Election Night Reminder

We're going to be liveblogging the national election. I encourage folks to come by election night to find out what is going on with transit issues around the country. Here's what we're covering.

St. Louis - An election is being held to give Metro a half cent more in order to keep up with operating expenses and expand Metrolink, the region's light rail system. It's called Proposition M.

Santa Fe - A Sales Tax to extend Rail Runner into the city from Albuquerque.

Oakland/Berkeley - AC Transit is looking to raise the parcel tax $48 annually to pay for operations. This measure is called VV. KK is also on the ballot and would allow AC Transit to build BRT on Berkeley streets.

Los Angeles - This would be a half cent sales tax for capital expansion. It's called Measure R.

Sonoma Marin - SMART will go back to the polls to ask for an 1/4th cent sales tax to build a commuter rail line. It is called Measure Q.

Honolulu - Island residents are being asked whether they approve of a steel on steel transit system.

Kansas City - A half cent sales tax is on the ballot to build a starter light rail line.

Seattle - Prop 1. I'm not going to be covering this as much except for some crucial updates. I'm sure the boys at STB got it covered.

High Speed Rail - $9.9 billion dollar bond for a statewide high speed rail line. This one is Prop 1a.

Falling Off the Edge...

of the ocean isn't fun.

“The opponents of this light rail campaign are like the people of the 15th Century that were arguing that the Earth was still flat when people have already been around the world,” said Kansas City lawyer Pat McLarney.

Libertarian Backlash

Like Adron and others, I sometimes wonder what it would be like if we operated in a true libertarian based market in terms of land use and transportation. Apparently, so do other libertarian commenters who in a recent blog post on the reason foundation blog take Wendell Cox to town. We all know that he and Randal and other sprawl apologists are just vulgar libertarians, using the ideology as a corporate protection racket. In thier case it's the highway and auto industry. Here's a comment that hits the mark for me:

I fully understand the idea that excessive land use regulation can raise the costs of home ownership. Smart Growth or anti-sprawl regulations, however, are just as much an implementation of greater flexibility in urban development, by allowing greater densities of housing, tenure and use, than it is a restriction on building. It is pretty well established that sprawl producing land use regulation is that which creates an artificial scarcity by requiring large lots, minimum square footage, and lower densities - driving up prices.

HT PublicTransit.US

Kansas City Opposition Flow Chart

Wow. This is crazy. In a good way. The anti-light rail flowchart. Perhaps every campaign should have one of these.

HT KCLR

Hawaii Appropriations

Matt has a post up on Committees that could be changing (Nothing is set in stone and I'll believe it when I see it). If as he predicts Inouye goes to appropriations, this means that Honolulu's chances of getting its transit project funded are that much better. Given the fighting that is going on there, and Inouye's pledged support for the rail project, this could possibly be a huge deal for them.

Forshadowing?

I sure hope so. I don't wish anyone any harm and glad the Mayor is ok, but this is something that I hope happens on a metaphorical level in the next transportation bill.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's $50,000, high-tech hybrid Chevrolet Tahoe SUV ... was put out of commission Tuesday when a Muni bus sideswiped it.

What I mean is that I hope that transit takes over priority from the auto centric bill we have today. Especially SUV's. Isn't Hybrid Tahoe an oxymoron?

The Sound of Freedom

The Katy Freeway is complete. This Houston mega freeway is hopefully the last of its kind in the United States. Stretching from Katy to Houston, this 18 lane monstrosity is now officially double the initial project cost stated at $1 to $1.2 Billion dollars. The final cost? $2.8 Billion. Presumably some of that will be made back with tolls on the center Hot Lane. But as Culbertson says, it didn't use a single earmark yet he was key to getting the money. How does that work? Too bad it used billions of dollars of taxpayer money that could have been spent more wisely. But it's the sound of freedom!

Perry noted the roar of traffic below, above and around the crowd, which was gathered on a frontage road overpass. "This is the sound of freedom we hear," he said. "These people need roads to get to work, to church and to school."

If that is the sound of freedom, I have a war in Iraq for you Governor. Sure people need roads, but do they really need the particulate matter and increased sprawl this will cause? This is all the pet project of Rep. John Culbertson, who loves him some roads. He promised that the next mega project would be US 290 but hopefully he doesn't get his way. With the Katy Freeway, Culbertson basically had the railroad right of way that paralleled the road paved over. There is a similar situation on 290 that shouldn't happen again.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which already plans light rail on Westpark, paid to have Katy Freeway overpasses beefed up to carry its trains if space there ever is available for them. But Culberson, whose ability to get federal dollars was crucial to the widening project, pledged not to give up a single freeway lane for Metro rail. Brandt Mannchen, the Sierra Club regional air quality chairman, expressed regret at what he termed a missed opportunity to have rail on the Katy.

The Culbertson who wanted to kill light rail all together and was a major reason for me starting this blog. Now I'm not a huge fan of rail in the freeway, especially an 18 lane freeway. But getting rid of that right of way was a mistake. And I wouldn't doubt if it were on purpose. Showing this guy the door would be a huge win for livable communities in Houston. Unfortunately at this juncture, the race isn't that close but it's tightening. We'll be watching this one on election night with the ballot measures. Mostly because this guy is a danger to himself and transit in general.

The Duke Pays

It seems as if Duke Energy is going to toss up some money for the Streetcar. I have a feeling its mostly for environmental and engineering but it'll be helpful for sure. Somewhere Over The Rhine has the link.

Kneel Before ZOD

Well not really superman. But could we see Zepplin Oriented Development soon?

No You Don't Like Trains

Robert as usual has the goods. Anyone else tired of people falling for the "I'd like another proposal besides this one later because now is not the right time" crowd? It's never going to be the right time for someone out there. Or the guys like O'Toole and Cox that say, we're huge train fans, we just think they cost too much blah blah blah.

An interesting discussion I had tonight with a colleague. He reminded me that the Howard Jarvis people that wrote the Anti Prop 1a junk study with Wendell Cox are the same folks who got Prop 13 passed...