Insert Highway Wreckage Metaphor Here

The Senate passed the bailout bill and the Daily Show covered it. Now this has only a slight a transportation bend to it, but its totally worth it. Fast forward to 5 minutes in on the Comedy Central clip.





Ah Tommy Boy.

Street Railway Resurrection

Michigan lawmakers are looking at a bill that would allow street railway companies to form in the state and use recently passed tax increment financing laws and other mechanisms to fund new lines. I don't imagine the line is completely private, but its an interesting step away from the public transit agency model. It seems similar to Portland Streetcar Inc, but I haven't looked deep enough yet to see the similarities. There are some interesting provisions though:

As envisioned in one set of bill drafts, for which state Rep. Bert Johnson, D-Detroit, is the lead sponsor, the street railway company could build, own and operate the system. The company could acquire property, including through gift, purchase or condemnation, and could borrow money and issue bonds.

It's a fascinating idea and the point is to have it replicated all over the state, from Grand Rapids, to Ann Arbor, to Detroit.

Allen also said a goal is “to come up with a replicable plan, which means that we can work it in Detroit, or Grand Rapids. We’re open to input from anyone. If this tool can work in a variety of communities in the state, that is one of our objectives.”

The Double Standard

Ryan makes a good point about the double standard that exists for freeways and transit. When you build freeways with excess capacity, it's generally called an investment. When we build transit with excess capacity for the future its deemed a waste and not worth the cost. In this respect, sometimes I feel as if the cost effectiveness index is like a handicap. Its supposed to make sure we're spending money wisely, but sometimes it's just holding back investment that would make real change.

The point that highways are built speculatively all the time while transit is not is a very good one, and one which never fails to get my goat. But I think it’s worth emphasizing that speculative transit isn’t really about building lines into the wilderness. It’s about building lines into places people already live in order to take better advantage of valuable land there.

Walking and Biking is Wacky

h/t Treehugger

Ryan Dempster Walks to Work at Wrigley

This is cool. I like how they call the life he lives the American Dream as well.

Dempster, 31, is nearly halfway through the four-block walk from his office to his home, and there is no getting around the notion that, at this very moment, it is quite possible no one in the entire universe has it better than he. "My office is Wrigley Field," he says, as if in disbelief. "I walk to work. I pitch for the Cubs. We're going to the playoffs."

Bike Tax Credit in Bailout Bill

It seems as if you can get credit for up to $240 for expenses occurred while commuting on your bicycle. This is a portion of the bailout plan that the Senate passed so its still up in the air, but its interesting.

(i) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT- The term `qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement’ means, with respect to any calendar year, any employer reimbursement during the 15-month period beginning with the first day of such calendar year for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee during such calendar year for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.

`(ii) APPLICABLE ANNUAL LIMITATION- The term `applicable annual limitation’ means, with respect to any employee for any calendar year, the product of $20 multiplied by the number of qualified bicycle commuting months during such year.

Thinking Transit by the Brickyard

I guess gas prices really do have an impact, especially when they get cities like Indy talking about transit. I must say though that its a little misleading to talk about a system when you really just mean one line. I'm sure I'm guilty of saying it too, but when I think system, I think multi-line blowout. Perhaps they'll get there.

The Queen Turned King

Between all of this mortgage meltdown/bank failure discussions is a discussion of city competitiveness. Recent blog posts have focused on Charlotte especially this one from the Urbanophile comparing Charlotte to cities in the rust belt. He comments that Charlotte is leading because of its attitude and that cities in the Midwest outside of Minneapolis and Chicago have just tossed in the towels.

As Ryan has said, Charlotte looks like it won't get hit too hard by sudden bank death syndrome but the Urbanophile's comments got me to thinking. While Charlotte is out there scaring the pants off of not only the Rust Belt, but titans of the South like Tampa and Atlanta, is it really because they "want it more"? When I ran back in college, I would like to say that if I ran against Haile Gebresellasie in the Marathon (He broke the world record this weekend) I could win if I wanted it more, but we know that's not even close to being true.

But what are Charlotte's advantages? I thought really hard and tried to think about it in terms outside of the creative class argument that people always try to make about cool places. I kept thinking about things like new beginnings and not really having glory days to look back on but when it got down to it the thing that stuck out to me was age group. Why are cities like Charlotte places where younger folks want to locate. I'll admit when I got out of grad school it was Denver, San Francisco, or Austin. But there has to be more than that right? I must not be thinking hard enough.

Everything I seem to come up with is without a backup in data, such as its a younger city in terms of infrastructure. But that doesn't explain cities like San Francisco or Chicago. Is it because banking was thriving and growing and folks moving down from the Northeast wanted to make it more familiar? Maybe that is it. All of these new exciting cities seem to have an influx of people from either California or the Northeast. It's certainly not Nascar thats pulling them towards Charlotte. I still can't bring myself to think that it's because cities don't want it bad enough. Thoughts?

Commuter Rail Delays

Lines opening up in Portland and Austin are being delayed. Both lines have been dogged by vehicle issues with Capital Metro having to secure the fuel tanks to get an FRA waiver while Portland has seen manufacturing issues with its supplier Colorado Railcar. Capital Metro has been approved for FRA waivers that were given to similar lines in New Jersey and Oceanside California but will open later than scheduled in March while the WES line in Portland will open in February. I'm intersted in seeing the results.

Governator Signs Sprawl Bill 375

Curbed LA has coverage of what other people are saying. I hope to read up on it some more and give my own views soon.