified size requirements, as was a modified design the company produced in November. The company also manufactured airport fire trucks, like the Marmon Herrington MB-1 and they were mainly used by the military, like the USAF and US Navy. Post-War civilian adaptations, known as Brush Breakers, were also produced, the companys foray into transit buses began in 1946, when it produced its first electric trolley bus. The end of World War II had brought a drop in the need for military vehicles. The principal models were the TC44, TC48, and TC49, a single order of the 40-seat TC40 model was produced for San Francisco, and likewise the TC46 was produced for only one customer, Philadelphia, before MH replaced it with the TC48 model. Trolley bus production lasted from 1946 until 1959, in total,1,624 vehicles were produced, the last of San Franciscos 260 MH trolley buses were retired in 1976 and Philadelphias last units in 1981. By the late 1950s the market for new buses in North America had dried up. Recife overhauled some of its TC49s in the 1980s, and several remained in service until 2001, the Illinois Railway Museum has preserved two ex-Chicago Transit Authority Marmon-Herrington trolley coaches and one ex-Milwaukee unit. In the early 1960s, the Pritzker family bought the company, and soon the focus on full vehicle manufacturing ended, marmon-Herringtons longtime main plant and headquarters in Indianapolis was closed in 1963. The remaining production became part of an association of companies which in 1964 adopted the name Marmon Group. During the Cold war era, Marmon diversified its line by adding aircraft, missiles and rockets ground support equipment, manufactured by its subsidiary, Cardair, based in Chicago
28.
Twin Coach
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Twin Coach was an American vehicle manufacturing company from 1927 to 1955, based in Kent, Ohio, and a maker of marine engines and airplane parts until the 1960s. It was formed by brothers Frank and William Fageol when they left the Fageol Motor Company in 1927 and they established the company in Kent to manufacture and sell buses with a new concept design. The body structure of new bus was unique in that the body also became the frame. This concept was patented by William B, the company was sometimes referred to as Fageol-Twin Coach. Trolley bus production lasted from 1928 to 1951, all other orders went to U. S. cities. In the 1930s and 1940s, Twin Coach was one of the largest producers in the limited field of trolley bus manufacturing in North America. Until the late 1940s, only three other U. S. companies built more trolley buses, the Brill companies, Pullman, another builder, Marmon-Herrington, only entered the field in 1946, but eventually surpassed Twins total. Overall, the companys best customer for trolley coaches was the Seattle Transit System, in 1940, Twin Coach also pioneered the development of the articulated trolley bus in North America, although the first such vehicle in the world was built in Europe slightly earlier, in 1939. The company built only two articulated buses, and each was marketed as a Super Twin model. Both were originally built as demonstrators, the 1940 unit was eventually sold to the Cleveland transit system and entered service there. The second was built as a bus in 1946, but was converted into a trolley bus in 1948. With both vehicles, the articulation joint allowed only vertical, not horizontal, movement and these two prototypes never led to any series production, so each remained unique. The 1948 Chicago vehicle is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum, until 1985, these two vehicles remained the only articulated trolley buses ever built in North America by any manufacturer. Twin Coach also built motor buses, fuels included at least gasoline and propane. Between 1927 and 1934 alone, the company more than 1,100 motor buses. Bus production continued through to the time of the acquisition by Flxible. In 1955, the bus manufacturing operations were sold to Flxible, for a time, Flxible used the Twin Coach name – along with its own – in its marketing and some buses carried front name plates that gave both names and combined the companies two logos into one. By 1963, use of the Twin Coach name on buses had been discontinued, the marine-engine and aircraft divisions continued as Twin Coach
29.
