Wouldn't this basically screw over rural states? And prop up dense, toll-collecting states? Makes you wonder why Republicans would support it.

 

Because of their blind hatred of regulation. Every federally funded project (regardless of purpose) requires adherence to the National Environmental Policy Act which can be extremely cumbersome but is the result of past abuses by highway departments to build roads through the poorest/minority neighborhoods, through parks and historic sites, etc. without consideration of alternatives and little or no public involvement. Yes, it has dramatically slowed down the delivery of projects and increased their cost, but stakeholders -- especially in cities -- now have access to much more due process including in major investments that may impact their neighborhoods.

 

I could also see rural states enacting draconian tolls for non residents passing through, so they aren't "taxing and spending" their own people, just the dern foreigners!  You wanna cross Iowa on I80 in your Prius?  That will be $79!

These people don't just hate regulations. They hate government, even if they are in the legislative part of it. The really believe what they are doing is good for the...country? State?

 

Maybe we should junk the constitution and devolve back to the Articles of Confederation?

 

And so what might happen? At first, not much, but the change would be profound over time. Wealthy states might increase their gas tax to make up the difference, but others might not. The interesting thing to me is that the two modes that have most benefited from strong federal support---highways and aviation--might lose as things become more and more balkanized (KJP's reference to the Ohio/WVA bridge the two states could not agree on), while private railroad could gain market share. This could entice operators to get into the passenger rail business.

 

For sure each state would have its own ideas as to policy. One state might embrace public transit. Others might not. Still others might be content to let their roads decay. It would be a mess.

This country thrived for 150 years without federal regulation on our transportation systems.

 

Not exactly true.  Lots of federal money went into the national road (US40), canals, waterway regulations, and financial incentives for railroads.  To say that there weren't "regulations" may be technically correct, but there were strings attached to the funds that allowed these transportation projects to proceed.

 

Have you ever heard of the Interstate Commerce Commission? It just about regulated the railroads to death prior to 1980.

I think everyone needs to visit Ukraine to see a tea partier's paradise. Everywhere you see the ruins of the Soviet Union that Ukraine has failed to muster the political support for taxes to maintain its infrastructure. It is a third world country with the remnants of a great empire all around it. This is a market district in the port city of Odessa where the Soviet navy had a major base on the Black Sea....

 

 

So let's start with the roads which are so riddled with potholes that, when it rains, motorists on unfamiliar streets around puddles because they do not know how deep they are. This is a very common condition of a side street I saw in Ukraine, and even on main roads which aren't striped anyway and few people pay attention to traffic signals and stop signs...

 

 

 

 

I walked across concrete pedestrian bridges with rebar sticking out of them and holes big enough for your foot to go right through, and this in the nice parts of Ukrainian cities. It was apparent they hadn't been repaired or painted in decades. I didn't take any pictures of them, but this common street scene might make you envision what they look like....

 

 

 

 

The ladies I was with were old enough to the remember the Soviet Union and that, while they had more choices on where to live, shop, eat and more, their roads and bridges had fallen apart. I asked them about their bus and rail systems but they did not notice major changes (good or bad) with them. Apparently they did not change much. They said there are more taxis, churches and nice hotels for American and Western European business travelers and tourists, but most Ukrainians cannot afford to stay there. The Kiev-Boryspil Airport was dramatically improved in just the few times I visited. My first visit, the original part of the airport (Terminal B) looked like an old bus station in Little Rock, not the international terminal for a city the size of Greater Boston. They added new international terminal F and replaced Terminal B (below) to put on a good face for the Euro 2012 football games....

 

 

 

As you can see, the train stations don't look too bad. I shot this at the station in Smila (smee-la). The railcars are pretty old though....

 

 

 

And there were many other signs of neglect, including few parks, no grass cutting or landscaping, many dirt lots, no enforcement of building standards (assuming there are any), a free-for-all with advertising (billboards, signs, posters, stickers, etc), no control of stray pets which wander city streets in large numbers, and police corruption. There are broken fountains, crumbling sidewalks and buildings partially built a long time ago but never finished. Most people have cell phones -- not because the nation is advanced in mobile communications, but because its landline network was either limited to the cities and has since fallen into disrepair or, in the case of rural area, it never existed in the first place. Oh, and plowing the roads clear of snow? Nope. Eventually the vehicles tires will get rid of the snow. I shot this scene one day after a snowfall and no snowplows were seen....

 

 

I know I am getting off topic, but this is all part of a culture of no government oversight or public funding for infrastructure and services I had once assumed would always be maintained in a first-world country like the United States of America. But somehow there are increasing numbers of Americans who seem to think these things are provided for free by some infrastructure version of the tooth fairy. Somehow we can get great stuff for nothing. And if we don't provide it, then the private sector will step in take care of it. If not, then it wasn't worth providing -- right? Well, I have seen the consequences of such wishful thinking. And it is a third world country decorated with the ruins of a once great union.

 

Oh, and proof that I was there -- this is me standing in front of the World War II memorial in Cherkassy, Ukraine.....

 

Thank you for these stark, revealing Ukrainian pictures accompanied by a great commentary!  Nevertheless, in the very first photo, I couldn't help but notice that Odessa possesses something special that Cincinnati does not--ie, a streetcar! :-( :-D

Odessa/Ukrain., was dominated by a communist power for close to a century. When the giant nipple pulls back some neglect is evident. What does this

have to do with should the states of feds collect a gas tax in the usa. Tea Party came to be with Obama's crazy stimulus spending and the passing of

the train wreck obamacare.

 

I hear that Odessa is a wonderful place to visit.

The communists could build/maintain roads.

 

the New free market economy can't.. This is the reality the Tea Party is advocating for.  This is what happens when you "drown the government in a bathtub"

 

All that stuff falls apart when you don't want to pay for it, Look at our roads and bridges, but hey lets cut taxes some more....

