The Real Reason You're Broke....

Bus Chick has found an article that talks about what American's seem to do best...spend money and burn oil. None of my friends seem to be complaining about the cost of a car, probably because like me they drive it once a week. Although my roommate thinks that BART is way too expensive if you're going with two other people to the east bay. But it seems that the problem is not with carpooling but rather single occupancy vehicles, more specifically their costs. Why are we trying to subsidize housing so much when people are just gonna blow that extra money on their auto...

Americans are spending more on their vehicles than ever before -- more than $8,000 a year on average -- and it's driving some to the breaking point. Credit counselor Bill Thompson of Jacksonville, Fla., estimates that one out of every four clients his agency sees has overspent -- sometimes dramatically -- on a car. "They may be spending 15% to 20% of their (take-home) pay on just the car payment," said Thompson, who supervises credit counseling for the nonprofit Family Foundations, "and that doesn't include insurance, gas, maintenance and all the other costs of owning a vehicle."

Quite Amazing, perhaps transit is a part of the affordability solution. To take a look at how to address this issue through transit, check out the Affordability Index.

What If...

Today there was an article in the New York Times discussing what people could do with the $1.2 Trillion dollars that will be spent on the Iraq War. Well what if we spent it on fixed guideway? If spent in Capital projects alone, (there would have to be more funding for service) we could build at $30 million per mile 40,000 miles of Streetcars and Light Rail. Of course this is an oversimplification since some areas would be good with BRT and others streetcars and some would need to be in Subway but that is an awful lot of transit. If limited to the 100 largest cities, that is still 400 miles of rail per city.

Also lets think about return on investment and TOD. Imagine if it were all streetcars and we got 500% of our investment back in development. That would be $6 Trillion dollar economic boost. Of course again its oversimplification but you get the idea. There are other issues to deal with as well including TOD infrastructure, ped improvements, steel costs from such a large infusion in cash but if it were all under the buy America act, we could mass produce streetcars like the PCC streetcar in house and make TOD the standard instead of the rule.

As noted by Ed Tennyson this money that we are spending on the war didn't likely exist anyway but we can always dream…but lets dream of a world where we wouldn't even have to go to coal mines at home instead of oil fields afar to get our energy to move people until of course a better alternative energy source came along.

The Social Capital of Transit

When i was in school i took a class called Public Health and the Built Environment. My professor Dr. McMillan often rode the #3 bus to school had a whole class day devoted to social capital. That day she told us of an encounter she had on the bus one day of a lady who was lacking enough change to get on the bus (In Austin it's still 50 cents). Obviously anyone that was standing there with the woman would give her the extra change she needed to get on the bus and its telling of the generosity of Austinites that her ride was paid for through the kindness of strangers.

But when does this type of kind interaction happen in your automobile? Sure you let people cut in front of you in a traffic jam, or you might let a pedestrian go in front of you but as a personal observation it seems like one never gets to truly interact with people like on transit. Some folks don't want to be bothered by people of different social status' whether higher, lower or even student but i think it allows people to be more able to empathize with life situations and stages. Younger folks learn how to give seats to their elders and older folks might find from looking at the kids that its a great idea to bring an ipod when in transit. Taking transit might be good for the environment and good for your pocketbook but it seems like it also might be good for your conscience.

Ostrava Streetcars Delivered to Portland

The New Portland Streetcars have arrived. Check them out over at Portland Transport. A little more about Ostrava from Commissioner Sam Adams' blog. Part 2 of this blog discusses the issues of the Buy America act and why if streetcars are to make a major comeback with federal aid, there needs to be an American made streetcar.

The Madison Debates

Lately there has been a fervent debate in Madison Wisconsin over whether streetcars would be good for the urban environment there. In the Capital Times, Op-Eds for each side have been flying back and forth but most of the opposition is using the misinformation of Randal O'Toole and Wendell Cox (What great names for villains). The most recent one written by Ward Lyles of 1000 Friends of Wisconsin rebuffs the arguments made by local folks who don't know all the facts with data from the National Transit Database and professional anti-rail propaganda as stated by Randal O'Toole.

As a circulator system, streetcars are a great idea. They combine the stop spacing of buses with the economic development potential and ridership bump of semi-metro type light rail to which streetcars are related. They are not meant to go fast but rather act as pedestrian accelerators and meld with the urban environment. In Portland, the streetcar carries almost 9,000 folks a day and has helped to spur $2.8 billion in development. This development was not just because of the streetcar but as a part of the total planning package, the Pearl District and South Waterfront areas are becoming the most European like neighborhoods in the West.