New Flyer Industries
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New Flyer Industries Inc. is a Canadian bus manufacturer in headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It also has factories in Crookston and St. Cloud, Minnesota, Flyer was founded by John Coval in 1930 as the Western Auto and Truck Body Works Ltd. Reflecting an increased focus on bus manufacturing, it changed its name in 1948 to Western Flyer Coach, in the 1960s, the company further focused on the urban transit bus market. In 1971, the then-financially struggling Western Flyer was sold to the Manitoba Development Corporation, an agency of the Manitoba government, den Oudsten Bussen B. V was a bus manufacturer in its native country, the Netherlands. New Flyer subsequently introduced North Americas first low-floor bus, delivering the D40LF to the Port Authority of New York, also in 1995, the first ever North American low-floor articulated bus was introduced to Strathcona County Transit of Sherwood Park, Alberta. In March 2002, New Flyer was acquired by KPS Special Situations Fund in New York City. Also in the year, Mr. den Oudsten retired as CEO of New Flyer Industries Ltd. and has recently been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Public Transportation Association. In 2003, King County Metro of Seattle, Washington placed an order for 213 hybrid buses, lightyear Capital, a New York-based private equity firm, joined Harvest as a co-investor in the transaction. Marinucci added that since the KPS purchase, New Flyer achieved excellent operational and financial performance. On August 19,2005, New Flyer announced the closing of a public offering in Canada of 20,000 Income Deposit Securities. That year also saw the introduction of optional redesigned front and rear endcaps for their buses, the new endcaps are an attempt to modernize and streamline the look of their fleet, which is more or less a box on wheels. Also, a new R suffix was applied on all units produced with the new endcaps, the redesigned endcaps made their debut with the 2005 E40LFR built for the Vancouver trolleybus system. Between 2005 and the end of 2009, New Flyer supplied a total of 262 low-floor trolleybuses to the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, the original order, placed in late 2003, was for 188 E40LFR units and 40 E60LFR units. The first E40LFR was delivered in July 2005, and the rest of the 40-foot units were delivered between August 2006 and September 2007, the first articulated, E60LFR trolleybus arrived in Vancouver in January 2007. TransLink decided to order an additional 34 articulated units, making the total 74, another purchaser of trolleybuses from New Flyer was SEPTA, operator of the Philadelphia trolleybus system. That agency placed an order with New Flyer in February 2006 for 38 E40LFR trackless trolleys, the first vehicle was delivered in June 2007, and the remaining 37 were received by SEPTA during 2008. In October 2008, New Flyer Industries Canada ULC was named one of Canadas Top 100 Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc. and was featured in Macleans newsmagazine. Later that month, New Flyer was also named one of Manitobas Top Employers, the company converted to a corporate structure from a trust-like structure in October,2011
30.
High-floor
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A rail vehicle of high-floor design usually has a flat floor between 76 cm and 137 cm above the top of the railhead. For reasons of accessibility, an attempt is made to standardize the height, high platforms do have significant advantages beyond wheelchair accessibility. Mobility-impaired passengers also benefit, as do travelers pulling wheeled luggage or small folding shopping carts, even fully able-bodied passengers can board a railcar more rapidly if they do not have to climb stairs to enter, reducing dwell time at a stop, and reducing overall travel time. In addition, high-platform railcars have more space for passengers if space is not required for stairways. Tourist coaches generally have high floors, sometimes above 1 meter. Since boarding must be allowed directly from ground, long. Today, in Germany, all rapid transit railways, most commuter trains, a notable exception is the city railway in Cologne, in the mid-1990s, it was decided to divide that citys partially high platform network into two separate networks, high-floor and low-floor. In each of these cities, a new light rail line is equipped with platforms for low-floor trams. This form of design and construction will avoid the need for subsequent rebuilding of stops on tram routes, even though both cities already have underground lines with high-floor platforms
31.