 

You can argue that we need to shake things up to try to shed ourselves of so much of the cruft that's built up in our transportation system.  Bridges to nowhere, bypasses of bypasses of bypasses, all the suburban development that doesn't pay itself back in the long-term.  Say what you will about the state of the US economy in the mid-1800s, at that time we were poor, but very smart.  We made only the most critical investments in infrastructure possible, and sought ways to maximize the return on those investments.  Now (or at least in the recent past) we've been able to be incredibly stupid because we were a rich society.  Spend $10 million to save 30 seconds of travel time?  SURE!  Rebuild this highway for $500 million so it "meets the standards" even though it's no less safe than ones that do meet the standard?  NO PROBLEM!  I won't pretend that the tea party types are actually looking at it from such a rational point-of-view, but that's at least the seed of the discontent with the current system. 

The people pushing this devolvement actually think they can get something for nothing, that all the transportation infrastructure just "happens" and that they can just drive everywhere as they always have. They are delusional. It won't take long for the potholes to appear and then listen as they complain about the situation they will have created in the first place!

That is not the discussion they are having.

 

the only discussion they are having is "waaahhhh I don't wannna pay!!!!!"

 

AND don't cut anything I need or use....keep government's hands off my medicare? 

 

I want all of you do a little exercise that I did for myself.

 

go back through your tax returns.  Look at what you  made and look at the percentage you paid in federal income tax.

 

I did this little exercise and what I found was very interesting. A pretty steady 27% regardless of circumstances.

 

All of those tax cuts.....never made it to me.  Those aren't and weren't for you and me.  They weren't for the 47% or the 53% or even the 1%  they were for the .01%

 

So no, stop cutting taxes, all that does it make it so I will be paying more later.  Raise taxes to pay for the obligations we have already taken on. 

 

Once you have paid for the stuff we already have decided was necessary.  THEN we can have the discussion about Need/Not need. 

 

The Tea Party is exactly 180 degrees wrong. 

 

Odessa/Ukrain., was dominated by a communist power for close to a century. When the giant nipple pulls back some neglect is evident. What does this

have to do with should the states of feds collect a gas tax in the usa. Tea Party came to be with Obama's crazy stimulus spending and the passing of

the train wreck obamacare.

 

I hear that Odessa is a wonderful place to visit.

 

Ukraine is a nation of remarkable contrasts. You will find brand-new, American-style shopping centers with all the cool shops and neon and world/trance music (they love that there) playing over sound systems next to decrepit commie-block apartment buildings that you would find in East Cleveland or Gary or East St. Louis, except there are well-dressed white people living in them. The buildings are littered with broken windows, crumbling balconies and elevators lit by a dangling bulb that you dare not ride except when your hands are full.

 

Yes, Odessa is a beautiful city -- but it is also a city of contrasts like what I've written about here. Until you visit, look at these pictures and read the narratives by another American traveler about the condition of the city.....

 

http://fredandreaseasterneurope2013.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/odessas-sustainable-design-speaking-a-different-language/

 

 

The communists could build/maintain roads.

 

the New free market economy can't.. This is the reality the Tea Party is advocating for.  This is what happens when you "drown the government in a bathtub"

 

All that stuff falls apart when you don't want to pay for it, Look at our roads and bridges, but hey lets cut taxes some more....

 

 

Bingo. All around you is a nation whose vast infrastructure is aging and reaching the end of its useful life. Our massive highway network (and aviation systems to a lesser degree) were built by Republicans and Democrats in the 1950s-80s who understood that a nation is held together and made stronger by a continuous and consistent threads of commerce, regardless of state lines. Before then, there no national standards regarding highway signs or for the minimum curvature of an interchange ramp or the funding to implement and enforce these consistencies. To devolve into 50 nation-states is a recipe for dissolution. This is a time for greater federal funding and leadership to ensure the flow of national commerce, not less.

That is not the discussion they are having.

 

the only discussion they are having is "waaahhhh I don't wannna pay!!!!!"

 

AND don't cut anything I need or use....keep government's hands off my medicare? 

 

I want all of you do a little exercise that I did for myself.

 

go back through your tax returns.  Look at what you  made and look at the percentage you paid in federal income tax.

 

I did this little exercise and what I found was very interesting. A pretty steady 27% regardless of circumstances.

 

All of those tax cuts.....never made it to me.  Those aren't and weren't for you and me.  They weren't for the 47% or the 53% or even the 1%  they were for the .01%

 

So no, stop cutting taxes, all that does it make it so I will be paying more later.  Raise taxes to pay for the obligations we have already taken on. 

 

Once you have paid for the stuff we already have decided was necessary.  THEN we can have the discussion about Need/Not need. 

 

The Tea Party is exactly 180 degrees wrong. 

 

 

You hit it on the head.  The Tea Party political discussion is not about advancing the country, it's about selfishness.  They would certainly spend money on roads in their own neighborhood--after all they EARNED that.  But for those poor folks in the big city, they don't deserve nice roads.  They expect ME to pay for it (never mind that cities are the centers of employment in any state).

 

If you spend time in upstate/western New York you hear a lot of this--everyone thinks NYC is a drain.  But the reality is that Western and Upstate New York communities take more from the treasury than they give.  Just try getting one of them to admit to that reality though.  Its utterly impossible!

 

http://fredandreaseasterneurope2013.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/odessas-sustainable-design-speaking-a-different-language/

 

Thanks for the link. More importantly, what do you ladies look like over there? LOL

 

http://fredandreaseasterneurope2013.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/odessas-sustainable-design-speaking-a-different-language/

 

Thanks for the link. More importantly, what do you ladies look like over there? LOL

 

Most could find jobs as models over here in the USA. No joking. Many Ukrainian woman are THAT beautiful. They don't age well, though....

