Why Not the Gas Tax?

Why isn't raising the gas tax the answer? It's not like gas prices aren't going to go up $2 at some point. It's silly to say we're not going to raise gas taxes 10 cents when two dollars will happen in a summer. If there is such a pressing need for transportation money, this should be a viable alternative. The money is going to leave your pocket in either tolls or gas tax money or mileage tax money. Why not leave all options on the table?

Cost Crash?

I wonder how many costs such as Fastracks in Denver are wildly overestimated in this current fiscal environment. The estimates of late from BART are encouraging even if their line is a skeptical investment.

...here's the latest. BART estimated it would cost nearly $250 million to begin construction this summer on the Fremont-to-Warm Springs extension. The low bid came in at $137 million, or 45 percent below the projected cost. The Bay Area Rapid Transit District still has to evaluate this bid before awarding a contract, so it's not a done deal. But the five next lowest bids are within $7 million of the low offer.

For more commentary on cost overruns, check out Orphan Road.

Mid Week Linkfest

This sure would have been a lot easier if we had some money for a Dunbarton rail bridge no?
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Growing up instead of sprawling out in Melbourne.

The report says just 10 per cent of the existing urban area could be used to accommodate projected growth in Melbourne's population from about 4 million to 5 million by 2030. About 34,000 sites on major corridors could be suitable for multi-level development, it says. These include more than 12,400 sites along tram lines and 22,000 along priority bus routes such as Johnston Street. The sites could accommodate about 500,000 new dwellings in total.

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There's also two big elevated freeways on that side of town.

If you had doubts that air pollution from nearby industries exacerbated asthma in children, this map may quell them.

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I've been harsh on LaHood. Maybe I should give him some slack since he's a runner! Just like me a long time ago.
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I think they need both Smart and Streetcars. Though I still think that ignoring downtown Novato is a dumb move.
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I guess Blago wasn't the only one who likes to block transit in Chicago.

Not Just the Work Trip

Ben Ross of the Action Committee for Transit testified before a House panel to discuss cuts to the Metro system. His testimony was good, but what most interested me was the move towards non-work trips in the ridership department.

In Washington, the trend toward transit goes back ten years. Metrorail ridership started to go up in 1998 after a decade of little change. Since then it has grown at breakneck speed. Average weekday ridership rose from 528,000 in May 1998 to 752,000 in May 2008 – an increase of 42% in just 10 years. That far exceeds population growth. Despite the worsening economy and falling gas prices, ridership in recent months has continued to be significantly higher than a year earlier.

We can better understand what is happening by looking at these data in more detail. The biggest growth in transit use is not for traditional commuting trips, but for non-work travel. A fundamental shift in lifestyle is occurring as people no longer organize their lives around the automobile. Between 1999 and 2007, Metrorail boardings during the morning rush hour – a good measure of commuting travel – increased 33.5%. But ridership increased 47% on Saturdays and 57% on Sundays.

It's become cooler to save money, walk more to your destinations and take transit. But this was also because Washington gave the option. You see, it isn't so cut and dry as the sprawlagists would like you to believe. Give people the choice to drive or take transit, some will choose transit and some will choose to drive. Give them one choice and well they will drive. It's pretty simple actually. Invest in transit service and it will give people a reason to use it. Especially if you have a good subway system like Metro tied to frequent buses, commuter rail, and Amtrak.

Imagine KC

A very cool video from Kansas City. Explains it all well.


Imagine KC from Jonathan Arnold on Vimeo.

Amercan Dream

Says Case of the infamous Case-Shilller home price index:

Case response when asked about the so-called "American Dream of Homeownership"?
"It's largely bulls---." He went on to say, "Rental is better for a lot of people (unless they bought during a boom)."

John King, urban design writer for the San Francisco Chronicle: What about all the starter-home suburbs? Case: I don't know. They're going to stagnate.

Texas Senator Wants to Secede from DOT

Imagine if all the money for transit that is provided by the federal government was gone and states had control. That's something that Kay Bailey Hutchinson thinks is a great idea. While in theory it would keep money from places like Alaska, in practice the State DOT (read road building) would likely keep it all for itself. Personally, this smells of the same secession talk that Gov Hair discussed only a week ago.

Charlotte Leaders Want Money for More Roads

Ughh. Don't they have enough roads already? It's really upsetting to see that knowing what they saw happen along the south corridor, they are still looking to build more roads. What about sidewalks? What about bike lanes? What about real expanded transit. Charlotte itself knows what happens when you invest more in service. You get more riders! But never give a single family developer (who is the chair of this group) an inch, or a few miles of highway, cause they'll take it. From the Transport Politic:

The argument goes something like this: Charlotte approved a 1/2¢ sales tax for transit back in 1998, and the business community helped work successfully against a repeal vote in 2007. Now, though, whatever the needs of the transit system, roads need to be better funded, because the region’s highways are not keeping up with demand. The development community - focused mostly on building single-family houses and office parks entirely designed for the auto-dependent - is adamant in its push for more roads.

A Hearty Congratulations

Congratulations to my colleagues and friends at the Center for Neighborhood Technology. They have won the prestigious MacArthur award for Creative and Effective Institutions. They deserve it and if you're not familiar with their work, you might want to check them out. They are the ones who brought you the affordability index, car sharing before it was cool, and some nifty energy initiatives.