Articulated bus
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An articulated bus is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. Due to their high capacity, articulated buses are often used as part of bus rapid transit schemes. Used almost exclusively on public bus services, articulated buses are approximately 18 metres in length. A less common variant of the bus is the bi-articulated bus. Their capacity is around 200 people, and their length about 25 metres, early examples of the articulated bus appeared in Europe in the 1920s. In Budapest, the first prototype of this bus was in service in 1960 and it was manufactured without the use of blueprints. Later Ikaruss blueprints were drawn up on the basis of existing prototype. There is an exhibition in Budapest at the Museum of Transportation in 2010 with the title The articulated bus is 50 years old. In the mid-1960s, AC Transit in California pioneered the American use of an articulated bus. Articulated buses have also used in Australia and Europe The first modern British bendy buses were built by Leyland-DAB. They were subsequently withdrawn from service because they proved to be expensive to maintain, one disadvantage that is sometimes experienced with some articulated models is the insufficiency of the effective motive power available to them. It is common for articulated buses to use the engine type as non-articulated buses. The extra weight of the bendy bus gives rise to a slower speed, when used in cities built on numerous inclines the vehicle is prone to overheating. This may lead to stalling, or in the worst situations to an outbreak of fire if the bus is powered by a diesel engine. During late 2003 and early 2004, a series of fires on newly delivered Mercedes-Benz Citaros led to Londoners humorously nicknaming the vehicles chariots of fire. Mercedes-Benz quickly addressed the problem, although the vehicles were out of service for a period, however, no overheating or fire-related incidents have ever been recorded in Vancouvers articulated electric trolley buses from a similar cause. Vancouvers articulated trolley buses were specifically chosen for the torque output of their electric motors. In some circumstances of urban operation, articulated buses may also be involved in more accidents than conventional buses
32.
Accessibility
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Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people who experience disabilities. The concept of design and practice of accessible development ensures both direct access and indirect access meaning compatibility with a persons assistive technology. Accessibility can be viewed as the ability to access and benefit from some system or entity and this is about making things accessible to all people. Article 9 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities commits signatories to provide for full accessibility in their countries. Accessible facilities therefore extend to such as Braille signage, elevators, audio signals at pedestrian crossings, walkway contours, website design. Government mandates including Section 508, WCAG, DDA are all enforcing practices to standardize accessibility testing engineering in product development, existing private businesses are required to increase the accessibility of their facilities when making any other renovations in proportion to the cost of the other renovations. The United States Access Board is A Federal Agency Committed to Accessible Design for People with Disabilities, the Job Accommodation Network discusses accommodations for people with disabilities in the workplace. Many states in the US have their own disability laws, in Australia, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 has numerous provisions for accessibility. In South Africa the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 2000 has numerous provisions for accessibility, in the UK, the Equality Act 2010 has numerous provisions for accessibility. In Sri Lanka, the Supreme Court, on 27 April 2011 gave an order to boost the inherent right of disabled persons to have unhindered access to public buildings. The Act refers to legislation regarding accessibility in e. g. ICT. In Canada, relevant federal legislation includes the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Employment Equity Act, legislation may also be enacted on a state, provincial or local level. In Ontario, Canada, the Ontarians with Disabilities Act of 2001 is meant to improve the identification, removal, the European Union, which has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, also has adopted a European Disability Strategy for 2010-20. A European Accessibility Act was proposed in late 2012 and this Act would establish standards within member countries for accessible products, services, and public buildings. Assistive technology is the creation of a new device that assists a person in completing a task that would otherwise be impossible. Adaptive technology is the modification, or adaptation, of existing devices, methods, or the creation of new uses for existing devices, to enable a person to complete a task. Examples include the use of controls, and the autocomplete feature in computer word processing programs. Adaptations to wheelchair tires are another example, widening the tires enables wheelchair users to move over soft surfaces, such as snow on ski hills
33.