 

OK back on topic.

Read Federal Transit Admin Peter Rogoff's entire testimony given today to Congress on the New Starts capital investment program

 

http://1.usa.gov/1bxTXZ3

 

EDIT:  but when highway/oil industry shill Randy O'Toole is invited as a "transit expert" to testify to #Congress, you know the deck is stacked.

EDIT:  but when highway/oil industry shill Randy O'Toole is invited as a "transit expert" to testify to #Congress, you know the deck is stacked.

 

My...what a fitting name.....  :wink:

Planes, Trains, & Pretty Much Everything Else More Efficient Than Cars

Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2014/01/14/planes-trains-pretty-much-everything-else-efficient-cars/#QmMr5t6HjQPDYLbu.99

 

A new report released by a research professor at the University of Michigan Research Institute looking at data collected from 1970 to 2010 has shown that pretty much every form of transportation is more efficient than the good old-fashioned light-duty vehicle.

 

Michael Sivak examined recent trends to determine the energy needed to transport a single person a given distance in a light-duty vehicle — ie, cars, SUVs, pickups, and vans — or on a scheduled airline flight. His analysis was measured in BTU per person mile from 1970 to 2010, and found that the entire fleet of light-duty vehicles would need to improve their miles per gallon efficiency from 21.5 to 33.8, or increase their vehicle load from 1.38 persons to at least 2.3 persons to come anywhere near flight.

Planes, Trains, & Pretty Much Everything Else More Efficient Than Cars

Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2014/01/14/planes-trains-pretty-much-everything-else-efficient-cars/#QmMr5t6HjQPDYLbu.99

 

A new report released by a research professor at the University of Michigan Research Institute looking at data collected from 1970 to 2010 has shown that pretty much every form of transportation is more efficient than the good old-fashioned light-duty vehicle.

 

Michael Sivak examined recent trends to determine the energy needed to transport a single person a given distance in a light-duty vehicle — ie, cars, SUVs, pickups, and vans — or on a scheduled airline flight. His analysis was measured in BTU per person mile from 1970 to 2010, and found that the entire fleet of light-duty vehicles would need to improve their miles per gallon efficiency from 21.5 to 33.8, or increase their vehicle load from 1.38 persons to at least 2.3 persons to come anywhere near flight.

 

Ummmm....is this what they spend their time researching at TSUN?  I'd call it rather obvious, from an energy consumption/cost standpoint.

 

If we were a centrally planned collective society where everyone did everything based upon the maximum overall efficiency, this would be relevant.  It's not, as the overall picture is an aggregate of individual decisions made for individual reasons, not always based even on personal "efficiency" (which would include things like travel time and schedule flexibility).

Amtrak also gets an $81 million spending boost but with some strings attached.....

 

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

TIGER Funding Gets 20 Percent Boost in Final 2014 Spending Bill

by Tanya Snyder

 

We’re less than a third of the way through fiscal year 2014 and we already have a budget! Well, almost — the president still has to sign it. But the House and Senate unveiled the details of the omnibus budget bill yesterday, and just having a complete bill that both parties and both chambers have agreed to is a pretty big deal.

 

For the past few years, Congress has been unable to agree on a budget, so funding levels have essentially been frozen in place, and then various deals and sequesters have taken slices out without much strategy or forethought. “For the first time since 2011, no mission of our government will be left behind on autopilot,” said Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski in a statement, noting that all 12 sections of the bill are complete.

 

The results for multi-modal transportation programs [PDF] are better than we’ve grown accustomed to. TIGER gets a 20 percent jump, from $500 million in 2013 to $600 million in 2014. The $500 million translated into $474 million in grants last year, with some taken out for planning and administration. A staffer said that $20 million of the 2014 amount is earmarked for planning, though some of that could go to help grantee communities with their planning.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://dc.streetsblog.org/2014/01/14/tiger-funding-gets-a-20-percent-boost-in-final-2014-spending-bill/

The most complete article on this is behind a paywall at the Financial Times, but these two sum it up.  Ford is starting to think beyond cars.  This is a HUGE shift in mentality for an American auto company:

 

Ford Motor, which pioneered the affordable mass-produced motor car, is looking to play a bigger role in building public transport vehicles or integrating cities’ transport systems as it grapples with the growing challenge of helping people move around the world’s traffic-choked cities.

 

Alan Mulally, Ford’s chief executive, said questions of “personal mobility” and “quality of life” were some of the “most important and exciting developments” around the world and simply providing more and more cars was “not going to work”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/ford-explores-personal-mobility-and-challenge-of-traffic-choked-cities-1.1655297

 

In a similar article, Mulally says not to assume that Ford would always be in the car business:

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/ford-explores-personal-mobility-and-challenge-of-traffic-choked-cities-1.1655297

 

Alan Mulally, Ford’s chief executive, said questions of “personal mobility” and “quality of life” were some of the “most important and exciting developments” around the world and simply providing more and more cars was “not going to work”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/ford-explores-personal-mobility-and-challenge-of-traffic-choked-cities-1.1655297

 

In a similar article, Mulally says not to assume that Ford would always be in the car business:

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/ford-explores-personal-mobility-and-challenge-of-traffic-choked-cities-1.1655297

 

 

Same article. Same link.

 

Good article, though! I tweeted it out as:

 

All Aboard Ohio ‏@AllAboardOhio  1m

If @Ford Motor Co is willing to build public transport why isn't the #Ohio Department of Highways, er Transportation? http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/ford-explores-personal-mobility-and-challenge-of-traffic-choked-cities-1.1655297 …

Alan Mulally, Ford’s chief executive, said questions of “personal mobility” and “quality of life” were some of the “most important and exciting developments” around the world and simply providing more and more cars was “not going to work”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/ford-explores-personal-mobility-and-challenge-of-traffic-choked-cities-1.1655297

 

In a similar article, Mulally says not to assume that Ford would always be in the car business:

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/ford-explores-personal-mobility-and-challenge-of-traffic-choked-cities-1.1655297

 

 

Same article. Same link.