Train Operators Have Mental Boundaries Too

The people commit suicide via train are selfish and a**holes. They do it to Caltrain operators here in the bay area all the time. If you feel your life is so awful that you want to end it, do it on your own and don't get anyone else's mind involved. Really it should never be that bad but that is another topic of discussion. I really feel for the drivers that can do nothing but watch. It's sickening and there should be a campaign against it so that people who do contemplate it might think about the people they are hurting while trying to end thier own pain.

Austin's Transportation Race

Apparently people want more commuter rail. It's really annoying that the poll wasn't more specific asking about more urban rail types proving that the conversation in Austin is far behind what it could and should be. What is interesting though is the crosstabs of the mayors race with questions about issues and specifically commuter rail.

If you look at the gender breakdown in the details, you'll see that the transportation issue is mostly a male one in the mayoral race but more women would vote for more commuter rail. But its also more of an important issue for the youngest age set. The good news it seems is that the two leading candidates have the votes of people who care the more about transportation.

Now here is the kicker I'm sure M1ek and AC will post on. The part of the city that wants commuter rail the most is central. My hunch is that people in central Austin weren't thinking about more commuter rail lines when they said yes to this question which is why the questioning of urban rail or streetcar or light rail would have been much better. Will the candidates get this out of the polling? Probably not. Perhaps they have done thier own polling on the issue but I imagine not. I could be wrong.

One Car, Two Car, Three Car, Blue Car

When you have access to transit, you use it. I'm looking at maps and doing GIS analysis on American Cities for most of my day. So I'm really interested in looking at these types of maps in cities outside of the US. In this instance, this is a map of car ownership and transit ridership in Melbourne, one of the cities that kept its streetcars. What is fascinating is the amount of single car ownership along the transit lines. Now it isn't controlled for income levels, self selection or the size of the household, but it would be interesting to take a look at the household costs for living near the lines vs. living away from them. Anyways, check it out at Transport Textbook.

Cars, Short Version

San Francisco:

With cars, you can go where you want to go when you want to go. But they also have the most environmental impacts, the most social impacts and the greatest cost to our system - to park it, to enforce it, to run it, to import the oil.

Quote of the Day

Edmonton:

With luck, when Edmontonians look back on April 25, 2009, they will mark it as the day public transit reached a sort-of critical mass, after which further expansion and improvement was driven by growth in ridership and by clamour in unserved communities, rather than by the fond hopes of politicians and advocates of different, denser kinds of cities.

Still Not Getting It

States are still pushing for an 80-20 funding split for highways and transit. If we keep going down this route, nothing will change. LaHood talks a big game, but I'm still waiting to see proof. I think people have been a little too easy on him of late. Yeah he says nice things but what have we seen happen so far? States are still calling for 80-20, which to me is a failure to communicate how important livable communities and alternative transportation really are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that highways do not = livable communities. Look what we got from that over the last 60 years. What does ASHTO think they are going to spend that 80% on? If its all highway money, that is a lot of expansion.

Designing Oakland Streets for Streetcars

They were built for Streetcars, why not bring them back?

Image courtesy of Greg Thompson.

Hiding the Good Stuff

More like you weren't paying attention. Peter King of Sports Illustrated writes about the secret sauce, no not that stuff...

It's the new green me.

It's not like I'm going to be surrendering my car now than I'm a city guy, but being without it is increasingly enjoyable. Check out this 28-hour experience that began Thursday morning:

Walk 10 minutes to the Back Bay train station to catch a train to New York. Take the train to New York. Take a cab to visit buddy Jack Bowers in the hospital after surgery. Take a cab to SI in midtown Manhattan for an afternoon of meetings.

Take the subway to Queens for Mets-Padres. Take the subway to Manhattan after the game. Walk to Penn Station. Take the train back to Boston. Walk the 10 minutes home. Not an unpleasant trip on any of the legs. You people in cities have been hiding how great it is to get along without a car.

H/T Nick C

Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm tweeting small stuff from the apa conference. Www.Twitter.com/theoverheadwire

Thursday Linkfest

H Street Streetcar tracks going in ???
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It looks like some electrification will make the difference between Zurich and Munich. About an hours difference. That's a lot of time.
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Some twists to the NAACP vs the Streetcar story in Cincinnati.
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Certainly the repeal folks in Charlotte would have given up by now. They got shellacked 70% to 30% in the last repeal try but gosh why not come back for more pain. Anyone want to explain why these folks get a voice at all after such a drubbing? Especially when the highway overruns were far worse than the LRT line that is performing beyond expectations.

But I did find out why it will cost so much:

The Lynx extension's 50 percent cost escalation from the 2006 estimate is largely because it's become more complicated. The original plan called for 10 bridges to separate the train line from roads. The plan now calls for 16 grade separations, including burying 36th Street under rail lines in NoDa. Despite the higher costs, the success of the Lynx Blue Line (between uptown and south Charlotte, along South Boulevard) still makes the project viable, CATS said.

In other words, the improved ridership from the South Corridor allowed the line to enjoy a "rail bias" in the ridership model that was demonstrated by the first line. Also, 16 grade separations is really going to bust any budget, though I still don't think $100 million per mile is low enough.
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Sign of the times: Edinburgh won't move forward with a tram spur due to the economy.

How About Something Besides Cars?

Quotes like these kill me.

"If you're late for work, and you might get fired if you're late one more time, it might be worth the (toll)," said Scott Haggerty, an Alameda County supervisor and commission chairman.

How about creating a transportation system that can get everyone to work at the same time every day?? I bet that would help more than paying a single toll because you're perpetually late.