Trolleybuses in San Francisco
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The San Francisco trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network serving San Francisco, in the state of California, United States. Opened on October 6,1935, it presently comprises 15 lines, in San Francisco, these vehicles are also known as trolley coaches. One of only five such systems currently operating in the U. S. the Muni trolley bus system is the second-largest such system in the Western Hemisphere, a particularly notable feature of its operations are very steep grades. The Muni trolley bus system is complementary to the citys rail-bound Caltrain, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Muni Metro, in addition, it shares some of its overhead wires with the F Market & Wharves streetcar line. Of the latter,40 were New Flyer E60 vehicles,12 of these were retired in early 2013, and the remaining 28 were retired in early January 2015. All of the then-remaining 273 trolleybuses were built by Electric Transit, Inc. mostly in 2001–03, the 240 40-foot units being model 14TrSF, an order was placed in 2014 for 60 New Flyer XT60 articulated vehicles, the systems first low-floor trolleybuses. Two prototypes arrived in March 2015 and May 2015, respectively, delivery of the 58 production-series vehicles began in September 2015, and the series entered service between November 2015 and July 2016. They replaced the 33 ETI 15TrSF articulated trolleybuses, the last of which were retired in April–May 2016 and these changes left the current fleet with the 240 conventional units built by ETI and 60 New Flyer XT60s. The articulated trolleybuses are used on the 5R,14 and 30S lines, the suffix SF in the two ETI model numbers stands for San Francisco. These two types were specially derived from the standard series Škoda 14Tr for use on the Muni system, the model XT60 for New Flyer has prefixes X for Xcelsior and T for electric, and the suffix 60 for the 60-foot bus. The first order to be placed under the 2013 agreement was the 2014 order for 60 articulated trolleybuses, San Francisco Municipal Railway fleet List of trolleybus systems in the United States Perles, Anthony, with John McKane, Tom Matoff, Peter Straus. The Peoples Railway, The History of the Municipal Railway in San Francisco, San Francisco database / photo gallery and San Francisco trolleybus list at Urban Electric Transit – in various languages, including English
34.
AAI Corporation
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AAI Corporation is an aerospace and defense development and manufacturing firm, located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, US. Formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of United Industrial Corporation, AAI was acquired by Textron in 2007 and it currently operates as a unit of Textron Systems Corporation and employs more than 2,000. The company’s customers include the United States Department of Defense and its contractors, allied foreign government ministries of defense. AAI Corporation originated as Aircraft Armaments, Inc. in August 1950, founded by six aviation and it was renamed AAI Corporation in the late 1950s. AAI’s parent company, United Industrial Corporation, was founded as Hayes Body Corporation in the early 1900s, renamed many years later, UIC was admitted into the New York Stock Exchange for trading on December 15,1964. From 1994 to 2004, AAI partnered with the Czech firm, Škoda, the joint venture, named Electric Transit, Inc. supplied 330 trolley buses to San Francisco and Dayton before being dissolved in 2004. On 22 June 2006 Aerosonde Ltd was acquired by AAI, Textron acquired AAI and other subsidiaries of UIC with its purchase of the parent company for approximately $1.1 billion in 2007. AAI became part of Textrons helicopter subsidiary, Bell Textron, in the acquisition, today, AAI owns or occupies more than 1,100,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space across Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA. As of May 2014, AAI had been made into three parts, Unmanned Systems, Support Solutions, and Electronic Systems, the company is still registered as an active corporation in the State of Maryland under the name, AAI Corporation. AAI is one of a number of companies engaged in the design and full-rate production of a successfully fielded. AAI first began development work on the unmanned systems product line in 1985, the companys unmanned aircraft systems include the Shadow 200 Tactical UAS, which is designated RQ-7B by the U. S. Army, as well as the Shadow 400 and 600 systems. As of July,2014, Shadow systems had accumulated more than 920,000 flight hours, with more than 90 percent of those hours in support of U. S. and allied operations in Iraq. The company’s UAS capabilities expanded with the 2006 acquisition of Australian UAS manufacturer Aerosonde Pty. Ltd and this fleets newest model is the Aerosonde Mark 4.7 small unmanned aircraft system. In late 2009, AAI conducted a demonstration of the system aboard the M80 Stiletto ship. In September 2008, AAI announced that it had teamed with Aeronautics Ltd. to provide the Orbiter miniature UAS in selected markets. The companys One System Ground Control Station is fielded as part of the Shadow Tactical UAS, as well as the One System Portable Ground Control Station and it is to be based on the Carter PAV. AAI is developing an RQ-7 Shadow, also with a Carter rotor on top for vertical take-off and landing, AAI also intends to use this technology as the basis for their proposal to DARPAs Flying Humvee Transformer program. AAI provides a variety of engineering, logistical, maintenance, repair and its customers include the U. S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, for which the company supports a wide variety of operational systems
35.