 

Good article, though! I tweeted it out as:

 

All Aboard Ohio ‏@AllAboardOhio  1m

If @Ford Motor Co is willing to build public transport why isn't the #Ohio Department of Highways, er Transportation? http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/ford-explores-personal-mobility-and-challenge-of-traffic-choked-cities-1.1655297 …

 

Nothing really new here.  Their truck and van business has always been as important as cars, especially as they are bringing the Transit van over from Europe.  Buses is a logical extension.  Even trains.

 

There's a reason a lot of insiders use the phrase "transportation industry" instead of automotive.

Nothing really new here.  Their truck and van business has always been as important as cars, especially as they are bringing the Transit van over from Europe.  Buses is a logical extension.  Even trains.

 

There's a reason a lot of insiders use the phrase "transportation industry" instead of automotive.

 

Sure there is. They are diversifying. It would be like GM getting back into making buses and locomotives again. The next thing you know, they'll start making electrically powered trains and trams!

Nothing really new here.  Their truck and van business has always been as important as cars, especially as they are bringing the Transit van over from Europe.  Buses is a logical extension.  Even trains.

 

There's a reason a lot of insiders use the phrase "transportation industry" instead of automotive.

 

Sure there is. They are diversifying. It would be like GM getting back into making buses and locomotives again. The next thing you know, they'll start making electrically powered trains and trams!

 

GASP!  :-o

All aboard: urban transit stations redeveloped as neighborhood amenities

RACHEL KAUFMAN AND JOE BAUR | THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014

 

Even as the economy recovers, Americans are driving less. In urban areas across the country, people instead are choosing to walk, bike or take public transit.

 

When we have a long way to go, there's strong evidence that the Great American Roadtrip also is on the wane. Amtrak has set a new ridership record in 10 of the past 11 years, with fiscal year 2013 being its best ever with 31.6 million passengers riding.

 

With all that demand comes congestion and backups at major rail hubs, but smart cities are anticipating and adapting so that the train station of the future is full but not crowded, busy but not packed. And rather than being a place that commuters hurry through, the renovated train stations of tomorrow will be neighborhood amenities.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.freshwatercleveland.com/features/urbantransitstations013014.aspx

17 Govs from both parties urge Congress to ‘Stabilize’ highway, transit funding

Gov. Kasich wasn't among them:

http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/infrastructure/197145-govs-to-congress-stabilize-highway-funding

 

DOT chief: Obama transportation funding proposal ‘bold’

http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/infrastructure/196832-dot-chief-obama-transportation-funding-proposal

President Obama to urge $302 billion transportation bill

By KATHRYN A. WOLFE | 2/26/14 7:57 AM EST

 

President Barack Obama on Wednesday will call for a four-year, $302 billion transportation bill to replace the law that expires at the end of September, while repeating his pitch for tax reform to fill some of that gap.

 

The White House didn’t say whether Obama will offer a full reauthorization proposal — for the first time in his presidency — or simply a “vision.” But he has been clear recently that he wants to use money from overhauling corporate taxes to make up for chronic shortfalls in the Highway Trust Fund’s gasoline tax revenues.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/president-obama-transportation-bill-103980.html

 

 

EDIT......

 

Yonah Freemark ‏@yfreemark  4m

Obama budget would massively increase funding for transit http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/02/26/fact-sheet-president-obama-lays-out-vision-21st-century-transportation-i … Up 70% from previous figures

 

Yonah Freemark ‏@yfreemark  4m

Budget would also provide $19 billion to intercity rail. No mention of high-speed rail, but applicable here

Friends, let's help make this happen! Please write to your Senators & Congressperson, and especially to Rep. Bob Gibbs who is the only Ohioan serving on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee:

CONTACT: http://gibbs.house.gov/#

 

The President’s Vision for 21st Century Transportation Infrastructure includes these key provisions of particular interest to All Aboard Ohio members and friends.....

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/02/26/fact-sheet-president-obama-lays-out-vision-21st-century-transportation-i

 

+ Prioritizing “Fix-it-First” investments. The proposal will include policies and reforms to prioritize investments for much needed repairs and to improve the safety of highways and bridges, subways and bus services, with particular attention to improving roads and bridges in rural and tribal areas.

 

+ $72 billion to invest in transit systems and expand transportation options. The proposal increases average transit spending by nearly 70 percent annually, for a total program of $72 billion over four years, which will enable the expansion of new projects (e.g., light rail, street cars, bus rapid transit, etc.) in suburbs, fast-growing cities, small towns, and aging rural communities, while still maintaining existing transit systems.

 

+ $19 billion in dedicated funding for rail programs. The proposal also includes nearly $5 of billion annually for high performance and passenger rail programs with a focus on improving the connections between key regional city pairs and high traffic corridors throughout the country.

 

+ $9 billion in competitive funding to spur innovation. The proposal will make permanent and provide $5 billion over four years, an increase of more than 100 percent, for the highly successfully TIGER competitive grant program and propose $4 billion of competitively awarded funding over four years to incentivize innovation and local policy reforms to encourage better performance, productivity, and cost-effectiveness in our transportation systems.

 

+ Encouraging coordination and local decision making. The proposal includes policy reforms to incentivize improved regional coordination and strengthen local decision making in allocating Federal funding so that local communities can better realize their vision for improved mobility.