In Madison like their sister city Austin, streetcars should only be part of the transportation solution as circulators connecting major destinations in the downtown. Cities such as Denver, Salt Lake City and Seattle are already way ahead of the game in thinking about transportation in bigger terms than just a single mode. All of them are building light rail, thinking about streetcars, and operate many different types of buses.

In some corridors streetcars work, in others light rail is more apt and in freeways with HOV lanes there might be an opportunity for express bus service but all of the modes are needed to beat dependence on the single occupancy automobile. This is something Madison, Austin and other towns need to be talking about if they want to have a transportation sea change like the previously mentioned members of the transit space race.

The Salt Lake City Experience

Today's article in The Arizona Republic lauds Salt Lake City for its rail system and compares differences between the two systems and regions. While SLC is a very conservative place, some of the folks who thought that roads were going to do the trick were converts to rail on the first day. This is telling of what the rail can really do for a cities knowledge base and perception of major investments. As the environmental movement picks up again i have a feeling we will see more investment in alternative transportation. Hopefully, folks in Phoenix will see similar benefits of their system on the first day.

3rd Street Light Rail Open in SF

Now running on the weekends, light rail is rolling on third street. This is the first part of the Central Subway project that will be the future lead to the Geary Subway and potential extensions to the Marina. The Central Subway should be paid for completely by the Feds because Muni is looking to use this initial segment as its match in the New Starts Process. Hopefully this means moving faster to the Geary Subway but until then, I'll be watching third street and the Central Subway with great interest.

Seattle Voters Asked to Cement Frontrunner Status in Transit Space Race

Today articles in all of the Seattle news papers discussed a bond measure that would go on next year's ballot to expand the light rail system that is currently under construction. The 40 more miles of Light Rail and Streetcars are part of a $17 billion dollar transportation ask. It also has money to buy right of way for a light rail extension to Everett.

The Seattle system even though not complete is already having cities beg to ask for extensions. The cities that don't get extensions or aren't guaranteed stations are upset. This system should when it opens set a national example. If you want to get something done, you have to just pay up and do it. It's for the good of the community and more cars and lane miles on already congested freeways is not going to help people get from point a to point b.

This is a really huge step to expand a system that hasn't even finished initial construction. It also shows that Seattle wants to be a world class city. The transit space race has many of these cities looking to build out serious systems to make themselves more livable and while it seems like it might be a little expensive, the benefits will be returned to the communities multi-fold. Imagine if the Washington DC Subway was never built. It would have been a travesty but it would have also influenced how that region grew out instead of up along the corridors. Hopefully when democratic leaders go to pick a presidential candidate they can see how Denver is shaping up in its bid to win the Transit Space Race.

I'm not sure how to rank cities in the TSR...but if i had to pick some that are doing the best, Denver and Seattle are front runners. Portland has a head start so i didn't count it in that initial assessment but soon i'll do a comarison between the frontrunners listed in the sidebar. But the others in the race don't seem that far behind either.

Possible Capital Funding Sources #2

Garage Tax - What if we had a garage Tax? Every garage has to pay an annual fee to operate transit. I got the idea when i heard about a roof tax in England of 10,000 English Pounds per house in a transit oriented neighborhood. Well why can't we have a garage tax that makes people pay to have a garage on their house.

However thinking about it maybe now we should have a parking space tax. For every lane mile of highway that the road warriors propose for moving people by car, they are also promoting sprawl because all of those cars end up somewhere. That somewhere is a space in a parking lot at work. So for every employer who has a parking lot, perhaps they should have to pay some sort of tax for creating the need for more freeways in the form of a transit tax. Just an idea. There has to be some sort of linkage there somewhere, so lets do it.

Streetcars are Back

Today's USA Today ran an article on streetcars and it was good except for one thing. The graphic was a light rail vehicle, not a streetcar. Other than that it was a good article and it had some good quotes including one I've heard Len Brandrup of Kenosha Transit say in person.

"Streetcars have sex appeal, it resonates with folks. Developers don't write checks for buses."

So True. But what does this have to do with the transit revolution? Everything. These streetcars are doing more with land use than light rail ever dreamed while promoting a true urbanism. Not that Light Rail can't do it either, but its kind of like showing the older brother up. The land use changes can happen around light rail, but it seems more linear around the streetcar. Hopefully we can learn how to build light rail for the same cost...the fact that they are different escapes me...but i'll write on it later.

So what is the next generation of this phenomenon? The Beltline in Atlanta is a good place to start. It was a scare earlier this year for BRT but the good folks of ATL realized that they didn't want to be jogging and biking next to hybrid fume puffers. Good for them and hopefully the plans will be accelerated, but all we can do now is wait and see.

Three lines are under construction...hopefully they have the same results as previous streetcar starts.

Anacostia - Washington DC
South Lake Union - Seattle
Clinton Library Extension - Little Rock