Rigid bus
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A rigid bus is a vehicle used in public transportation with a single, rigid chassis. The term rigid bus is not used in American English, where the distinction is made using the term non-articulated bus or. Rigid buses may be of either single-deck or double-deck design, however, the expression rigid bus is seldom used to describe a double-decker bus, because very few double-decker buses have anything other than a rigid chassis. Single-decker rigid buses are used mainly on bus lines with an average ridership, bus High-floor Low-floor bus Media related to Buses at Wikimedia Commons
36.
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
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The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is an agency created by consolidation of the San Francisco Municipal Railway, the Department of Parking and Traffic, and the Taxicab Commission. SFMTA was established by the passage of Proposition E in November 1999, the measure, promoted by the transit riders group Rescue Muni, among others, established service standards for the agency and made a number of changes to the laws governing it. Prior to the passage of Proposition E, the Muni was governed by the Public Transportation Commission, both bodies were dissolved upon the full implementation of Proposition E. Board members are limited to three terms. The SFMTA Board of Directors is responsible for, among other things, at its inception, the SFMTAs Director of Transportation was Michael T. Burns. On July 15,2005 he left the SFMTA for a position with Santa Clara VTA, ford, Sr. previously the general manager and CEO of MARTA in Atlanta, took over as the new executive director. Johnson would take over as acting director until a permanent replacement was selected by the SFMTA Board. The board selected Edward D. Reiskin, the head of the San Francisco Department of Public Works, as the permanent executive director, the first chair of the SFMTA Board of Directors was H. Welton Flynn, he was succeeded by Cleopatra Vaughns. When Vaughns left the board, James McCray, Jr. was elected chairman, like two of his then-colleagues, McCray previously served on the Parking and Traffic Commission, which was abolished when the department merged into the SFMTA. The Board of Supervisors rejected Stern by a 7–4 vote on September 27,2005, Stern was an official with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Proposition E also established a 15-member SFMTA Citizens Advisory Council which must review the agencys budget, the mayor appoints four members of the SFMTA Citizens Advisory Council and each member of the Board of Supervisors appoints one. Proposition E allowed for the SFMTA to take over the functions of the Taxicab Commission, in 2009, the agency did so, as a result of legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors and signed by the mayor. In November 2005, the voters of San Francisco rejected, by a margin of 35%–65%, in November 2016 San Francisco voters rejected by 45%–55% a second ballot measure that would have split appointments between the mayor and the Board of Supervisors. The measure would also have made it easier for the supervisors to reject the SFMTA budget. In November 2016, The SFMTA was hit by hackers, using ransomware, demanding $70,000 in bitcoins, with fare machines reading “OUT OF SERVICE”, in February 2006, the MTA Board adopted a resolution adding CEO to the title. When Edward D. Reiskin took office in 2011, he opted to use only the official title. * Although the city charter specifies that the MTA Board shall have a chair, Flynn, Vaughns, McCray, and Nolan have all opted for the style chairman
37.