 

+ $10 billion for a new freight program to strengthening America’s exports and trade. Recognizing the importance of efficient and reliable freight networks to support trade and economic growth, the President’s proposal will also create a new $10 billion multimodal freight grant program – in partnership with State and local officials and private sector and labor representatives – for rail, highway, and port projects that address the greatest needs for the efficient movement of goods across the country and abroad. 

 

Again, please write to your Senators and Congressperson, especially to Rep. Bob Gibbs, the only Ohioan serving on the House Transportation & Infrastructure committee:

CONTACT: http://gibbs.house.gov/#

 

More detail will be provided next Tuesday on the rail elements of this president's vision. Stay tuned. But don't let that keep you from writing, calling or faxing today. Thank you!

 

KJP

 

--

Ken Prendergast

Executive Director

All Aboard Ohio-RESTORE

850 Euclid Ave., Suite 1026

Cleveland, OH 44114-3357

(216) 394-0012 office

(216) 288-4883 cell

[email protected]

www.allaboardohio.org

Thursday, March 13, 2014   

 

Fitch: U.S. transportation trends call for new funding solutionsThursday, March 13, 2014   

 

 

Public transportation investment strategies will need to transform if trends toward increased multifamily housing, declines in driving and increasing public transportation usage continue over the long run, Fitch Ratings Inc. says.

 

Citing U.S. Census Bureau data issued this week that showed a shift to more multifamily development in cities and public transportation usage at an all-time high, the global financial rating agency said that U.S. policymakers "must begin adapting their current decisions to meet these future needs," according to a press release.

 

"In our view, the transportation needs of the next 50 years will be markedly different from those of the past 50 years," Fitch officials said. "If these trends persist and meaningful policy changes are not made, the risk to the public transportation system would have negative implications for the entire economy."

 

READ MORE AT:  http://www.progressiverailroading.com/prdailynews/news.asp?id=39760&[email protected]

^Another reminder of how absolutely useless our legislature and governor are on transportation issues.

 

Tennessee appears to be turning its thinking backwards:

 

Koch brothers behind bill to kill BRT project in Nashville:

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/why_are_the_kochs_trying_to_stop_a_transit_project_in_nashville/

 

Read more: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,22318.70.html#ixzz2xmPiPUIU

 

^ From the article:

 

The Tennessean reports that the Tennessee office of Americans for Prosperity was involved in the drafting of a state Senate bill that would “make it illegal for buses to pick up or drop off passengers in the center lane of a state road,” effectively banning Nashville from creating Amp along the route that it has been planned to operate on since it was first proposed years ago.

 

:-o

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-01/american-cities-waste-space-and-money-on-car-parking-say-studies

 

American Cities Are Haunted by Too Many Parking Spaces

 

American car culture may be declining, but much of our urban infrastructure remains steadfastly centered around the automobile. Planning choices made in the heyday of car ownership may prove incompatible with a rising generation of consumers who seem remarkably disinterested in driving.

 

“In the ’50s and ’60s, cities did things like subsidize garage parking, and they condemned buildings so the lots could be used for parking,” says Norman Garrick, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Connecticut. Many, he adds, still require a minimal number of parking spots to be added for each new development. But it turns out that all the parking doesn’t pay off.

 

The next round of TIGER grant applications are due on Friday...anyone know who's applying? I know NOACA, cleveland, the port, cuyahoga county and strongsville are all applying for planning or infrastructure grants.

The next round of TIGER grant applications are due on Friday...anyone know who's applying? I know NOACA, cleveland, the port, cuyahoga county and strongsville are all applying for planning or infrastructure grants.

 

Everyone is applying for planning or construction money. The fact that the highway trust fund is about to go bankrupt has only accelerated the amount of TIGER applications. Fewer than 10 percent of applications will see any funding.

Congressional Republicans apparently have not heard that driving is on the wane, aviation has flatlined, Amtrak is enjoying record ridership, transit is at the highest ridership since the federal Interstate bill was passed in 1956, and so biking is growing by leaps and bounds. But it's pretty difficult to notice any of this when you're still watching Ozzie & Harriet on the black-n-white....

 

This morning Latham’s Approps subcommittee released their draft bill to fund US transportation and HUD priorities for FY 2015.

 

Broadly speaking the House looks like it is only interested in funding highways, freight rail and ports.  These are the only projects that will be considered for TIGER funding in 2015 under House bill and got sustained funding of 2014 levels. To be fair Air got an increase.

 

Passenger rail takes a hit, again, decreased funding for Amtrak, no funding for high speed or high performance intercity passenger rail, no eligibility for TIGER money.  Conditions have been also been included for funding of the Texas and CA passenger rail projects respectively.  See bullets below.

 

Highway:              Funding in flat lined at 2014 levels to preserve votes.

+ New exemptions for truck size and weight limits for Wisconsin, Idaho and Mississippi.

 

Air:                                    FAA gets increase of $99 million to $9.75 billion.

 

Passenger Rail:          Cuts Amtrak capital grants by $200 million (from$1.05 billion in 2014to $850 million)

 

+ Amtrak operating subsidy grants at the 2014 appropriated level of $340 million and cuts $200 million from last year’s levels of Amtrak subsidies for capital and debt service (from $1.05 billion to $850 million).

 

+ Ignores Administration’s call for restructuring the passenger rail accounts.

 

+ Zero for high speed rail.

 

+ California High Speed Rail Limitation:

SEC. 192. None of the funds made available by this Act shall be used by the Surface Transportation Board to take any actions with respect to the construction of a high speed rail project in California unless the Board has jurisdiction over the entire project and the permit is or was issued by the Board with respect to the project in its entirety.

 

+ Texas Passenger Rail Project Limitation:

SEC. 165. None of the funds in this or any other Act may be available to advance in any way a new light or heavy rail project towards a full funding grant agreement as defined by 49 U.S.C. 5309 for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas if the proposed capital project is constructed on or planned to be constructed on Richmond Avenue west of South Shepherd Drive or on Post Oak Boulevard north of Richmond Avenue in Houston, Texas.

 

Mass Transit:              Freezes FTA formula grants at $8.595 billion.

 

+ FTA new starts cut from $1.943 to $1.691 billion.

 

+ FTA administrative expense cut to $103 from $106 million.

 

+ BRT and incentive grants are not included.

 

 

TIGER grants :      $100 million down from $600 million for 2014 and limited to funding only highway, freight and port projects.

 

###

Quick Take: Transportation, Equality, and Freedom

 

By Jason Segedy

 

June 20, 2014

 

Follow me on Twitter @thestile1972

 

Something’s going on, a change is taking place

Children smiling in the street have gone without a trace

This street used to be full, it used to make me smile

 

And nothing I could say

Could ever make them see the light

Now apathy is happy that

It won without a fight

 

Think for a minute, stop for a minute

 

The Housemartins, Think for a Minute

 

I just returned from the 8-80: The Doable Cities Forum in Chicago, hosted by the Knight Foundation, which focused on the need to go back to creating traditional, human-scaled places in our cities that can be navigated easily on foot and by bicycle.

 

It was a great event, and it was encouraging to see people from all across the country talking about (and more importantly - doing something about) this issue.

 

It got me thinking about transportation; specifically the automobile, and its relationship to equality and freedom.  What do those terms really mean in a transportation context?

 

Our transportation system today is so dominated by the automobile, that we have largely lost the ability to have a detached perspective on the ways in which it has shaped our society. 

 

Cars are a wonderful convenience for many of us, but they are primarily considered such a great convenience, because we have collectively built a society where we have to travel long distances, and therefore need cars.

 

The very rationale for their convenience is a bit of a circular argument, and it’s worth considering that it hasn’t always been that way.

 

The prevalence of the automobile has blinded most of us to the profound inconvenience that an auto-dominated society has created for those that cannot drive. Our over-reliance upon cars is both a cause and an effect of systemic inequality in our transportation system. 

 

When automobile usage became widespread, one of the biggest selling points was that cars allowed each individual to have more freedom (at least those that could afford to own one). 

 

But have cars really delivered on that promise?  Yes, they still provide many of us with a fairly quick and convenient way to get to where we need to go.  But again, they are convenient primarily because we have spread our homes, jobs, and other activities out all over the landscape (because we had cars, and cheap gasoline, and therefore we could) and now most of us are in a position where we have to drive to virtually everything whether we want to or not.

 

Before the automobile was invented, most people had a fairly convenient and quick way to get where they needed to go - it was called walking. Cities and towns were built to be navigated easily on foot, and barring long trips to distant locales, most people could get to almost everywhere they needed to go in 20 minutes, just like most of us can today - but without having to own or operate a car. 

 

In the early 20th century, for example, cities and towns were built in a manner which gave most people the freedom to get virtually wherever they needed to go by using their own two feet.  Bicycles, streetcars, and trains were available for longer trips, where walking was not practical.  The amount of money spent (by the individual and by society) on transportation was a fraction of what it is today.

 

So, how much freedom do cars really provide us with?  And at what cost?

 

There is an old cliche that says “freedom isn’t free”.  The same logic can be applied to much of the freedom that cars provide.  Yes, cars provide real, tangible benefits to those of us (myself included) that use them, but these benefits also come with real, tangible (and intangible) costs to individuals and to society as a whole.

 

As a culture, we have greatly overemphasized the benefits and drastically downplayed the costs. 

 

So, what are the costs? 

 

Well, to begin in strictly monetary terms, there is the privately incurred average annual cost of owning and operating a car, which now stands at nearly $10,000 per year, per vehicle.

 

Then there is the publicly incurred cost of transportation.  Federal, state, and local governments spend an estimated $310 billion on transportation each year; the vast majority of which goes to build and maintain the roads and bridges which make our auto-dominated transportation system possible.

 

And these are just the quantifiable and explicit monetary costs that we incur to support this social arrangement. 

 

The implicit social and environmental costs are less easy to quantify, but are perhaps even more significant: the weakening of our sense-of-place, the loss of community, the lack of social cohesion; inequality and lost economic opportunity for those that don’t drive; the 34,000 Americans that are killed each year in motor vehicle crashes, the additional 2.2 million Americans that are injured; the damage to our air quality, our water quality, and our ecology - to name just a few.

 

Yes, cars give us freedom, but we end up paying a high price for it.  It is a price that we should question more often - especially those of us that are responsible for planning, financing, and building our transportation system.

 

A technological advance that appears not to threaten freedom often turns out to threaten it very seriously later on.

 

For example, consider motorized transport. A walking man formerly could go where he pleased, go at his own pace without observing any traffic regulations, and was independent of technological support-systems.

 

When motor vehicles were introduced they appeared to increase man’s freedom. They took no freedom away from the walking man, no one had to have an automobile if he didn’t want one, and anyone who did choose to buy an automobile could travel much faster and farther than a walking man.

 

But the introduction of motorized transport soon changed society in such a way as to restrict greatly man’s freedom of locomotion. When automobiles became numerous, it became necessary to regulate their use extensively. In a car, especially in densely populated areas, one cannot just go where one likes at one’s own pace one’s movement is governed by the flow of traffic and by various traffic laws. One is tied down by various obligations: license requirements, driver test, renewing registration, insurance, maintenance required for safety, monthly payments on purchase price.

 

Moreover, the use of motorized transport is no longer optional. Since the introduction of motorized transport the arrangement of our cities has changed in such a way that the majority of people no longer live within walking distance of their place of employment, shopping areas and recreational opportunities, so that they HAVE TO depend on the automobile for transportation. Or else they must use public transportation, in which case they have even less control over their own movement than when driving a car.