King County Metro
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King County Metro, officially the King County Department of Transportation Metro Transit Division or Metro for short, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington. It began operations on January 1,1973, but can trace its roots to Seattle Transit, founded in 1939, Metro is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in the United States, carrying an average of 395,000 passengers each weekday on 215 routes. Metro employs 2,716 full-time and part-time operators and operates 1,882 buses, there is limited Night bus service between 1am and 5am. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, was created by a referendum in 1958 authorized to manage regional wastewater and water quality issues in King County. After two failed attempts to enable it to build a rapid transit system, it was authorized to operate a regional bus system in 1972. The bus system was known as Metro Transit and began operations in 1973, in the early 1970s, the private Metropolitan faced bankruptcy because of low ridership. King County voters authorized Metro to buy Metropolitan and operate the mass transit bus system. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle was overseen by a board of elected officials. Its representation structure was ruled unconstitutional in 1990, in 1992, after gaining approval by popular vote, the municipalitys roles and authorities were assumed by the government of King County. The municipalitys transit operations was a department within the county until 1996. After completion of the downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel project, attention was again to developing a regional rail system. Today, King County Metro operates more than 200 routes, providing local and regional transit service, primarily within its jurisdictional boundaries. For almost 40 years, until 2012, most of downtown Seattle was designated as a zero-fare zone, intended to encourage transit usage, improve accessibility and encourage downtown shopping, the zone was created in September 1973 and was originally called the Magic Carpet zone. It was later renamed the Ride Free Area, the RFA extended from the north at Battery St. to S. Jackson St. on the south and east at 6th Avenue to the waterfront on the west. It also found that unloading outbound coaches once outside the RFA took additional time, on September 29,2012, the Ride Free Area was eliminated. All riders boarding in downtown must now pay as they board, Metro combines service patterns typical of both city and suburban bus networks. The city network, was descended in part from the Seattle Transit system of converted streetcar routes. Most service is operated in a hub-and-spoke pattern centered either on downtown Seattle or the University of Washington, the suburban network typically operates on major streets between the regions employment and population centers
38.
San Francisco Municipal Railway fleet
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Roughly 800 buses,200 streetcars and 40 cable cars see active duty. Munis cable cars constitute the oldest and largest such remaining in service in the world and is the only one still running with manually operated cars in street traffic. Its fleet of trolleybuses is the largest in the United States. Muni is in the process of replacing its motor coach fleet - the first of which was procured in 1915 - with diesel-electric hybrid buses, a summary of the current and historic vehicles follows. §5454,6238,6244,6259,6291,8173,6238,6244,6291, and 8173 written off due to a fire, and 5454,6259, and 8319 written off due to an accident. ^8448 Wi-Fi equipped from 2008 to 2009, the Connected bus, ♦8101-8235 and 8301-71s turn signal is different when rehabilitated in 2013. Muni also tested a 40-foot double-decker bus from Alexander Dennis Limited but the bus is now retired. As the Neoplan buses are assigned to the reserve fleet. Reserve fleet buses are only in service as needed, the following are a list of buses that are currently assigned to the training fleet. These buses are sometimes revenue service as reserve fleet, and are used to train prospective operators, the following shows the buses previously operated by the SFMTA. Some of these coaches have been preserved in the fleet, donated to trolley museums. There are 11 divisions for the Muni buses, ETI 14TrSF Skodas #5401-5489 and NFI XT60 Vossloh Kiepe #7201-7260 are from the Potrero Division, while #5490-5640 are from the Presidio Division, the latter holds only 40-ft ETI Skoda trolleybuses. The Kirkland Division uses only Neoplan AN440 diesel buses, the 30 and 40-ft Orion VII diesel-electric hybrid buses, and New Flyer XDE40s all rest in the Woods Division. Some Neoplan AN440s also lie in the Woods division as the fleet and are used only as needed. The division where the Neoplan AN440s that are rehabbed in 2013 lies in are the Kirkland Division, the test buses that retired that is moved. Munis active diesel fleet contains coaches ranging from thirty to sixty feet in length, for the last complete fleet replacement cycle Muni bought from three manufacturers, NABI, Neoplan and Orion, all of whom no longer sell buses in the U. S. Muni has since purchased 40 ft. and 60 ft. buses from New Flyer with options to replace the remainder of the fleet in those sizes. In 1984, Muni received its first 60-ft articulated buses, which were used on high-ridership routes because the buses carried more people than the standard length bus, in December 2007, Muni acquired a double-decker diesel bus for testing purposes
39.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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