 

Even the walker’s freedom is now greatly restricted. In the city he continually has to stop to wait for traffic lights that are designed mainly to serve auto traffic. In the country, motor traffic makes it dangerous and unpleasant to walk along the highway.

 

(Note this important point that we have just illustrated with the case of motorized transport: When a new item of technology is introduced as an option that an individual can accept or not as he chooses, it does not necessarily REMAIN optional. In many cases the new technology changes society in such a way that people eventually find themselves FORCED to use it.)

 

-Industrial Society and Its Future

 

It is difficult to argue with the logic that technology (in this case, the automobile) has had many unintended consequences, and that a machine that promised us freedom, has simultaneously limited the freedom of both those who use it, and those who do not.

 

Yes, the car has helped us cover long distances more effectively.  But it has also made us travel long distances for things that we didn’t always have to - a loaf of bread, a haircut, a postage stamp, or a box of nails. 

 

The point of this post is not to demonize people that drive. It is to challenge each one of us to think about our federal, state, and local transportation policy framework; our default cultural orientation; and the law of unintended consequences.

 

Cars are important, and they will remain a vital mode of transportation for the foreseeable future.  But we would do well to question our over-dependence on them, especially at a time when driverless cars are getting far more media attention than the more sensible idea of a return to human-scaled urban design that will help us relate more harmoniously with our built and natural environments, with one another, and that would give us more transportation choices. 

 

It’s all about balance.  I drove to work today, but I walked to lunch, and I am going to ride my bike to an event tonight.  We should resist the false choices offered to us by the ideologues who tell us that our only two options are either abolishing cars altogether, or a continued spending spree on highway construction and urban sprawl.   

 

We should think long and hard about the reality of the fact that we’ve reordered our entire society; our built environment; even our very way of life, to serve this machine that we were told would serve us. 

 

Our generation’s challenge is to create a balanced transportation system that works for all of our citizens - rich and poor; young and old; urban, suburban, and rural.  It is not about getting rid of the automobile, it is about returning to a situation in which it is our servant, and not our master.

 

 

 

Read more at  http://thestile1972.tumblr.com/

A conservative voice steps up in support of public transportation and takes some well-aimed jabs at those who would maintain the highway-dominated status quo.....including a certain Ohio Governor.  :wink:

 

What do we make of APTA’s Ridership Numbers: Fundamental Shift or Much Ado about Nothing?

June 11, 2014 by Glen Bottoms

The Right Answer

 

“It’s funny how day by day, nothing changes. But when you look back everything is different.” –Calvin & Hobbes

 

With great fanfare, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced on March 10, 2014 that overall transit ridership in 2013 was the highest since 1956. Naturally, the anti-transit crowd (plus a few neutral observers) threw torrents of cold water on this statistic, finding fault with APTA President Michael Melaniphy’s statement that “there is a fundamental shift going on in the way we move about our communities.” In Newgeography.com, Wendell Cox opined that not only was there “no fundamental shift to transit: [but] not even a shift.” Three professors from Columbia University, Cornell University and Rutgers University respectively stated in a Washington Post op ed that “the association’s numbers are deceptive, and this [APTA’s] interpretation…wrong.” Strong words, to be sure.

 

Read more at: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/cpt/2014/06/11/what-do-we-make-of-aptas-ridership-numbers-fundamental-shift-or-much-ado-about-nothing/

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jul/07/in-a-successful-modern-city-the-car-must-no-longer-be-king?CMP=twt_gu

 

London’s Oxford Circus Diagonal helped stimulate a 25% increase in the turnover of its adjacent stores.

Helsinki's ambitious plan to make car ownership pointless in 10 years 10 Jul 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jul/10/helsinki-shared-public-transport-plan-car-ownership-pointless

A conservative voice steps up in support of public transportation and takes some well-aimed jabs at those who would maintain the highway-dominated status quo.....including a certain Ohio Governor.  :wink:

 

What do we make of APTA’s Ridership Numbers: Fundamental Shift or Much Ado about Nothing?

June 11, 2014 by Glen Bottoms

The Right Answer

 

“It’s funny how day by day, nothing changes. But when you look back everything is different.” –Calvin & Hobbes

 

With great fanfare, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced on March 10, 2014 that overall transit ridership in 2013 was the highest since 1956. Naturally, the anti-transit crowd (plus a few neutral observers) threw torrents of cold water on this statistic, finding fault with APTA President Michael Melaniphy’s statement that “there is a fundamental shift going on in the way we move about our communities.” In Newgeography.com, Wendell Cox opined that not only was there “no fundamental shift to transit: [but] not even a shift.” Three professors from Columbia University, Cornell University and Rutgers University respectively stated in a Washington Post op ed that “the association’s numbers are deceptive, and this [APTA’s] interpretation…wrong.” Strong words, to be sure.

 

Read more at: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/cpt/2014/06/11/what-do-we-make-of-aptas-ridership-numbers-fundamental-shift-or-much-ado-about-nothing/

 

He speaks of the UMT Act of 1964 being used to acquire private transit systems.

 

Was it also what was used for RTA's absorbtion of the suburban transit systems?

 

That right there did more to reduce the impact and importance of mass transit in this area than anything else.

This video is largely about computers/robots replacing jobs. Around the 3:30 mark it talks about transportation. The 5:00 mark is the start of driverless cars and the jobs that would be replaced. The whole video is interesting.

 

Ohio was left out of this round of TIGER grant awards. Out of $600 million, Ohio got $400,000.

 

All Aboard Ohio @AllAboardOhio  ·  28m

U.S. Transportation Secretary Announces 72 TIGER Grant recipients. http://bit.ly/YDuFXO

 

All Aboard Ohio @AllAboardOhio  ·  15m

Of $600M available for USA & multiple applications in Ohio, Ohio gets 1 TIGER grant: $400K for Cleveland street plan http://www.dot.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/TIGER14_Project_FactSheets.pdf …

 

All Aboard Ohio @AllAboardOhio  ·  3m

Ohio TIGER grant apps nixed: Toledo-Cleveland rail plan @NOACA_MPO; Brookpark @GCRTA station; Elyria @Amtrak depot; @portofcleveland access.

 

Are Governments Neglecting Planes and Trains?

Even though airports and public transportation systems are in need of upgrades, all anyone ever talks about is roads and bridges.

BY PETER HARKNESS | SEPTEMBER 2014

 

I recently completed a one-week white water rafting trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, an experience that was both exhilarating and terrifying. It wasn’t just the Class IV rapids that held my intense interest, though. It also was my fellow rafters -- 16 of them, almost all of whom knew one another. Unlike most of these expeditions, this one was all amateur, meaning there were no professional guides from some outfitter, just rented rafts, huge coolers, a camp stove and, yes, a port-a-potty. You brought your own tent and sleeping bag.

 

I was especially impressed by three fellows -- a lawyer, an astrophysicist (or “chaos scientist,” as he called himself) and a senior pilot with United Airlines. The three were very capable river guides who could maneuver the 16-foot rafts down roaring rapids with great skill; all three were also associated with a consulting firm that contracts with NASA to help develop something I only vaguely knew of called NextGen, a joint multiagency and industry initiative to overhaul the nation’s air traffic control system.

 

Launched more than a decade ago, the initiative is ambitious, complicated and clearly not progressing as planned, in part because of underfunding and some foot-dragging within the bureaucracy of the Federal Aviation Administration. But when it is finally implemented, we’ll be able to fly more aircraft in congested areas without endless holding patterns. These “smart” aircraft will know where they are in relation to every other plane nearby, relying on sophisticated satellite technology rather than ground-based radar. The new system should also yield significant fuel savings and emissions reductions.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.governing.com/columns/potomac-chronicle/gov-planes-trains-transportation.html

Hooray for Pittsburgh – Mayor advances cycling network, considers transportation needs of pedestrians and disabled, too.  (Without diminishing the automobile as an alternative.)

 

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/pittsburghs-mayor-wants-copenhagenize-his-city-video.html

 

"@EnoTrans: Voltmann: $100 Billion a Year Needed for #Infrastructure. http://t.co/shozAPOtz0"

Congress to Reassess P3 Deals, CRS Says

October 2, 2014

 

A growing list of bankrupt public-private partnerships, including the failed Indiana Toll Road, has Congress reassessing the role of private investment in transportation infrastructure, Bloomberg BNA reported.

 

Citing a recent analysis by the Congressional Research Service, BNA said the spate of public-private partnership (P3) failures is raising questions about how large a role P3s can play in addressing the nation’s infrastructure needs. The CRS, which provides policy and legal analysis to Congress, reportedly shared its assessment with Congressional offices Sept. 29.

 

“The financial problems of the Indiana Toll Road concessionaire provide more evidence that P3s could be of only limited help in solving the transportation funding problems facing federal, state, and local governments,” CRS reportedly said in an “Insights” analysis.

 

- See more at: http://www.natso.com/articles/articles/view/congress-to-reassess-p3-deals-crs-says#sthash.2HDCbaiY.dpuf

Two important articles on federal transportation matters:

 

Following elections, what's next for transportation?

http://www.metro-magazine.com/news/story/2014/11/following-elections-what-s-next-for-transportation-.aspx

 

FRA's Szabo announces resignation

http://www.metro-magazine.com/news/story/2014/11/fra-s-szabo-announces-resignation.aspx

 

One has to wonder if the latter is related to the former? We are entering a new era which may be very difficult for all transportation, not just rail. Federal funding of transportation may be much less available with transportation spending pushed to the states and local governments which lack the funding or desire to accept these huge multi-modal responsibilities. If your city's or region's big transportation projects aren't yet funded, they may not be for a very long time.

 

As funding battles loom in legislatures, Transportation for America launches network to support state efforts to fulfill visions for economic success

14 Nov 2014

For immediate release

 

DENVER, CO — With representatives from 30 states convening in Denver for a strategy conference, Transportation for America today announced the launch of a new network to support state efforts to pass legislation to raise transportation funding while improving accountability for spending it.

 

As Congress continues to postpone tough decisions on federal transportation funding, several states have responded by raising new revenues of their own for transportation. Other states are hoping to do the same in 2015. That is why T4America brought together more than 100 experts and participants for the Denver Capital Ideas conference, where they are sharing experiences and insights that can help other states take on the thorny issue of transportation funding in their state legislatures.

 

“Federal gas tax revenues are dropping and prospects of returning to robust national investment are uncertain, at best,” said T4America director, James Corless. “States that want to continue investing will have to explore new ways to raise funding for transportation on their own.”

 

MORE:

http://t4america.org/2014/11/14/as-funding-battles-loom-in-legislatures-transportation-for-america-launches-network-to-support-state-efforts-to-fulfill-visions-for-economic-success/

 

 

Kentucky says "We're trying to support the dirt-road and river-ferry lobbies!"

 

Kentucky fuel tax decrease to cost state $129 million

Tax drops 4.3 cents on Jan. 1

Published  11:49 AM EST Nov 19, 2014

 

State Transportation Secretary Mike Hancock says a revenue loss of that magnitude is "crippling," meaning less money for road and bridge projects.

 

MORE:

http://www.wlwt.com/news/kentucky-fuel-tax-decrease-to-cost-state-129-million/29819122